Method for the Production of a very Porous Substance or Material for, and the Manufacture of, Walls, Conduit Pipes, and the like.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 14th Mar., 1899-Accepted, 17th June, 1899
Method for the Production of a very Porous Substance or Material for,
and the Manufacture of, Walls, Conduit Pipes, and the like.
We, HEINRICH CHRISTIANSEN, Builder, of Neumünster, and JOHANNES HERMANN
KRONE, Master Bricklayer, of 26, Kantstrasse, Hamburg, both in the Empire
of Germany, 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-
This invention relates to the manufacture of a very porous substance or
material for walls, conduit pipes, and the like. The manufacture, according
to this method, is very simple and the porosity of the product can be regulated
or controlled as required. As an example the manufacture of the substance or
material is more fully explained in the following description.
We fill a container with, for example, 1,000,000 cubic millimetres of very
clean grained gravel the grains of which may be of a size of two to five milli-
metres. For the further manufacture of the substance or material it is necessary
to ascertain the volume, etc., presented by the interstitial spaces left vacant in
consequence of the particles of stone or gravel not completely covering one
another. In order to ascertain this volume. the interstitial spaces may for
example; be filled with water which is drawn out again and measured; the
quantity thus obtained will represent the aggregate volume of the interstitial
spaces. Experiments shew that with particles of two to five millimetres and
with a container having a total capacity of 1,000,000 cubic millimetres, the total
volume of the interstitial spaces amounts to about 300,000 cubic millimetres.
These spaces when filled up with an agglomerating substance such as, for
example, cement would tend to render the whole mass water tight. When
however only a large percentage of cement is used for filling purposes, say about
225,000 cubic millimetres, the result would be that there still remain vacant
spaces of about 75,000 cubic millimetres. It will be easy to press the mass
which is still plastic into any desired form and it is obvious that the mixture
so obtained is of a very porous nature when it has assumed a dry state since it
still contains the spaces of 75,000 cubic millimetres which had not been filled
by the cement. It is of course assumed that the gravel or stone particles are
of such hardness that they would not be crushed when the mixture is pressed.
The degree of porosity can be regulated or controlled at will by simply making
use of gravel of coarser or finer grain, for the coarser the greater will be the
porosity since the interstitial spaces formed between the particles will be com-
paratively larger than in the case of finer grains. The degree of porosity can
also be regulated by using a greater or smaller percentage of cement. Besides,
and in lieu of, gravel very hard stones of any other kind may of course be
employed for the production of the porous material, while on the other hand
the agglomerating or binding substance may be replaced by another material
without affecting the nature of this invention.
The product obtained by the new process is particularly suitable for well or

page_text: pump pipes since they will, when surrounded by pure sand, at the same time
serve to purify the water. Also for the foundation walls of buildings to be
erected on moist ground the new or improved material will be found very useful
as the overgrowing with fungi will be prevented. It will be quite as useful
when employed for the manufacture of pipes intended to draw water from moist
ground since the number required for the purpose need be very small compared
with the drain pipes hitherto in use, the pipes produced with the new or im-
proved material being filled about ten times per minute. The application of
the pipes manufactured by the new method to draining purposes will conse-
quently reduce the cost of such draining to a considerable degree. Taking.
moreover, into account that the resistance of this material, in spite of its
porosity, leaves nothing to be desired and that the cost of its manufacture is
extremely small in proportion to its quality it is easy to understand that articles
made of this new material should be preferred to all others hitherto in use.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said in-
vention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is―
1. The herein described method for the manufacture of a very porous material
characterized by the feature that clean hard gravel or other stone particles are
put in a container and the interstitial spaces, whereof the total volume has
previously been ascertained by filling with water, drawing off, and measuring,
are in greater part filled up with an agglomerating or binding material such as
cement for example, whereupon the mixture thus obtained may be pressed into
any form required.
2. The application of the method specified in the first claim, to the production
of walls, wells, pipes, and the like.
1
1000
A. M. & WM. CLARK,
Chartered Patent Agents, 53, Chancery Lane, London.
A. M. & WM. CLARK,
Chartered Patent Agents, 58, Chancery Lane, London.