IMPROVEMENTS IN CLARIFYING WATER AND OTHER LIQUIDS
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
PRICE, of Cornhill, in the City of London, Esquire, sends greeting.
time
WHEREAS in consequence of a communication made to me from a certain
Foreigner residing abroad, I am in possession of an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN CLARIFYING WATER AND OTHER LIQUIDS;" and whereas Her present most
Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters Patent under the Great
Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster, the Fourteenth day of
June, in the first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs & successors,
give and grant unto me, the said George Price, Her especial licence, that
I, the said George Price, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said George Price, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the
said term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, the said Invention; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said George Price, by an instrument in writing under my.
hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the said.
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause
the same to be enrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within.
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear,

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with said proviso, I, the said
George Price, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention to
consist,―
First, in the application of what I call a double branch rising main force
pump to a filtering apparatus, in such manner that it will feed the filter either
for filtration by ascension or for filtration by descension, and force the liquid
required to be clarified in either case rapidly through the filtering medium,
and also in such manner as enables the operator to cleanse the filter or the
filtering medium, by means of the said pump, without necessarily taking to
pieces or even opening the filtering apparatus, when the said medium or filter
has become foul by use.
And, secondly, in the use of one uniformly pulverised substance only for
the filtering medium, or of such substances only combined as can be brought
to the same degree of fineness as powder, and are of the same specific
gravity, or as nearly so as possible, and in the application of two very finely
perforated plates at the top, and two at the bottom of the filtering medium,
between which plates the medium is pressed, and by means of which the
liquid to be clarified is introduced into the said filtering medium in a very
minutely divided state.
And in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said George Price,
do hereby describe the manner in which the said Invention is to be performed,
by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the. Drawing
annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon (that is to say) :-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a vertical elevation of a filtering apparatus, with the double
branch rising main force pump applied thereto, according to the said Inven-
tion. In Figures 1, A is a filter; B is what I call a double branch rising
main force pump; C, a section pipe or main for drawing up, by means of
the pump, the liquid to be clarified; say, for instance, water from a river or
other source D, D; E and E' is the double branch rising main of the
pump, conveying the water to the top or bottom of the filter at pleasure,
dependant on the opening and shutting of the cocks at E' and E³. At F',
F, are cocks for the exit of the water from the filter above and below,
according as the filtration is by ascent or descent. The cock at E' is stopped
and that at E³ is opened when the filter is worked by ascension, and the cock
at E' shut and at E¹ opened when it is worked by descension; and it is
worked alternately and rapidly each way, when the pump is used for the

page_text: purpose of cleansing the filter or the filtering material or medium, on which
occasions the dirty water escapes at the cock F' and F* alternately.
Figure 2 is a vertical section; b, b, are two chambers formed by the spaces
between the bottom and top of the filter and the plates g, g. These plates
are made of metal perforated over their whole surface with holes about an
eighth of an inch in diameter, and between these plates and the filtering
material thin sheets of perforated metal, with holes, say, in number about
three hundred to the square inch, are placed, in order to cause the ingress of
the water in a minutely divided state into the filtering medium. The lower
of these plates rests on a narrow ledge, cast or made for them in the interior
of the cylinder, which forms the body of the filter; and the upper plates
rest on the upper surface of the filtering medium, and are screwed down tight
upon it by means of the adjusting screws shewn in the Drawing. His here
intended to represent clear silver sand, or other filtering media of a sufficiently
equal fine grain to filter the water without being (when firmly and closely
pressed between the plates 9, 9,) deranged by the forcing of the water by the
pump through the finely perforated holes in the said plates. The cleansing
is performed by means of the two branches at E' and E, and the peculiar
arrangement of cocks here shown, without its being necessary to open the
cylinder. By means of these cocks I am enabled to cleanse the filtering
materials or the filter by either, in the former case, introducing water alternately
at top and bottom of the filter, and forcing it rapidly through the medium up
and down, by means of the pump, and discharging the dirty water alternately
at the cocks F' and F, till the filtering material is thoroughly cleansed, or, in
the latter case, by merely washing out the chambers b, b, with the pump, by
letting water run in at each branch, and out at the cocks F¹ and F, which
will generally be sufficient, as the dirt usually collects in these chambers, and
lodges there more than in the filtering medium. Now whereas it is evident that
this filtering apparatus is equally applicable to the clarifying of other liquids,
though I have here described it as applied to river water; and it is only
necessary further to state, that the filtering media should be either of such
weight, even grain, nature, or substance, and so kept together by means of
the perforated plates and adjusting screws, herein-before described, as not
to be disturbed by the ascending and descending action of the water, when
the pump is applied either to cleanse the said media or to work the filter. And
I hereby claim as the said Invention,-
First, the application of what I call a double branch rising main force pump,
such as is herein-before described, furnished with stopcocks, to filter liquids
by ascension or descension at pleasure, and to cleanse the filter or the filtering

page_text: media by alternate ascending and descending filtration at pleasure, in manner
herein-before described, whereby I am enabled to draw the liquid from distant
sources, and to clarify it, and cleanse the filter much more rapidly and easily
than heretofore.
And, secondly, the application of the finely perforated plates above and
below an uniformly grained filtering medium, such as silver sand, powdered
glass, pozzolana, and the like, also herein-before described, such plates or one
of them being furnished with adjusting screws to cause a strong pressure of
the said medium between the said plates.
And the said Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief,
entirely new, and never before used in that part of Her said Majesty's United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her said Dominion
of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare this to be
my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe this my said
Specification doth comply in all respects fully, and without reserve or disguise,
with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent con-
tained; wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege
to the said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Price, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.