MENTS IN RENDERING SEA AND OTHER WATER PURE
Year: 1852

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LEWIS
Pocock, late of Gloucester Road, Regent's Park, in the County of Middlesex,
but now of No. 20, Upper Gower Street, in the said County, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day of
November, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the sixteenth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Lewis Pocock, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Lewis Pocock,
my exors, adiiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Lewis Pocock,
my exors, admiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the 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 Invention of "IMPROVE
MENTS IN RENDERING SEA AND OTHER WATER PURE," communicated to me by a
certain Foreigner residing abroad; in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso that I, the said Lewis Pocock, should particularly describe and ascer
tain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to
be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part 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 the said proviso, I, the said
Lewis Pocock, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to
the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say-
The object cf the Invention is to convert salt or other impure water into
fresh or pure water, and thereby to render it fit for use, and this I accomplish
by means of mechanical arrangements and chemical agents.
I take an
ordinary distilling apparatus of any form of construction that may be found
most suitable for the purpose, composed of a boiler or generator capable of
converting water into steam, and a receiver to be used as a refrigerator for
afterwards condensing the steam into water. To this apparatus I add an
intermediate vessel, which I call a cucurbite, and connect it by a pipe so as
to communicate with the generator, and by another pipe to communicate with
the refrigerator. This is the arrangement of the machine by which I conduct
the process of the Invention, and by which I adopt the customary operation of
distillation, but improved by the novel introduction of the intermediate cucur-
bite vessel for the purpose hereafter explained.
The chemical features of my Invention are the introduction of chemical
agents for the purpose of separating the salts of lime, magnesia, and all
the other salts capable of forming with the hydrate of potass, or the hydrate
of soda, insoluble oxides, such as oxide of lime and oxide of magnesia, and
by a small excess of these hydrates to prevent incrustation or adhesion to
the boiler or other vessels used in the process of distillation; afterwards to
introduce a very small quantity of an hypochloride, to render the distilled
water palatable and wholesome, and proper for all domestic and industrial
purposes; finally to pass the whole through a filtering medium of animal or
vegetable charcoal, to further improve its condition. I do not, however, claim
the precipitation of the impurities when separately considered, but only when
combined with the additional processes herein explained.
The above are the principles of the Invention, and the following is the
mode of working the apparatus and conducting the operations.
DESCRIPTION OF THE APPARATUS.
A, generator. a, safety valve; b, b, pipe with a perforated vessel at bottom, to
conduct the steam into the cucurbite; b, cock for ditto; c, opening with a
screw plug for introducing water at will; d, small cock; e, water guage; f,
furnace; 9, discharge cock. B, cucurbite or intermediate vessel. h, opening

page_text: with a screw plug for introducing water at will; y, y, moveable pipe; y cock;
i, pipe to conduct the steam from the cucurbite to the worm in the refrigerator;
k, discharge cock to regulate the height of the water in the curcubite; 1,
discharge cock; m, flange joint with bolts and nuts; n, support for the
cucurbite; n, n, height at which the water should always be kept in the
cucurbite. C, refrigerator. o, worm; 9, 7, branch pipe leading from the
pump to the cocks q and v; q, feed cock for the refrigerator; t, feed cock
for the generator; v, ditto, ditto, ditto; s, vessel into which the water runs
when condensed; w, pipe through which the water is forced into the generator;
u, pipe to conduct the hot water to the pump. P, double-acting pump. x,
perforated vessel; 2, filter; 2,, plug to facilitate the washing out of the filter.
The mode of preparing the apparatus ready for work is by filling the
refrigerator with cold sea or impure water, by means of the double-acting
pump P, the cocks p and q being first opened, and the cocks t and v being
closed. Into the water which has been thus pumped into the vessel f
introduce hydrate of potassium or hydrate of soda in the proportion of two
ounces for twenty-two gallons of water, and allow the water to remain
undisturbed for a period of about twenty-five minutes, which effects the
precipitation of the oxide of lime, magnesia, and all the oxides of the salts,
being able to form a precipitate with the bydrate of potass or the hydrate of
soda, and which further tends to produce the deposit of most of the organic
substances which are in suspension in the water. This result being obtained,
I shut the cocks p and q, open the cocks t and v, and work the pump P, to
convey the water from the upper part of the refrigerator through the pipe w,
to supply the generator up to the requisite level, as shown in the Drawing by
a dotted line, for the purpose of evaporation. I also fill the cucurbite with
similar water at the height indicated upon the Drawing by the cock k, by
taking out the screw plug h, and introducing the moveable pipe y, y, and
opening the cock y. The apparatus in this condition is ready to work. I
then light the fire in the furnace of the boiler or generator, open the cock b.
to allow the steam to pass through the pipe b, b, into the cucurbite, to be
deprived of any remnant of impure substances, as well as of the chloride of
sodium which may be and are very often carried over with the steam.
The object of the introduction of this intermediate vessel is to release any
of the lighter objectionable substances, as well as of a small portion of the
water containing chloride of sodium, which may have escaped with the steam
when passing from the generator, and thus to allow the steam to enter the
refrigerator divested of any impurities which might otherwise have been
conducted by the pressure or by the rapid passage of the steam passing in a

page_text: more direct manner from the generator to the refrigerator. From the cucur-
bite the steam finally passes through the pipe i, into the coiled pipe or worm
o, which is placed inside the refrigerator, as shewn in the Drawing, and is
This water is of
there condensed into water, which runs into the vessel s.
pure quality, but necessarily has the vapid and disagreeable flavour possessed
by all water which has undergone the process of distillation. By the small
excess of the hydrate of potass or the hydrate of soda neither the precipitated
bodies nor the salts which are in solution in the water are able to form
incrustations, and consequently the organic bodies are not exposed to igneous
combustion, and consequently do not give to the distilled water the empy-
reumatic taste which is generally produced by the action of the fire upon
organic bodies. I obtain the same results by pouring the hydrate of potass or
the hydrate of soda into the generator and the cucurbite in the same propor-
tion of two ounces for twenty-two gallons of water, taking care, however, in
each case, to empty every day the dirty water remaining in the generator and
in the cucurbite. To render this distilled water palatable and fit for use, I
introduce another chemical agent, which is an hypochloride, or chlorine
water. I give the preference of hychloride of lime, as being the most perfect
in its results, in the proportion of four to twenty grains (according to the
taste of persons), for twenty-two gallons of distilled water; then I agitate the
water briskly at intervals, to introduce the air, and pass it through a perforated
vessel, to allow the air to mix freely with it, and ultimately filter it through
either vegetable or animal charcoal, which acts chemically to further restore
the flavour, and to give it the taste and quality of the finest spring water.
Having thus described 'the nature of the said Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, I would have it understood that I do not confine
myself to the precise form or construction of the generator or still, nor to
the form or construction of refrigerator, as the same may be varied, so long
as they are combined with the use of an intermediate vessel. But what I
claim is the combined process and apparatus berein described, whereby the
water is chemically acted on, then distilled, the steam passing into and 'from
an intermediate vessel of the description herein explained, then condensed, and
subsequently treated as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Lewis Pocock, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-three.
LEWIS (L.S.) :POCOCK.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fifth day of May, in the
year of our Lord 1853, the aforesaid Lewis Pocock came before our said Lady
the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and
all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-sixth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.