IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PURIFICATION OF TIDAL RIVERS, ESTUARIES, AND COASTS, THE SAME BEING ALSO APPLICABLE FOR THE REMOVAL OF SEWAGE AND NOXIOUS MATTERS FROM POPULOUS PLACES OR WORKS NOT SO SITUATED
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Horatio Kelson Bromhead, of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PURIFICATION OF TIDAL RIVERS,
ESTUARIES, AND COASTS, THE SAME BEING ALSO APPLICABLE FOR THE
REMOVAL OF SEWAGE AND NOXIOUS MATTERS FROM POPULOUS PLACES OR
WORKS NOT SO SITUATED."
Sealed the 18th April 1879, and dated the 22nd October 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Horatio Kelson Bromhead
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 22nd October 1878.
HORATIO KELSON BROMHEAD, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects. "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE PURIFICATION OF TIDAL RIVERS, ESTUARIES, AND COASTS, THE SAME
BEING ALSO APPLICABLE FOR THE REMOVAL OF SEWAGE AND NOXIOUS MATTERS
FROM POPULOUS PLACES OR WORKS NOT SO SITUATED."
This Invention, which relates to improvements in the purification of tidal rivers,
estuaries, and coasts, and is also applicable for the removal of sewage and noxious
matters from populous places. or works not so situated, has for its object to remove,
dilute, alter the state of, and prevent pollution from noxious matter.
The Invention consists in the construction of a channel or channels that com-
municate with the place or places or receptacles where noxious matter such as
sewage is or may be. The channels may be formed with enlarged parts, or basins,
or docks; they may be made suitable for navigation; they may be of any length or
sectional area or construction, partly or wholly open, or covered, or enclosed; they
may be provided with sluices or gates or their mechanical equivalents for guiding or
controlling the movement or position of the contents thereof, and for delivering the
same into the sea or other water.

page_text: The working of the Invention is as follows, that is to say:-When the tide rises
or is in flood the discharge sluices or gates, or their mechanical equivalents, are
closed so that the tide cannot enter thereby, but the tide and the river or fresh
water, one or both of them, entering at the proper entrances, gates, sluices, or the
mechanical equivalents, dilutes, modifies, and takes the noxious matter into and
along the said channel, or channels, or enlarged parts, or basins, or docks, any or all
of them, and eventually through the discharge sluices, in a diluted, altered, or
improved condition.
In cases where there is no tidal waterway or stream an artificial one may be
formed.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Horatio Kelson Bromhead in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
19th April 1879.
HORATIO KELSON BROMHEAD, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects. "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE PURIFICATION OF TIDAL RIVERS, ESTUARIES, AND COASTS, THE SAME
BEING ALSO APPLICABLE FOR THE REMOVAL OF SEWAGE AND NOXIOUS MATTERS
FROM POPULOUS PLACES OR WORKS NOT SO SITUATED."
My said Invention relates to the purification of tidal rivers, estuaries, and coasts,
and is also applicable for the removal of sewage and noxious matters from populous
places and works not situated upon such places, and my said Invention has for its
object to remove, dilute, and alter the state of and prevent pollution by such sewage
or noxious matters.
According to my said Invention a channel or channels is or are constructed to com-
municate with the place or places or receptacles where noxious matter such as sewage
is or may be. The channel or channels may be formed with enlarged parts, or basins,
or docks; they may be made suitable for navigation, and may be of any length or
sectional area or construction, partly or wholly open, or covered, or enclosed; they
may be provided with sluices, or gates, or their mechanical equivalents, for guiding
or controlling the movement or position of the contents thereof, and for delivering
the same into the sea or other water.
When the tide rises or is in flood the discharge sluices or gates or their mechanical
equivalents are closed, so that the tide cannot enter thereby, but the tide and the
river or fresh water, one or both of them, entering at the proper entrances, gates,
or sluices, or their mechanical equivalents, dilutes, modifies, and takes the noxious
matters into and along the said channel, or channels, or enlarged parts, or basins,
or docks, or any or all of them, and eventually through the discharge sluices, in a
diluted, modified, and improved condition.
