CHENOT'S ECONOMIC FILTER PRESS.

Mr. E. Chenot, who is occupied in the manufacture of wine from dry grapes, has been led to devise a new style of filter, which by reason of its mode of action and its construction, he calls the "Economic Filter Press."

The apparatus, which is shown in the accompanying cut, consists of flat bags whose mouth may be at the top, as usual, or at the side. Through this orifice there is introduced a flat piece of wood or metal, which, like the bag, has an aperture through the center. The whole is suspended from a distributing pipe that is fixed at one end to the frame and is free at the other. This pipe is slotted beneath, and the pieces of wood or metal contain, opposite the slot, a number of small apertures that put the distributer in communication with the interior of the bags. Between these latter there are placed wire cloth frames which hold them in position and facilitate the flow of the filtered liquid. The cut shows the filter provided with a portion of its bags and frames. When all the frames are in place they are locked by causing the movable plate to move forward by means of two screws connected with an endless chain and actuated by a hand wheel. The pressure of this plate closes up the bags hermetically. Then, the feed cock being opened, the liquid flows into all the bags, deposits therein what it holds in suspension, and the clarified product flows to the inclined bottom of the filter and from thence to the exterior.

The apparatus may be supplied either through an upper reservoir, a juice elevator, or a pump. The discharge is proportional to the square root of the pressure. When the bags are full of residuum, the feed cock is closed, the filter is unscrewed, and the bags and frames are taken out. With fresh bags and the same frames, it is possible to at once set the apparatus in operation again.

Before the filter is taken apart, the residuum may be exhausted by washing it either with water or steam, or by pressure. To effect the operation by pressure, the pieces of wood or metal are removed, the mouths are closed by making a fold in the top of the bags, and the latter are then put back into the apparatus or into an ordinary press and submitted to another squeezing.

To render the maneuvering of it easier, the apparatus has been given a horizontal position.--Revue Industrielle.

[American Engineer]