CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING FRESH AND PURE WATER FROM SALT, SEA, AND OTHER WATERS
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, GEORGE
BRIAND, of Nicholas Lane, in the City of London, Surveyor, and RICHARD
FELL, of the City Road, Middlesex, Engineer, 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 Eleventh day of
February, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, in the fourteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said George Briand and Richard Fell, our exors, adññors, and assigns,
Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the said
George Briand and Richard Fell, our exors, adññors, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said George Briand and Richard Fell, our 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 also in the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney,
Sark, and Man, and also in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad,
our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING FRESH AND PURE WATER
FROM SALT, SEA, AND OTHER WATERS;" in which said Letters Patent is con-
tained a proviso that we, the said George Briand and Richard Fell, shall cause
a particular description of the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under our

page_text: bands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, to be inrolled in Her
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and imme-
diately 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, we, the said
George Briand and Richard Fell, do hereby declare that the nature of our
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully
described in and by the present Specification thereof, reference being had to
the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say:-
Our said Invention has for its object the obtaining of fresh and pure water
from salt water, water containing mineral substances in solution, or containing
other impurities which render it unfit for culinary or manufacturing purposes.
The apparatus which we employ for this purpose is represented in the annexed
Drawings, of which Figure 1 is a longitudinal vertical section, Figure 2 a cross
section on the line a, b, of Figure 1, and Figure 3 a horizontal section on the
line c, d. A is a cylinder which is surrounded by or encased in a steam jacket B.
C, C, are caps or covers to the cylinder. C1, C2, C3, are a set of partitions by
which A is divided into four compartments or channels D', D, D³, D', and
each of these partitions is turned up at one end so as to allow the water to
flow along them towards the opposite end only. At one end the cylinder A
is connected by a pipe E with a condensing and aërating vessel F, which
is contained within a close tank Fe. At the other end the cylinder A com-
municates, by a pipe G, with a box H, into which the water to be purified is
first introduced from some source of supply connected with the tap I. K is a
pipe by which steam from some steam generator is admitted into the steam
jacket B, so as to heat the cylinder A (for steam hot air may be substituted).
While steam is thus being supplied to the steam jacket the water to be
operated upon (whether salt or other impure water) is allowed to flow from
the tap I into the box H, and down the pipe G into the cylinder A, where it
.falls upon the upper surface of the plate C¹; but to prevent any of the water
returning in a state of vapour through the pipe G, the upper end of that pipe
is sealed by a hood L, by which free communication from the interior of the
cylinder A with the external atmosphere is entirely cut off in that direction.
The water which falls upon the plate C', after running along the channel D',
falls down upon the next plate C², by which it is conveyed back again to the
other end of the chamber, where it falls upon the plate C, along which it
flows in a similar manner till it falls into the compartment D'. While the
water is thus conveyed successively from one end of the chamber to the other
it gets heated, and a portion becomes vapourized, and goes off by the pipe E

page_text: into the condenser F, where it gets mixed with atmospheric air admitted by
the pipe M, and is finally condensed by coming in contact with the sides of
the condenser, when it is run off by the inverted syphon pipe N, and collected
for use. O is another inverted syphon from which the condensed steam which
has been employed in heating the cylinder A is collected. The water obtained
from this pipe not being aërated may be employed for washing. P is a pipe
for supplying cold water to the condenser; and R another pipe by which the.
water, as it gets heated, escapes. S is an inverted syphon by which the
residuum of the impure or salt water operated upon escapes from the
cylinder A.
And having now described our said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, we declare that we claim the improvements
embodied in the apparatus before described, that is to say, the passing a con-
tinuous current of salt or impure water through a cylinder (or cylinders)
heated externally by steam or hot air, and divided internally into com-
partments, and then aërating the resulting vapour by means of an aërating
vessel enclosed in a condenser, all as before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Briand, for myself and on behalf
of the said Richard Fell, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this
Eleventh day of August, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-one.
Enrolled the Eleventh day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.