AN IMPROVED FILTER PRESS
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Dickenson and James
William Robson at the Office of the Commissioners of latents on the 27th
October 1880.
CHARLES DICKENSON and JAMES WILLIAM ROBSON, of 8 & 9, Hop Exchange,
in the County of Surrey, Manufacturers of Saccharum. "AN IMPROVED FILTER
PRESS."
The object of our Invention is to purify and filter saccharum, sugar, yeast, and other
analogous materials. With this object we construct a cylinder, having 3 or more
flat surfaces, so that sectionally it is in shape a triangle, square, pentagon, sexagon,
and so on. From each angle of this figure we construct a solid division reaching to
the centre or thereabouts of the figure and extending the whole length of the
cylinder, so that sectionally the cylinder consists of a series of triangles with the
apexes together in the centre. The ends of the cylinder are solid and securely
fastened to the divisions. The several faces are open, but with a narrow flat plate
round the edges. On the outside of the ends of the cylinder is placed a ring of
metal with a perfect face on it, and with guides fitted on the edges, and through
this ring and the end plate are bored holes, so that there is one hole to each section
of the cylinder. These holes are fitted inside with suitable pipes. The cylinder is
placed on a shaft with suitable bearings supported on a proper frame. Below the
cylinder we construct an open tank so formed that the top thereof exactly fits one
face of the cylinder, but otherwise of any dimensions and shape that is required.
We fit on the top of this tank a wire or other netting or grating. Between the
cylinder and the tank we arrange an endless band of felt or other suitable porous
and flexible material, which after passing between the cylinder and the tank is led
round rollers fixed in suitable positions for the duties hereinafter mentioned.
tank is made to move in a vertical direction by suitable gearing from the shaft, and
is kept in position by guides arranged in the framework of the machine. Above
the machine is arranged a tank to hold the material to be operated on, and a pipe
is led from this tank to a suitable position in the framing of the machine, where it
ends with a suitable gland fitting against the ring of metal and inside the guides,
on the end of the cylinder. This pipe is joined by another communicating with an
air chamber and an ordinary air compressor worked by an ordinary pump, and
there may be a valve fitted in each of these pipes just above the junction. These
valves would be actuated by suitable gearing from the shaft. The action therefore
The

page_text: is as follows:-The cylinder is made to revolve until one of the faces is exactly
parallel to the top of the tank. This tank is then raised and presses hard against
the face of the cylinder, compressing the endless band between the two surfaces.
The end of the pipe leading from the tank holding the material to be operated on is
at the same time exactly opposite to and communicating with the hole in the ring
and end of the cylinder into this section of the cylinder. The valve in the material
pipe is then opened, and the material rushes down and fills this section, when the
air valve is also opened, and the compressed air forces the liquid part of the
material out of the section of the cylinder through the endless band into the lower
tank. The solids are all retained on the band. The material valve is then closed,
and the air continues to force every particle of liquid through the band, and thus
dries the remaining solid part. The air valve is then closed. The tank is lowered
down, the cylinder revolves until another face is presented, and the endless band
moves on a regulated distance, retaining on itself the solids. The lower tank is
then again raised, and the operation as described above is repeated. In this lower
tank we can also if we choose construct any further filtering beds of charcoal or
other suitable material, so that when the liquid is drawn out of this tank, it is
perfectly purified. The solid remains on the band are discharged into a suitable
receptacle as the band passes over the upper roller. Beneath this machine we
construct a large tank filled with water or other suitable cleansing agent.
endless band after passing over the upper rollers is led into this tank. And to clean
the band properly we fit brushes, which are worked by suitable gearing, and which
are in action on both sides of the band if required. The band is then led between
suitable compression rollers, by which it is squeezed quite dry.
It is then led over
the upper roller, and again between the cylinder and the tank. We can fit a pipe
for the material on both ends of the cylinder if we choose. Instead also of the
lower tank, hereinbefore mentioned, we can use a second cylinder similiar to and
below the upper one, and instead of applying a pressure of air to force the liquid
through the endless band, we should, in this case, form a vacuum in the section of
the lower cylinder by means of the ordinary vacuum pump applied to the cylinder
in the same manner as herein before mentioned for the pressure punip, thereby
drawing the liquid through the band.
The