IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR AND IN THE APPARATUS USED THEREIN SUGAR AND IN THE APPARATUS USED THEREIN
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Miller, of No. 15, Buckingham Street; Strand,
London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
SUGAR AND IN THE APPARATUS USED THEREIN
SUGAR AND IN THE APPARATUS USED THEREIN
Sealed the 27th November 1857, and dated the 4th June 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by. the said William Miller at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th June 1857..
"
I, WILLIAM MILLER, of No. 15, Buckingham Street, Strand, London, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR, AND IN THE APPARATUS USED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
My Invention has for its object the never allowing saccharine solutions;
during any of the stages of the manufacture of sugar, to come into contact
with metallic or other surfaces, or with media of any kind heated beyond the
temperature of boiling water, or 212° Fahrenheit. This principle is not
generally if at all understood, and yet is of the greatest importance, as it is
the high temperature used in the various processes of the manufacture of
sugar which converts the crystallizable into molasses or uncrystallizable sugar;
this high temperature being conveyed either through the medium of the open
fire, or by means of high-pressure steam, through coils or pipes. To prevent
this destruction of the sugar, I make use of jacket pans throughout the
whole process of the manufacture, both in its elimination from the cane
or beetroot and in the refining of the raw sugar. These jacket pans may
be heated either by means of low-pressure steam, or by a water bath, or by

page_text: the following method, which will be found preferable to either-Into the
lower part of the jacket is inserted a steam pipe, and about four inches
from the bottom of the jacket is inserted another pipe for carrying off the
condensed water, and an open pipe is placed at the top of the jacket. By
this contrivance the lower part of the jacket will always be covered with
water up to the aperture of the condense pipe; and if high-pressure steam
be admitted through the water, it will be converted into steam at the
ordinary pressure of the atmosphere, or at 212° Fahrenheit, as owing to the
pipe at the top of the jacket being always open there can be no pressure
whatever; thus the saccharine solution in the pan enclosed by the jacket can
never be exposed to any heated surface beyond 212° Fahrenheit, though high-
pressure steam is generated from the boiler for the supply of the steam engine
or for other purposes. I use these pans for blowing up the sugar, as it is
technically termed, for the pans which serve the charcoal filters, for the heater
which receives the sugar from the evaporating pan, for the evaporating pan
itself, and in fact throughout the entire process. Instead of the vacuum
pan with its coil and jacket circulating high-pressure steam, and all the time
destroying the sugar (for the vacuum pan will not work with sufficient speed
without high-pressure steam), I make use of a simple but not the less effective
apparatus, expensive air pumps and large supplies of water being dispensed
with, and little power required to work it. In an oblong jacket pan, fitted
up as already described, I cause to revolve a cloth or some textile which I
have found preferable to any metallic or other fabric. The cloth travels
over a roller similar to a jack towel, only the surface of the towel is kept
extended by stretchers. As the cloth revolves it sucks up the liquid in the
pan and freely exposes it to the atmosphere, and a far greater amount of
evaporation is thus produced than by the revolution of metallic discs or other
fixed surfaces, which likewise require great power to move them when the
saccharine liquid in the pan becomes inspissated. I contend that if the above
plan is rigorously adopted, a far greater amount of sugar, if not the whole
operated upon, can be obtained than by any other plan yet devised.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her reign,.
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Miller, Her special licence that I, the said William Miller,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said.
William Miller, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there--
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR, AND IN THE APPARATUS USED THEREIN,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Miller, my.
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing. under my, or their,
or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be
performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Miller, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following,
statement thereof, that is to say :-
The object of part of my Invention is so to conduct the progressive pro-
cesses of the manufacture of sugar, that the metal with which the saccharine
solutions may come in contact in the several processes shall never be heated
materially above 212° Fahrenheit, and as far as may be to insure that in each
succeeding process of applying heat to saccharine solutions it shall be done in
metal vessels heated by a medium constantly kept at or as nearly as may be.
212° of Fahrenheit; and my Invention has also for its object improvements-
in apparatus used in the manufacture of sugar.
In carrying on the process called "blowing up," I employ an apparatus, such
as is shewn in section at Figure 1. This apparatus consists of a pan or vessel a,:.
surrounded by a jacket b, of such a form as to admit of its constantly having.a.
quantity of water therein, as is indicated by the Drawing. c is a steam pipe.
leading from a steam boiler, by which steam is constantly supplied below the
water in the jacket 6 in order to keep the water boiling; d is an overflow pipe,
by which the water in the jacket 6 is kept to the same level; e is an outlet,
by which the steam may pass freely away, in order to insure that the heating.

