CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF EXPELLING THE MOLASSES OR SYRUP FROM SUGAR
Year: 1828

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HAGUE, of Cable Street, Wellclose Square, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Sixth day of December,
in the ninth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said John Hague,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, solo
privilege and authority, that I, the said John IIague, my exccutors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of years therein
mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within all IIis Majesty's Colonics
and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
METHOD OF EXPELLING THE MOLASSES OR SYRUP FROM SUGAR;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, that if I, the said John Ilaguc, shall
not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said 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 Ilis Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent and all
liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease,
determine, and become void, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto
had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Hague, do hereby declare that my Invention consists in expelling the

page_text: molasses or syrup from sugar by occasioning a pressure of the atmosphere on
a surface of the sugar, and this I do either by withdrawing this air from the
under surface, or by compressing this air on the upper surface of the sugar.
When I do it by the first method, that of withdrawing the air from the
under surface, I make use of a trough or box (open at the top) either square,
round, or any other proper shape; I prefer having it larger at top than at
bottom, in order that when the sugar shrinks by the expulsion of the molasses
or syrup, it may by sinking keep tight round the sides and thereby prevent
the rapid passage of the air between the sugar and the sides of the trough or
box. In this trough or box at a few inches or any proper height from its real
bottom I put a false bottom made of any proper material (but I prefer sheet
copper) and thickly perforated with small holes, on this false bottom I place a
cloth or web made of hair or some other material. To the real bottom or
sides of the above described trough or box I fix one end of a pipe or tube, the
other end of which I fix to the upper side or some part of a receiving vessel,
placed at a convenient distance below the trough or box; this receiving
vessel I furnish with a cock or some other contrivance for the convenience of
drawing off the molasses when desirable or necessary. From some part of the
above described pipe or tube I branch off a tubular arm which leads to an
air pump fixed at any distance from the already described apparatus. The
construction of an air pump is so well understood by mechanical persons that
it needs not here being more particularly described. The operation by this
method is as follows:-I spread the sugar about three inches deep, or any
other proper depth, all over the cloth or web that covers the false bottom of the
trough or box, taking care that the sugar comes close to the sides of the trough
or box all round, next by means of a water wheel, wind mill, steam engine,
animal strength, or other power I set the air pump to work which partially
exhausts the air from the other parts of the apparatus, a partial vacuum being
thus formed underneath the false bottom of the trough or box; the pressure
of the atmosphere and the passage of the air through the sugar separates and
expels the molasses, which, passing through the cloth or web and the per-
forations in the false bottom falls on the real bottom of the trough or box, and
is from thence conducted by the pipe or tube into the receiving vessel below.
This operation I continue by keeping the air pump at work until the molasses
or syrup is sufficiently expelled from the sugar. Before or during the process
I sometimes find it desirable to moisten the sugar with water, lime water, or
some other liquid.
When I do it by the other method, that of compressing the air on the upper
surface I make use of a trough or box covered on the top, which I furnish

page_text: with a false bottom and cloth or web as by the first method. The expelled
molasses I convey from this trough or box through an aperture, pipe, or tube
to any vessel or plate destined to receive it. The operation by this method is
as follows: Having prepared and spread on the cloth or web the sugar to be
operated upon as by the former method, I by means of a force pump, bellows,
or some other contrivance worked by some power, either natural or artificial,
compress the air on the upper surface of the sugar, which produces the same
effects on it as the operation first described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Hague, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Ninth day of December, in the
year of our Lord 1828, the aforesaid John Hague came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Ninth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight.