A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT IN THE FILTRES EMPLOYED IN SUGAR REPINING
Year: 1837

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JULIUS
OLIVER, of Castle Street, Falcon Square, in the City of London, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His late most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of January, One thousand eight hundred
and thirty-seven, in the seventh year of His reign, did for Himself, His heirs
and 'successors, give and grant unto me, the said Julius Oliver, His especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Julius Oliver,
iny.executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Julius Oliver, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term
of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick upon Tweed, the
Invention of A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT IN THE FILTRES EMPLOYED IN SUGAR
REPINING," communicated to me by a certain foreigner residing abroad; in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that 1, the said Julius
Oliver, shall cause a particular description of the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited, Letters Patent, as in and
by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Julius Oliver, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say):—
The said filtre employed in sugar refining is of that description of filtre
wherein animal or vegetable charcoal or mixtures thereof is employed as the
filtering medium. And the said improvement consists in causing the charcoal
to be capable of being employed many times in succession, without the
necessity of replacing it in part or wholly with fresh charcoal, or of calcining
or heating it in close vessels to destroy the vegetable or animal matters it
has imbibed during its employment as a filtre in sugar refining. And I
hereby claim every method or mode by which the said charcoal can be restored
to its proper state for filtering without calcining or heating it, as usual.
As, however, it is necessary to afford an example of a method of carrying
the said Invention into complete effect, I shall proceed to do so by referring
to the Drawing, which, as above mentioned, is annexed to this Specification.
In which said Drawing, Figure 1 is a side elevation, and Figure 2, a plan, of
an apparatus or filtre for sugar refining. A, A, A, are three cylindrical vessels,
made of sheet copper or any other fit and proper metal or mixture of metals, of
about the thickness of one-tenth of an inch; they are eight feet high, and six-
teen inches in diameter. B, B, B, are their covers, of an equal thickness with
the cylinders, and as well as their bottoms firmly secured by flat circular rings of
iron, perforated with holes, through which as well as also through the flanches
or the borders of the cylinders iron screws are passed, furnished with screwed
nuts. Their bottoms, C, C, C, are also made of metal of an equal thickness
with the cylinders, and are secured to them in a similar manner with their
covers, by flat circular iron rings, screws, and nuts. D is a vat or vessel to
contain the syrup to be filtered; and E is a pipe or tube leading from the
bottom of it. F is another vat or vessel, holding hot or warm water, for
occasionally washing or cleansing the charcoal contained in the three vessels
A, A, A, and as will be more particularly described hereafter. This vat or vessel
has also a tube or pipe G, descending from its bottom and communicating with
the pipe E, at H. I is a third vat or vessel, containing cold water, and having a
pipe or tube J descending from it, with an horizontal branch K, from whence
the smaller tubes or pipes L, L, L, pass through the covers of the cylinders
A, A, A. These pipes or tubes are all furnished with cocks, for the purpose of
letting the different fluids pass through them when opened, or shutting them
off when the cocks are closed. The vat or vessel containing the syrup to be

page_text: filtered should be placed about four feet above the covers of cylinders; that
for holding hot or warm water about ten feet above them, and the cold air vat
or cistern should be elevated at the height of about thirty-six feet. M is a
horizontal pipe or tube, leading from the pipes E and G, and having small vertical
descending pipes N, N, N, furnished with cocks, and also passing through the
covers of the cylinders A, A, A. In the bottom of each cylinder a woven wire
cloth is placed, underneath which is a metal plate, perforated all over with
holes or apertures, and also having upright props or feet underneath them
resting upon the bottoms of the cylinders; holes are likewise made through
the edges or borders of these woven wire cloths for the screwed bolts to pass
through, by which they are stretched or kept in place; there are likewise flat
circular rings, made of felt, millboard, pasteboard, or any other similar and
suitable packing, and also having holes therein for the screwed bolts to pass
through, placed between the flanches, the wire cloth, and the perforated plates,
to preserve a water-tight joining between them. The upper parts of the
cylinders are likewise furnished with similar wire-wove cloths, perforated plates
but without feet, and felts, millboards, or pasteboards between them. Between
the upper and lower woven wire cloths, animal or vegetable charcoal, or mix-
tures thereof, in grains of about the size of cannon powder, is interposed, so as
completely to fill the whole interior of each cylinder. Discharge pipes, fur-
nished with cocks 0, 0, 0, are placed at the bottom of each cylinder, and which
all communicate with the horizontal pipe or tube P, leading to an exhausting
pump Q. There are also air-pipes R, R, R, with cocks to each, fitted into the
covers of the cylinders; and likewise vertical pipes S, S, S, also furnished
with cocks, descending from the horizontal tube or pipe K, and entering the
bottom of each cylinder. There likewise pass from the bottoms of two of
the three cylinders two other pipes or tubes T, T, which enter the upper parts
of two cylinders in the manner shewn. The operation of this apparatus is as
follows:-The charcoal being new is placed by a little at a time, and strongly
and uniformly pressed within the cylinders, until they become filled therewith,
when the upper wire-wove cloths are placed thereon, and over them a per-
forated metal plate, and the whole, together with their covers, are firmly secured
by means of the screw bolts and screwed nuts. The syrup or saccharine fluid
to be filtered is supplied from the vat D (and which said vat is to be con-
tinually replenished with other syrup or saccharine fluid from time to time
during the operation) through the cock and pipe E, whence it passes into the
horizontal pipe or tube M, and is delivered into the upper part of each cylinder
through the vertical pipes, fitted with cocks as aforesaid, N, N, N. The filtered
fluid escapes below through the pipes and cocks X, X, X, and is delivered

