IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PURIFYING AND FILTERING WATEr and Treating Sewage
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Adolphe Le Tellier at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 22nd
November 1875.
I, ADOLPHE LE TELLIER, of 101, Chaussee de Forest, Brussels, in the
Kingdom of Belgium, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PURIFYING AND
FILTERING WATEr and Treating Sewage,” to be as follows :—
In the Specification of Letters Patent granted the 16th day of July
1874, to William Lloyd Wise, for an Invention communicated to him
by me (No. 2496), there is described an apparatus in which carbonates
and sulphates of lime, carbonic acid, and other foreign bodies in
suspension are eliminated from water by means of reaction and sub-
sequent filtration.
That Specification describes a filter constructed with compound
filtering cylinders, or chambers composed of perforated tubes surrounded
by washers or layers of felt or other filtering material compressed and
held in place between suitable plates.
Now my present Invention consists in improvements upon and further
developments of the Invention described in the above mentioned Specifi-

page_text: cation, and relates in the first place to a simplified arrangement of
combined purifying and filtering apparatus, in which compound
cylinders of the kind above referred to are used.
In this apparatus the compound filtering cylinders are arranged
within an open tank or vessel, the lower ends of the filtering cylinders
being suitably fixed into a tube plate forming the top of a lower
chamber designed to receive the filtered water, and whence that water
may be withdrawn through a suitable tap or cock, or otherwise within
the open tank or vessel is arranged a chamber (herein-after called the
lime chamber) in which is deposited lime or other purifying agent.
Within this chamber is a tube or passage, whose upper end is connected
to and communicates with a funnel or receiver; the tube or passage is
open and of trumpet mouth shape at its lower end, and hangs down
within the lime chamber. The upper part of the lime chamber is
provided with a spout or orifice whence liquid may flow out of the lime
chamber into the open tank or vessel, and above the said spout or orifice
is another leading from the funnel or receiver. The two spouts or
orifices are so arranged in relation to each other that the liquid flowing
from the spout or orifice of the funnel or receiver shall unite and mingle
with that flowing from the spout or orifice of the lime cbamber.
Water to be treated is fed into the funnel or receiver, whence some of
the water flows directly through the spout or lateral orifice of the
funnel or receiver into the open tank or vessel; tho remainder of the
water passes down the tube or passage into the lower portion of the lime
chamber where it becomes saturated with lime (or other reagent), the
water ascends to the upper portion of the lime chamber, and issuing
through the spout or orifice in the form of nearly clear lime water
(when lime is the reagent used) meets and mixes with the unpurified
water flowing from the spout or orifice of the receiver or funnel, the
united stream flows into the open tank or receiver, wherein precipitation
takes place; the water passes thence through the compound filtering
cylinders and accumulates in the chamber below.
The apparatus may be arranged to work continuously, and various
reagents, such as baryta, soda, ammonia, and others may be employed
instead of lime.
Means are provided for enabling the apparatus to be readily emptied

page_text: I sometimes dispense with the purifying arrangement above described,
and feed the water directly into the open tank or vessel, whence it
passes through the compound filtering cylinders into the receptacle for
filtered water. I cause the water then to flow from this receptacle by
a suitable pipe or passage, and to percolate through a mass of granulated
charcoal arranged in a lower annular chamber provided with a perforated
top plate; the water passes upward through the charcoal and through
the perforated plate into an annular receiver or chamber, whence the
water thus doubly filtered may be withdrawn as required.
In a modification of the last described apparatus the tank or vessel
for unfiltered water is provided with a cover, and the doubly filtered
water issuing from the charcoal filtering medium is caused by syphons
to pass up and collect in an annular receiving chamber surrounding the
said tank or vessel.
I arrange apparatus according to my Invention for the treatment of
sewage by separating the solid matter, precipitating the matters in
solution, and discharging into a river or elsewhere only clear and pure
water, the matters kept back being collected for conversion into manure.
In this arrangement the sewage flows into a central chamber or vessel,
whose upper portion is formed with lateral, oblong, or other perforations ;
the lower part of this chamber or vessel is provided with a pipe or
passage for the discharge of residuum regulated by a suitable valve. In
this central chamber or vessel large particles of solid matter will be
deposited by gravitation, the impure liquid will overflow through the
perforations around the upper portion of the chamber into a second
chamber of annular form surrounding it. Within this annular chamber
are arranged the compound filtering cylinders. The filtering medium
used in the construction of these compound filtering cylinders consists
of twisted hay bands rolled round the perforated metal cylinders in three
thicknesses, one over the other in the same way that a rope is wound
around the windlass of a well. The liquid passing through these
improved compound filtering cylinders is received in an annular
receptacle below, whence the filtered water may be allowed to flow into
the river or elsewhere. The annular chamber containing the compound
filtering cylinders communicates at its lower part with an inclined ring-
shaped chamber, which receives the residuum from the filtering cylinders
and the chamber containing them, and is provided with a suitable
discharge passage. Around the upper portion of the annular chamber

page_text: containing the filtering cylinders is arranged a pipe provided with
nozzles for the introduction of milk of lime, or lime water, or other
suitable reagent into the said annular chamber for the purpose of
transforming by precipitation the substances in solution into insolublo
substances in a molécular state, in order that the said substances may b
be arrested by the compound filtering cylinders.
Chemical reagents may also be fed to the central or primary chamber
already described, in order to aid precipitation therein. This central
chamber is constructed with a convex cover provided with a central
socket to receive the vertical pillar of a crane, which may be operated 1
by an attendant stationed on an annular platform surrounding the
annular chamber containing the filtering cylinders for the purpose of
facilitating the removal and replacing as required of the compound
filtering cylinders, and for other operations.
Apparatus constructed on the above described principle may be modified 1
more or less in detail to suit the requirements of particular applications,
and besides being used for the treatment of sewage may obviously be
employed for treating impure water generally, and liquid refuse from
manufactorics.
The purified water from my filters may be used for various industrial 2
and other nummosos