Improved Apparatus for Purifying Air for Use in connection with Ventilating Apparatus and the like.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 19th May, 1899--Accepted, 1st July, 1899
Improved Apparatus for Purifying Air for Use in connection with
Ventilating Apparatus and the like.
I, DAVID GROVE, a subject of the Emperor of Germany, and resident of
No. 24, Friedrichstrasse, Berlin, in the Empire-of Germany, Engineer, 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:-
This invention relates to an apparatus for purifying the air or removing the dust
or other impurities in connection with warming, ventilating and other industrial
plants or establishments. It can also at the same time be used, if necessary, for
cooling and saturating the air with water.
The apparatus consists essentially of cloths stretched over angular frames,
which former admit of freedom of movement to the air and act as a purifier by
repeatedly breaking or interrupting the air current, the impurities of the air
being deposited on the cloths which are preferably kept constantly moist or wet.
The apparatus does not act as a filter, since it does not compel the air to pass
through the narrow meshes of filter cloths, which, according to experience are soon
choked up by impurities, resulting not only in annulling the effect of the filter,
but also in creating doubt as to the efficiency of the whole apparatus.
Referring to the accompanying drawings:-
Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the apparatus supposed to be constructed in a
walled-in passage, the wet-cloth with the upper water receptacle being omitted.
Fig. 2 is a plan of same, the upper water receptacle supposed to be removed and
the cloths being shown in section.
Fig. 3 is partly longitudinal section and partly side elevation of the apparatus,
some parts supposed to be broken off in order to show others more distinctly.
Fig. 4 is a cross section through the apparatus without cloth and stretching
frames.
Figs. 5 and 6 are plan and side elevation respectively of one of the angular
frames, by which the cloths are held tight.
that
The apparatus consists of a frame a arranged within the channel or passage
through which the air passes so that the same is compelled to pass also through the
apparatus. In the frame, there are secured above and below rails or bars 6 of
angular iron, whose vertical stays are provided with indents or notches c for
receiving the lateral lugs or projections e of angular frames d. The
cloth is stretched over these angular frames in such a manner
it takes a zigzag course. For this purpose, the one edge of the cloth is secured
as shown in Fig. 3, to the outermost lower frame d conducted therefrom upwardly
over the outermost upper angular frame, then conducted below again and put round
the next lower angular frame and so on alternately over the upper and lower
angular frames, so that the free courses or tracks of the cloth form angular
passages spaces or slots through which the air must pass.
The air current is thus repeatedly broken and the impurities of the air remain
adhering to the courses or tracks in which the cloth passes.

page_text: This purifying action of the apparatus is still increased if the cloth tracks are
kept always moist or wet. For this purpose, a trough-shaped receptacle or
vessel g is provided above the frame a, such vessel being kept filled with water up
to a certain level automatically by means of, for instance, the known floating
ball valve h. The vessel g is lined with cloth i of loose material, which is passed
or fed over the edges of the trough and placed with its edges on the portions of
cloth surrounding the angular frames d. The cloth i is preferably put round
bars adapted for guiding or stretching it.
"
The loose cloth i sucks itself full with the water in the trough g and constantly
gives off water at its lower edges to the cloth f, so that the impurities left on the
latter are washed down.
Good results are also obtained with the apparatus without wetting the cloth f;
the water therefore can be shut off in frosty weather, unless it is preferred to
warm the air before it reaches the apparatus. The space above the frame a carrying
the cloth f is shut off in the direction of the air current by a flap or folding
door (Fig. 4) so that the entire air must pass through the slots between the
.cloth tracks.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said in-
vention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is;-
Improved apparatus for purifying the air for warming, ventilating and other
industrial plants or establishments, in which the air is conducted or fed through
angular passages formed by cloth tracks in order to be repeatedly deflected from
the cloth and thereby to give off impurities, which are washed down by water
automatically fed from an upper trough to the cloth by means of a cloth lining
the water receptacle, substantially as described and shown in the drawings.
Dated the 19th day of May 1899.
PHILIP M. JUSTICE,
Chartered Patent Agent, London, for the Applicant.