IMPROVEMENTS IN PURIFYING WATER FOR THE SUPPLY OF STEAM BOILERS AND OTHER USES
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Cameron, of the Hematite Iron Works, Hind-
pool, Lancashire, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PURIFYING
WATER FOR THE SUPPLY OF STEAM BOILERS AND OTHER USES."
Sealed the 30th July 1861, and dated the 2nd February 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Cameron at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
2nd February 1861.
I, JOHN CAMERON, of the Hematite Iron Works, Hindpool, Lancashire,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PURIFYING WATER FOR THE SUPPLY OF STEAM BOILERS AND OTHER USES," to be
as follows:-
This Invention consists in mixing with the water before it is put into the
boiler a certain quantity of partially decayed vegetable matter such as peat, black,
vegetable mould, leaves, twigs, and roots of trees or vegetable matter charred
by acid in order to obtain humic and ulmic compounds, or old wood in a
partially decayed state, or grasses or vegetable mould of any description
answering the purpose. I employ these substances for the organic compounds.
which they contain such as humin, ulmin, humic acid, ulmic acid, chromic
acid, and apochromic acid, with others of a similar character which exist in
partially decayed vegetable matter.
These compounds have a powerful affinity for lime, magnesia, oxide of iron

page_text: and alumina, and form with them insoluble compounds which precipitate and
leave the water so treated pure and soft and well adapted for the supply of
steam boilers and for other purposes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Cameron in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
2nd August 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
CAMERON, of the Hematite Iron Works, Hindpool, Lascashire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, givo and grant unto me
the said John Cameron, Her special licence that I; the said John Cameron,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Cameron, 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 PURIFYING
WATER FOR THE SUPPLY OF STEAM BOILERS AND OTHER USES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said John Cameron, my executors or admi-
nistrators, 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 immediately after the date of tho said Letters Patont.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Cameron, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, that is to say:-
This Invention consists in mixing with the water before it is put into the
boiler a certain quantity of partially decayed vegetable matter such as peat,
black vegetable mould, leaves, twigs, and roots of trees, or vegetable matter
charred by acid in order to obtain humic and almic compounds, or old wood
in a partially decayed state, or grasses or vegetable mould of any description
answering the purpose. I employ these substances for the organic compounds

page_text: which they contain, such as humin, ulmin, humic acid, ulmic acid, crenic acid,
and apocrenic acid, with others of a similar character which exist in partially
decayed vegetable matter.
These compounds have a powerful affinity for lime, magnesia, oxide of iron
and alumina, and form with them insoluble compounds which precipitate and
leave the water so treated pure and soft and well adapted for the supply of
steam boilers and for other purposes.
In carrying out my Invention of purifying water I proceed as follows:-
In the first place I form a tank or reservoir in two divisions that may hold
from 50 to 60,000 gallons of water, each division of the tank to hold, say, 25,000
gallons, one division of this double tank to be upon a little lower level than the
other so that the higher half of the tank may have sufficient fall to empty
itself into the lower division. I next proceed to fill the upper half of the
tank with the water to be operated upon according to my process. Into
25,000 gallons of water I put 30 tons of peat, which substance I prefer to
employ in preference to any of those other vegetable substances (although
I do not confine myself thereto,) as I have found it to answer well. The
peat in part is dry when put into the water so that it may float on the surface,
and part is put into the water in a wet state so that it may sink through
the water to the bottom of the tank. It is then left at rest for a certain
time and occasionally tested till such time as it is found to be freed from
the earthy substances, namely, lime, magnesia, oxide of iron, and alumina,
which are the ordinary deteriorating ingredients contained in hard water.
After these earthy materials of the water have been precipitated by the organic
compounds, humin, ulmin, humic acid, ulmic acid, crenic acid, and apocrenic
acid, existing in the peat, I run the water into the lower division of the tank
when it is ready for use, I then repeat the filling of the upper division of the
tank and proceed in the same way, occasionally stirring up the peat from the
bottom of the tank so as it may act on the whole body of the water; I do not
confine myself to any form of tank or reservoir as I find that I can treat
fountains or ponds in a similar way. I do not confine the carrying out of
my Invention to any given quantity of partially decayed vegetable matter as
some waters will not require so much as others, this depending upon the
amount of earthy matters contained in the water so treated. For domestic
purposes three pounds of peat will soften the water, if hard, four weeks without
being renewed if left for twenty-four hours in contact with it, and agitated
occasionally so as to bring the organic compounds above mentioned to act upon
the whole of the water. If I prepare these organic compounds by means of
acids, I prefer to use the sulphuric acid, as it acts upon all kinds of vegetable

page_text: matter very rapidly; about two pounds of acid to the one hundred pounds of
vegetable matter will produce the required effect,
But as I find that peat answers well for my purpose I prefer to use it as it
is the most economical and contains to a large amount the organic compounds
necessary for the purifying and softening the water according to my Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Cameron, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this First day of August, in the year of our Lord, One
thousand eight hundred and sixy-one.
JOHN CAMERON. (L.B.)