Iм- PROVED APPARATUS FOR EVAPORATING PURPOSES
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Victor Wérotte at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th July
1871.
I, VICTOR WÉROTTE, of Liege, in the Kingdom of Belgium, Manu-
facturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Iм-
PROVED APPARATUS FOR EVAPORATING PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to produce an apparatus in which
the waste waters and liquors resulting from various manufactures may
be evaporated rapidly and economically, and useful chemical products
obtained therefrom.
The apparatus comprises (1) a fire-place for generating heated gas;
(2) a chamber in which soot, cinders, and other solid matters are
deposited; (3) an evaporating chamber; and (4) a drying chamber.
Whenever it is possible to make use of the waste heat or heated gases
or flame from any manufacture or other extraneous source, such as
from the fire-places of boilers, from puddling furnaces, the waste gases
from blast furnaces, or other sources, I prefer as a matter of economy
to employ and utilize such waste heat when it can be conveniently
donc, and I also sometimes employ a regenerative furnace to economize

page_text: the heat, but if these arrangements should be found inconvenient I
combine with my evaporating apparatus a fire-place or fire-places for
the purpose of obtaining the necessary heated gases or flame and thus
render it complete in itself.
In carrying out the Invention I prefer to employ a double or divided
fire-place, the two parts of which are brought into use alternately, to
which end both parts or divisions of the fire-place are provided with
sliding dampers to cut off the draught, and the bridges are perforated
beneath the level of the grate bars to admit air to support the com-
bustion of the gases in the heating chamber beyond. The heated
gases and flame are conducted into another chamber, in which are
constructed division walls or partitions, so as to make the gases take
a serpentine or zig-zag direction and thus cause them to deposit any
cinders, soot, or solid matters that may be carried over from the fire-
places. If clean gases or hot air obtained from a regenerative furnace
be employed as the source of heat of course this chamber will not be
necessary. The gases or hot air may then be conducted direct to the
third or drying chamber, in which is constructed a shallow hearth so
arranged that the heated gases can be directed either over or under
the hearth as may be required. On this hearth are placed the solid
matters obtained from the evaporation or concentration of the liquids
in the next or evaporating chamber. This latter is a long narrow or
shallow chamber divided into three parts by partitions extending from
the roof downwards to a point a little below the level of the liquid
in the chamber. The heated gases pass over the surface of the liquid
and are drawn through the same by the suction of a powerful fan or
other equivalent means, which will draw the heated gases from the
first compartment into the second. By thus passing through the liquid
the gases will part with a great portion of their heat to the liquor and
convert it into steam. The exhausting fan or its equivalent will suck
up the cooled gases together with any steam that may arise by evapo-
ration from the liquor, and will propel them through a spout into the
third division, where they will play upon the surface of the liquor, and
will ultimately pass into the discharge or exit flue where the steam will
be condensed, and the resulting water may be drawn off while the
gaseous products escape into the air. The concentrated liquor or the
solid matter resulting from the evaporation is transferred to the hearth
of the drying chamber, and there submitted to a process of drying or

page_text: incineration. A float is adapted to the surface of the liquor in the
centre compartment of the evaporating chamber, and is connected
by its stem with the cock of a pipe which supplies the liquor (to be
operated upon) to the bottom of the evaporating chamber. As the
liquor descends in the latter the float falls with it and opens the cock
and allows more liquor to flow in until the level rises to its normal
height, when the float will close the cock and cut off the supply.