CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON FILTERING APPARATUS WHICH I INTEND TO DENOMINATE THE ROYAL FILTERING APPARATUS
Year: 1828

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FERDINAND
DE FONVIELLE, of Piccadilly, in the County of Middlesex, Merchant, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing dato
at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of March, in the ninth year of His
reign, did, for Himself, Ilis heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Ferdinand de Fonvielle, His especial licence that I, the said
Ferdinand de Fonvielle, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Ferdinand de Fonvielle, my executors, administrators,
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, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
ON FILTERING APPARATUS WHICH I INTEND TO DENOMINATE THE ROYAL FILTERING
APPARATUS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me,
the said Ferdinand de Fonvielle, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and scal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same
to be enrolled in His 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
aud at large appear.

page_text: said Ferdinand de Fonvielle, do hereby declare the nature of my said Inven-
tion to consist in a new arrangement of filtering media in ordinary water
and house cisterns, thereby constituting the said cistern a filter. And in
further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Ferdinand de Fonvielle,
do hereby describe the manner in which my said Invention is to be performed,
by the following description thereof, reference being had to the Drawing
annexed, and to the letters marked thereon (that is to say):-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
A, B, C, D, is a common house cistern with one side removed for the
purpose of better explanation; E is a board or shelf perforated with small
holes and securely fixed upon and fastened down by the supports F and G,
upon this shelf are placed the strata of filtering media as follows:-II is
a bed of river flints of unequal sizes; I is a bed of coarse sand taken
from the river; J is a bed of very fine river sand; K is a bed of bruised
charcoal; L is a bed of fine sand, the same as the bed J; and M is a
bed of coarse sand, the same as the bed I; and on this composition is
placed a wooden cover or shelf N; this top shelf is fastened down by
an iron screw S, which passes through and is fixed underneath the lower
shelf by means of a square nut which is rivetted to the end of the
screw, and at the top to the upper shelf by means of another nut V of rather
larger dimensions which plays on the screw; the upper shelf is furnished
with earthenware strainers P, P, P, to allow the water to pass into the
filtering materials. In each of the strainers are placed pieces of sponge to
prevent any water passing into the filter without having first undergone a
partial purification by means of the sponge, the sides of the top or upper shelf
are also stuffed with sponge for the same purpose. The river flints which
form the bed H should be able to pass through a sieve the mesh of which is
five eighths and one sixteenth of an inch in length diagonally in its square,
and should be too large to pass through a sieve the mesh of which is three
eighths and one sixteenth of an inch long diagonally in its square. The sand
which forms the second bed I should be able to pass through a sieve of which
the mesh is three eighths and one sixteenth of an inch long diagonally in its
square, and should be too large to pass through a sieve the mesh of which is
one eighth and one sixteenth of an inch in length diagonally in its square.
The the fine sand J is obtained by means of this last sieve through
which it passes. The river flints and the two kinds of sand should be well
washed after sifting and before they are used. In order to ascertain when

page_text: this operation is well and sufficiently done, the last water in which they are
washed should be without colour or taste. The lower shelf should fit as
nearly as possible the sides of the cistern, but if it should not it is not of
mate ial consequence, as the river flints prevent the passage of the smaller
sand through the crevices at the side and through the holes which are made in
the lower shelf. Q, Q, is a waste pipe passing through both the shelves, and
fixed firmly in them to prevent any motion of it disturbing the filtering media;
T is a small pipe open to the air at top, and communicating with the lower
part of the cistern which contains the filtered water at X by means of which
the water is kept sweet. The pipe should be about three eighths of an inch
in diameter, and must be fixed firmly to the waste pipe or to the sides of the
cistern, and must pass from the top of the cistern about three inches above
the water mark when the cistern is full, to prevent any unfiltered water passing
down by the cistern's being fuller than usual, and must extend down to the
part which contains the filtered water about half an inch below the lower
shelf. Should the cistern be very large it will be necessary to increase either
the size or number of these pipes. The wood which forms the lower plank
and the supports should be pitched that the filtered water may not acquire
either the taste of the resin nor of the mould which the wood of firs, however
good it may be, always gives to water in which it is steeped; the wood should
also be steeped, after having been pitched for four or five days, to take off the
odour of the pitch, which would otherwise be communicated to the filtered
water. The number of inches of charcoal must be regulated by the impurity of
the water, varying from three to six inches: for the Thames water three inches
are sufficient. Each layer or bed of the filtering media should be laid in with
the greatest exactness and made perfectly level with a trowel, and pressed
down when laid in, similar to placing a bed of mortar or composition. Great
care must also be taken to lay the media close to the sides of the cistern to
make them as much as possible adhere to them. As the bruised charcoal
forms itself into a paste easily, it should be less pressed than the other media,
and should, when placed in the filter, be so wet that it will not blacken the
fingers on pressing it in the hand. It is necessary here to observe, that
the sponges in the strainers should be taken out and washed occasionally and
replaced, and the mud which collects on the top of the cover wiped up with a
sponge or cloth about once every four months.
Having now described the manner of disposing the filtering media, it only
requires to be stated that the water to be filtered is supplied to the upper part
of the cistern above the shelf N, that it passes thence through the sponges
into the various media below 'till it reaches the lower part of the cistern

page_text: below the shelf E, where it will be collected in a pure state fit for drinking,
and may be drawn off by a stopcock or any other more convenient mode.
Now whereas I claim as my Invention an apparatus for filtering made out
of an ordinary water or house cistern, by arranging therein filtering media in
manner aforesaid, and such my Invention being to the best of my knowledge
and belief entirely new and never before used within that part of His said
Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England,
His said Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby
declare this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe
this my said Specification doth comply in all respects fully and without reserve
or disguise with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent contained; wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and
privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ferdinand de Fonvielle, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-sixth day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight.