Jewell water filter

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Cross section of 12 foot gravitational subsidence filter designed by Jewell Jewell filter 12 foot.jpg
Cross section of 12 foot gravitational subsidence filter designed by Jewell

A Jewell water filter was a system of sand filters for filtering and treating water for drinking purposes that made use of gravity to allow water to percolate through a column of sand inside cylindrical cisterns that was widely used in the early twentieth century. They are named after Omar Hestrian Jewell (1 July 1842 - 19 June 1931) established Jewell Pure Water Company in Chicago in 1890 and managed later by two of his sons. Jewell water filters were used in many city water supply systems across the world and modified versions continue to be in use.

Contents

History

Upper level of a Jewell filter in use at Niagara in the late 1890s Jewell filter Niagara.jpg
Upper level of a Jewell filter in use at Niagara in the late 1890s

Slow sand filters were introduced at a point when the nature of disease causing organisms in typhoid and cholera had been established. Omar Jewell was a mechanical engineer who designed farm equipment and he took an interest in solving some of the problems involved in the filtration of water and established the O.H.Jewell Filter Company and was financed by Chicago-based waterwork dealers James B. Clow and Sons. Omar's son William H. Jewell graduated in 1887 from the College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois and served as a chemist in the company. Another son, Ira worked for a while with the company [1] but sold his stock in 1900 to start a breakaway company I.H. Jewell Filter Company. [2]

Upper section of the first Jewell filter installed in Bethamangala, India in 1903 (photo taken in 2018) Bethamangala Jewell filter1.jpg
Upper section of the first Jewell filter installed in Bethamangala, India in 1903 (photo taken in 2018)

The first Jewell filters were built for use at Rock Island, Illinois in 1891. Jewell filters evolved over time to substitute open sand bed filters which had problems in the United States: freezing in winter and algal growth in summer introducing an odour to the water. Over time Omar and his sons owned several patents in water filtration, nearly 50 patents between 1888 and 1900, including novel systems for combining filtering and chlorination. [1] [3] By 1896 nearly 21 plants in the United States of America used Jewell filters. In 1898 the O.H.Jewell Filter Company settled a patent infringement claim over a coagulation process patented by Isaiah Smith Hyatt, brother of John Wesley Hyatt, in 1884 and owned by the New York Filter Manufacturing Company. Other filter companies came up during the period and there were numerous patent litigations and company mergers with Jewell merging with the New York Filter Manufacturing Company in 1900 [4] to become the single major New York Continental Jewell Filtration Company. The resulting company owned the licenses to most of the valuable patents of the day and by 1909 they had nearly 360 plants in operation. [5] Several were built in far away places like India with the largest being in Kolar at Bethamangala with a capacity of 2,000,000 gallons per day. [6] The one in Warsaw was the largest in Europe in its time. [1]

Jewell catalog (1897) Jewell Filter.jpg
Jewell catalog (1897)

An outbreak of typhoid during the 1890s in the city of Pittsburgh led to calls for improved sanitation and improvements in the quality of drinking water supply. Pittsburgh Filtration Commission was established in June 1896 and it recommended in 1899 a slow-sand filtration system. Once this became operational, the cases of typhoid were greatly reduced. [7] The Filtration commission wrote to several companies but only two agreed to enter the tests. These were the Cumberland manufacturing company and the Morison-Jewell Filtration Company and the committee experimented with a Warren filter and a Jewell filter. [8] [9] [10] Jewell filters underwent further bacteriological tests in Alexandria and Berlin and their approval led to their wider adoption in numerous town water supplies in the early 1900s. [6] The British troops at Alexandria brought down typhoid deaths to zero by 1905 with water treatments that included the use of Jewell filters. [11] Jewell filters became commonplace in British Indian military towns in the plains after around 1910 and their construction had been standardized in engineering manuals. [12] [13]

