IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR USE IN EVAPORATING ALKALINE SOLUTIONS
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Nicholas Berriman Downing and John Edward Hughes, of
No. 4, Lambeth Hill, Queen Victoria Street, in the City of London, for the In-
vention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR USE IN EVAPORATING
ALKALINE SOLUTIONS." A communication from abroad by Henry Hughes,
of the City and County of San Francisco, in the State of California, one of the
United States of America.
Sealed the 13th April 1877, and dated the 17th October 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Nicholas Berriman Downing
and Jolin Edward Hughes at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the
17th October 1876.
NICHOLAS BERRIMAN DOWNING and JOHN EDWARD HUGHES, of No 4, Lambeth
Hill, Queen Victoria Street, in the City of London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS
OR APPARATUS FOR USE IN EVAPORATING ALKALINE SOLUTIONS." A communication
from abroad by Henry Hughes, of the City and County of San Francisco, in the
State of Calfornia, one of the United States of America.
The object of the Invention is to facilitate the rapid and economical evaporation
of alkaline solutions. This object is effected by the injection of the solutions in fine
drops, jets, or sprays, or films in a heated chamber.
The bed of the evaporating furnace is heated by the heat and products of com-
bustion from a fire at one end thereof, passing along the surface of the same as
conducted by the roof and side walls to a chimney at the opposite end, there being
openings at intervals in the side walls for working on the bed of the furnace, and
suitable doors for closing these openings.
The alkaline solution to be acted upon may be contained in a well and be forced
by pump or contained in other suitable reservoir and conducted under pressure by
suitable pipes opening into the furnace over the bed, provided with regulation taps
or valves, and roses or jets for the distribution of the solution as desired in the
evaporating chamber, where it falls in grains or flakes on the bed of the furnace, the
heat on which destroys any vegetable matter the solution may have taken up.
The heat employed may be such as only partly to evaporate the jets or films of
liquid alkali, in which case the evaporation may be completed, while the semi-liquid
alkali is on the bed of the furnace, and is subjected to the heated products of com-
bustion.

page_text: Petroleum may be used alone or in combination with other fuel as a means of
heating the furnace, the petroleum being used in jets combined with air.
When pumping apparatus is employed the steam for working the same or for
other purposes may be generated in a boiler placed over and heated by the same
furnace, and a jet of steam or air may also be conducted into the chimney to aid in
increasing the draft of the chimney.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Nicholas Berriman Downing and John Edward Hughes in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 16th April 1877.
NICHOLAS BERRIMAN DOWNING and JOHN EDWARD HUGHES, of No. 4, Lambeth
Hill, Queen Victoria Street, in the City of London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS
OR APPARATUS FOR USE IN EVAPORATING ALKALINE SOLUTIONS." A communication
from abroad by Henry Hughes, of the City and County of San Francisco, in the
State of California, one of the United States of America.
The object of the Invention is to facilitate the rapid and economical evaporation
of alkaline solutions. This object is effected by the injection of the solutions in fine
drops, jets, or sprays, or films in a heated chamber.
The bed of the evaporating furnace is heated by the heat and products of com-
bustion from a fire at one end thereof, passing along the surface of the same as
conducted by the roof and side walls to a chimney at the opposito end, there being
openings at intervals in the side walls for working on the bed of the furnace, and
suitable doors for closing these openings.
The alkaline solution to be acted upon may be contained in a well and be forced
by pump or contained in other suitable reservoir and conducted under pressure by
suitable pipes opening into the furnace over the bed, provided with regulation taps
or valves and roses or jets for the distribution of the solution as desired in the
evaporating chamber where it falls in grains or flakes on the bed of the furnace, the
heat on which destroys any vegetable matter the solution may have taken up.
The heat employed may be such as only partly to evaporate the jets or films of
liquid alkali, in which case the evaporation may be completed while the semi-liquid
alkali is on the bed of the furnace, and is subjected to the heated products of com-
bustion.
Petroleum may be used alone or in combination with other fuel as a means of
heating the furnace. The petroleum being used in jets combined with air.
