Well-equipped Water-sterilization Trailer
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ANimportant part in sanitary engineering is played by mobile chlorinating apparatu-s. By its means any temporary supply of drinking water can be sterilized on the spot, whilst such equipment is equally valuable for dealing with sewage and sewage effluents and for preventing epidemics.
The latest equipment in this field is well represented by the mobile Chloronome unit, of the Paterson Engineering Co., Ltd., Windsor House, Kingsway, London, W.C.2, which embodies this company's Pulser machine, mounted on a small two-wheeled trailer. Forming a self-contained sterilizing outfit of small size and relatively light weight, this unit can be attached to a motor vehicle by a quickacting 'coupling, or. can be hauled by band.
Essential items of the apparatus include a cylinder of chlorine gas and a petrol-engine-driven pump with small closed pressure filter. Armoured suction hose is also provided. It is equipped with a strainer so that it can he dipped into a source of water, such as a river, stream, canal, pond or tank, whilst, in addition, there is a reaction tank for the introduction of a small amount of sulphate of alumina. This is to give coagulerit treatment, if necessary, before the water is drawn by the pump through the small sand filter and then sterilized, continuously and completely, by the addition of a measured trace of chlorine gas. In short, the unit is a complete town's water purification and sterilization plant in miniature, operating on the latest scientific principles.
This small Pulser Chloronorne rnacnine, which has a capacity of up to 10 lb of chlorine per 24 hours, functions on exactly the same general principle as the larggs stationary sets used for water works. It includes, besides the items already named, a control valve, small-bore flexible copper tubing coupled to the cylinder of liquid chlorine, pressure gauges, a metering device, a filter, and two pressurereducing valves operating in series. By means of the lastnamed, the chlorine gas is always delivered to the water being sterilzed at a constant pressure, generally 10 lb. per sq. in.
Comprising the metering apparatus are two glass limbs, like a U tube, with bulb portions containing an inert liquid acting as a moisture seal. Flow of chlorine gas from the cylinder into the inlet limb, now at atmospheric pressure, depresses the column of liquid until it unseals a small vent pipe and allows the gas to pass to the outlet limb.
As a result the liquid falls hack and reseals the vent pipe, and soon. The rate of pulsation or cycle of displacement, therefore, gives the volume of chlorine passing, since the standard volume of each displacement is known.
The chlorine, adjusted in respect of quantity as required by the control valve, then flows into a small water absorption cylinder, so that a relatively concentrated solution of chlorine in water is first formed. This is then passed to the bulk supply of water to be sterilized so as to ensure uniform and rapid chlorination.