IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GRAPE-SUGAR OR GLUCOSE
Year: 1885

page_text: 1, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine Lake & Co, Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex do hereby declare the nature
of my invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GRAPE-SUGAR OR
GLUCOSE " to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to an improvement in the manufacture of grape sugar
and glucose from Indian corn or maize in a simple and economical manner.
A kernel of Indian corn consists of three principal parts viz; the inner portion
or body which consists principally of starch cells; the outer enclosing hull and its
glutinous lining, which consists of wood fibre, nitrogenous compounds, albumen and
oil which are useful for cattle feed; and the germ or chit which is very rich in oil.
In manufacturing grape sugar or glucose from Indian-corn it has been the
general practice to eliminate the hulls, gluten and germs from the starch by
grinding the corn, with water, then separating the coarse offal from the starch by
sifting upon sieves which are supplied with sprays of water whereby the starch is
washed through the meshes of the sieve while the offal tails off, and then separating
the gluten and oil from the starch by treatment with caustic alkali, and repeatedly
depositing and washing the starch, and then converting the refined starch so
obtained. This process requires large quantities of water and capacious receptacles
for settling the starch and is comparatively costly, while it leaves the offal in a
wet undesirable condition. It has also been attempted to manufacture grape
sugar and glucose by grinding the corn and directly converting the ground corn,
containing all of the constituent parts of the grain, but this method has not been
successful because the presence of the hulls, germs and gluten in the material which
is converted discolors the product, and leaves in the product gluten and other
impurities which cannot be wholly removed by filtration or any other subsequent
treatment and which cause the product to sour or ferment in warm weather. The
object of my invention is to produce grape sugar or glucose from Indian corn by
removing the hulls, gluten and germs from the crude starch without going to the
extent of manufacturing refined starch, thereby simplifying and cheapening the
process and increasing the yield. To this end the said invention comprises
the improvements hereinafter fully described.
In carrying the said invention into practice I provide a water tank which
contains hot water used for steeping the corn. A second tank or vat is provided

page_text: in which the corn is steeped and which is supplied with water from the hot water
tank and constructed with a perforated false bottom for draining. The corn is
steeped in the steeping tank at a temperature of about 140 degrees F., for about
fifteen hours, whereby the grain becomes expanded or swelled. This temperature
is maintained in the steeping tank by renewing the water from time to time.
When the corn has been steeped the starchy body of each kernel has become
enlarged and soft, the germ has become similarly enlarged and tends to separate
itself by reason of its oily character from the surrounding portions of the starchy
body which has absorbed water, and the hull has become tough and tends to
separate together with its glutinous lining from the starchy body and oily germ.
In steeping the corn, care is taken that the temperature does not rise to
155 degrees F., at which temperature the sacks of the starch cells begin to burst
and discharge their contents. When the corn has been steeped, the warm water is
drained off, and cold water is introduced into the steeping tank whereby the corn
is chilled and the hulls are further toughened and the oily germ further loosened
from the surrounding portions of the starchy bodies. The water is then drained
off from the corn in the steeping tank.
A reducing machine receives the steeped corn from the steeping tank, and in
this machine the grain is whipped or beaten, whereby the hulls and their glutinous
linings are opened and stripped in large flakes from the inner starchy bodies and
from the germs, the starchy bodies being at the same time reduced to fine granules,
while the germs are detached from the starchy portions and hulls without being
pulverized. The reducing machine consists of several concentric rows of beaters
revolving at a high speed in opposite directions within an enclosing case. In order
to facilitate the discharge of the material from the machine, the outer row of
beaters is provided with one or more scrapers which prevent the material from
adhering to the inner side of the enclosing case of the machine. The corn is
reduced in this machine in the moist condition in which it comes from the steep,
and without additional water. The reduced material is discharged from the
reducing machine into the foot of an elevator whereby it is conducted to a
receiving hopper. A separating screen receives the reduced material from the said
hopper and separates the same into three products, viz, the fine fragments or
granules of crude starch, the germs which are somewhat larger in size, and the
flakes of hulls and glutinous linings which are still larger. To this end the screen
is clothed for about two-thirds of its length from its head with fine wire cloth
which permits only the starch granules to pass through, and for the remainder of
its length with coarse wire cloth which permits the gerais to pass through while the
hulls or coarse offal escape over the tail of the screen.
A receiver collects the starchy material which passes through the upper finely
clothed portion of the screen, a second receiver collects the germs passing through
the lower coarsely clothed portion of the screen and a third receiver collects the
hulls escaping over the tail of the screen.
A supplementary reducing machine, constructed like the first reducing machine,
in which the steeped grain is reduced, and receiving the hulls or germs, or both,
from the second and third hoppers for the purpose of detaching from these products
of the separation any starch particles which may adhere to the same, if such further
treatment is necessary or desirable. The reduced material coming from the supple-
mentary reducing machine is conducted by an elevator into a hopper, from which it
is spouted upon a second separating screen, which is arranged on one side of the
first screen, and which effects a separation of the detached meal from the germs and
hulls, the meal passing into the first receiver, and the germs and hulls into fourth
and fifth receivers.
If it is desired to reduce the starch meal to a higher degree of fineness, this may
be done by a suitable mill which receives the meal from the receiver. The mill
preferably employed for this purpose when the meal is ground without additional
water is known as the Bogardus mill, and consists essentially of two serrated or
grooved discs having a slight excentric movement with reference to each other,

