A NEW APPARATUS FOR DISTILLING, CONCENTRATING, AND EVAPORATING
Year: 1872

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Farnham Maxwell Lyte at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
5th December 1872.-A communication from abroad by Henri
Storck, Edouard Hentsch, Auguste Hentsch, André Lutscher, and
Fréderic Grininger, constituting the Firm of Storck and Company,
residing at Asnières, near Paris, France, and Armand Decottegnie,
Manufacturer, residing at the same Place.
".
I, FARNHAM MAXWELL LYTE, Chemist, of the Firm of Storck and
Co. Asnières, France, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "A NEW APPARATUS FOR DISTILLING, CONCENTRATING, AND EVAPORATING,"
a communication to me from Henri Storck, Edouard Hentsch, Auguste
Hentsch, André Lutscher, and Frédéric Grininger, constituting the
Firm of Storck and Company, residing at Asnières, near Paris, France;
and Armand Decottegnie, Manufacturer, residing at the same place,
to be as follows:
This Invention relates to a new or improved apparatus for distilling,.
evaporating, or concentrating liquids, and consists in a mode of heating
(under increased or diminished pressure, or in vacuo) certain cylindrical,

page_text: conical, or rounded surfaces, and bringing the liquid to be treated into
contact with those surfaces in thin streams or films, so that in passing
successively over a large extent of heating surface the liquid may be
rapidly distilled, concentrated, or evaporated. To effect this I divide
the heating surface exteriorly into compartments, either vertical or
inclined, which said compartments retain the liquid to be evaporated
by preventing its too rapid descent.
The aforesaid compartments may be pierced with holes to allow of
the slow and gradual egress of the liquid, but I prefer to allow the
liquid simply to overflow, as the compartments become filled, and to
fall successively from compartment to compartment so long as the
liquid is always retained in contact with the heating surface till
it becomes sufficiently evaporated.
The upper compartment receives. the liquid to be treated from a
tank or reservoir. By its contact with the heated surface (by preference
a steam or hot air jacket surrounded by the said compartment) the
liquid boils and at the same time runs through the holes in the
compartment and tends to overflow at the upper edges of the com-
partment, and this overflow, as well as that which trickles through the
holes, runs down over the heated. surface of the steam or hot air jacket
in thin streams or films and evaporates rapidly, exposing a large surface
to evaporation. Thus the liquid flows on to the next compartment,
and on again to the next one, always overflowing or finding an exit
through the holes and running over the heated surfaces, as above
described, and thus the liquid becomes concentrated rapidly or
-evaporated, and if the whole arrangement be only incased in a suitable
cylinder to convey away the vapours, and the cylinder connected with
any suitable condensing apparatus, the volatile portions which distil
may be drawn over and condensed.
(
The number of partitions may be reduced and the form altered by
making it in the form of a still-worm with a large spiral. hot air or
steam pipe, and a channel so placed that the steam or hot air pipe lies
in it, the gradient of the descent being so adjusted. that the liquid only
flows slowly down and has time to become evaporated, or a steam or
hot air pipe may be laid on an inclined plane in a zig-zag form, and
lying in shallow gutters of metal which may or may not have holes
pierced in them, and by the liquor being delivered at the top of the
inclined plane it falls from gutter to gutter over the surface of the plane,

page_text: and boils by coming into contact with the heated pipe, and overflows
on the principle above described; or I form a double hot air or steam
jacket of metal, the upper surface being corrugated so as to form a
series of gutters when placed in an inclined position, as before described,
and a rim being raised on each side of the incline to keep the liquid
in steam, or hot air admitted into the interior of the double jacket.
The liquid is allowed to enter on the corrugated inclined surface and
flows down this surface filling the gutters and overflowing from onc
gutter to another till it falls out below. Evaporation may be effected
in free air, or the apparatus may be surrounded with a jacket open at
the bottom and communicating by the top with an exhaust chimney,
thus preventing the radiation of heat; or again, the apparatus may
be surrounded with a jacket closed at its base and surmounted with a
cucurbite communicating with a refrigerator, and by these means a
distilling and evaporating apparatus may be at once obtained.
The feature of novelty of this system of apparatus consists in its
rapid action and its application to industrial purposes, such as the
concentration of juices and syrups in sugar manufacture, also the
concentration of brine, or liquors containing salts to be crystallized.
The concentration of glycerine, sulphuric acid, and the distillation of
either chloroform, alcohol, or liquids containing the same.
The annexed Drawing represents a distilling, concentrating, or
evaporating apparatus, constructed according to this Invention. ..
Figure 1 shows a vertical elevation of the apparatus, a portion of
which is cut away; Figure 2 shows a portion of the apparatus drawn
to.an enlarged scale.
a is a long vertical tube, slightly conical, closed at both ends, and
having its largest base uppermost; b, supporting legs of tube a; c'is
a pipe secured to the base of tube a, and communicating with a steam
generator and provided with a stop cock d for the admission of steam
to the inside of the tube, and for heating the same; e, is a pipe secured
to the upper part of the tube a, the said pipe is provided with a stop
cock for the escape of steam; g, blow off cock fixed to the lower part
of the tube a; h, partitions secured outside the tube a and forming a
series of superposed conical vessels; i, two or more rows of small holes
bored in the lower part of the vessel h, and through which the liquid

