AN IM- PROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR CLEANSING WATER FROM IM- PURITIES
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Melchior Nolden, of Frankfort-on-the-Main, in
the Empire of Germany, Engineer, for the Invention of "AN IM-
PROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR CLEANSING WATER FROM IM-
PURITIES."
Scaled the 20th October 1873, and dated the 29th April 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Melchior Nolden at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
29th April 1873.
I, MELCHIOR NOLDEN, of Frankfort-on-the-Main, in the Empire of
Germany, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said. Invention
for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR CLEANSING WATER. FROM
IMPURITIES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to apparatus for cleansing water from the
impurities chemically or mechanically mingled with it, and is more
particularly applicable to the feed water of steam and other boilers for
the purpose of avoiding the deposit and incrustation which result from
the presence of impurities in the water supplied to them.

page_text: The apparatus consists of a closed tank or vessel made in two com-
partments, an upper and lower compartment. Within the upper com-
partment is a smaller vessel open at top, and having its bottom and
sides at some distance from the bottom and sides of the compartment
in which it is placed. Waste steam from an engine or steam from any
other source is admitted by a pipe to the upper compartment, and water
is supplied slowly by a pipe to the inner vessel, the contents of the
inner vessel being exposed on all sides to the steam become heated, and
a considerable quantity of the dissolved or suspended impurities become
deposited in the inner vessel. At one part of the inner vessel is an
overflow pipe, near which is mounted within the compartment a wheel
with floats or buckets on which the overflow, water acts so as to turn the
wheel. By this means the water is the better exposed by subdivision
to the heating action of the steam, and the movement of the wheel
is utilized as will hereafter be explained. From the bottom of the
upper compartment the water after having worked the wheel flows by
a pipe into the lower compartment near one end thereof. This lower
compartment is divided by vertical diaphragms which alternately reach
close to the top and bottom thereof, and to within a few inches of the
top and bottom. The water entering at one end of this compartment
has thus to move slowly in a zig-zag direction alternately downwards
and upwards on its way to the opposite end, at the upper part of which
it is discharged. During this slow movement the residue of the im-
purities are precipitated in the lower compartment, such precipitation
being completed when necessary by the aid of chemical reagents
supplied in the manner which I will now describe.
At the one end of the tank and outside thereof there is placed a vessel
containing a solution of the chemical ingredients required, and imme-
diately over this vessel or over a trough supplied from it there is
mounted an Archimedean spiral tube having a tubular shaft, which
passes through a stuffing box into the lower compartment and extends
some distance along the same, passing through one, two, or more of the
diaphragms above described, and having holes for the issue of liquid
from the interior of the shaft. The vessel containing the chemical
solution or the trough supplied from it can be raised or lowered and
adjusted to position by a screw. The Archimedean spiral is driven by
a band or gearing from the shaft of the water wheel above described,
and its speed can be adjusted by the proportion of the band, pullies, or

page_text: gearing, or by a brake. At every revolution of the spiral tube when
the vessel or trough is adjusted within its range it takes up a certain
quantity of the chemical solution from the said vessel or trough and
passes it along its tubular shaft into the interior of the lower. com-
partment, where it mingles with the water and serves to complete the
precipitation of impurities therefrom.
For water containing different kinds of impurities different chemical
reagents are required, for example, when the water contains gypsum
or sulphate of lime, carbonate of soda or chloride of barium may be
used to precipitate.
When several different solutions are required there may be several
sets of vessels with their spirals employed as above described.
Also it may be readily understood that instead of employing these
means of introducing chemical reagents they might be introduced by
force pumps, or from reservoirs, by pipes fitted with cocks, whereby their
supply could be adjusted.
As the water passes through the lower compartment some of its
lighter impurities, such as magnesia, instead of settling to the bottom
will rise to the top and will be retained by the descending diaphragms,
while the heavier impuritics at the bottom are retained by those which
ascend.
The water after passing the successive diaphragms in the lower com-
partment is necessarily cooled by radiation. It may be reheated
before its final discharge by steam from the upper compartment ad-
mitted by a pipe to play on the surface of the water as it issues by the
discharge pipe, and pure water of condensation will thus be mingled
with it.
The several compartments, and the cavities into which they are
divided by diaphragms or otherwise are provided with man holes or
hand holes, by which access can be got for cleansing them, and with
discharge holes provided with cocks or plugs for running off their
contents.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Melchior Nolden in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 27th October 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, MELCHIOR
NOLDEN, of Frankfort-on-the-Main, in the Empire of Germany, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Melchior Nolden, Her special license
that I, the said Melchior Nolden, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Melchior Nolden, 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
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF
AND APPARATUS FOR CLEANSING WATER FROM IMPURITIES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Melchior Nolden, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,
or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascer-
"tain 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 Melchior Nolden, 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, reference being had to the accom-
panying Sheet of Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to apparatus for cleansing water from the
impurities chemically or mechanically mingled with it, and is more
particularly applicable to the feed water of steam and other boilers for
the purpose of avoiding the deposit and encrustation which results from
the presence of impurities in the water supplied to them.

