AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING OF SUGAR FROM CANE JUICE, AND IN THE REFINING OF SUGAR AND OTHORR. SUBSTANCES
Year: 1824

page_text: TO ALL TO PERSONS TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME,
I, WILLIAM CLELAND, of Leadenhall Street, in the City of London, Gentle-
man, send greeting.
WHEREAS, by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date the Sixth day of
May, in the fifth year of the reign of King George the Fourth, after re-
citing among other things that I, the said William Cleland, had, by my
Petition, represented that I had invented "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE PROCESS
OF MANUFACTURING OF SUGAR FROM CANE JUICE, AND IN THE REFINING OF SUGAR
AND OTHORR. SUBSTANCES," that I was the first and true Inventor thereof, and
that the same had not been practised by any other person or persons whom-
soever to my knowledge or belief, His Majesty did, for Himself, His heirs
and successors, by the said Letters Patent, give and grant unto me, the said
William Cleland, my exors, admors, and assigns, His Majesty's especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said William Cleland,
my exors, admors, and assigns, and every of them, by myself and themselves,
or by my or their deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as
I, the said William Cleland, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the

page_text: term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend my said Invention within that part of His Majesty United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His Majesty's Dominion of
Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, in such manner as to me, the said William
Cleland, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or any of them, should in my or their
discretions seem meet, and that I, the said William Cleland, my exors, adiñors,
and assigns, should and lawfully might have and enjoy the whole profit, benefit,
commodity, and advantage from time to time coming, growing, accruing, and
arising, by reason of the said Invention, for and during the term of years
therein mentioned; to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said licence, powers,
privileges and advantages therein-before granted unto me, the said William
Cleland, my exors, adññors, and assigns, for the term of fourteen years
from the date of the Letters Patent now in recital next and immediately
ensuing, and fully to be complete and ended, according to the Statute in
such case made and provided; in which said Letters Patent among other
provisoes and stipulations is contained a proviso that if I, the said William
Cleland, should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of said
my
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the Letters Patent now in recital, that then the
said Letters Patent now in recital, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever
thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become void.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso in the said
Letters Patent contained, I, the said William Cleland, do hereby specify
and describe the nature of my said Invention in manner following, that is
to say :-
My said Invention consists in the use of long narrow bags to be used as
filters, which bags with their appurtenances are suspended, used, or fixed in
such manner as to obtain the pressure of a high column of fluid, with a
larger filtering surface in a given space, and a retention of heat if required,
and greater effect, by more simple means and less cost than has been obtained
by any plan or means hitherto known to me. I accomplish this by using
bags of about six feet in length (more or less) and from five to six inches
in breadth when flat and empty, and when full and extended from three
to four inches in diameter, and which bags I form or make of any fit
material (although for sugar I prefer that kind of linen cloth called English

page_text: duck). These bags are to be filled and used in the manner herein-after
described. The tops of the bags before mentioned, I case for two or three
inches downwards with stout woollen cloth, and I likewise affix a fillet or
edge of double woollen cloth, about half an inch broad, round the top of
the mouths of the bags, to form a sort of flanch or rim to them; and I
also construct mouth-pieces or funnels, made of tin, brass, or any con-
venient material, fitting the inside of the mouths of the said bags, and
somewhat less at the bottom than the top, so as to correspond with holes
bored or made in the bottom of a cistern or head herein-after described.
The said mouth-pieces or funnels are open both at the top and bottom, and
have a flat flanch or rim affixed round the edge at the top, corresponding
with the rim of cloth round the mouths of the bags, and which mouth-pieces
or fannels have a bow or handle fixed to and over them. The bags are open
at the bottom for the convenience of cleaning, and are tiod close with twine
about an inch from the bottom when used, for which purpose they are let'
down through the said holes formed in the bottom of the cistern or head,
the mouths of the bags having been drawn on to the tubular part of the funnel
or mouth-piece prior to their being introduced into the said holes. The said
funnels or mouth-picces with the mouths of the bags upon them as aforesaid,
are forced into the said holes by means of a key or winch fitting the bow, so
as to render the said cistern or head tight, and prevent the liquor under
operation from escaping anywhere except through the fannels or month-
pieces. The said cistern or head is then filled with the liquid or matter to be
filtered (and if hot it may be covered with a lid), and must be replenished as
occasion may require, the fine liquor being delivered through the material
of the bags into any proper receptacle placed beneath to receive it. The
cistern or head aforesaid is for a reservoir, to contain the liquor to be
filtered, it must therefore be liquor-tight, and its bottom must be of sufficient
thickness to permit the joints formed between the said holes made in it and
the funnel or mouth-piece, with the intervening neck of the bag, and its
casing of thick woollen cloth, to make a liquor-tight joint, to assist which the
boles, as well as the tubular part of the funnel or mouth-piece, are made
slightly conical or tapering. In this way any liquor put into such cistern
or head can only escape by passing through the tubular part of the funnels or
mouth-pieces, and from thence into the long bags suspended beneath them,
and the dimensions of the bottom of the head or cistern must depend upon.
the number of bags proposed to be used, which are placed as close together
as convenience will admit. The tubular part of the funnel or mouth-piece

page_text: may be made much smaller than the bag, the mouth of which must be
diminished accordingly to fit it, and in this way a much greater degree of
strength may be obtained in the bottom of the head or cistern.
I do not confine myself to the above-described mode of fixing the bags"
to the bottom of the cistern, as the same may be permanently fixed to it, or
fixted by screws or in any other efficient manner, though the mode above
described I consider as the best and most convenient. The head or cistern I
support in any convenient manner, either by framework or otherwise, but in
all cases where it may be necessary to retain the heat of any hot liquor to
be filtered during the process I support such head or cistern upon- and over
a close case, formed of wood or any fit material which will not conduct heat
rapidly. The depth of this case I make about one foot more than the length
of the bags, and its capacity in other respects is regulated by the quantity of
liquor required to be filtered, and the consequent number of bags to be
employed. A bottom is affixed to this case with a small inclination from one
side to the other, and which I term the front. This bottom I line with coment,
lead, or copper, or any other proper substance, and continue the lining about
a foot upward round the case, or the whole case may be lined. I cause about
eighteen inches of the bottom of the front side of this case to lift up by
means of hinges, for the purpose of viewing the interior of the inclined
bottom, and of cleaning it if necessary, and from the bottom of the said
case spouts or gutters deliver the filtered liquor in such manner as 'may be
required.
E
:
For further explanation and description as to the said bags,-mouths of tho
bags, and tieing of them at their bottoms, and the said mouth-pieces or
funnels, and key or winch, and mode of fixing the said bags to the bottom
of the cistern or head, I refer to the Drawing of the same hereunto annexed,
shewing the form in which I use them.
In this Drawing, letters a, b, c, d, refer to an entire bag in its distended
state, or as it appears when in use; b, being the bottom which is tied up;
c, the casing of thick woollen cloth, and the funnel or mouth-piece in-
troduced into the top or mouth of the bag, which is shewn diminished in
size, as herein-before described. e, a separate view of the funnel or mouth-
piece, with its bow or handle on a larger scale.
as aforesaid, drawn on a larger scale, and shewing the thick woollen casing with
its flanch, the same being coloured red at 9. h, the key or winch for fitting
over the bow or handle of the funnel or mouth-piece, to fix it the more firmly
into the tapering holes in the bottom of the cistern or head aforesaid, two of
f, the upper part of a bag

page_text: which holes are shewn in section as well as part of the said cistern or head
at i, i, and k, k.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Cleland, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Fifth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-four.