Chlorination of Water

by Joseph Race

The concentration of solution necessarily depends upon local conditions but it is usually advisable to keep it below 2.5 per cent of bleach, which is equivalent to 0.85 per cent of available chlorine.

Storage Tanks. These should be built of reinforced concrete and painted inside with asphalt, which should be periodically renewed to prevent the solution seeping through to the reinforcement. At least two tanks should be provided so that one may be filled and allowed to settle before being put in operation. The hypochlorite discharge pipe is usually 6-9 inches from the bottom to permit the collection of sludge, which is run off when it reaches the elevation of the hypochlorite discharge. The sludge drain, which opens into the bottom of the tank, is usually a 4- or 6-inch cast-iron pipe, with suitable gate valve, which discharges into a common drain made of clay pipe.

The storage tanks should be provided with either glass gauges or float indicators to enable the orifice discharge to be checked up at periodical intervals.

Regulation of Dosage. The discharge of the hypochlorite solution is usually regulated either by maintaining a constant head on an orifice of variable dimension or by varying the head on an orifice of fixed dimension. The weir principle may also be used but it is not so well adapted for hypochlorite as for other chemicals.

In the constant head method, the head is maintained by a bronze valve connected to a float made of glass or tinned copper. In many cases the orifice is a rectangular slot in a brass plate and is adjusted by means of a brass slide operated by a micrometer screw. Brass plates are not very suitable as they become corroded and so reduce the size of the orifice; if the incrustation is removed the orifice will discharge more than the calibration indicates. Needle valves are unsuitable for similar reasons.

An example of an orifice feed box of the constant head type is shown in [Fig. 2]. A vertically arranged hard-rubber pipe passes though a hard rubber stuffing box in the bottom of the tank and has one or more orifices near its upper end. The area of the submerged portions of the orifices is controlled by the hand wheel which is connected with the threaded stem of the pipe. The stem has sixteen threads per inch, and one revolution of the wheel will submerge the orifices one-sixteenth of an inch. The extent to which the orifices are submerged is indicated on the dial fixed to the side of the tank.

Fig. 2.—Dosage Tank.

[Fig. 3] shows the regulating mechanism of another apparatus of the constant head type. The orifice consists of a circular slot in a hard rubber disc and is regulated by means of a hand wheel which operates a hard rubber slide.