page_text: medium, acting on the metal of the vessel or pan a, may be kept at or not mate-
rially above 212° of Fahrenheit. The sugar and water in the vessel a are kept
stirred till the sugar is melted, when the solution is run into bag filters. The:
filtered solution is then heated to a temperature of from 180° to 190° of
Fahrenheit, in a similarly constructed and a similarly heated pan or vessel to
that. shown at Figure 1, after which the solution is run into charcoal filters.
The pecularity of these. parts of my Invention consists in heating sugar and
water in a vessel or pan, the metal of which is heated by a medium at or not
materially above 212° Fahrenheit.
And the Invention also consists in heating solutions of sugar, after being
bag filtered and previously to running the same into charcoal filters, in a
vessel or pan, the metal. of which is heated by a medium at or not materially
exceeding 212° Fahrenheit.
When evaporating cane juice or other saccharine solutions, it is, therefore,
important to keep down the heat of the medium used to heat the metal pans
or vessels employed, to or so as not materially to exceed 212° of Fahrenheit,
in order to prevent injury to the solution, and at the same time to, maintain
the heat of the medium constantly up to 212° of Fahrenheit, in order that
the greatest amount of evaporation may be obtained. For these purposes I
employ apparatus, combined as represented in Figures 2 and 3 of the Draw-
ing, which show two vertical sections of an apparatus, such sections being
taken at right angles to each other. The pan a, the jacket 6, the steam pipe c,
the overflow pipe d, and the outlet pipe e, are such as are described in respect
to Figure 1, but in addition to the pan or vessel a shown in Figure 1, in the
arrangement shewn in Figure 2, there are flat tubular passages a³, a¹, through
the vessel or pan a, in order to present a greater extent of heated metal
surface to the saccharine solution in the pan or vessel a. f, f, are two endless
fabrics or surfaces, which it is preferred should be of strong sail cloth; they
are suspended from two octagon barrels g, g, to the axes of which rotatory
motion is communicated in any convenient manner; h, h, are two smaller
rollers, under which the two endless. fabrics or surfaces pass. The axes of
these rollers are received into slots in the fixed plates i, i, and the ends of the
axes are in bearings which are capable of being raised or lowered by the
screws k, k. By adjusting the positions of the axes of the rollers h, h, the two
endless fabrics or surfaces may be caused constantly to retain their correct
position on the barrels g, g, and rollers h, h. From the axes of the barrels
9, 9, motion is communicated to the axes of two stirrers or agitators 1, 1, by
endless chains or bands m, m. The sides of the apparatus are closed in, as
shown at n, n the top thereof is left open. In order to induce currents of air
'

page_text: to pass up within the enclosed space, the sides of the pan are cased in, as shewn
at n', n¹, see Figure 2.
I would remark that I am aware that it has before been proposed, though
under different circumstances, to employ endless fabrics or surfaces when
evaporating solutions of sugar; I do not, therefore, claim the same separately,
and it has also (in an apparatus differently combined) been proposed to employ
heating medium, consisting of water or the vapour of water, to evaporating
vessels, in which saccharine solutions are evaporated by the aid of streams of
air forced in contact with such solution, the sugar solutions being kept at or
as nearly as may be to 150° Fahrenheit; I do not, therefore, claim the use of
water or the vapor of water for such purposes; but what I claim, in respect
to this part of my Invention, is the combined apparatus herein described.
The saccharine solution having been brought to proof by evaporation is
next run into a vessel, such as is described in respect to Figure 1, and the
solution is heated therein to a temperature of 170° Fahrenheit, varying
according to the quality of the sugar operated upon, in order to prepare the
same for crystallization, such heating of the metal vessel or pan a being by a
medium at or not materially above 212° Fahrenheit, as above described.
And this the last part of my Invention consists in heating saccharine
solutions (when brought to proof) in metal pans or vessels, heated by a
medium at or about 212° of Fahrenheit, as herein described, in order to
prepare the same for crystallization.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Miller, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL
W. MILLER. (L.S.).