IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING FRESH WATER FROM SALT WATER
Year: 1860

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LETTERS PATENT to Alphonse René Le Mire de Normandy, of Odin
Lodge, King's Road, Clapham Park, in the County of Surrey, Analytical
Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING FRESH WATER
FROM SALT WATER."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alphonse René Le Mire
de Normandy at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 27th March 1860.
I, ALPHONSE RENÉ LE MIRE DE NORMANDY, of Odin Lodge, King's Road,
Clapham Park, in the County of Surrey, Analytical Chemist, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING FRESH
WATER FROM SALT WATER," to be as follows:-
The Invention consists of improvements in aërating the steam supplied from
a boiler under pressure, so as to condense it into aërated fresh water. The
pressure steam is aërated by regulating the quantity supplied, so as not to
exceed the power of the condenser, allowing it to expand into little or no
pressure steam before or as it enters the condenser, and introducing into the
steam thus expanded the air liberated from the condensing salt water. I do
this either by making the steam pipe as it enters the condenser sufficiently
large, and putting it in communication with the air liberated from the salt
water used for condensation, or else by putting the air liberated from the

page_text: condensing salt water in communication with the cap of the condenser tubes.
The condensed water thus aërated is then passed through a refrigerator, and
thence through animal charcoal, whence it issues in the state of aërated and
ified fresh water
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alphonse René Le Mire de Normandy in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 27th September 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALPHONSE
RENÉ LE MIRE DE NORMANDY, of Odin Lodge, King's Road, Clapham Park,
in the County of Surrey, Analytical Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Alphonse René Le Mire de Normandy, Her special licence that I, the said
Alphonse René Le Mire de Normandy, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Alphonse René Le Mire de Normandy,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING FRESH
WATER FROM SALT WATER," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Alphonse René Le Mire de Normandy, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alphonse René Le Mire de Normandy,
do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement and accompanying Drawing (that is
to say):
The Invention consists of improvements in aerating the steam supplied
from a boiler under pressure, so as to condeuse it into aerated fresh water;

page_text: and one of the methods of doing this is illustrated by the annexed Drawing,
which shows the mode of action irrespectively of the arrangement or disposition
which may be given to the various organs thereof. A, A, cylinder or. vessel,
called condenser; B, B, B, pipes, into which the steam is condensed, and the
number and size of which vary with the quantity of steam to be condensed;
these pipes may be replaced by a worm; C, cap or chamber, into which the
pressure steam is admitted, and into which it expands into no pressure steam;
D, lower cap or chamber, in which the condensed steam falls; E, air pipe,
through which the air disengaged by the heat of the steam from the con-.
densing water contained in the condenser A, A, passes into the upper cap or
chamber C, and mixes with the steam condensed in the pipes B, B, B;
F, pipe, through which the aerated fresh water condensed in D flows into the
chamber or caps G, G, through the refrigerating pipes H, H, H, of the
refrigerator I, I. The number and size of these pipes H, H, H, are pro-
portionate to the quantity of fresh water to be refrigerated. These pipes may
of course be replaced by a worm of a suitable size. I, I, refrigerator. It is
a cylinder or vessel containing pipes, round which the condensing salt water
circulates. J, pipe, for the exit of the refrigerated and aerated fresh water;
K, pipe, through which the cold water used for the refrigeration of the
condensed aerated fresh water enters the refrigerator I, I; L, pipe, through
which the refrigerating salt water passes from the refrigerator I, I, into the
condenser A, A; M, stand up pipe, rising above the condenser, by which
means it (the condenser) is kept full of salt water. When the apparatus is
placed below the sea water level, this stand up is replaced by another pipe, as
represented in dotted lines, and communicating with the sea water, in which
case the air pipe E should be raised a few feet above the salt water level.
N, pipe, for the exit of the condensing salt water; 0, water guage; P, steam
pipe, through which the pressure steam is admitted into the apparatus.
The modus operandi is as follows:-Salt water being pumped or otherwise
forced into the apparatus through the pipe K, it will evidently pass in the
direction of the arrows through K, filling the refrigerator I, I, and through L
and M, filling the condenser A, A, and escaping at N. If now pressure
steam be admitted by opening the steam pipe P, it will expand in C, and be
condensed in the pipes B, B, B; but as the steam is admitted at the top of
the condenser, the salt water soon becomes sufficiently hot there to part with
the air which it holds in solution, and which passing through the air pipe E,
will mix with the steam in C, and be condensed with it in B, whence it will
pass in the state of aerated fresh water in E into the pipes H, H, H, of the
refrigerator I, I, and thence through the exit pipe J. If, however, more

page_text: steam is admitted than the pipes B, B, B, can condense, intimation of the
fact is given by the salt water sinking in the glass water guage O; and when
this is observed, the quantity of steam admitted into the apparatus must be
reduced by turning off more or less the cock of the steam pipe P, which
pipe P is of course in communication with a boiler.
It is evident that this arrangement may be altered in various ways, but
that which I claim as my Invention is any form of apparatus substantially the
same as herein described, and whereby pressure steam may be condensed into
aerated fresh water.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alphonse René le Mire de Normandy,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of
September, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty.
A. NORMANDY. (L.S.)