page_text: The apparatus consists of a closed tank or vessel made in two com-
partments, an upper and lower compartment. Within the upper com.
partment is a smaller vessel open at top, and having its bottom and sides
at some distance from the bottom and sides of the compartment in
which it is placed. Waste steam from an engine or steam from any
other source is admitted by a pipe to the upper compartment, and water
is supplied slowly by a pipe to the inner vessel, the contents of the
inner vessel being exposed on all sides to the steam become heated,
and a considerable quantity of the dissolved or suspended impuritics
become deposited in the inner vessel. At one part of the inner vessel
is an overflow pipe, near which is mounted within the compartment a
wheel with floats or buckets on which the overflow water acts so as to
turn the wheel. By this means the water is the better exposed by
subdivision to the heating action of the steam, and the movement of the
whcel is utilized, as will hereafter be explained. From the bottom of
the upper compartment the water after having worked the wheel flows
by a pipe into the lower compartment near one end thereof. This lower
compartment is divided by vertical diaphragms which alternately reach
close to the top and bottom thereof, and to within a few inches of the
top and bottom. The water entering at one end of this compartment
has thus to move slowly in a zig-zag direction alternately downwards
and upwards on its way to the opposite end, at the upper part of which
it is discharged. During this slow movement the residue of the
impurities are precipitated in the lower compartment, such precipitation
being completed when necessary by the aid of chemical reagents
supplied in the manner which I will now describe.
At the one end of the tank and outside thereof there is placed a vessel
containing a solution of the chemical ingredients required, and. imme-
diately over this vessel or over a trough supplied from it, there is mounted
an Archimedean spiral tube having a tubular shaft, which passes through
a stuffing box into the lower compartment and extends some distance.
along the same, passing through one, two, or more of the diaphragms
above described, and having holes for the issue of liquid from the interior
of the shaft. The vessel containing the chemical solution or the trough
supplied from it can be raised or lowered and adjusted to position
by a screw. The Archimedean spiral is driven by a band or gearing
from the shaft of the water wheel above described, and its speed can
be adjusted by the proportion of the band, pullies, or gearing, or by a

page_text: brake. At every revolution of the spiral tube when the vessel or trough
is adjusted within its range it takes up a certain quantity of the
chemical solution from the said vessel or trough and passes it along its
tubular shaft into the interior of the lower compartment, where it
mingles with the water and serves to complete the precipitation of
impurities therefrom.
For water containing different kinds of impurities different chemical
reagents are required, for example, when the water contains gypsum
or sulphate of lime, carbonate of soda or chloride of barium may be
used to precipitate.
When several different solutions are required there may be several
sets of vessels with their spirals employed as above described.
Also it may be readily understood that instead of employing these
means of introducing chemical reagents they might be introduced by
force pumps, or from reservoirs, by pipes fitted with cocks, whereby their
supply could be regulated.
As the water passes through the lower compartment some of its
lighter impurities, such as magnesia, instead of settling to the bottom.
will rise to the top and will be retained by the descending diaphragm,
while the heavier impuritics at the bottom are retained by those which
ascend.
The water after passing the successive diaphragms in the lower
compartment is necessarily cooled by radiation. It may be reheated
before its final discharge by steam from the upper compartment admitted
by a pipe to play on the surface of the water as it issues by the dis-
charge pipe, and pure water of condensation will thus be mingled
with it.
The several compartments, and the cavitics into which they are
divided by diaphragms, or otherwise, are provided with man holes or
hand holes, by which access can be got for cleansing them, and with
discharge holes provided with cocks or plugs for running off their
contents.

page_text: and Fig. 5, a front view, with the vessel containing the chemical
precipitants shewn in section.
a and b are respectively the upper and lower compartments, and c is
the vessel within the upper compartment supplied with the water to be
3 purified in a slow and gentle stream by the pipe e; g is the pipe for
supplying steam to the upper compartment, and is the overflow pipe
or spout from the vessel c, by which the issuing water is led to charge
. the buckets of the wheel d, and cause the same to rotate. From the
buckets of the wheel d the water is discharged on the bottom of the
upper compartment a, whence it passes by a pipe into the lower
compartment b, the pipe / being made to extend a little above the
bottom of a, so as to retain a certain depth of water in the upper com-
partment charged with such of the impurities as are precipitated therein.
The lower compartment is provided with the diaphragms or partitions
w, whereby the water is caused to travel in a zig-zag direction, alter-
nately downwards and upwards till it issues by the discharge pipe f
i is a pipe by which steam from the upper compartment a flows on to
the surface of the water in the lower compartment, and k is a pipe by
which such of the steam as remains uncondensed is discharged. s, t,
and v are man holes or hand holes to give access for cleansing; and o, p,
and are plugs, which can be withdrawn for the purpose of emptying
the several compartments of the apparatus. 7 is the spiral tube fixed
on and communicating with the interior of the tubular shaft n, which
shaft passes through a stuffing box into the interior of the lower com-
partment and through several of the partitions thereof. This shaft is
driven by a band or other gearing from a pulley or wheel on the spindle
of the water wheel d, so that as the latter is caused to revolve by the
flow of water into its buckets the spiral tube 7 is also caused to revolve
and to dip into the liquid supplied from the trough m, which is con-
veniently made to act in the manner of a fountain glass, as shewn in
Fig. 5, and which is supported on a screwed stand u, so that its height
can be adjusted that the spiral tube 7 may dip more or less deeply into
the liquid, and so receive a greater or less charge thereof.
In cleansing the apparatus the water is run off from the lower com-
partment 6. by withdrawing the plugs q and the man holes or hand
holes v, s, and t being opened, the plugs o and p are withdrawn.
Thus the apparatus is entirely emptied of water and the bottom of
the compartments a and b can be cleansed, access being given for

page_text: that purpose by the holes 8 and t. The several plugs and covers being
replaced the apparatus is ready for use in the manner described
above.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I claim in respect of the improved 5
water purifying process and apparatus,―
-
First. The arrangement of the supply vessel c within a compartment
charged with steam, so that the water to be purified is exposed on
all sides to the heat of the steam, and a portion of its impuritics are
thereby precipitated, substantially as herein described.
Second. The use of the wheel d, whereby the water overflowing.
from the supply vessel c is more completely exposed by subdivision
to the steam heat; and motive power is obtained to give a graduated.
supply of chemical precipitants, substantially as herein described.
Third. The use of the spiral tube 1, with its tubular shaft n, for
effecting the supply of chemical precipitants to the water undergoing
purification, substantially as herein described.
Fourth. The method of adjusting the supply of chemical precipitants
by adjusting the speed or dip of the spiral tube 1, substantially as herein
described.
Fifth. The process of purifying water, substantially as herein described,
by exposing it to steam heat in a vessel, and in a subdivided condition,
and then causing it to take a zig-zag course at a slow speed while it is
subjected to the action of chemical precipitants, substantially as herein
described.
In witness whercof, I, the said Melchior Nolden, have hereunto set'
my hand and scal, this Fourteenth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.