page_text: whereby the gumming or clogging up of the discs is avoided. If the meal is
ground wet ordinary mill stones may be employed for the reduction.
A tank or vat receives the ground starch meal from the reducing mill and in this
tank the starch is puddled with water until the liquid has reached a gravity of
from 16 to 20 degrees Beaumé. About one per cent of diluted sulphuric acid is
then added to the starch milk in the sad vat and thoroughly mixed therewith.
Acid of a strength of sixty six is preferably employed and diluted in the proportion
of one part of acid to two parts of water. The liquid is next pumped from the
vat into a sixth receiver from which it is drawn into a closed converter if it is
desired to manufacture grape sugar or block glucose.
The converter is first charged with a sufficient quantity of water to prevent the
starch from being burnt or coagulated while running it into the converter. The
starch is now converted under a steam pressure of about forty pounds to the square
inch. When the desired saccharification of the starch has been accomplished the
liquid is blown out of the converter into a receiving tank. From this tank the
liquid is drawn into a tank in which the acid is neutralized by marble dust or its
equivalent. The liquid is then drawn into a third tank in which the bleaching
and neutralizing agents are permitted to settle and from which the liquid passes
through bag filters and into a receiver. From the latter the liquid is pumped to
a receiver in which the liquid is bleached in a suitable and well known manner,
and from which it is drawn into a vacuum pau in which it is partially evaporated
and from which it is drawn into another receiver. The liquid is then further
filtered through bag filters and charcoal filters, concentrated in the vacuum pan,
filtered through press filters, and finally cooled and solidified in any suitable or well
known manner.
If it is desired to manufacture liquid glucose or syrup, the liquid is drawn from
the sixth receiver into an open converter, in which the starch is converted under
the pressure of the atmosphere and from which the liquid is removed when the
onversion is completed and neutralized, filtered, bleached and concentrated in any
usual manner. When the open converter is used the starch may be run directly
into the converter as it comes from the sieves and the diluted acid may be run into
the converter at the same time, both the starch and acid being introduced separately
and slowly.
In this method of manufacturing grape sugar or glucose the hulls and germs are
separated from the crude starch in a slightly moist or comparatively dry state,
whereby these products are removed in a condition in which they can be preserved
for a considerable length of time without sowing or fermenting and in which they
can be dried at small expense, if desired, thus enabling the manufacturer to dispose
of this offal advantageously as feed for cattle &c. As the hulls and germs
constitute about eighteen per cent of the whole grain treated this large portion of
the material is removed in a useful condition at the outset and the bulk of the
material to be acidulated and converted is greatly reduced as compared with the
processes which convert the whole grain, while the yield of starch which is made
available for conversion is not only larger than in the processes in which refined
starch is extracted and converted, but is obtained at much sinaller expense both in
cost of manipulation and cost of the machinery or apparatus employed.
It is obvious that the precise arrangement of the apparatus described is
immaterial and that it may be altered as circumstances may require.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
For the Applicant.

