IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR FILTERING AND PURIFYING the DrainagE OF HOUSES AND STREETS.”
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Millington Henry Synge, of the United Service
Club, Pall Mall, in the County of Middlesex, Major-General Royal
Engineers, for the Invention of "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR FILTERING
AND PURIFYING the DrainagE OF HOUSES AND STREETS.”
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Millington Henry Synge
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 20th January 1874.
I, MILLINGTON HENRY SYNGE, of the United Service Club, Pall Mall,
in the County of Middlesex, Major-General Royal Engineers, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR
FILTERING AND Purifying the DRAINAGE OF HOUSES AND STREETS," to be as
follows:
-
It is well known that by submitting the fluid portions of house
drainage to the action of proper filtration it may be rendered perfectly
innocuous and available for the watering of roads, the cleaning of streets,
and kindred uses;

page_text: again by a grating as before, followed by an interval over a filter of
burnt clay, sand, and porous brick over a grating as before, under which
is a chamber for the purified water.
Receiving tanks with pumping stations are to be provided at intervals
with which any desired amount of final charcoal filtration may be
connected.
This arrangement provides for a lateral movement and a downward
mechanical filtration being carried on at the same time.
By forming the galleries or shafts with vertical sides every portion of.
the filtering apparatus can be removed for cleaning and replaced without
difficulty, and without at any time causing general derangement the
whole may be kept in constant good order. The upper gutter is brought
to a level with the lower side of the footway curbstone.
In highly arched and badly formed roadways the gutter is protected
and the slush collected and at the same time prevented from choking the
gutter or the channel by series of one or more strong iron gratings
resting on sleepers and cross pieces till the level portion of the road is
met. Or a preferable mode is a movable curved grating, which may
be slidden under the gutter cover when the scavenger is removing the
accumulation.
The filter may be made of any form, but if the egg, circular, or
oval form be adopted the inner gratings require to be divided and the
parts separately supported, and the advantage of complete identity and
perfect interchangeableness arc sacrificed.
25 SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,*
filed by the said Millington Henry Synge in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 20th July 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MILLINGTON
HENRY SYNGE, of the United Service Club, Pall Mall, in the County of
30 Middlesex, Major-General Royal Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of January, in the year

page_text: of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Millington Henry Synge, Her special
licence that I, the said Millington Henry Synge, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Millington Henry
Synge, 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 Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR FILTERING AND PURIFYING THE DRAINAGE OF HOUSES
AND STREETS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Mil-
lington Henry Synge, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, 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 Millington Henry Synge, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawing
hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is
to say) :-
It is well known that by submitting the fluid portions of house
drainage to the action of proper filtration it may be rendered perfectly
innocuous and available for the watering of roads, the cleansing of
streets, and kindred uses.
In order to attain this result in an efficient and economical manner,
which is the object of the first part of my Invention, I propose to drain
single houses or groups of houses by connecting them with a series of
filtering tanks which may be arranged wholly or partially under the
footway. Access will be given to these tanks by means of man-holes,
which may be protected if thought desirable by deodorant traps such as
I have described in the Specification of a Patent bearing even date
herewith.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 shews in longitudinal section a
series of filtering tanks arranged according to my Invention for receiving

