A System of Purification_and Filtration of Water for City and Town Supplies.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 10th Apr., 1890-Accepted, 14th June, 1390
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A System of Purification_and Filtration of Water for City and
Town Supplies.
I, JAMES ALLEN CROCKER, Mechanical Engineer, of 186 Remsen Street, Brooklyn,
Kings County, State of New York, United States of North America, 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:—
Fig. 1. is a plan of a portion of a river and my filtering plant located thereat.
Fig. 2. is an enlarged plan showing a portion of a river with a filtering plant
applied thereto and located in a position to receive the supply of water by the action
of gravity.
Fig. 3. is a vertical longitudinal section on the line of Fig. 2 representing a
dam of water, a basin connected therewith, a battery of filters and the building in
which the latter is located together with supply conduits and a precipitating solution
tank and its delivery pipes.
Fig. 4. is a transverse section on the line uu of Fig. 2 looking in the direction of
the arrow 15.
Fig. 5. is a vertical transverso section on the line u u of Fig. 2 looking in the
direction of the arrow 16.
Fig. 6. is an elevation of the building which extends over the filtering battery with
the bank of a basin in its rear.
Fig. 7. is an enlarged vertical section showing the precipitating solution tank and
its pipe leading to the supply inlet of the precipitating basin.
Fig. 8. represents the manner of the deposition of sediment within a basin.
Fig. 9. is a transverse section representing my system of filtration in which the
water supply instead of being fed to the basin by gravity is lifted thereto by
pumps.
Fig. 10. detail to be referred to.
The purpose of my present invention is to afford a supply of pure filtered water
for domestic and manufacturing uses of cities, towns, etc., and my invention consists
in an organized system, in which the subsiding and precipitating basin or basins and
the battery of filters bear peculiar relations to each other and to the supply and
delivery and to the pumping, lifting and distributing stations; and, in which the
inlet of a basin is at its bottom and its outlet near the surface of the water therein,
with a maximum distance between them, in combination with the water supply and
the filtering plant; the several features being arranged in a manner hereinafter
described.
To enable others skilled in the art to understand my invention I will proceed to
describe the method by which I have carried it out.
In Figs. 1 to 8 inclusive, of said drawings, which illustrate my gravity system,
A represents a river, and a a dam over which it falls. Above the dam and on the
river edge is a head work or "crib" B of masonry from the bottom of which runs a
conduit or pipe b leading under the ground to the bottom of one of a series of
precipitating basins C, the walls of which project above the level of the surface of
the water on the dam to prevent the overflow-the height of the surface of the water
on the dam being the same as that in the basin with the exception of difference in fall
which it takes to gravitate thereto. Two contiguous basins C C are connected at
their bottoms by a pipe c the ends of which are provided with gates d to enable the
water to flow from one basin to the other-and to stop the water from entering one
basin when it is to be isolated and emptied in order to cleanse the same. The inlet
pipe b where it enters the basin is also controlled by one of the gates d to cut off

page_text: the supply of water thereto when desired. In the wall between two contiguous basins
at a point just below its water level is located a horizontal pipe / through which
flows the water from one basin to another.
Each basin preferably has an inclined bottom, and leading to its lowest point
is a washout pipe by which the muddy accumulation is allowed to escape when
desired. (See Fig. 10.)
D, D, D, are a series (forming a battery) of filtering machines, preferably of
cylindrical form, arranged in a horizontal position parallel and near to each other
(see Fig. 2.) the battery of filters being covered by a building E, the top of the
filtrant or filter bed in the cylinders being on a level with the surface of the water
in the river below the dain-the battery of filters, the building covering it, and the
basins forming what I term the mechanical filter plant.
だ
The basin nearest the battery of filters is connected by a pipe therewith and
inclining downward thereto-each cylinder being supplied by a separate pipe leading
from the pipe to conduct the water from the said basin to its centre which is located
several feet below the water level of the basin. At the opposite ends of the cylinders
are small delivery pipes (for the filtered water) leading from their centres to a
delivery conduit m extending to a pumping station. At the delivery end of each
pipe of the cylinders and extending longitudinally with the plant is a pipen (called
the cylinder washout pipe) for removing the accumulated sediment from the cylinders
each cylinder having an independent connection with said washout pipe to allow of
being cleansed independently of another.
