Water Heater and Purifler.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 10th July, 1891-Accepted, 25th Aug., 1894
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Water Heater and Purifler.
I, VICTOR ISIDORE FEENY of No. 60 Queen Victoria Street, London, in the
County of London, Patent Agent, (a communication to me from Parke & Lacy
Company, a Corporation of San Francisco, State of California) do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement :-
The object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for heating and purifying
water, and especially for withdrawing the mud or sediment which is deposited in
the water and in conjunction therewith providing an oil trap, and means for with-
drawing the oil which constantly accumulates from the engine, and which if allowed
to pass into the boiler produces foaming and other objectionable action.
A is an exterior cylinder or chamber on the accompanying drawing, having
considerable length vertically.
This chamber is divided into compartments by means of horizontal diaphragms B
and CC.
The upper diaphragm B is situated a sufficient distance below the top of the
chamber, and forms an independent upper compartment.
Within this compartment are fixed a series of alternating shelves D, the upper
one being fixed so that water will flow over it in a thin sheet, and be discharged
near the opposite side, where it falls upon the second of these plates, and thus
passes alternately from side to side until it reaches the bottom of the chamber.
Water is admitted into this chamber and upon the upper edge of the upper shelf
through a pipe E, and the supply is regulated by connecting the inlet valve with
a float E' which rises and falls with the change of level in the chamber which
receives the purified water.
From the lower part of this upper chamber a pipe F leads down into the bottom
chamber G so that the water after passing over the shelves D, is delivered directly
through this pipe F into the lower chamber G.
His a pipe through which exhaust steam from the engine is admitted into the
chamber above the diaphragm B, the end of the exhaust pipe opening into the upper
chamber, so that exhaust steam from the engine is delivered into this chamber at a
temperature sufficiently high to raise the temperature of the water passing in thin
sheets over the shelves D, after which the steam escapes freely through the pipe H¹
at the top of the chamber without back pressure to the engine.
The lime and mineral matter contained in the water, is deposited upon the shelves
in this chamber, and thus prevented from passing into the lower chamber or reaching
the boiler. The sediment and loose mud pass down through the pipe F into the
chamber G at the bottom.
Above the chamber G arc a series of perforated diaphragms C dividing the
space below the closed diaphragm B into two or more separate chambers.
In the present case three of these chambers are shown. The two lowermost of
the chambers above the chamber G are filled with any suitable compact filtering
material, as hay or other substance by which the sedimentary deposit from the
water may be arrested, as the water flows upward from the chamber G.
When the apparatus is in operation, water passes, as previously described, through
the pipe E into the upper chamber, and thence flowing over the shelves, becomes
heated by contact with the exhaust steam passing through the chamber so as to
deposit the lime or other scale producing substance in a hard crust upon the shelves
froin which it is removed from time to time, and the water thus purified, is afterwards
conveyed by the pipe F into the lower chamber G, whence it rises through the

page_text: perforated plates C by pressure, and the filtering material in the two lowest of
these chambers arrests the sedimentary material which has been deposited from the
water so that it is retained in the lower chamber G.
The clear water passing through the upper perforated plate C reaches an open
chamber between this diaphragm C and the diaphragm B, and from thence is taken
out to be delivered to the boiler through a pipe I.
The lower part of the chamber G is made conical or funnel-shaped, and has a
pipe J with a controlling cock K which may be opened from time to time for the
discharge of the contents of the chamber G.
By reason of the funnel shape of this chamber, the mud and heavy deposit
settles down into the apex in such position as to be readily discharged whenever
the cock K is opened.
Any oil which arrives in the apparatus from the engine, being carried by the
exhaust steam, will flow with the water down into the lower chamber G, and will
be arrested and retained by the lower perforated diaphragm and the hay above it,
to which the oil clings.
The construction of this chamber is such that I am enabled to withdraw this oil
from the surface of the water within the chamber G by a skimming action, because
when the cock K is opened, the funnel shape of the chamber causes a central
downward draft from the upper surface and the discharge takes place from the
surface in the same manner as from an ordinary funnel. The oily deposit will
thus be drawn down and discharged at the same time with the heavier sedimentary
deposits.
The hay which fills the filtering chambers offers sufficient obstruction to prevent
any essential back flow of water from the clear water chamber, when the discharge
cock K is opened.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is:-
1. In a filter and purifier for boiler feed water, a means for separating both
light and heavy impurities from the feed water, consisting of a funnel-shaped
chamber into which the previously heated water is delivered before passing
through superposed filters which occupy the chamber from side wall to side wall,
said funnel having a discharge opening and controlling cocks at the apex, whereby
the heavy impurities are discharged directly, and a central draft is produced from
the surface to withdraw the oil and lighter impurities simultaneously.
2. A. mud and oil trap and water purifier consisting of a chamber having its
lower end made funnel-shaped and having diaphragms near its upper and lower
ends to form independent chambers, perforated diaphragms C in the main chamber
between the upper and lower diaphragm forming chambers to contain a filtering
medium, a water pipe entering the upper chamber, a series of alternately disposed
inclined plates below the level of the water pipe for directing the water
alternately across the chamber, a steam pipe passing through the filtering chamber
and entering the uppermost chamber at a point below the lower inclined diaphragm
whereby steam is caused to pass upwardly over said plates and the thin sheet of
water passing downwardly over them, a pipe F at or near the lower level of the
upper chamber leading to the lowerinost chamber, a steam escape pipe at the
upper end of the main chamber, a pipe leading from the filtered water chamber,
and a sediment discharge pipe and cock at the bottom or funnel-shaped end of the
main chamber.
Dated this Tenth day of July 1894