IMPROVED MEANS FOR FILTERING AND PURIFYING WATER
Year: 1885

page_text: I WILLIAM HENRY HARTLAND of 80 Anderston Quay Glasgow Lanarkshire
Industrial Chemist do hereby declare the nature of my invention for "IMPROVED
MEANS FOR FILTERING AND PURIFYING WATER" to be as follows :—
The object of my invention is to effect the filtration and purification of water to
adapt it for domestic use and for brewing and other manufacturing purposes.
I employ a series of tanks or vessels arranged as described in the specification
accompanying my application for Patent No 5448 dated 2nd May 1885. In
dealing with water for drinking and for similar purposes I form at the inner end
of the neutralising chamber a first chamber of the series an inclined bank of
neutralising and filtering material arranged in layers in the course which the water
must take towards the second or filtering tank from which it discharges. The
composition of this filtering bed will vary according to the kind of impurities and
especially soluble impurities the water contains and the desired result to be attained
as regards purification.
The filtering bed which will generally be enclosed by an open frame of iron
work may be formed with an outer layer of coarsely broken limestone or similar
material which will neutralise and remove acid impurities then a layer of gravel
then a layer of fine sand then charcoal. These layers will serve to purify and
filter to a large extent the impure water but in order that the purified water may
be free from insipidity which is common to filtered water, I add to the filter bed
layers of chalk limestone and the like to impregnate the water with lime salts
and other salts which may serve to adapt the water for drinking for brewing for
medecinal or for like purposes.
The last series of layers of the filter bed referred to will vary according to the
purpose for which the purified water is to be used.
In the neutralising tank the water may be treated with lime or similar reagent
to destroy organic or other matters before passing through the filter bed and the
sludge deposited by such treatment may after subsidence be removed through a
sluice or valve opening to a settling tank as described in the Specification above
referred to and from this tank the sludge may be removed continuously or
periodically by means of elevators or similar devices.

page_text: From the neutralising and filtering tank the water passes by an opening at the
back into the second filtering chamber which is partially filled with layers of sand
and other filtering media and the water in its outward flow through the filter bed
of this chamber will be fully purified.
The water may be aerated by discharging it against a series of spray plates while
a draught or blast of air is passed through it. After aeration and removal thereby
of the gases the water contains, the water may be subjected to further treatment in
the manner described.
When a fall of water is available it may be utilised in driving a water wheel
or other motor which may be used to operate the elevator or devices employed to
raise the sludge from the settling tank to generate an air blast and to drive a
pair of rollers or other feeding apparatus through which the lime or other reagent
is fed into the neutralising tank.
The means of treatment as well as the apparatus employed are equally adapted
for treating water for household or for villages or large towns.

page_text: I, WILLIAM HENRY HARTLAND of 8ª Anderston Quay, in the City of Glasgow
Industrial Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :—
My invention which relates to improved means for effecting the filtration and
purification of water, has mainly for its object the treatment of impure waste water
in order to better adapt it for domestic use and for brewing and other manufacturing
purposes.
T
I employ in conjunction with a series of tanks, ponds or vessels which are so
arranged as to provide for the deposition of suspended impurities and for the
periodical removal of the deposited sludge, a filter bed or box or a number of filter
beds or boxes which may be adapted not only to arrest impurities which remain in
suspension after the passage of the water through the settling tank or tanks, but
also to neutralise or otherwise treat the soluble impurities to impregnate the water
with soluble salts, and means for aerating the purified or partially purified water.
The accompanying drawings illustrate several arrangements of apparatus adapted
for use in carrying out my invention. Figure 1, is a vertical section and figure 2
is a plan showing one convenient arrangement of tanks or ponds, filter boxes and
aerating apparatus for dealing with the water supply to towns or villages.
Figures 3, 4, 5 and 6 are cross sections of the several tanks or ponds, which in the
present instance are represented as built of brickwork or masonry-Figure 7 is a
vertical section and figure 8 a plan of a modified form of the apparatus which
differs mainly from the first shown in the arrangement of the tanks and in regard
to the material employed in their construction iron being used in this case.
Figure 9 is a vertical section showing a modification of the apparatus in which
the water passing through it is employed to drive a water wheel from which the
power required to operate the aerating fans etc. may be obtained.
As represented in figures 1 to 6 of the drawings the impure water to be treated
is led by a conduit A into a tank or pond B, formed with a sloping bottom and
provided at its lower end with a sludge door or valve through which the impurities
which are deposited on the floor may be periodically discharged by a pipe C to a
settling tank or other receptacle. In the tank B is placed between the inlet A and
outlet or overflow orifice D, a bed of neutralising and filtering material which
may be laid upon the floor in the form of a bank through which the outflowing
water must pass or, as is shown, placed within a series of open frames or boxes E
extending across the tank to intercept the impurities in the water passing through
it and to impregnate the water with lime or other reagent which as hereinafter set
forth may be used in the neutralising and filtering boxes. From the overflow
orifice D the water falls through perforated plates F in the form of spray through
which air at atinospheric or higher pressure is directed from an air pipe G provided
with inlet branches G, and thence the aerated water passes through a tank H,
provided with a door or valve, for use when disconnecting the tanks for cleaning,
into a subsidence tank I wherein are deposited the particles of matter which have

