IMPROVEMENTS IN SEPARATING SEWAGE AND OTHER MATTEES PROM WATER OR FLUID MIXED THEREWITH
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Wicksteed, of Coleman Street, in the City
of London, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
SEPARATING SEWAGE AND OTHER MATTEES PROM WATER OR FLUID MIXED
THEREWITH."
Sealed the 14th November 1856, and dated the 31st July 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Wicksteed at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 31st
July 1856.
I, THOMAS WICKSTEED, of Coleman Street, in the City of London, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
SEPARATING SEWAGE AND OTHER MATTERS PROM WATER OR FLUID MIXED THERE-
WITH," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in separating sewage and
other matters from water or fluid mixed therewith.
For these purposes the waters or fluids are raised into suitable cisterns or
reservoirs, situated at suitable heights above the filtering apparatus, and the
means resorted to for raising the fluids are endless bands or chains of buckets,
which deliver the fluid into the reservoirs or cisterns. From the bottom of
each of the cisterns or reservoirs a pipe or pipes descend, according as one or
more filtering apparatus may be applied to each cistern or reservoir. In each
supply pipe is a cock to shut off the supply. The filtering apparatus used is
arranged suitably for being moved under and from the supply pipe, and for
being moved on a railway below, by which when a filter becomes full it may

page_text: be readily removed and another apparatus brought into position to be filled.
It is preferred to have the cisterns or reservoirs at different elevations, and to
supply the fluid first to a filtering apparatus from the lowest cistern or reser-
voir, then, as more pressure or greater column is required, the supply is changed
from the lower to the higher cistern or reservoir. The filtering apparatus used
consists of a series of planks or surfaces of wood, in both sides of which
numerous grooves are cut, and it is preferred that these surfaces should be of
a square form, with a hole through the middle, in and through which a bush of
metal is fixed, which aids in fixing a cover of gauze or perforated metal and
a surface of woven fabric on either side of each of the planks, the outer edges
of the gauze or perforated metal and the woven fabric being fixed to the outer
edges of the planks. Several of these planks or grooved surfaces are placed one
on the other, and are securely held together between a top and bottom plate
or frame of metal, in the upper one of which is an air tube and cock for the
passage away of air. Between each pair of planks or grooved surfaces is a
frame, the inner surfaces of which are inclined or bevilled to facilitate the
frames being removed from the moulded matters separated from the water or
fluid passed into the filter. The top and bottom frames or plates are held.
together by rods and cotters, and the sides of the frames are held together by
rods and screw nuts.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Wicksteed in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
31st January 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
WICKSTEED, of Coleman Street, in the City of London, Civil Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent,.-bearing date the Thirty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth-year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs. and successors, give. and grant unto me, the. said
Thomas Wicksteed, Her-special licence that I,. the said Thomas: Wicksteed,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas
Wicksteed, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time.agree.
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully..might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel.

page_text: Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEPARATING
SEWAGE AND OTHER MATTERS PROM WATER OR FLUID MIXED THEREWITH," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Wicksteed, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,
or one of their bands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
⚫ NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Wicksteed, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in separating sewage and
other matters from water or fluid mixed therewith. For these purposes the
waters or fluids are raised into suitable cisterns or reservoirs, situated at suitable
heights above the filtering apparatus, and the means resorted to for raising the
fluids are endless bands or chains of buckets, which deliver the fluid into the
reservoirs or cisterns. From the bottom of each of the cisterns or reservoirs
a pipe or pipes descend, according as one or more filtering apparatus may be
applied to each cistern or reservoir. In each supply pipe is a cock to shut off*
the supply. The filtering apparatus used is arranged suitably for being moved
under and from the supply pipe, and for being moved on a railway below, by
which when a filter becomes full it may be readily removed and another
apparatus brought into position to be filled. It is preferred to have the
cisterns or reservoirs at different elevations, and to supply the fluid first to a
filtering apparatus from the lowest cistern or reservoir, then, as more pressure
or greater column is required, the supply is changed from the lower to the
higher cistern or reservoir. The filtering apparatus used consists of a series
of planks or surfaces of wood, in both sides of which numerous grooves are
cut; and it is preferred that these surfaces should be of a square form, with
a hole through the middle, in and through which a bush of metal is fixed,
which aids in fixing a cover of gauze or perforated metal and a surface of
woven fabric on either side of each of the planks, the outer edges of the gauze
or perforated metal and the woven fabric being fixed to the outer edges of the
planks. Several of these planks or grooved surfaces are placed one on the
other, and are securely held together between a top and bottom plate or frame
of metal, in the upper one of which is an air tube and cock for the passage
away of air. Between each pair of planks or grooved surfaces is a frame,

