APPARATUS FOR REGULATING THE RATE AND LOSS of HEAD.
Many appliances have been invented for the regulation of the rate and loss of head. In the apparatus designed by Gill and used at both Tegel and Müggel at Berlin the regulation is effected by partially closing a gate through which the effluent passes into a chamber in which the water-level is practically constant (Fig. 6). The rate is measured by the height of water on the weir which serves as the outlet for this second chamber into a third connecting with the main reservoir, while the loss of head is shown by the difference in height of floats upon water in the first chamber, representing the pressure in the underdrains, and upon water in connection with the raw water on the filter. From the respective heights of the three floats the attendant can at any time see the rate of filtration and the loss of head, and when a change is required it is effected by moving the gate.
Fig. 6.—Regulation Apparatus at Berlin (Tegel).
In the apparatus designed in 1866 by Kirkwood for St. Louis and never built (Fig. 7) the loss of head was directly, and the rate indirectly, regulated by a movable weir, which was to have been lowered from time to time by the attendant to secure the required results. This plan is especially remarkable as it meets the modern requirements of a regular rate independent of rate of consumption and of the water-level in the reservoir, and also allows continual measurements of both rate (height of water on the weir) and head (difference in water-levels on filter and in effluent chamber) to be made, and control of the same by the position of the weir. Mr. Kirkwood found no filters in Europe with such appliances, and it was many years after his report was published before similar devices were used, but they are now regarded as essential.
Fig. 7.—Regulation Apparatus and Section of Filter recommended for St. Louis by Kirkwood in 1866.
Fig. 8.—Regulation Apparatus used at Hamburg.
The regulators for new filters at Hamburg (Fig. 8) are built upon the principle of Kirkwood’s device, but provision is made for a second measurement of the water if desired by the loss of head in passing a submerged orifice. Both the rate and loss of head are indicated by a float on the first chamber connecting directly with the underdrain, which at the same time indicates the head on a fixed scale, the zero of which corresponds to the height of the water above the filter, and the rate upon a scale moving with the weir, the zero of which corresponds with the edge of the weir. The water on the filter is held at a perfectly constant level.