IMPROVEMENTS IN DISTILLATION AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Constant Boutigny, of Evreux, in
the Empire of France, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Constant
Boutigny at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
lis Petition, on the 18th December 1852.
I, CHARLES CONSTANT BOUTIGNY, of Evreux, in the Empire of
France, Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DISTILLATION AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED
THEREIN " to be as follows:
My improvements in distillation consist in carrying off the
vapour from the matters under evaporation as quickly as they are
formed, and "this I effect by means of certain arrangements of
apparatus, which I will briefly describe. My apparatus is divided
into three parts, which, tho' perfectly distinct, are contained in
the same vessel. The first compartment consists of a generator,

page_text: wherein the matter distilled is transformed into vapour, which rises
through a sieve or perforated plate, to prevent any liquid passing
with it into the second compartment, which is of a funnel shape at
bottom; while the upper part consists of a vessel for containing
water or other condensing liquid, and wherein the vapours are con-
densed as quickly as they enter it, and fall into the third compart-
ment, which we call a receiver, from whence they may be drawn off,
or may pass through a coil, or other refrigerator.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, filed by the said Charles Constant Boutigny in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 18th June 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
CHARLES CONSTANT BOUTIGNY, of Evreux, in the Empire of France,
send greeting.
year
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of December, in
the of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two,
in the sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Charles Constant
Boutigny, Her special licence that I, the said Charles Constant
Boutigny, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Charles Constant Boutigny, my executors, adminis
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thereafter 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN DISTILLATION AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles Constant
Boutigny, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
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

page_text: six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Constant Boutigny,
do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement, that is to say:
My Invention consists in distilling all matters susceptible of
distillation by means of apparatus, wherein the vapours arising
from the matters under distillation become condensed as rapidly as
they are formed, or as nearly so as may be, and wherein little or
no portion of such vapours can fall into or become mixed with such
matters. And in order to guard against any of the matters under
distillation boiling up and becoming mixed with the vapours, I
place a grating, or layer of wire gauze, a perforated plate, or other
such like intercepting medium, in one or more layers above such
matters, which, while intercepting them, allow free passage to the
vapours which may arise therefrom.
For the distillation of wines and other spirituous liquids, I com-
bine several of the apparatuses, to be herein-after described in a
series, in such manner that the product distilled from the first ap-
paratus shall serve to feed the second, and so on in succession,
the last apparatus in the series leading into a refrigerating coil
or other description of refrigerator. I thus obtain liquids of diffe-
rent and varying relative densities in each apparatus, but of uniform
density in each apparatus taken separately and by itself.
The liquid to be distilled forms the refrigerating liquid in passing
from the condenser of the last apparatus, that is to say, from that
in which the liquid is the most, to that which is the least rarified,
and so on in succession until it reaches the first generator, which it
supplies, and the condensed vapours of which feed alternately the
others in the series.
In distilling, however important it is to present a large evaporating
surface to the fire, it is equally important to condense the vapours
formed as rapidly as possible, bearing in mind that the vapour of
water at 212° Fahrenheit at the pressure of one atmosphere fills a

page_text: space about one thousand seven hundred times greater than that
produced from water at 320°. By my apparatus and process
extended heating surface and rapid condensation are obtained.
My evaporator may be heated by the direct action of fire, by
steam or gas, at any required pressure and temperature, or by any
other source of heat.
Figure 1, of the Drawings hereunto annexed, is a sectional
clevation of an apparatus suitable for the distillation of spirituous
liquors, and, if necessary, for the rectification of the product by the
addition of a second and similar apparatus. A, A, A, is a metal
boiler or cucurbit, which I denominate a generator. B, B, B,
refrigerator, which I call a condenser, filled with cold liquid and
hermetically closed; upon the under surface of this refrigerator the
vapours arising from the generator A, A, A, become condensed.
C, C, C, funnel-shaped vessel, the upper edge of which is above the
level of the liquid in the generator; I call this vessel a receiver, as it
receives the vapours condensed by the under surface of the
condenser. D, is a cock for emtying the generator. E, E, pipe
leading from the bottom of the receiver, for carrying off the con-
densed vapours. F, F, feed pipe, for keeping up a constant supply;
this pipe opens into the branch I, I, closed at top and open at
bottom. The pipe E, E, which receives the distilled liquid from
the first apparatus, becomes a feed pipe to second apparatus,
precisely similar to that shewn at Figure 1, but which it has not
been considered necessary to represent, and opens into the branch
similar to that shewn at I, I. J, indicator tube, shewing the level
of the body under distillation. L, L, flues of the furnace, for the
passage of flame, smoke, and heat. M, supply pipe, leading from a
reservoir into the refrigerator. 01, 0¹, regulating cocks. U, U,
perforated diaphragm, or layer of wire gauze, for preventing the
liquid during cbullition passing over with the vapours into the
receiver.
Figure 2, is a sectional elevation of a modification of the appa-
ratus hercin-before described, particularly applicable to the distilla-
tion of fatty matters. Experiments have shewn that the distillation

page_text: of these bodies takes place in a direct ratio to the quantity of
steam injected into them. By means of the present apparatus, I
am enabled to inject steam in as great quantities as may be desired,
with the certainty of its mixing with the fatty bodies which
it reduces to the particular molecular state assumed by acids
obtained by distillation. A, A, is the generator, the under surface
of which is in the shape of the bottom of a bottle; B, B, B, con-
denser, supplied with tepid water, and on the under surface of
which the fatty vapours become condensed; C, C, C, receiver, into
which the condensed vapours fall, and from which they are con-
ducted by the pipe D, D, D, into a refrigerating coil or other
suitable refrigerator, where they are finally condensed; E, E, is an
annular copper pipe, perforated for the escape of steam supplied
through the branch pipes F, F; G, G, is another perforated annular
pipe, through which the fatty matters are forced by a pump or other
suitable means, connected with the supply pipes H, H, and whereby
they are thrown down upon dividing substances in the bottom of
the alembic; J, J, jacket for containing sand for maintaining a
regular heat to the generator; L, L, flues; M, furnace; N, water
supply pipe; O, overflow pipe. The apparatus may be modified by
fixing on the condenser a "head," as in a common still, which may
be made to communicate with a refrigerating apparatus, whereby
fatty acids and spirituous liquids may be distilled in one and the
same apparatus. The spirituous liquids acting as condensing liquid,
and rising at the same time to a degree of temperature necessary
for their distillation, it is of course requisite, in such cases, to act
on bodies which boil at different temperatures.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that
I claim-
First, the distillation of all matters capable of being distilled by
means of apparatus wherein the vapours arising from such matters
are condensed and carried off as rapidly as they are formed, or as
nearly so as may be; and,
Second, I claim the particular arrangement and combination of

page_text: the parts A, B, and C, shewn in the Drawings hereunto annexed
and before described for the distillation of all matters capable of
being distilled.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Constant Boutigny,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day 5
of May, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
BOUTIGNY (d'Evreux) (L.S.)
Fils.