IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF SACCHARINE MATTERS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Oxland, of Plymouth, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF SACCHARINE MATTERS."
Sealed the 27th March 1860, and dated the 29th September 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Oxland at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 29th
September 1859.
I, ROBERT OXLAND, of Plymouth, do hereby declare the nature of the
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF SACCHARINE MATTERS," to be
as follows:-
My improvements in the treatment of saccharine matters consist in the
employment of sulphurous acid as a bleaching agent, either alone or in aid of
the decolorizing power of animal charcoal. For this purpose I mix gaseous
or liquid sulphurous acid with the saccharine solution at from 25° to 35°
Beaumé, and then evaporate it in the usual manner, to the desired strength.
The process is more especially applicable to solutions, such as those of treacle
or patent syrup, which are not required to be converted into the crystalline
form, although with care it may be advantageously employed in the treatment
of solutions of sugar intended for crystallization.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Oxland in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
29th March 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
OXLAND, of Plymouth, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Robert Oxland, Her special licence that I, the said Robert Oxland,
niy executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Robert Oxland, my executors, administrators, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE TREATMENT OF SACCHARINE MATTERS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Robert Oxland, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Oxland, do bereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the follow-
ing statement thereof, that is to say:-
My improvements in the treatment of saccharine matters consist in the
employment of sulphurous acid as a bleaching agent, either alone or in aid of
the decolorizing power of animal charcoal. For this purpose. I mix gaseous or
liquid sulphurous acid with the saccharine solution at from 25° to 35° Beaumé
and then evaporate it in the usual manner to the desired strength. The process
is more especially applicable to solutions such as those of treacle or patent
syrup which are not required to be converted into the crystalline form, although
with care it may be advantageously employed in the treatment of solutions of
sugar intended for crystallization.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, I will proceed more fully to
describe the manner of performing the same.

page_text: My improvements, as above stated, consist in the treatment of saccharine
matters, more particularly such as treacle, patent syrup; or golden syrup,
with
sulphurous acid as a bleaching agent, either alone or in aid of the decolorizing
and defecating power of animal charcoal. Having prepared a solution of the
syrups, at 30° Beaumé, by blowing up and by filtering through bag filters, I
pass the solution over charcoal in the ordinary manner of refining sugars. The
cold syrups
I expose to the action of sulphurous acid in the apparatus, and in
the manner which will be more readily understood by reference to the annexed
Drawing.
A is a cast-iron sulphur burner, similar to that commonly employed in the
manufacture of sulphuric acid produced by the combustion of sulphur. The
products obtained in this burner pass off by the pipe on the top to the column B,
constructed by preference of lead or of glazed stoneware pipes, filled with large
rough pieces of coke or of pumicestone; through the perforated cover on the
top a small stream of water in a shower is supplied, so as to moisten the coke
or pumicestone, to cool the gas and to cause any sulphuric acidat may be
present to be condensed. The water collects in the receiver D at the foot of
the column, whence it is removed as may be necessary. The sulphurous acid
passing down and through the junction (6), as shown by the arrows, enters the
foot of the larger column C, which is constructed by preference of glazed stone-
ware pipes filled loosely with large pieces of pumice stone, and standing in a
cistern E. A perforated plate f is placed on the top of the pumice stone, and
the top of the pipe is covered with another plate 9, having small holes in it to
allow of the entry of the syrup supplied in a slowly running steady stream from
the cistern H. In the centre of the cover, a pipe two to three inches in diameter,
is fitted of convenient length. From six to eight inches below the mouth of
this pipe, and through the side of it is fitted a small steam pipe G, in connection
with a steam boiler with a jet looking upward, and in the centre of the pipe.
A charge of sulphur having been put into the burner and set on fire, the
necessary draught is produced and regulated by a jet of steam so as to issue
from the mouth of the pipe F. Water having been supplied to the small
column the syrup is supplied to the larger column. In passing over the
pumicestone it readily combines with the sulphurous acid gas passing upwards
against it; the decolorized syrup is collected in the receiver E, from which it
is taken for further operation.
If a very pale syrup is required, the whole of the syrup to be operated upon
may be passed through the column, but a very good syrup may be produced
by the admixture of two to four per cent. of the syrup saturated with sulphurous
acid, with the syrup which has been passed over animal charcoal. The desired

page_text: color having been obtained, the solution may then be evaporated to the density
of ordinary treacle or syrup of commerce, either in the open pan or in the
vacuum pan in the ordinary manner.
I would remark, that I do not confine myself to the details shown and
described; but what I claim is the use of sulphurous acid as a bleaching agent
on the saccharine matters, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Oxland, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
ROBERT OXLAND. (L.S.)