A Chamberland filter, also known as a Pasteur–Chamberland filter, is a

porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises main ...

water filter invented by Charles Chamberland in 1884.
/ref> It was developed after Henry Doulton, Henry Doulton's

ceramic water filter Ceramic water filters (CWF) are an inexpensive and effective type of water filter that rely on the small pore size of ceramic material to filter dirt, debris, and bacteria out of water. This makes them ideal for use in developing countries, and po ...

of 1827. It is similar to the

Berkefeld filter A Berkefeld filter is a water filter made of diatomaceous earth (''Kieselguhr''). It was invented in Germany in 1891, and by 1922 was being marketed in the United Kingdom by the Berkefeld Filter Co. Berkefeld was the name of the owner of the ...

in principle.

Design

The filter consists of a permeable unglazed porcelain tube (called bisque) that contains a ring of enameled porcelain through which the inflow pipe fits. The core of the porcelain is made up of a metal pipe with holes through which water flows out and is collected. Inflow is

pressurized {{Wiktionary Pressurization or pressurisation is the application of pressure in a given situation or environment. Industrial Industrial equipment is often maintained at pressures above or below atmospheric. Atmospheric This is the process b ...

so filtration occurs under force. There are 13 types: ''L₁'' to ''L₁₃''. L₁ filters have the coarsest pore size while L₁₃ have the finest.

Usefulness

The Pasteur-Chamberland filter is as useful as other

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain, ...

and

filters. It is a good bacterial water filter used mainly as a high volume water filter.Textbook of Microbiology by Ananthanarayan and Panikar, The filter works more quickly when the water supplied is under pressure. As with other filters of its kind, it cannot filter very small particles like

virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsk ...

es or

mycoplasma ''Mycoplasma'' is a genus of bacteria that, like the other members of the class '' Mollicutes'', lack a cell wall around their cell membranes. Peptidoglycan ( murein) is absent. This characteristic makes them naturally resistant to antibioti ...

. It is used in removal of organisms from a fluid culture in order to obtain the bacterial toxins.

History

The Chamberland filter was developed by

Charles Edouard Chamberland Charles Chamberland (; 12 March 1851 – 2 May 1908) was a French microbiologist from Chilly-le-Vignoble in the department of Jura who worked with Louis Pasteur. In 1884 he developed a type of filtration known today as the Chamberland filter ...

, one of

Louis Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization, the latter of which was named afte ...

’s assistants in Paris. The original intention was to produce filtered water, free of

bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were am ...

, for use in Pasteur's experiments. The filter became increasingly known for its ability to filter out bacteria, the smallest living organisms then known. The filter was patented by Chamberland and Pasteur in America and Europe. An American company licensed the name in

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

. They sold filters to private homes, hotels, restaurants, and the 1893 Chicago

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...

. Use of the Pasteur-Chamberland filter led to the discovery that

diphtheria Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacterium '' Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild clinical course, but in some outbreaks more than 10% of those diagnosed with the disease may die. Signs and s ...

and

tetanus Tetanus, also known as lockjaw, is a bacterial infection caused by ''Clostridium tetani'', and is characterized by muscle spasms. In the most common type, the spasms begin in the jaw and then progress to the rest of the body. Each spasm usually ...

toxins, among others, could still cause illness even after filtration. Identification of these toxins contributed to the development of

antitoxins An antitoxin is an antibody with the ability to neutralize a specific toxin. Antitoxins are produced by certain animals, plants, and bacteria in response to toxin exposure. Although they are most effective in neutralizing toxins, they can als ...

to treat such diseases. It was also discovered that a type of substance, initially known as a "filterable virus", passed through the smallest Pasteur-Chamberland filters, and replicated itself inside living cells. The discovery that biological entities smaller than bacteria existed was important in establishing the field of

virology Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, the ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chamberland Filter Microbiology equipment Water filters 19th-century inventions French inventions