page_text: drops from one vessel to another in small thin jets which spreading
on the heated surface of the tube is thereby evaporated, that portion
of the liquid left unevaporated comes down to the next vessel, and so on
successively.
The contents of one vessel drop into the next one either by overflow
or through the holes in the upper vessel, as represented in Figure 1;
j, small collars placed round the rows of holes i to prevent the liquid from
being projected out of the vessels; k, recipient containing the liquid
to be treated; the said recipient is provided with a pipe having a stop
cock m for letting out the liquid into the first vessel or compartment;
n. represents a cup secured to the tube a beneath the last vessel and
intended to receive the condensed liquid. This cup is provided with
a spout o for collecting the condensed liquid in the receivers p.
The dotted lines in Figure 1 indicate the jacket surrounding the
whole apparatus; this jacket is surmounted with a cucurbite provided
with a pipe leading the vapours to a refrigerator for distilling
purposes.
In evaporating saccharine matters, in distilling glycerine, and for
other purposes where it is preferable to operate at a low temperature
I so arrange the apparatus of my system as to work in vacuo.
•
Another method of carrying out my system consists in arranging
my said apparatus, as herein-before described, by surrounding it with
a wrapper or jacket surmounted with a cucurbite communicating with
a recipient or a refrigerator, and I aid the evaporation of the liquids
to be treated by projecting a jet of steam inside the tube the
a; vapours
resulting from the contact of the said liquids with the heating surface
of the tube a would thus condense within the recipient, more or less
of a vacuum being thus produced round the apparatus, the heating of
tube a would be left to subside, and the evaporation of the liquids would
then continue in proportion to the condensation of the said vapours,
or the vacuum might be produced by means of a steam or air jet,
projected by any known means, the effect of which would be to exhaust
the air surrounding the apparatus under the jacket.
I have represented at Figures 3, 4, 5, of the annexed Drawing the
other arrangement of my apparatus, as alluded to in this Specification,
and which consists of a metallic plate (lead for instance) so corrugated,
as to form a series of gutters into which the liquid to be treated drops

page_text: from one to another; behind these said gutters is a jacket or chamber
provided with zig-zag compartments wherein is circulating a current
of steam or hot air for heating the surfaces of the gutters, the whole
being placed in an inclined position so as to allow the liquid overflowing
from one gutter to drop into the next or the one placed immediately
beneath. Figure 3 shows a sectional edge view of this arrangement;
Figure 4 shows a front view of the same; Figure 5 shews a front view.
of Figures 3 and 4, the gutter forming plate being removed to show
the interior arrangement of the jacket within, and in which circulates
the hot air or steam; in these three figures the same letters indicate
the same parts. r, gutters superposed upon one another, formed by the
corrugations of a plate or piece of metal, as shewn at Figure 3; 8,
partitions soldered behind the gutters r; t, plate soldered on to the
partitions 8, this plate is rebated upwards, downwards, and sidewise, so
as to close the partitions at their ends and thus form behind the said
gutters a chamber in which steam may freely circulate. In order that
this circulation may take place over the whole under surface of the
gutter plate the partitions are arranged in a ziz-zag direction, as shown
at Figure 5; is a frame supporting the apparatus in an inclined
position;, inlet of the liquid into the gutters; x, outlet or egress of
the concentrated liquid; y, inlet for steam into the jacket; z, outlet
for steam; w, blow off cock..