AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR CLEANSING OR CLARIFYING IMPURE WATER
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the
Invention of "AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR CLEANSING OR CLARIFYING IMPURE
WATER." A communication from abroad by Carl Johann Auguste
Scheerer, of Freiberg, in the Kingdom of Saxony.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
7th July 1864.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR CLEANSING OR CLARIFYING
IMPURE WATER," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the purifying of impure river or other water by
means of a simple chemical process, whereby organic and other impurities
contained in the water will be precipitated, and may then be collected and
removed.
The chemical agent it is proposed to employ to effect this object is a solution
of the neutral sulphate of peroxide of iron (Fe,O,+3 SO³), which is added to
the water intended to be operated upon.
The proportion in which the solution of neutral sulphate is to be added to
the water for the purpose of the Invention must be determined to some
extent by the amount of impurity contained therein. The neutral sulphate
a short time after being added to the impure water becomes decomposed,
and effects a sedimentary deposit of the impurities.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 7th January 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Edward Newton, Her special license that I, the said William
Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said William Edward Newton, 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 PROCESS FOR CLEANSING OR CLARIFYING IMPURE WATER," being
a communication from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said William Edward Newton, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain 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 William Edward Newton, 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 (that is to say) :-
This Invention rélates to the purifying of impure river or other water by
means of a simple chemical process, whereby organic and other impurities
contained in the water will be precipitated, and may then be collected and
removed.
The chemical agent it is proposed to employ to effect this object is a solution
of the neutral sulphate of peroxide of iron (Fe2O3+3 SO,), which is to be
added in a very diluted state to the water intended to be operated upon.
The proportion in which the solution of neutral sulphate is to be added to
the water for the purpose of the Invention must be determined by the amount
of impurity contained therein. The suitable proportions must therefore be

page_text: ascertained by careful experiment carried on from time to time if it should be
found that the impurity of the water varies. I would however observe, that
the addition of more or less of the neutral sulphate will not materially affect
the process, beyond the evident fact that too dilute a solution of the salt
would probably either leave some of the impurities in the water, or the
purifying process would go on too slowly; on the other hand, too strong a
solution would be more costly than would be necessary for the complete
success of the process.
The water to be purified may be run into a tank or reservoir, and the
solution of neutral sulphate added thereto as it runs in, so that the solution
may be well mixed with the water to be purified. A short time after the
neutral sulphate is added to the impure water it becomes decomposed, and
forms with some of the impurities contained in the water a basic salt, which
is insoluble in water. The solid and insoluble particles of this new salt are
precipitated, and together with the impurities contained in the water form
a sedimentary deposit from which the purified water may be allowed to run
off, leaving behind the sedimentary deposit in the tank or reservoir. A
repetition of this precipitation process on other bodies of water which may be
run into the same tank or reservoir will cause additional deposits, which when
they have been allowed to accumulate to a sufficient depth in the reservoir
may be collected and removed from the reservoir from time to time.
Having now described this Invention of "An Improved Process for
Cleansing or Clarifying Impure Water, and having explained the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I claim as the Invention secured to me by
Letters Patent as aforesaid, cleansing or clarifying impure water by the
addition thereto of a solution of the neutral sulphate of the peroxide of iron in
any suitable proportion as herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
W. E. NEWTON. (L.S.)