The coagulation of water consists in the addition to it of some substance which forms an inorganic precipitate in the water, the presence of which has a physical action upon the suspended matters, and allows them to be more readily removed by subsidence or filtration.

The most common coagulant is sulphate of alumina. When this substance is added to water it is decomposed into its component parts, sulphuric acid and alumina, the former of which combines with the lime or other base present in the water, or in case enough of this is lacking, it remains partly as free acid and partly undecomposed in its original condition; while the alumina forms a gelatinous precipitate which draws together and surrounds the suspended matters present in the water, including the bacteria, and allows them to be much more easily removed by filtration than would otherwise be the case. In addition, the alumina has a chemical attraction for dissolved organic matters, and the chemical purification may be more complete at very high rates than would be possible with sand filtration without coagulant at any rate, however low.

Coagulants have been employed in connection with filtration from very early times. As early as 1831 D’Arcet published in the “Annales d’hygiène publique,”[32] an account of the purification of Nile water in Egypt by adding alum to the water, and afterwards filtering it through small household filters. More recently alum has been repeatedly used in connection with sand filters, particularly

at Leeuwarden, Groningen, and Schiedam in Holland, where the river waters used for public supplies are colored by peaty matter which cannot be removed by simple filtration.