IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR FILTERING
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CAROLINE
WATSON, of Chorley, in the County of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day
of April, One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, in the tenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Caroline Watson, my exors, adñors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Caroline
Watson, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Caroline
Watson, my exors, admors, or 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
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands
of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her said
Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR FILTERING" (being a communication from her brother, John
Watson, residing in Kingston, in the Island of Jamaica, in the West Indies);
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Caroline
Watson, shall cause a particular description of the nature of the said Inven-
ton, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument

page_text: in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Caroline Watson, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to
the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
price; D,
covered with cloth, and connected with a pump pipe by a mouthpiece or pipe;
C, side view of the scrapers; D, side view of a filter frame uncovered; E,
end view of the scrapers in their frame. The red lines represent the filters as
they are arranged between them. F, view of the pipe bringing down water
from a cistern to wash through the filters the reverse way to that the filtered
liquor runs; G, side view of rack pinion and cross heads for causing the
scrapers to traverse along and between the filters; II, end view of box
showing end view of the working gear; I, back view of box, shewing the
stuffing boxes through which two guide rods work to steady the scrapers
when moving and the pipe through which the filtered liquor is drawn; J,
cross section of a filter frame uncovered. The filter consists of several frames
made of three sheets of wire cloth covered with cloth, each one having a
nozzle at one corner, hs shewn at B, through which a pipe is let into the
inside. The nozzle is tied tightly over the pipe, so that if the filter were
immersed in water none could get to the wire cloth except through the
cloth; and if the filter were immersed in water, and the pipe were con-
nected with the suction pipe of a pump, on the pump being moved it
would draw the water through the cloth, thus filtering it. A number of
these filter frames are placed side by side in a box, the mouth pipe of each
being let into a larger pipe, so as to connect them all with the suction pipe
of a pump. The liquor to be filtered is allowed to run into the box in a
continuous stream until it covers the frames, when the pump is worked, and
as fast as the liquor runs into the box it is drawn out through the cloth of the
filters by the pump. In a short time the feculencies which it is the object of
filtration to remove collect in such quantity on the outsides of the filters

page_text: that their running is impeded, and it becomes necessary to clean them. The
flow of liquor into the box is then stopped, and the box is emptied of the
liquor remaining in it. A cock placed between the pump and the filter is
shut, and another cock is opened. This cock is placed in a pipe leading from
a cistern of water elevated four feet above the filters, which pipe is let into
the pump pipe between the cock first mentioned and the filters. The effect
is to throw a stream of water into the inside of the filters, which fills them
and then runs from within outwards the reverse way from that in which the
filtered liquor ran. This water, coming out behind the feculencies which
coats the outer surface of the filter, loosens it, and tends to wash it off and
remove it, which, however, it alone cannot do. I therefore move a scraper
along between each filter frame; and as the cloths on the frames are distended
by the water pressing through them they touch each other, and the scraper
presses hard on their surfaces as it passes between them. Thus the whole of
the dirt is removed from the filters; and as the water running out against it
prevents it from being rubbed into the cloth by the scraper, and on the con-
trary washes it away the moment the scraper disturbs it, the cloth is left
quite clean and as ready to filter anew as it was at first. I would remark,
that air, steam, or any other gaseous fluid, water, the liquor which has been
filtered, or any other liquid otherwise available, may be used as the reverse
stream. A brush or scraper of any kind whatsoever may be used for the
other part, as, while the reverse stream is running, the least touch of any
hard substance causes the dirt to disappear. I would also remark, that this
mode of cleaning may be applied to filters of coarse or fine cloth or felt, or any
other similar substance, and there is no fluid, air not excepted, which may not
be filtered continuously by applying this plan to clean the filter when it
becomes clogged by the accumulation of the feculence from which it frees the
fluid acted on.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I would have it understood that what I
claim is, the method of cleaning and renewing a filtering surface by the com-
bined action of a stream of water or other fluid running the reverse way to
that in which the filtered liquor passed, and a brush or scraper moved on the
dirty surface of the filter.
In witness whereof, I, the said Caroline Watson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.
CAROLINE (L.S.) WATSON.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED. that on the Sixteenth day of October, in
the year of our Lord 1847, the aforesaid Caroline Watson came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-seventh day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.