page_text: upon
into the outer channel U of a triple gutter U, V, W, by means of moveable
When
triple spouts, the construction of which will be described hereafter.
the filtering process has been continued for about fifteen hours, more or less,
according to the nature and quality of the syrup or sacchariné fluids to be
operated upon, and when the filtering action is no longer perfectly performed,
then that process must be stopped, by shutting the cock of the pipe E, leading
from the vat D, containing the syrup, and another process commenced, which
has for its object the removal of the syrup, with which the pores of the charcoal
are filled, and the passage of the syrup through it obstructed. In order to
this, the cock in the pipe G, descending from the vat F, which contains hot
or warm water, must be opened, and the hot water will descend through the
cock in the pipe N into the left hand cylinder below it, driving before it the
syrup or saccharine fluid which the charcoal has retained in its pores, and
which escapes below at the discharge cock X, which delivers it into the channel
U of the triple gutter, through the lower one of the three passages formed
in the adjutage Y; when, however, upon trial, it is found that the fluid no
longer marks the proper degree upon the saccharometer of Beaumè, or
the hydrometer in use in this country, so as to be too weak, then that
branch from the discharge cock X, which delivered the saccharine fluid
into the channel U, must be closed. The cock Z, upon the tube T, leading
from the bottom of this first cylinder to the top of the second cylinder
must be opened, and the weaker syrup entering this second cylinder drives
before it the stronger syrup retained in the charcoal of that filtre, it escaping
through the discharge cock X and its adjutage Y into the same channel U of
the triple gutter, so long as it marks the proper degree. When it also ceases
to be of the proper strength, then the discharge cock X at the bottom of the
second cylinder must be shut, and the cock Z, in the pipe T, leading from
the bottom of the second cylinder to the top of the third must be opened, and
the same effect will also take place in that third cylinder. When, however, no
saccharine fluid can be extracted from the charcoal in the first cylinder it is
needless to pass the hot water any longer through that cylinder, and therefore
the cock N at the upper end of that cylinder must be closed, and the cock N
at the top of the second cylinder be opened, when the warm or hot water will
enter directly into that cylinder, instead of taking the circuitous course of
previously passing down the first cylinder, and so on, for the next or any suc-
ceeding number of cylinders. As, however, the fluid which escapes from the
third cylinder contains but little saccharine matter, so it should be passed off
through the channel V of the triple gutter, by turning its adjutage down-
wards, and the water which passes last is to be conveyed away through

