CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON FILTERING APPARATUS OR MACHINES
Year: 1828

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
STIRLING, of the Commercial Road, Lambeth, in the County of Surrey, Slater,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Sixteenth day of August, in the ninth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas Stirling, His especial licence, that I, the said Thomas Stirling, my
exors, adñors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Stirling,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
that part of our United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called
England, our Dominion of Wales and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON FILTERING APPARATUS OR MACHINES;'
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me,
the said Thomas Stirling, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the
same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.
"

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Stirling, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say) :-
In the said Drawing, Fig. 1 is a front view or elevation of one of my said
filtering apparatuses or machines; Fig. 2 an end or side view thereof; Fig. 3
a vertical section of the same; and Fig. 4 a top view of it, in all of which said
Figures the same letters of reference indicate the similar parts. A, A, are the
front and back plates of the machine; B, B, the two end or side plates; and C
the bottom plate. The end and bottom plates are held in grooves made to
receive them in the front and back plates, and are rendered watertight by the
employment of any fit and proper oil or other cement laid within the grooves.
The front and back plates are also bound together by several iron screwed
bolts D, D, with screwed nuts E, E, upon them. Upon a moderate scale I
prefer to form these and the other plates herein-after mentioned of slate, but
for machines or filtering apparatus upon a larger scale I can employ bricks,
stone, or iron, for the walls thereof. Upon the bottom plate C I place two
upright pieces of slate F, F, shewn in Fig. 3. These support a plate G, which
is perforated with several holes near its centre, made widening above and
terminating below in very minute apertures. Over the wider mouths of theso
holes I place a plate of metal perforated with very small holes, or a piece of
fine wire gauze, shown in Figure 6, and either of which I retain firmly in its
place by means of another plate I, having an opening in its centre, as shewn
in Figures 3 and 5, and which is firmly cemented upon the plate G, as well
as are likewise the sides around the said plates, in order to effectually prevent
the passage of any water except through the said small holes made in the
plate G. I then place upon the said plates G and II a layer of fine river
sand, as indicated at I, in Fig. 3, and which may be from six inches to twelve
or more in thickness, according to the size of the machine. Upon this layer
of sand I, I place another plate J, which is likewise perforated with conical
holes, but only near each end thereof, its centre being left unperforated, and
as shewn at J, in Fig. 4. I then lay upon this plate J another bed of river
sand mixed with carbonaceous and other matters, and which I procure from
the River Carron in Scotland, as I find it to answer the purpose of filtering
better than any other material I have yet experimented upon. This layer K
may also be from six to twelve or more inches in depth, according to the size
or height of the machine. Upon this layer of Carron River and I place
another plato L, Fig. 3. This is again perforated with conical holes near to its

page_text: centre only, and as shewn in Fig 7; and over this I deposit a layer of dander
or the scoriæ obtained from the Carron Iron Works in Scotland, and which is
broken into fragments of from an eighth to a quarter of an inch broad. This
I place to the thickness of from six to twelve inches or more according to
circumstances, and as before mentioned, and lay upon it another plate N,
shewn in Fig. 3, and separately in Fig. 8, which may be perforated with
conical holes all over it. By this arrangement of the holes in the plates
G, J, L, and N, I compel the water to be filtered to make a circuitous course
or passage nearly horizontally through the filtering materials, instead of passing
vertically through them, as it otherwise would do, and thereby I am enabled
to effect its purification in a much more complete. and effectual manner. The
different plates also contribute to preserve the different filtering materials in
their places, and prevent them from being disturbed by the action of the water
in passing through them. I introduce the water to be filtered through the
pipe O (shewn in Figures 2 and 4), which is connected with the regulating
cock P in the usual manner, and leads the water into the space underneath
the plates G and H, shewn in Fig. 3, and from which it passes, by ascent,
through the various filtering materials above described, into the chamber at
the upper part of the apparatus or machine, from whence it may flow or be
drawn off through the cock Q. After a time the water to be filtered will
have deposited part of the feculencies contained in it within the foul-water
chamber which is provided underneath the plates G and II, and which will
therefore require to be drawn off occasionally, as, for instance, once a week,
through the cock R. And in order still more effectually to cleanse the
chamber, I have provided a screwed plug S (shewn in Figure 4), which upon
being taken out will allow of a hair brush formed like a bottle brush to be
introduced through the opening made by removing the plug, and to be worked
all over and within the space of the said foul-water chamber so as effectually
to cleanse it of the said feculencies, and more aspecially so if water be also
admitted at the time through the pipe O and the cock P, and be allowed to
run off either through the plughole S or the cock R. In case one apparatus
or machine should not be sufficient for filtering great quantities of water,
without making it of too large a size, I can place two or more of them side
by side, or in any other position, as may be most convenient.
I do not mean or intend hereby to claim as my Invention any of the various
parts of which this my said apparatus or machine may be composed which
are already known or in use; but I do hereby claim the arrangement of the
holes in the plates G, J, L, and N, as also the use of the said plates for the
purpose of confining the various filtering materials in their places, and coun-

page_text: teracting the tendency of the water to displace them, and likewise the employ-
ment of the Carron River sand and the donder from the Carron Iron Works
as filtering medicines or materials.
In witness whoroof I the said Thomas Stirling, have hereunto set my
teracting the tendency of the water to displace them, and likewise the employ-
ment of the Carron River sand and the donder from the Carron Iron Works
as filtering medicines or materials.
In witness whoroof, I, the said Thomas Stirling. have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Fourteenth day of February, in the year of our
T
dmond night hundred and twenty-nine
JUCHO
as filtering medicines or materials.
To witness whoroof I the said Thomas Stirling, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Fourteenth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and trenty-nine
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of February,
in the year of our Lord 1829, the aforesaid Thomas Stirling came before
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifi-
cation aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Fourteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine.