IMPROVED MECHANICAL APPARATUS FOR PURIFYING AND SOFTENING WATER BY REMOVING THEREFROM PROVISIONALFROM THE LIME AND OTHER HARDENING MATTERS HELD IN SOLUTION
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Best, of the Town of March, in the County of
Cambridgeshire, Mechanic, for an Invention of "IMPROVED MECHANICAL
APPARATUS FOR PURIFYING AND SOFTENING WATER BY REMOVING THEREFROM
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION loft by the said George Best at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 17th June 1880.
GEORGE BEST, of the Town of March, in the County of Cambridgeshire,
Mechanic. IMPROVED MECHANICAL APPARATUS FOR PURIFYING AND SOFTENING
WATER BY REMOVING THEREFROM THE LIME AND OTHER HARDENING MATTERS
HELD IN SOLUTION.”
This Invention is for the purpose of softening, cleaning, and extracting those
properties from hard water which produco priming and incrustation inside steam
engine and other boilers. It is also intended to heat the water for feeding of
boilers, and may be used for all manufacturing and domestic purposes where
soft water is required. One arrangement of my apparatus consists of a vertical
condenser, circular or otherwise, and made of iron or other suitable material, and
enclosed at the top and bottom, or at the top only, there being at the top of the
condenser an inlet cold water pipe provided with a regulating tap, and at a
convenient distance below there is an inlet steam pipe.
Between the inlet water pipe and the inlet steam pipe I place one or more sieves
or strainers of perforated metal or other material, and near the bottom
an outlet steam pipe, and also at or near the bottom an outlet hot water
pipe. When the water is admitted through the inlet cold water pipe it
falls through the sieves or strainers like a shower of rain, and the water being
continually kept running comes in contact with the steam, which passes into the
condenser, and the result of this simple method is, that the harder matters incrust
around the interior of the condenser, and the softer matters run out with the water
into a covered or open tank or other receptacle, the said softer matters falling to
the bottom, and leaving the water beautifully soft and free from hardening
matters.

page_text: For steam engine use it is intended that the water from the sieves or strainers
should be acted upon by the exhaust steam, and the purified water may be pumped
into the boiler immediately after leaving the condenser, but I may here state that
the steam may be supplied from other sources, and that one or more perforated
pipes may be used either with or without the sieves or strainers for communicating
the water from the inlet cold water pipe, and fixed between the inlet cold water
pipe and inlet steam pipe.
In another arrangement I place over the top of the condenser a cold water
receptacle fixed on supports, the inlet cold water pipe being inserted therein,
thereby making it a cold water communicator, the object being that where a natural
supply of water cannot be obtained a pump may be worked by the engine or
other means to supply the condenser, and for some purposes when the condensed
water becomes cold it may be passed through any ordinary filter,

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said George Best in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 17th December
1880.
GEORGE BEST, of the Town of March, in the County of Cambridgeshiro,
Mechanic. 21 IMPROVED MECHANICAL APPARATUS FOR PURIFYING AND SOFTENING
WATER BY REMOVING THEREFROM THE LINE AND OTHER HARDENING MATTERS
HELD IN SOLUTION."
This Invention is for the purpose of softening, cleansing, and extracting those
properties from hard water which produce priming and incrustation inside steam
engine and other boilers, the refuse water being intended to be used for heating
the feed water of steam engine boilers, and the softened water may be used for all
manufacturing and domestic purposes where soft water is required.
One arrangement of my apparatus consists of a vertical condenser, circular or
otherwise, and made of iron or other suitable material, and enclosed at the top and
bottom, or at the top only, there being at the top of the condenser an inlet cold
water pipo provided with a regulating tap, and at a convenient distance below
there is an inlet steam pipe, between which and the inlet cold water pipe I place
one or more sieves or strainers of perforated metal or other material, and near the
bottom an outlet steam pipe, and also at or near the bottom an outlet hot water
pipe. When the water is admitted through the inlet cold water pipe it falls
through the sieves or strainers like a shower of rain, and the water being
continually kept running comes in contact with the steam which passes into the
condenser, and the result of this simple method is that the harder matters incrust
around the interior of the condenser, and the softer matters run out with the
water into a covered or open tank or other receptacle, the said softer matters
falling to the bottom, and leaving the water beautifully soft and free from
hardening matters.
For steam engine uso it is intended that the water from the sieves or strainers
should be acted upon by the exhaust steam, and the purified water pumped into
the boiler immediately after leaving the condenser, but I may here state that the
steam may be supplied from other sources, and that one or more perforated pipes
may be used either with or without the sieves or strainers for communicating the
water from the inlet cold water pipe, and fixed between the inlet cold water pipe
and inlet steam pipe.
In another arrangement I placo over the condenser a cold water receptacle fixed
on supports, the inlet cold water pipe being inserted therein, thereby making it a
cold water communicator, the object being that where a natural supply of water
cannot be obtained a pump may be worked by the engine or other means to supply
the condenser, and for some purposes when the condensed water becomes cold it
may be passed through any ordinary filter. On the accompanying Sheet of
Drawings Fig. 1 represents a vertical condenser with inlet cold water pipe and
regulating tap inserted within a fixed or portable lid marked a, below which there
is a sieve or strainer b having below it the inlet steam pipe c; and a represents
the outlet steam pipe,' and e the outlet hot water pipe, and in some cases the
condenser can be used without a bottom. Fig. 2 represents another arrangement
or construction of my improvements. g represents a vertical condenser with a
cold water receptacle or small tank marked h with an overflow pipe fixed on the
top, the remaining parts or sections being in all other respects similar to those
shewn in Fig. 1.
Having now described the nature and particulars of my said Invention, I desire
it to be understood that I do not confine myself to any particular size of the
complete apparatus or of the parts or sections marked thereon, but what I claim in

page_text: substance is, the skeleton-like condenser with the sieves or strainers or perforated
pipes or tubes fixed betweon the inlet cold water pipe and the inlet steam
pipe.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Best, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Twenty-fourth day of November, One thousand eight hundred
and eighty.
Signed, scaled, and delivered by
the within-named George Best,
in the presence of
CHA. W. COLLINS,
Engineer & Patent Agent,
Manchester.
HIS
GEORGE × BEST. (L.S.)
mark,