Year: 1887

page_text: I, HENRY EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 6 Bream's Buildings,
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil 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 :-
The object of this invention is to afford provision for the employment in a filter-
press, differing very little from those in common use, of bone-black or other coal,
sand, gravel, peat, saw-dust or other granular or pulverulent filtering material.
To this end, the invention consists in the novel construction hereinafter described and
claimed, whereby said provision is afforded, and especially in the means for filling the
upright frames of the press with the filtering material.
The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, from which all parts of
the press, not necessary to explain the invention, are omitted.
Figure 1 represents a vertical section, parallel with its face, of one of the filter-
frames or chambers of the press.-Figure 2 is a vertical section, at right angles to
Figure 1, of several of the filter-plates and filter-frames or chambers of the press, in a
plane corresponding with the line in Figure 1.-Figure 3 is a plan corresponding
with Figure 2. Figure 4 is a face view of one of the filter-plates.-Figure 5 is a
horizontal section of the said plate; and Figure 6 is a face view of a filter-frame or
chamber illustrating the application of the invention to a filter-press of a different
kind from that shown in the other figures.
Similar letters of reference designate corresponding parts in all the figures.
A, A, designate the side bars of the press supporting the filter-frames or
chambers B, B, and the filter plates C, C-The said filter-frames and filter-plates
have provided in them, as is usual, holes a, b, which communicate through the whole
series to form inlet and discharge channels for the liquid undergoing filtration, and
holes c, d, which communicate in a similar manner to constitute air passages; but the
channels differ from those in the filter presses heretofore in use, in that there is no

page_text: channel communicating directly with the interiors of the filter-frames, B, and in that,
while every other one of the filter-plates, as, C, C, contains T-shaped passages, a',
communicating only with the inlet channel, a, the alternate or intervening plates C, C,
contain similar passages communicating only with the discharge channel, b, as may be
understood by reference to figures 2 and 3, in the former of which figures, the
passages a, are shown in full outline, and those "', in dotted outline. In other
respects the filter-plates are like those in common use, having their faces vertically
corrugated or grooved, and provided with transverse grooves, i, j, at top and bottom,
as shown in figures 4 and 5, to suit the liquid to be filtered.
Between the filter-frames B, B, and filter-plates C, and C, are secured the pervious
partitions, e, which may be of cloth of any suitable kind, or of wire gauze, or of both,
or any suitable fabric according to the nature of the liquid to be filtered, and of the
filtering material used; a suitable packing being used around the edges when the
said cloth or fabric is not of itself adapted to form a packing.
The filter-frames B, B, are like those of the filter-presses in common use, except
that, as previously stated, they have no channel in direct communication with their
interiors or chambers, and that each is furnished at the top with a filling hopper D, or
opening, through which to fill it with the filtering material after the frames and plates
are put together, and a discharge hopper or outlet, E, at the bottom, for discharging
the said material.-The hoppers, D, are offset in opposite directions alternately, as
shown in figures 1 and 3, for convenience of filling the frames with the filtering
material. The frames are all alike, with the inlet and discharge openings a, b, at
equal distances from the sides, and the offsetting of the hoppers in opposite directions
is obtained by simply reversing the faces of the frames. The hoppers have lids, F,
which are packed and capable of being screwed down tightly by screws, f, and the
discharge outlets E, are provided with tightly fitting traps G, which are secured by
screws g. These hoppers, D, serve as reservoirs for a certain quantity of filtering
material, which will descend into the frames or chambers by gravitation, to compensato
for any shrinkage of the material in the latter. The said hoppers may be cast with
the frames as shown. They have cross-braces h, cast in them, to strengthen them,
the said braces being arranged some distance above the upper line, l, of the interior of
the chamber of the frame (see figures 1 and 2), in order that any space below them,
which they might prevent from filling with the filtering material, will be above the
said line, 1, and the interior of the body of the frame will be full of the filtering
material, and no liquid could pass through any frame from one filter-plate to the other
. on either side of it without passing through the filtering material.
In the operation of the filter-press, the liquid to be filtered enters through the
channel a, and is thence distributed through the T-shaped passages a¹, into the grooves
or channels in the opposite faces of the several filter plates C, which may be termed the
receiving plates, and thence passes in opposite directions, as indicated by arrows in
figure 2, through the cloth or fabric on opposite sides of the said plates C, into the
filtering material, with which the filter-frames, B, on each side of said plates, C, are
filled. After passing through charcoal in these frames, the liquid passes through the
cloth or fabric e, on the other side of each of the filter-frames, and through the grooves
and the passages ', of the alternating plates C, which may be termed the discharging
plates, and out through the discharge channel b.
An important function of the hoppers, D, besides that of providing for the filling of
the filter-frames with filtering material, is that of air chambers, the air which is
unavoidably retained in them being compressed by the action of the force pump of the
filter press, and serving, by its elasticity, to compensate for fluctuations in the working
of the said pump.
It may be observed that the openings, G, in the bottoms of the frames may be
dispensed with, as when the press is opened, the filtering material may be easily
removed from the chambers of the frames through the open sides thereof.
The essential features of this invention, consisting of the provision for filling the
frames or chambers with filtering material, is applicable to various kinds of filter-
presses, without regard to the arrangement of their inlet and discharge passages, by

page_text: substituting for the filter-frames previously used in them, filter-frames with hoppers or
openings at the top for the introduction thereinto of charcoal or other filtering
material. The arrangement of channels represented in figures 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6,
though convenient, is by no means essential, but has only been selected for illustration
because it serves as well as any other to explain the invention; and it may be here
mentioned that the discharge passage b, represented in figures 1, 2 and 4, running
through the whole of the plates, may be entirely done away with by placing, as shown
in dotted outline in figure 4, a cock, m, on each one of the alternating plates C,
which contain the discharge passages, and making all the said cocks discharge into a
trough, n, which is a common method of providing for the outlet of the filtered liquid
in certain kinds of filter presses.
The example of filter-frame shown in figure 6, only differs from filter-frames in
common use, in having the hopper at the top and the discharge trap at the bottom.-
The inlet and outlet channels a and b are arranged at the sides, the inlet channel a
being at the bottom, and the outlet channel at the top, in a manner well known,
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me from abroad by
my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim and desire to secure by Letters
Patent is :
1. An upright filter-frame or filter-chamber for a filter-press having at the top a
hopper for filling it with filtering material and for serving as an air-chamber and
reservoir; substantially as herein described.
2. The hopper constructed with transverse braces h, arranged at a distance above
the upper line of the chamber of the frame; substantially as and for the purpose
herein described.
3. An upright filter-frame or filter-chamber for a filter-press having an opening at
the bottom for the discharge of the filtering material; substantially as herein
described.
4. The combination with a series of upright filter-frames, B, provided with filling
openings in their upper parts for the introduction of charcoal, or other filtering
material, of interposed alternating filter-plates C and C, having openings which
communicate with receiving and discharge channels, the openings in every other
plate C, communicating with a filling channel, and those in the alternating plates, C³,
communicating with a discharge channel; substantially as herein described.
Dated this 24th day of March 1887
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.