page_text: Improvements in the Manufacture of Grape-sugar or Glucose.
I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine, Lake, and Co, Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature
of my invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GRAPE-SUGAR OR
GLUCOSE" and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to the manufacture of grape-sugar or glucose from Indian-
corn or maize in a simple and economical manner.
A kernel of Indian corn consists of three principal parts, viz-the inner portion
or body, which consists principally of starch cells; the outer enclosing hull and its
glutinous lining, which consist of wood fibre, nitrogenous compounds, albumen
and oil, which are useful for cattle feed; and the germ or chit which is very rich
in oil.
In manufacturing grape sugar or glucose from Indian-corn it has been the
general practice to eliminate the hulls, gluten and germs from the starch by
grinding the corn with water; then separating the coarse offal from the starch by
sifting upon sieves, which are supplied with sprays of water whereby the starch
is washed through the meshes of the sieve while the offal passes off over the tail;
and then separating the gluten and oil from the starch by treatment with caustic
alkali, and repeatedly depositing and washing the starch, and then converting the
refined starch so obtained. This process requires large quantities of water and
capacious receptacles for settling the starch, and is comparatively costly, while it
leaves the offal in a wet, undesirable condition.
It has also been attempted to manufacture grape sugar and glucose by grinding
the corn and directly converting the ground corn, containing all of the constituent
parts of the grain, but this method has not been successful because the presence of
the hulls, germs and gluten in the material which is converted discolors the product,
and leaves in the product gluten and other impurities which cannot be wholly
removed by filtration or any other subsequent treatment, and which cause the
product to sour or ferment in warm weather.
The object of this invention is to produce grape sugar or glucose from Indian-
corn by removing the hulls, gluten and germs from the crude starch without going
to the extent of manufacturing refined starch, thereby simplifying and cheapening
the process and increasing the yield, and to this end the said invention comprises
the improvements hereinafter fully described.
In the accompanying drawing
Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of a plant of machinery by which my invention
can be carried into practice.
Figure 2 is a top or plan view of the separating sieves.
Figures 3 and 4 are sectional elevations of the reducing machine, at right angles
to each other.
Like letters of reference refer to like parts in the several figures.
A represents a water tank which contains hot water used for steeping the corn;
and B represents a tank or vat in which the corn is steeped and which is supplied

page_text: with water from the tank A and constructed with a perforated false bottom for
draining.
The corn is steeped in the tank B at a temperature of about 140 degrees
Fahrenheit, for about fifteen hours, whereby the grain becomes expanded or
swelled. This temperature is maintained in the steeping tank by renewing the
water from time to time. When the corn has been steeped the starchy body of
each kernel has become enlarged and soft, the germ has become similarly enlarged
and tends to separate itself by reason of its oily character from the surrounding
portions of the starchy body which has absorbed water, and the hull has become
tough and tends to separate together with its glutinous lining from the starchy
body and oily germ. In steeping the corn, care should be taken that the
temperature does not rise to 155 degrees Fahrenheit, at which temperature the sacks
of the starch cells begin to burst and discharge their contents. When the corn
has been steeped, the warm water is drained off and cold water is introduced into
the tank B, whereby the corn is chilled and the hulls are further toughened and
the oily germ further loosened from the surrounding portions of the starchy bodies.
The water is then drained off from the corn in the tank B.
C represents the reducing machine which receives the steeped corn from the
tank B and in which the grain is whipped or beaten, whereby the hulls and their
glutinous linings are opened and stripped in large flakes from the inner starchy
bodies and from the gerins, the starchy bodies being at the same time reduced to
fine granules, while the germs are detached from the starchy portions and hulls
without being pulverized. The reducing machine C consists of several concentric
rows of beaters e revolving at a high speed in opposite directions within an
enclosing case c¹. In order to facilitate the discharge of the material from the
machine, the outer row of beaters is provided with one or more scrapers c² which
prevent the material from adhering to the inner side of the enclosing case of the
machine. The corn is reduced in this machine in the moist condition in which it
comes from the steep and without additional water. The reduced material is
discharged from the reducing machine C into the foot of an elevator D whereby it
is conducted to a receiving hopper E.
F represents a separating screen which receives the reduced material from the
hopper E and separates the same into three products, viz; the fine fragments or
granules of crude starch, the germs which are somewhat larger in size, and the
flakes of hulls and glutinous linings which are still larger. To this end, the screen
is clothed for about two-thirds of its length from its head with fine wire cloth
which permits only the starch granules to pass through, and for the remainder of
its length with coarse wire cloth which permits the gerins to pass through while
the bulls or coarse offal escape over the tail of the screen.
G represents a receiver which collects the starchy material passing through the
upper finely clothed portion of the screen, H a receiver which collects the germs
passing through the lower coarsely clothed portion of the screen, and I a receiver
which collects the hulls escaping over the tail of the screen.
K is a supplementary reducing machine, constructed like the machine C in
which the steeped grain is reduced, and receiving the hulls or germs, or both, from
the hoppers H and I for the purpose of detaching from these products of the
separation any starch particles which may adhere to the same, if such further
treatment is necessary or desirable. The reduced material coming from the
machine K is conducted by an elevator K¹ into a hopper K2 from which it is
spouted upon a separating screen F1 which is arranged on one side of the screen F
and which effects a separation of the detached meal from the gerins and hulls,
the meal passing into the receiver G and the gerins and hulls into receivers H'
and I'.
If it is desired to reduce the starch meal to a high degree of fineness this may be
done by a suitable mill L which receives the meal from the receiver G. The mill
preferably employed for this purpose when the meal is ground without additional
water is known as the Bogardus Mill, and consists essentially of two serrated or .