A pipe from the filtered delivery pipe m to a pump I located in a corner of a
building for pumping the filtered water back through each cylinder separately to
cleanse the same, see Fig. 2.
At a point within the building E and at its corner contiguous to the nearest basin
is located a precipitating solution tank H from the bottom of which leads a pipe p
underground through which flows the dissolved precipitant to the point where the
river water first enters the basin nearest it-by which much of its sediment is
coagulated and deposited, see Fig. 7.
After the filtered water leaves the cylinders and is conducted to the pumping
stations it is raised by the pumps to the distributing reservoirs connected therewith.
By having an extended basin capacity and locating the inlet of the basin at the lowest
point of its bottom at a distance farthest removed from the pipe which delivers the
water to the cylinders; and, locating said delivery pipe near the surface of the water
in the basin, the precipitant has a much longer time to act and consequently has the
ability of coagulating and depositing the maximum amount of sediment upon the
bottom of the basin, the manner in which the same is deposited being somewhat as
represented in Fig. 8. I find in practice that by the time the water leaves the outlet
of the basin nearest the filtering plant only a small portion, (say 3rd of the sedi-
iment) is carried into the filtering cylinders--consequently (by treating the water as
aforesaid) I require to employ only about rd the number of cylinders which would
be necessary were the water conducted directly from the supply in the river to the
filtering plant. Referring to Fig. 9, L represents the level of the water in the
river E the building covering the battery D of cylinders-C the subsiding and
precipitating basin and R a pump located in the building for raising the water in
the river to the basin. The water in the river is here represented as below the
filtering battery and the latter below the basin-the pumps being operated by steam,
or water as economy would suggest.
At certain seasons of the year (when the water contains but little sediment) little
or no precipitant is required as the natural subsiding action will sufficiently accomplish
the precipitation without it.
Among the advantages resulting from my improved system of filtration may be
enumerated the following-as the water is delivered to the pumping stations in a
pure filtered state no grit is carried into the pumps to damage them and the reservoirs
and mains of the distribution system are free from sediment so that the clogging

page_text: and reduction of their effective capacity due to the accumulation of mud therein as
heretofore (when the water was delivered to the pumping and distributing stations
directly from the river) is avoided.
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 :-
1. In combination with a water supply and a filtering apparatus; one or more
interposed precipitating basins with their inlet and outlet conduits or pipes substantially
as described.
2. In combination with a water supply and a battery of filters; one or more inter-
posed precipitating basins with their inlet and outlet conduits or pipes substantially
as set forth.
3. A precipitating solution tank in combination with a water supply-a battery of
filters and one or more interposed precipitating basins with their inlet and outlet
conduits or pipes as specified.
4. An organized filtering system consisting of a water supply, a battery of filters
one or more interposed precipitating basins with their inlet and outlet conduits or
pipes and one or more pumping and lifting stations with their distributing reservoirs
and connecting pipes, substantially as described.
5. A precipitating basin with an inlet at its bottom and a delivery outlet near the
level of the water therein and at a maximum distance therefrom in combination with
a water supply and a battery of filters as described.
6. A water supply, a battery of filters with a building thereover, one or more
interposed precipitating basins with their inlet and delivery pipes, a precipitating
solution tank located at a point in the building nearest the inlet of the basin supply,
the pipe connecting them, one or more pumping, lifting and reservoir distributing
stations with the pipes and conduits leading from the filtering battery to said
stations, all constructed to operate substantially in the manner and for the purpose
set forth.
7. A water supply-one or more pumping, lifting and reservoir distributing
stations with the pipes or conduits connecting them and a filtering plant interposed
between the supply and the pump station or stations, substantially as described.
Dated this First day of January Eighteen hundred and ninety, at
Brooklyn NV
igned in presence of―
H. W. WILLIAMS.
E. B. CROCKER.
JAMES ALLEN CROCKER.