Plan view Jewell Filter Plan.jpg
Plan view

Construction and working

Jewell filters, unlike their predecessors, open sand filters, were housed indoors and included mechanical action to turn and wash the sand with their key advantages being their ability to work in winter and reduce bacterial counts. The water from a river or lake is first passed through sedimentation beds where a coagulant such as alum is added. The water then goes into the sand bed within cylinders of the Jewell filters and the coagulant forms a film on top of it. The sand beds are cleaned by stirring them with rotary arms and washing with water pumped at pressure from below. The Warren filter also had a similar system for washing sand. The design to carry away the wash effluent however differed between the Warren and Jewell filters. [10] The system also included automatic control the flow of water inflow and devices to control the addition of chemicals such as lime and iron. [14] The company later produced variations that used water under pressure than to merely rely on gravity. [15]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Filtration</span> Process that separates solids from fluids

Filtration is a physical separation process that separates solid matter and fluid from a mixture using a filter medium that has a complex structure through which only the fluid can pass. Solid particles that cannot pass through the filter medium are described as oversize and the fluid that passes through is called the filtrate. Oversize particles may form a filter cake on top of the filter and may also block the filter lattice, preventing the fluid phase from crossing the filter, known as blinding. The size of the largest particles that can successfully pass through a filter is called the effective pore size of that filter. The separation of solid and fluid is imperfect; solids will be contaminated with some fluid and filtrate will contain fine particles. Filtration occurs both in nature and in engineered systems; there are biological, geological, and industrial forms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Water purification</span> Process of removing impurities from water

Water purification is the process of removing undesirable chemicals, biological contaminants, suspended solids, and gases from water. The goal is to produce water that is fit for specific purposes. Most water is purified and disinfected for human consumption, but water purification may also be carried out for a variety of other purposes, including medical, pharmacological, chemical, and industrial applications. The history of water purification includes a wide variety of methods. The methods used include physical processes such as filtration, sedimentation, and distillation; biological processes such as slow sand filters or biologically active carbon; chemical processes such as flocculation and chlorination; and the use of electromagnetic radiation such as ultraviolet light.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Media filter</span>

A media filter is a type of filter that uses a bed of sand, peat, shredded tires, foam, crushed glass, geo-textile fabric, anthracite, crushed granite or other material to filter water for drinking, swimming pools, aquaculture, irrigation, stormwater management, oil and gas operations, and other applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Water filter</span> Device that removes impurities in water

A water filter removes impurities by lowering contamination of water using a fine physical barrier, a chemical process, or a biological process. Filters cleanse water to different extents, for purposes such as: providing agricultural irrigation, accessible drinking water, public and private aquariums, and the safe use of ponds and swimming pools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slow sand filter</span> Water purification device

Slow sand filters are used in water purification for treating raw water to produce a potable product. They are typically 1–2 m (3.3–6.6 ft) deep, can be rectangular or cylindrical in cross section and are used primarily to treat surface water. The length and breadth of the tanks are determined by the flow rate desired for the filters, which typically have a loading rate of 200–400 litres (0.20–0.40 m3) per square metre per hour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sand filter</span> Water filtration device

Sand filters are used as a step in the water treatment process of water purification.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Backwashing (water treatment)</span>

In terms of water treatment, including water purification and sewage treatment, backwashing refers to pumping water backwards through the filters media, sometimes including intermittent use of compressed air during the process. Backwashing is a form of preventive maintenance so that the filter media can be reused. In water treatment plants, backwashing can be an automated process that is run by local programmable logic controllers (PLCs). The backwash cycle is triggered after a set time interval, when the filter effluent turbidity is greater than a treatment guideline or when the differential pressure across the filter exceeds a set value.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rapid sand filter</span>

The rapid sand filter or rapid gravity filter is a type of filter used in water purification and is commonly used in municipal drinking water facilities as part of a multiple-stage treatment system. These systems are complex and expensive to operate and maintain, and therefore less suitable for small communities and developing nations.

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Aquarium filters are critical components of both freshwater and marine aquaria. Aquarium filters remove physical and soluble chemical waste products from aquaria, simplifying maintenance. Furthermore, aquarium filters are necessary to support life as aquaria are relatively small, closed volumes of water compared to the natural environment of most fish.