page_text: grooved discs having a slight eccentric movement with reference to each other,
whereby the gumming or clogging up of the discs is avoided. If the meal is
ground wet ordinary mill stones may be employed for the reduction.
M is a tank or vat which receives the ground starch meal from the mill L and in
which the starch is puddled with water until the liquid has reached a gravity of
from 16 to 20 degrees Beaumé. About one per cent of diluted sulphuric acid is
then added to the starch milk in the vat M, and thoroughly mixed therewith.
Acid of a strength of sixty six is preferably employed and diluted in the pro-
portion of one part of acid to two parts of water. The liquid is next pumped from
the vat M into a receiver N from which it is drawn into the closed converter O, if
it is desired to manufacture grape sugar or block glucose.
The
The converter is first charged with a sufficient quantity of water to prevent the
starch from being burnt or coagulated while running it into the converter.
starch is converted under a steam pressure of about forty pounds to the square
inch. When the desired saccharification of the starch has been accomplished the
liquid is blown out of the converter into a receiving tank P. From this tank the
liquid is drawn into a tank Q in which the acid is neutralized by marble dust or its
equivalent. The liquid is then drawn into a tank R in which the bleaching and
neutralizing agents are permitted to settle and from which the liquid passes
through the bag filters S and into a receiver S¹. From the latter the liquid is
pumped to a receiver T in which the liquid is bleached in a suitable and well
known manner, and from which it is drawn into the vacuum pan T', in which it is
partially evaporated and from which it is drawn into a receiver T2. The liquid is
then further filtered through bag filters and charcoal filters, concentrated in the
vacuum pan, filtered through press filters and finally cooled and solidified in any
suitable or well known manner.
If it is desired to manufacture liquid glucose or syrup, the liquid is drawn from
the receiver N into an open converter in which the starch is converted under the
pressure of the atmosphere and from which the liquid is removed when the
conversion is completed and neutralized, filtered, bleached and concentrated in any
usual manner. When the open converter is used the starch may be run directly
into the converter as it comes from the sieves and the diluted acid may be run into
the converter at the same time, both the starch and acid being introduced separately
and slowly.
In this method of manufacturing grape sugar or glucose the hulls and germs are
separated from the crude starch in a slightly moist or comparatively dry state,
whereby these products are recovered in a condition in which they can be preserved
for a considerable length of time without souring or fermenting and in which they
can be dried at small expense, if desired, thus enabling the manufacturer to dispose
of this offal advantageously as feed for cattle &c. As the hulls and germs constitute
about eighteen per cent of the whole grain treated, this large portion of the
material is removed in a useful condition at the outset and the bulk of the material
to be acidulated and converted is greatly reduced, as compared with the processes
which convert the whole grain; while the yield of starch which is made available
for conversion is not only larger than in the processes in which refined starch is
extracted and converted, but is obtained at much smaller expense both in cost of
manipulation and cost of the machinery or apparatus employed.
:
It is obvious that the precise arrangement of the apparatus shown and described
is immaterial, and that it may be altered as circumstances may require.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is
First. The herein described process of manufacturing grape sugar or glucose
from Indian-corn or maize, which process consists in steeping the corn, then
detaching the hulls and germs from the starchy portions of the kernels by whipping
or beating without additional water, then separating the hulls and germs from the

page_text: crude starch by sifting, and then converting the separated crude starch into grape
sugar or glucose, substantially as set forth.
Second. The herein described process of manufacturing grape sugar or glucose
from Indian-corn or maize, which process consists in steeping the corn, then
detaching the hulls and germs from the starchy portions of the kernels by whipping
or beating without additional water, then separating the hulls and germs from the
crude starch by sifting, and then acidulating the crude starch and converting it
into grape sugar or glucose under pressure, substantially as set forth.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
For the Applicant.