page_text: the inner surfaces of which are inclined or bevilled to facilitate the frames
being removed from the moulded matters separated from the water or fluid
passed into the filter. The top and bottom frames or plates are held together
by rods and cotters, and the sides of the frames are held together by rods and
screw nuts.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shows a side view view, Figure 2 a plan, Figure 3 a vertical
section, and Figure 4 a horizontal section, of a filtering apparatus combined
according to my Invention. Figure 5 shows a vertical section of the upper
part of the filtering apparatus on a larger scale. In each of these Figures the
same letters indicate the same parts. a, a, are planks or surfaces of wood,
grooved on both their surfaces with numerous grooves a¹, a³, such grooves being
made, by preference, in two directions crossing each other at right angles,"
though they may cross each other at other angles. By these means numerous
channels are produced at intervals apart for conducting away the filtered fluid
to the outer edges of the planks as it filters through the materials placed on
and affixed to the two surfaces of each plank a, a, and such materials will
receive support at the numerous prominent parts of the surfaces of the planks
which are between the grooves. I would remark that I am aware that grooved
planks or surfaces have before been used with woven fabrics between them for
filtering purposes; I do not, therefore, clain their use generally for such
purposes, but only the peculiar combination of apparatus herein shewn and
described. On both the surfaces of each grooved plank a, a, are fixed woven
wire gauze, and over the wire gauze one or more layers of woven cloth, such
as moleskin, or others. Through the central or other convenient part or
parts of each grooved plank a there is an opening a bushed with metal, as
shown, the flanches and screw nuts of such bushings aiding to fix the wire
gauze and woven fabrics in their proper places, and the coverings of wire gauze
and of woven fabrics are fixed at the edges of the planks by tacks or other-
wise. b, b, are frames placed between the planks a, a, in order to retain them
apart a distance equal to the thickness of residual matters it is desired to
obtain from the sewage or other fluids passed through such filtering apparatus.
In order to combine and tightly hold a series of grooved planks a and frames b
into a complete apparatus in such manner as to offer a ready means of taking
apart and of putting together such apparatus, the following parts are used :-
c, d, are top and bottom plates, which are combined together by the rods e, e;

page_text: and they are when in their places, and have a series of grooved planks a and
frames 6 between them, drawn tightly towards each other by cotters or keys,
or such like fastenings f.f. The rods or bolts g, g, and their nuts are for
holding together the several parts of which each of the grooved planks planks
a is composed. h is a cock for letting out air at the commencement of the
process, and the same is to be closed on the apparatus becoming full of the
sewage or fluid to be filtered. In filtering sewage and other fluids on a large
scale it is important that the same should not be lifted to a greater height
than is absolutely necessary, and yet is desirable that filters, such as are above
described, should subjected to more and more pressure as they become more and
more filled with residual matters in a harder and harder condition in the spaces
between the several planks or grooved surfaces. I arrange a series of cisterns
or reservoirs one above the other, and in the first instance the outlet pipe of
the lowest cistern or reservoir is connected to the inlet pipe g' of the filter
apparatus, when the sewage or fluid will for some time run and filter through
and run off on all sides very freely. So soon as more pressure is required, the
supply is shut off from the lowest reservoir or cistern, and the supply is then
turned on from the cistern or reservoir above, and so on, according to the
number of reservoirs or cisterns used one above the other. I prefer to raise
sewage into the several cisterns or reservoirs by endless chains of buckets, as
is well understood, or sewage or other fluid may be raised by other convenient
When the filter has become charged with the residual matters in a
solid or compressed state, which it will do in proportion to the time allowed
and the columnal pressure used, the filter is to be disconnected from the supply
and the parts separated, when each frame will be charged with the residue
which may be delivered from the planks a, a, by first lifting off the frame
thereon and then turning over the plank. The residual matter may, when
desired, be divided in smaller sizes by wires or cutters and dried.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Wicksteed, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
THO PHIPPS,
40, Coleman Street.
THOS WICKSTEED. (L.S.)