An Improved Mode of and Apparatus for Clarifying Muddy Liquids.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 25th Mar., 1991
Complete Specification Left, 24th Dec., 1891-Accepted, 6th Feb., 1892
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Mode of and Apparatus for Clarifying Muddy Liquids.
I ALFRED DERVAUX of No. 78 Boulevard Auspach. Brussels in the Kingdom
of Belgium, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
:―
The object of this invention is to provide means for clarifying muddy waters
with greater expedition and economy than heretofore.
It has been usual to employ superposed decanters, or decanting compartments,
in connection with one another, so that they may all receive and act upon one and
the same stream delivered to the apparatus, as either an ascending or a descending
current. It is manifest that by this way of treating the water, the speed of exit
must be greatly retarded, if an effective deposit of the solid particles is to be secured
in the several compartments of the apparatus.
To avoid this retardation of discharge, and yet to retain the water sufficiently long
in the apparatus to secure the deposit, I propose to connect a supply pipe directly
with each decanting compartment, and to fit the same with suitable depositing
surfaces, so arranged that they will readily discharge the deposit therefrom.
The decanting compartments I may also fit with filters, into which the partially
clarified water may rise or pass through before making its exit from the
apparatus.
The clarified water, whether filtered or not, is discharged through suitable cocks
and pipes into a receiver, and the muddy deposit may either flow back into the
common supply pipe, for discharge, and be drawn off from the separate com-
partments, or collect at the bottom of the apparatus.
It will now be understood that supposing the rate of discharge to be equal to
that of the apparatus heretofore in use, and the capacity of the two compared
arrangements to be the same, the dwell of the water in my improved apparatus will
be multiplied by the number of compartments contained in the apparatus.
It will be obvious that instead of using superimposed compartments connected
with a common supply pipe, I may arrange the compartments side by side, and give
them each a separate supply and discharge, with like effect to that described.
Dated this 25th day of March 1891.
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE
SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Mode of and Apparatus for Clarifying Muddy Liquids.
I ALFRED DERVAUX of 78 Boulevard Auspach, Brussels in the Kingdom of
Belgium Engineer 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 :-.
For clarifying muddy waters by the aid of decanting apparatus, the ascending
current of water traversing the decanters, has already been divided between a
number of superposed compartments of decantation, with the object of pro-
portionately reducing the speed of the current, and thus facilitating the fall of the
sediment.
But in order to ensure a practical result, and a real slackening of the speed of
ascension of the water to be clarified, I employ the following arrangement.
In Fig. 3 of the accompanying drawings, the different decanting compartments D

page_text: are fed directly by a large pipe A. These compartments D have exit orifices E of
smaller section, which may be regulated by cocks. The fall of the sediment from
all the compartments takes place in this arrangement by the same openings Bas
those by which the water to be clarified enters.
In Fig. 1, the water to be clarified enters by the large pipe A, from which
it is distributed between the decanting compartments D by the tubes B.
It goes
out clarified by the openings E, whilst the sediment deposited.in the compartments D
flows down in one common current to the bottom of the decanter by the tubes F.
The orifices E open into a vertical collecting pipe G, which discharges the water
through the tube H under a filter L, which filter it traverses from bottom to top,
and goes out of the apparatus by the pipe M. By sliding the spout or snute P
over the tube H, or closing the tube H by a movable cover, and opening the
discharge cock V, the water may be caused to pass thro' the filter L in the reverse
direction, and so clean it.
In the remaining figures, the same letters indicate the same parts as in Figures 1
and 3, and the arrows sufficiently indicate the flow of the water and the sediment.
In Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, the descent of all the sediment to the bottom of the
decanter takes place by the openings B, which also distribute the water between
the different compartments D.
In Fig. 1, the entrance of the water and the
descent of the sediment are, as may be seen, by separate passages, but the sediment
in all the compartments flows off in one common current.
In Figs. 1, 2, and 3, the partitions are fixed, and are separated by water-tight
joints rivetted to the walls of the decanters.
In Figs. 4, 5 and 6, the partitions are movable, and may be dismounted, and the
compartments are simply separated by their walls, which overlap one another.
In Fig. 5, the clarified water is drawn off by the rising tubes E, which pass
through the top of all the compartments. In Fig. 4, it is drawn off by a collecting
tube G, passing through the top of all the compartments, and pierced with a hole E
near the upper part of each compartment. The water issuing from the collecting
tube G, is conducted under a filter F placed at the bottom of the apparatus. In
Fig. 6, the clarified water is drawn off by a central cylinder G, communicating with
each of the compartments D through one or more holes E. The water finally
passes through a filter F, fitted in the upper part of the cylinder G, and discharges
therefrom through a pipe M.
A concentric cylinder may be introduced into the cylinder G of Fig. 6, which
would serve to lead the water under the compartments D, and which would also
serve as a chamber for chemical reactions preceding decantation.
In Figs. 1 and 2, there may also be introduced in the centre of the apparatus,
through the tubes F and B, a pipe, which, passing through all the conical partitions
of the decanting vessel, will lead the water to be clarified in each of them by
orifices pierced in the pipe near the bottom of the cones.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is-
In a decanting vessel, the sub-division of the current of water to be clarified,
between superposed decanting compartments, communicating by their lower portions,
for the fall of the sediment in one common current (descending to the bottom of the
decanter), the entrance of the water into the various compartments being effected
either by distinct conduits, as in Fig. 1, or by conduits which serve also for the
descent of the sediment, as in Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, whilst the clarified water is
discharged from the upper part of the several compartments, as shown and
described, and with or without the interposition of a filter.
Dated this 24th day of December 1891.
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.