page_text: been oxidised in the aerating operation, provision being made by means of a valve
and discharge pipe C for the periodical removal of the sludge. In the tank I a
second series of filter boxes E¹ is placed to further act upon the water which passes
therethrough and by an overflow J to a tank K which is filled with sand, gravel or
other filtering material and is divided by a partition wall K¹, the water passing
from one compartment to the other by a rose pipe L and thence by an overflow
orifice M to a conduit N which may lead to a pond or reservoir for storing the
purified water. The apparatus represented in figures 7, 8 and 9 consists of a like
series of tanks, filter boxes and aerating apparatus the filter boxes being however
fitted in tanks or compartments which are separate from the settling tanks or ponds,
and the reservoir R into which the purified water passes being shown connected to
the last of the series of tanks.
The filter beds or boxes E, E¹, which are fitted in slides and are removable may
be formed with a first layer of coarsely broken limestone or similar material
serving to neutralise and remove acid impurities, then a layer of gravel then fine
sand and then charcoal, the several layers being each enclosed within the frames
or boxes forming one row or partition in the filter tank or the whole of the material
being contained within a single row of boxes or in a bank as may be convenient.
The filling and renewing of the filter boxes E, E¹, with the filtering or neutralising
material in layers or strata may be conveniently effected, as represented in figure 10
of the drawings, by the employment of two or more hoppers placed one within the
other and down which the different materials are passed while the hoppers are
gradually raised as the boxes fill. These layers serve to a large extent to purify
and filter the impure water but in order that the purified water may be free from
the insipidity commonly resulting from filtration I also use boxes containing layers
of chalk, limestone and the like to impregnate the water with lime salts or other
salts which may serve to adapt the water for drinking, for brewing or for medicinal
or like purposes, this treatment of the water being effected by the last of the series
of boxes or filter beds.
The material contained in the tank K through which the water finally passes
may consist of layers of gravel, sand, charcoal and the like of different degrees of
fineness. The kind of filtering material employed may also be largely varied the
object to be attained generally being to effect purification of the water by treatment
which will as far as possible conform with the process which takes place in nature
of slow filtration of water through purifying strata of the earth's crust (the lines
of filter boxes of the apparatus representing the filter strata) and the purification
being such as to neutralise or eliminate injurious constituents or to impregnate the
water with desirable constituents as before mentioned. The oxidation effected by
neration as above described is more rapid than that which occurs in nature and is
intended to destroy animal organisms, to de-odorise the water, and to so develop
the injurious soluble constituents that they may be very materially reduced or
eliminated in the series of filter boxes and tanks through which the water passes
after aeration.
To treat or purify large quantities of water continuously in a small space, I
deepen the first tank as represented in figures 7, 8 and 9 and immediately over the
inlet I place a shoot P with a hopper at its upper end which is above the ground
surface. The width of the shoot corresponds with the inlet so that the whole body
of inflowing water may be impregnated with any chemical or material that is
discharged down the shoot, the resultant mud settling on the tank bottom and the
effluent water rising to the second tank, and undergoing the whole or part of the
process of purification before described according to the purpose for which it would
be required.
Each tank of the series in the several forms of the apparatus is connected at
the gravitation level determined by the inflowing water, these connections being
operated as shown by valves which serve the double purpose of regulating the
water level and of cutting off connection between the tanks and causing the water
to traverse the different filtering and other media in opposite directions. The

page_text: bottoms of the several tanks are sloped in opposite directions so as to facilitate the
removal of collected matter and for automatically flushing out the materials they
contain, the discharge of purified water being only delayed until the tank or tanks
again fill up to the original level.
The formation of the apparatus described admits of the general principles
embodied being applied either as a whole or in part according to the degree of
purification the water requires. For instance the process of aeration inay be used
to revivify condensed water or partially stagnant water or board ships the water
being then passed in the way described through suitable material to impregnate
it with a natural mineral salt to remove the nauseous insipidity of such water and
to render it more healthful and palatable or to practically correspond with natural
spring water.
The apparatus in a modified form may be portable and fixed on wheels to provide
for removing it from place to place, the only purifying agents that would be
required being small quantities of Charcoal and Chalk, which would generally be
sufficient to purify water from open streams or ponds. The apparatus may be made
of all sizes with a purifying capacity ranging from a few gallons up to one million
gallons per day to suit all conditions and circumstances connected with water
purification for domestic use or trade purposes, and it is applicable either to a single
house, or to a village or the largest town.
The water may be passed into the inlet either by gravitation or by a syphon or
& pump.
When the outlet level is reached by the water in the series of tanks in
use, then the purified water automatically Hows out in a corresponding quantity
to that flowing in, so that small suburban localities which from a variety of
circumstances are compelled to use impure water from wells and other sources may
by means of the apparatus described, purify at small cost.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
The improved means for filtering and purifying water consisting of a series of
settling and filtering tanks and neutralising and aerating apparatus arranged and
combined substantially as herein described with reference to the drawings annexed.
Dated this Twenty-ninth day of March 1886.