IMPROVE- MENTS IN FILTERS
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Herrmann Lorenz and Theodor
Vette at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition,
on the 1st April 1862.
We, HERRMANN LORENZ and THEODOR VETTE, both of Berlin, in the Kingdom
of Prussia, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN FILTERS," to be as follows:-
The first part of this Invention consists in forming or producing hollow
porous bodies or objects of charcoal of any desired shape and size, but more
especially and particularly in the form or shape of hollow balls, spheres, or
shells. The hollow ball or other hollow body is fitted with a socket, into which
the short end of a syphon pipe is screwed or otherwise secured, which communi-
cates with the hollow space of the ball or other object. When thus fitted
with the syphon the said ball constitutes a complete and independent filtering
apparatus which can be applied to any vessel or holder of liquid, and put into
immediate operation by the immersion of the ball in the liquid. The water or
other liquid passing through the filtering and purifying medium or body of the
ball rapidly fills the hollow space, and the syphon having been likewise filled by
immersion or by suction as usual, the water or other liquid will flow from the
long end of the syphon on the tap being opened, not drop by drop as in
ordinary filters, but in a continuous stream, with a rapidity proportionate to
the surface of the ball or filtering medium.
The second part of our Invention has for its object to increase the purifying,
disinfecting, and decolorizing properties of filters made and formed as above

page_text: described, and it consists in filling or partly filling the hollow space in such
filters with loose particles of prepared animal or vegetable charcoal. These
ball or otherwise shaped filters are provided with suitable apparatus for filling
and replenishing them with the loose charcoal when required. The said filters
are likewise fitted with syphons, and put into operation in the manner already
described.
The third part of our Invention consists in the application of the hollow ball
or otherwise shaped body of filtering medium as mentioned in parts first and
second, to vessels or holders of liquid, without the use of syphons. With this
object the hollow ball is fixed in some convenient part inside the vessel holding
the liquid to be filtered. A pipe passing through the side or bottom of the
vessel communicates with the hollow space of the ball or other body, and the
liquid is forced into the hollow space and through the pipe with a pressure
varying with the column or depth of liquid above the hollow ball. The composition
of which these porous hollow filters are made consists of vegetable, animal, and
mineral charcoal, and bituminous or resinous substances and other substances
capable of being carbonized. The proportions in which these several materials
or substances are mixed vary according to the purposes for which the
filter is intended. When properly mixed these substances in a dry state are
subjected to pressure or concussion in suitable forms or moulds. The hollow
articles thus formed are then heated or baked, and fitted with the necessary
apparatus for fixing the syphons or other pipes. In place of giving the
various parts of which the hollow balls or other objects are to be composed
their form or shape at once in moulds by pressure, hollow balls or other
objects may be cut or shaped out of one solid compressed piece of prepared
charcoal.