When pumping apparatus is employed the steam for working the same or for
other purposes may be generated in a boiler placed over and heated by the same
furnace, and a jet of steam or air may also be conducted into the chimney to aid in
increasing the draught of the chimney.
But that the Invention as communicated to us may be the better understood, we
will, by the aid of the accompanying Drawing proceed to describe more in detail
apparatus employed in carrying the same into effect.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 in the accompanying Drawing is a sectional view of a furnace whereby
this Invention may be carried into effect, and Figure 2 a plan view of Figure 1.
A is the bed of the evaporating furnace, between which and the roof B is the
evaporating chamber D, and on each side of the latter are the working holes a
provided with suitable doors; E is the fire-place; F, the ash-pit; and G, the
chimney.
The alkaline solution to be evaporated may be contained in a well near the
furnace or in an elevated tank, and may be forced by any suitable pump into the
pipe H, from which extend two branches H' and H" passing through the furnace

page_text: into the evaporating chamber, within which the branch H₁ terminates either with-
out or with the attachment of a rose b; the branch H¹¹, or as many more branches
as may be used, terminating in a similar way the said rose or roses to be perforated,
niched, or split, through which the solution flows or is forced in the condition of one
undivided stream or several flat or otherwise shaped streams, or in fine jets or
sprays or drops, through holes, perforations, or openings into the chamber, where
the heat is so great that the diffused solution is evaporated and the alkali falls in
grains or flakes on to the bed of the furnace, where it is subjected to heat sufficient
to destroy the vegetable matter which the alkali may have taken up.
The heat may be such as to only partly evaporate the jets of liquid alkali, in
which case the evaporation may be completed, while the semi-liquid alkali is on the
bed of of the furnace and is subjected to the heated products of combustion.
It is proposed to make the evaporating chamber much longer than is shown in
the Drawing, and to employ more that two injecting pipes with roses, each pipe
having a separate cock so that the flow of solution through it may be discontinued
at pleasure. The object of this arrangement is as follows:-
The long continued discharge of jets or spray from any of the roses will tend to
cool that portion of the furnace at and near the point where the injection takes
place, hence the discontinuance of the injection through the rose or roses where the
chamber has become partially cool, until it has been reheated by the products of
combustion, while jets are being forced from other roses. By thus arresting the
flow of alkali through every rose, at different intervals heat of comparative uni-
formity is retained within the evaporating chamber, and consequently a uniform
evaporating action is maintained.
In cases where petroleum is available and cheap to use it as a fuel either alone
or in connection with other fuel there is arranged near the fire-place a pipe I
through which a blast of air is forced through any suitable blower. A pipe K from
a tank J of petroleum meets the air pipe I at the vertical pipe M, and from the
latter pipe extends a branch m into the fire-place and another branch n may if
desired extend into the ash-pit, both pipes terminating in nozzles, through which air
and petroleum combined are projected; any of the jet arrangements used for
burning petroleum in furnaces may be used in connection with the pipes m, n.
As pumping appliances will in most cases be required in conducting the process,
and as a blowing machine may be necessary in some cases it is proposed to combine
with the furnace a steam boiler N, the bottom of which forms part of the roof of
the fire-place, the steam generated in the boiler being used for the engine which
drives the pumps and blower.
Pipes K and I may extend from the air pipe, one to the chimney for the purpose
of increasing the draught, the other passing through the roof of the furnace above
the bridge wall so as to insure the thorough ignition of the products of combustion
as they pass over the bridge wall.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention and the manner of per-
forming the same, we would have it understood that we claim the mode, sub-
stantially as described of evaporating or partially evaporating alkaline solutions,
that is to say, by introducing them under pressure through pipes or tubes without
the addition of or terminating in a rose or roses, through which the solution either
flows or is forced in the condition of a stream or streams flat, round, or otherwise
shaped, fine or coarse jets or spray into a heated chamber.
In witness whereof, we, the said Nicholas Berriman Downing and John
Edward Hughes, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Sixteenth
day of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and