AN IMPROVED FILTERING VESSEL FOR PURIFYING AND CLEANING WATER
Year: 1811

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
ASHLEY, of Homerton, in the Parish of Saint John, Hackney, and County of
Middlesex, Plumber, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Seventh day of August,
in the fifty-first year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said John
Ashley, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said John Ashley, my exors, admors, and
assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED FILTERING VESSEL FOR PURIFYING
AND CLEANING WATER;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso, obliging me, the said John Ashley, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be enrolled in
His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar months after the
date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation
being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Ashley, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are described by the Drawing
in the margin, and the following description thereof, that is to say:-
My improvement of the filtering vessel for purifying and cleansing of water
is for the facility of cleansing the filtrating medium when required, and at the
same time keeping it in its pristine state; which is done by confining and
pressing it between two perforated plates, and fixing a washer and plug or
valve in the cistern to let down water for cleansing the said medium; the
explication of which is as follows:-The vessel, as it appears in the Drawing
in the margin, is of a circular form, the outside case two feet high and one
foot three inches in diameter, but the dimensions and form may be varied.
This case may be made of stone, earthenware, or of metal, but I prefer wood
lined with tined copper, lead, pewter, or any other material that is sweet and
water-tight. The filtrating medium consists of well-cleansed sand from the
sea, Thames drift, or quarry and fine gravel, the quantity about half the
contents of the vessel. An inch from the bottom of the vessel is fixed a
perforated plate, having a pipe in the centre extending upwards to the cistern.
The plate may be made of the same material as the lining of the case, but
stout enough to bear the filtrating medium, and the holes about one-eighth of
an inch in diameter. On the plate is put a layer of fine gravel about two
inches thick, but not so fine as to pass the holes in the plate; on the gravel
is laid a stratum of the sand about eight inches thick, and then a layer of
fine gravel about two inches thick; which filtrating medium is closely pressed
down with the perforated plate like the other, and the plate made fast to the
side of the vessel; four inches above this plate is secured, water-tight, to the
inside of the vessel, a sound plate, of the same material as the others, which
makes the upper part of the vessel a cistern to hold the water to be filtered,
wherein, if the fœtedness of the water required it, may be immersed bruised
charcoal in canvass bags, which may be renewed when required. At the
upper end of the pipe, which is fixed in the centre of the lower plate, is a
perforated screw socket, to receive a hollow screw fixed to the end of a small
pipe, which when in the socket gives air to the space at the bottom of the
vessel. The water from the cistern passes through the perforated screw to
the bottom space, and ascends through the filtrating medium, whereby it is
purified and made clear, and remains in the space above it to be drawn off by
the cock when wanted; by raising or lowering the screw pipe in the socket
the water is filtered quick or slow. In the bottom of the cistern is placed the
washer and plug or valve, by opening of which and filling the cistern with

page_text: water the filtrating medium is cleansed downwards and the foul water drawn
off by the lower cock. By taking out the screw pipe the water in the cistern
also washes the sediment that settles at the bottom of the vessel through the
cock; a small pipe is fixed in the cistern to give air to that part of the vessel
that contains the clear water.
The above is further explained by the Drawing. a, a, is the outside case;
b, the lower plate; c, the centre pipe; d, the space to receive the filtrating
medium; e, the plate which covers the said filtrating medium; f, the space
for the clear water; g, the sound plate and bottom of the cistern; i, the air
pipe; k, the perforated screw socket; 1, 1, the screw, and screw pipe; m, n,
the washer and plug or valve; o, the cistern; p, the clear water cock; q, the
foul water cock..
In witness whereof, I, the said John Ashley, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Second day of October, in the year of our Lord One