In cases where there is no tidal waterway or stream an artificial one may be
formed.
The accompanying Drawings and the following further description will serve to
explain the general methods by which my Invention may be carried into practical
effect, but it is to be understood that these may be modified as may be necessary to
render then suitable to meet the requirements of the situation or natural conditions
of any particular locality to which iny Invention may be applied so as to produce
the results herein set forth.
Figure 1 is a diagram of a plan for discharging the sewage or contaminated
water from a tidal river. The circle A represents a city, town, populous place, or
locality, or works from which the sewage or contaminated water is to be removed.
The sewage, or contaminated liquid thereof, may, in this case, be discharged into
the river by drains in the ordinary mauner (or into the herein-after mentioned
channel C at B), and at a point B, or other convenient point, a channel C is cut,
leading from the river to the sea or other suitable place of discharge E. This
channel C is provided at one end with a sluice or gate at B, by which its com-
munication with the river may be closed, and at the other end by a sluice or gate
at D, by which its communication with the sea or other place of discharge may be
closed.
Let it be supposed that the tide is rising, and that the sluice or gate at B is
open and that the sluice or gate at D is closed; as the tide rises at A it carries the
contaminated water there into and along the chanuel C, and when the tide has
ceased to rise and the contaminated water has ceased to enter the channel C the
sluice or gate at B is or may be closed, so that the contaminated water which has
passed into the channel C by the tide and also by the downfall, if any, from the
parts of the river above A is prevented from flowing back by the gate at B, and

page_text: the gate or sluice at D is opened when at ebb tide, the water outside the gate or
sluice D is sufficiently low, and the polluted water in the channel C flows
through D into Ẹ³,
Where the channel C can be caused to open into the sea at a place where the
tides at E and B occur at a time considerably in advance (or the reverse) of the
time of the tide at E the sluice or gate at D may be left open when the tide rises
in the river, and not be closed till the tide at E begins to rise above the level of
the contents of the channel C'at D.
· The sluices or gates'in all the arrangements are provided so that by closing the
sluice or gate at D the tide is prevented from flowing into the channel C, and so
that by closing the sluice or gate at B the contaminated water in the said channel C
is prevented from returning to A.
In places where locks constitute obstructions to the rise of the tide up to A, as
shewn in the diagram, Figure 2, the natural flow of the river will take the polluted
water into the channel C and through the gate or sluice D into E2 during the
times that the water at E is low enough, and at other times the gate at D will be
closed.
In cases where the place A is not situated upon or near to a tidal river I cut. a
channel, as shewn at J, in the diagram Figure 3, the said channel opening at G
from E, and running inland and passing through or near to the place A, where it
receives the contaminated water, and carries it through the channel C.into E².
When the water in the channel J is not so high as the water at E¹ the water at E'
will enter through the gate at G, and fill the channel, but will not enter at >E;
being prevented by the gate at K, and when the contaminated water in the
channel is higher than the water at E the contaminated water will run out at K
into E, but will not run out at E', being prevented. by the gate at G. The same
action takes place for each rise and fall of the tide.
In cases where two or more places A are situated conveniently near to each other
my Invention may be applied in a partly or wholly conjoined arrangement by
having a part or the whole of an inlet channel or an outlet channel (either or both)
mutual to the several places A.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the system, mode, or manner in or under which the same is or
may be used or practically carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that
what I consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
The removal of sewage or other contaminated water from tidal rivers, estuaries,
and coasts, or from inland places by means of one or more channels, into which the
sewage or other contaminated water is carried or caused to flow off by the action
of the tidal water alone or the river water alone, or by the combined action of the
tidal and river waters, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Horatio Kelson Bromhead, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine.
HORATIO KELSON BROMHEAD.
(L.S.)