page_text: the channel W of the triple gutter. The draining of the saccharine fluids
being effected, the apparatus is now to be left at rest for from twenty-
four to thirty-six hours, depending upon the temperature at the time of
operating, and in order that a fermentation may take place in the charcoal;
but the cocks R, R, R, at the top of the cylinders must be previously opened,
and also those at their bottoms X, X, X. The effect of this fermentation is to
loosen and render soluble the particles still remaining in the charcoal, and to
facilitate the restoration of its filtering quality by re-opening its pores. For
this purpose, the cock in the tube J, leading from the cold water vat I, is to be
opened, and the water entering the horizontal tube K is conveyed into the three
cylinders by the vertical pipes and cocks L, L, L, and escapes below through
the discharge cocks X, X, X, and their adjutages, which deliver it into the
channel W of the triple gutter. The effect of this water passing through the
charcoal in the filtres under the powerful pressure of a column of thirty-
six feet in height is to free it of all the impurities lodged in its pores, and
which were the cause of it no longer acting as a filtering medium. Should
it, however, be thought advisable to cleanse the charcoal by an ascending
current of water instead of a descending one, that effect may be produced
in the following manner:-Upon each of the air-cocks R, R, R, a bent
tube a is to be placed in succession, and the cocks S, S, S, must be
opened successively, when the water will enter at the bottom of each cylinder
and escape at the upper cocks R, R, R, and down the bent tube a.
This cleansing of the charcoal must be continued for about five hours,
and until the escaping water no longer has any ill taste, but is become
clear or limpid; the charcoal will then have its filtering properties perfectly
renewed, and thus be rendered capable of serving its office of filtering any
number of times, as it is in its nature indestructible, and only requires to be
cleansed from time to time from its impurities in the above manner. Finally,
and in order to extract the water remaining in the pores of the charcoal as
quickly and effectually as may be, the sucking or exhausting pump Qis
employed, which is connected with the lower parts of each cylinder by means
of the vertical pipes and cocks 0, 0, 0, which enter the horizontal pipe
P, P, P, and thus conveys that water to the pump Q, the cocks R, R, R,
at the tops of each cylinder remaining open, to allow of the entrance of
air during the operation. When the pump is first set to work, a large
quantity of water passes from all the cylinders; but when no more can be
extracted in this way, then the pump must be employed upon cach cylinder
separately in succession, and afterwards the drying is to be finished by
exhausting from, all the cylinders at the same time. This operation ordinarily

page_text: requires about half an hour to effect it in. A similar effect might also be
produced by blowing in streams of air. When the charcoal is thus purified,
and its filtering property renewed, the syrup must be passed from one
cylinder to another, in a similar manner to the hot water above described; and
in order that it may acquire the due degree required in the refining process,
the first or weaker portions being carried off by the channel V of the triple
gutter; but when the syrup has attained its due degree, it may flow off from
each cylinder by the channel U of that gutter. Figure 3 is a section of the
various parts composing the bottom of each cylinder. A, being part of the
cylinder, and C, its bottom. b, b, are upper and lower flat rings, of iron or
other proper metal, perforated with holes, for screwed bolts to pass through, and
one of which is shewn separately in plan at Figure 4. c is the woven web of
wire cloth, which is also shewn in plan, with a packing or ring of millboard
or pasteboard around and upon it, in Figure 5. d is a metal plate, perfo-
rated all over with holes to support the web of wire cloth, and itself having
feet to rest upon the bottom C of the cylinder. This is also shewn separately
in plan at Figure 6, with its ring of millboard or pasteboard, and edgeways,
in Figure 7; and Figure 8 is a front view of the triple adjutage Y. Figure 9
is a rammer, with a long handle, the use of which is to afford a due pressure to
the charcoal whilst packing it in the cylinders. It is not intended to limit
or confine myself to the use or employment of any particular material or
materials in the construction of this apparatus, but I can employ any
which are fit and proper for the purpose; neither is it intended hereby to
claim the use or employment of charcoal as the Invention, whether animal
or vegetable, or mixtures thereof, the Invention being solely confined to the
freeing charcoal, whether vegetable or animal, from the saccharine, mucila-
ginous, or other matters which have filled its pores in the filtration of syrup
through it, and without the necessity of again heating it in close vessels, as is
usually the case, but simply by the passing either of hot or cold water, as above
indicated, through it, and fermenting it after the use of hot water; and the
latter, namely, cold water employed under a high column of pressure, and
thereby washing out or removing from its pores the remaining saccharine and
other matters which had clogged them up, and rendered it incapable of duly
performing its office of filtration, and thus rendering it again porous, and
equally as fit for use as at first; and although I have described an apparatus
such as I have found fully effective and convenient for the purpose, yet I
do not mean or intend hereby to limit or confine myself to that particular
construction only, but on the contrary, I do hereby claim the use of any other
form of apparatus whereby animal or vegetable charcoal may be cleared of

page_text: the saccharine and other matters which had closed its pores, by the passing
of hot or cold water through it, with or without the aid of a high column of
pressure, or the use of a forcing or an exhausting pump.
In witness whereof, I, the said Julius Oliver, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of July, One thousand eight
hundred and thirty-seven.