IMPROVEMENTS IN FILTERING FLUIDS
Year: 1837

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
DOVER, of Thames Street, Merchant, and WILLIAM JONES, of Bartholomew-
close, Chemist, both in the City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of November, in the first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said John Dover and William Jones, Her especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that we, the said John Dover and William Jones,
our exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as we, the said John Dover
and William Jones, our exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of
years. therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise.
and vend, within England, Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FILTERING FLUIDS;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that we, the said John Dover and William
Jones, or one of us, shall cause a particular description of the nature of our
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled
in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large annear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
John Dover and William Jones, do hereby declare the nature of our said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being
had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say:―
Our Invention relates to a mode of clarifying or clearing from impurities
such fluids as require that process, in order to render them more fit for use,
and the Invention consists in treating fluids, such as beer, ale, wine, oil, water,
syrups, and others, requiring to be clarified or freed from impurities by causing
them to pass or be filtered through the skins of animals by the aid of pressure,
by which means a higher degree of purification or clarification can be obtained
than by purifying such liquids by passing them through a filter, having any of
the materials now and heretofore employed as a filtering medium. And in order
to give the best information in our power, we will describe the Drawing
annexed, but we would first remark that we prefer to use sheep's skins as the
filtering medium, though other skins will answer the purpose; these skins are
not to be tanned, but they are to have the wool removed, and are to be treated
as if they were going to be tanned, as is well understood by tanners. The
skins in this condition are to be laid on a suitable supporting surface, such as
air cloth, for it should be understood that the strain or pressure of the fluid
would otherwise quickly injure the texture or character of the skins.
Figure 1 represents the section of a filter, constructed according to our In-
vention; a, a, being a vessel; b, the pipe through which the fluid to be clarified
is to be passed into the filter above the filtering medium; and c, the pipe at
which the filtered or clarified liquid is to be drawn off for use; d is an opening,
which is closed by a cover tightly fixed by screws or otherwise when using the
filter;
the object of it is that any sediment which may take place in the filtering
medium may from time to time be removed. The filtering medium consists
of a sheep's skin (or, as before stated, the skins of other animals will do); this
skin is placed on aud is supported by a strong surface of hair cloth, though
any other fabric or penetrable material will answer the purpose, the object
being to give support to the skin as before mentioned; these are securely
affixed in the filter a, as is shewn in the Drawing. The fluid to be clarified
is to be forced into the filter by means of a force pump or other convenient way
of obtaining pressure, such as altitude of column, where it can be conveniently
obtained, or it may be obtained by a partial vacuum, as will be understood on
examining Figure 2, which shows the section of a filter, which. in this case, is
an open one. d, d, is the vessel; e is the filtering medium, similar to that above

page_text: described; g is a pipe by which the fluid as it is clarified is drawn off; and f
is a pipe leading to an air pump, or other suitable means for obtaining a
partial vacuum under the filtering medium.
Having thus explained the nature of our Invention, and the best manner we
are acquainted with for performing the same, we would remark that we lay no
claim to any of the parts separately, nor do we confine ourselves to the particular
shapes of filters shown and described, as variations may be made; and although
we have described the filtering of fluids downwards through filtering medium, it
will be evident that by a suitable arrangement the fluids may be made to filter
upwards. We would have it understood that what we claim as our Invention
is, the application of skins of animals as a filtering medium to filtering appa-
ratus or machines for clarifying or purifying such fluids as require that process.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Jones, for myself and the said
John Dover, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth
day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
thirty-eight.