Depth filters are filters that use a porous filtration medium to retain particles throughout the medium, rather than just on the surface of the medium. Depth filtration, typified by multiple porous layers with depth, is used to capture the solid contaminants from the liquid phase. These filters are commonly used when the fluid to be filtered contains a high load of particles because, relative to other types of filters, they can retain a large mass of particles before becoming clogged. With ongoing advances in process technologies depth filter designs are continuously adapting and improving to meet the needs of industry.

The history of water filters can be traced to the earliest civilisations with written records. Water filters have been used throughout history to improve the safety and aesthetics of water intended to be used for drinking or bathing. In modern times, they are also widely used in industry and commerce. The history of water filtration is closely linked with the broader history of improvements in public health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of water supply and sanitation</span>

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George Warren Fuller was an American sanitary engineer who was also trained in bacteriology and chemistry. His career extended from 1890 to 1934 and he was responsible for important innovations in water and wastewater treatment. He designed and built the first modern water filtration plant, and he designed and built the first chlorination system that disinfected a U.S. drinking water supply. In addition, he performed groundbreaking engineering work on sewage treatment facilities in the U.S. He was President of both the American Water Works Association and the American Public Health Association, and he was recognized internationally as an expert civil and sanitary engineer.

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Allen Hazen was an American civil engineer and an expert in hydraulics, flood control, water purification and sewage treatment. His career extended from 1888 to 1930, and he is, perhaps, best known for his contributions to hydraulics with the Hazen-Williams equation. Hazen published some of the seminal works on sedimentation and filtration. He was President of the New England Water Works Association and Vice President of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Hager, Willi H. (2015). Hydraulicians in the USA 1800-2000. CRC Press. p. 2205. ISBN   9781138028289.
  2. ↑ "New York Continental, Jewell Filtration Co". Fire Engineering Magazine. 29 (9). February 26, 1901.
  3. ↑ Baker, M.N. (1941). "The three Jewells: Pioneers in mechanical filtration". Engineering News Record. 126: 179.
  4. ↑ Baker, Moses Nelson (1948). The quest for pure water: the history of water purification from the earliest records to the twentieth century, Volume 1. American Water Works Association. pp. 219–222.
  5. ↑ Hendricks, David W. (2006). Water Treatment Unit Processes: Physical and Chemical. CRC Press. p. 535.
  6. 1 2 Jewell Filters in the Orient (1906)
  7. ↑ Gregory, G. P. (1974). "A Study in Local Decision Making: Pittsburgh and Sewage Treatment". Western Pennsylvania History: 1918-2016. 57 (1): 25–42. PMID   11633563.
  8. ↑ Anon. (1899). Report of the Filtration Commission of the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Commission. pp. 110–111.
  9. ↑ Johnson, George A. (1914). "Present day water filtration practice". Journal (American Water Works Association). 1 (1): 31–80. doi:10.1002/j.1551-8833.1914.tb14045.x. JSTOR   41224153.
  10. 1 2 Knowles, Morris (1900). "Description of experimental filter plant at Pittsburgh, and results of experiments". Journal of the New England Water Works Association. 15 (2): 148–188.
  11. ↑ Curtin, Philip DeArmond (1998). Disease and Empire: The Health of European Troops in the Conquest of Africa. Cambridge University Press. p. 133.
  12. ↑ Anon. (1914). Military Works Handbook (5 ed.). Calcutta: Government Press. pp. 160–161.
  13. ↑ Ghosh, Birendra Nath (1938). A treatise on hygiene and public health (9 ed.). Calcutta: Scientific Publishing Co. p. 57.
  14. ↑ Fuller, George Warren (1898). Report on the investigations into the purification of the Ohio river water at Louisville Kentucky. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company.
  15. ↑ Don, John; Chisholm, John (1913). Modern methods of water purification (2 ed.). London: Edward Arnold. pp. 167–174.
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