page_text: the drainage from sinks, bath water, and soapy water discharged from
dwelling-houses.
.
A is the first filtering tank, into which the house drainage enters near
the upper part thercof. This tank is fitted with a vertical partition a,
which divides the tank into two chambers, leaving however a space at
the bottom for the passage of the liquid from the first chamber to that
on the other side of the partition. The chambers of this tank will be
filled through the man-holes b, b, with smooth stones or boulders, which
will serve to break the rush of the liquid as it enters by the pipe c, and
cause it to deposit any solid matters which it may bring into the
tank.
B is a tank adjoining the tank A, and constructed somewhat like the
first, with an equal capacity but a diminished depth. Into this tank B the
partially filtered liquid will flow (from the tank A) through an opening d
in the dividing wall. This tank may be charged with coarse gravel, or
sand, or brick, or burnt clay, and the liquid will take a serpentine course
through it and discharge into say a third tank C of similar construction of
still less depth but of like capacity. This tank may be charged with sand
and burnt clay, and the liquid will take a sorpentine course through it
as through the other tanks of the series (an opening being made for
that purpose at the foot of the partition wall), and discharge into a
tank D. In the middle of this tank is built up a well E of porous
brick, lined inside with a charcoal filter F.
Over this well is placed a pump G for elevating the water as it finds
its way into the well, and discharging it by a hose or otherwise for street
cleansing, for washing the outside of houses, and for other uses.
I may remark that the number of tanks in the series, and also the
materials with which the tanks are severally charged, will depend upon
the purity of water required from the filtering process, and that the
series may be modified by the introduction of a tank charged with
deodorant materials, the same acting upon the water by precipitation.
In dealing with the surface water of streets, which forms the subject
of the second head of my Invention, I construct in front of the line of
houses and below the pavement continuous filtering galleries or a series
of filtering shafts for receiving the surface water.
One mode of carrying out this part of my Invention is shewn at
Fig. 2, which represents in sectional clevation one of two filtering

page_text: galleries with which it is proposed to provide the streets of a town say
immediately below the kerbs of the street, and also the parts in con-
nection with such gallery; H, H, are the side walls of the gallery, and I
is a tunnel on a level with the bottom thereof through which the water
as it is filtered flows away.
The gallery is covered at top by removable gratings K, which are set
at or a little below the street level and take the place of the ordinary
gutter. These gratings are covered by curved gratings K', which may
be hinged, as shown in the Drawing, to give ready access to the gallery
below. Their use is to keep back all matters that might tend to close
the gratings K and impede the flowing of the surface water into the
filtering gallery. Immediately beneath the grating K is a double
grating L formed of two perforated plates set one above the other, and
serving to catch and retain solid matters that may have found their way
through the grating K. Below this double grating is formed a filter of
boulders underlaid by a double grating L', which is followed again by a
filter of coarse gravel. This gravel is underlaid by a double grating L³
as before, the space between these double gratings serving for the accu-
mulation of the water in course of filtration. The filling below the
grating L is a filter of burnt clay, sand, and porous brick, which is
supported by a grating of perforated plates L³ as before. Under this
grating is a chamber M for receiving the purified water.
Collecting tanks with purifying stations are to be provided at intervals,
with which any desired amount of final charcoal filtration tanks or tanks
for precipitation may be connected.
The above-described arrangement provides for a lateral movement
and a downward mechanical filtration being carried on at the same
time.
By forming the galleries or shafts with vertical sides every portion of
the filtering apparatus can be removed for cleaning and replaced without
difficulty and without at any time causing general derangement the
whole may be kept in constant good order.
It may be convenient to substitute for the ordinary kerbstone a
chamber of cast iron as shewn at N for the reception of the water, gas,
and telegraph pipes, the same being continued along the run of the
street.

page_text: It is chiefly in highly arched and badly formed roadways that the
curved grating K' is required for collecting the slush, and at the same
time preventing it from choking the channel.
The street filters may be made of any desired form, but if the egg,
circular, or oval form be adopted the inner gratings require to be divided
and the parts separately supported, and the advantage of complete
identity and perfect interchangeableness are sacrificed.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improved
Apparatus for Filtering and Purifying the Drainage of Houses and
Streets," and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I
wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters
Patent I claim,-
First. The apparatus above described for treating fluid portions of
house drainage and utilizing the same in the manner above set forth.
Secondly. The means above described for dealing with the surface
water of street and ways.
In witness whereof, I, the said Millington Henry Synge, have
hercunto set my hand and seal, the Twentieth day of July, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.
MILLINGTON HENRY SYNGE. (L.S.)