IMPROVEMENTS IN DISTILLING APPARATUS
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Ambrose Coffey. of 17. Gracechurch Street,
in the City of London. Consulting Engineer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN DISTILLING APPARATUS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Ambrose Coffey at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th May 1865.
T. JOHN AMBROSE COFFEY, of 17, Gracechurch Street, in the City of London,
Consulting Engineer. do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN DISTILLING APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
The object and purpose of my said Invention is to improve the construction
and arrangement of distilling apparatus in such manner that in one and the
same apparatus, when supplied with a substance, substances, or thing to be
subjected to distillation) different products or different qualities of the same
product or products arising at different stages of distillation may be drawn off
at given points of the apparatus, and this without interfering with the progress
of distillation for any other product or products at any other stage or stages.
[Price Sd.]

page_text: In fact, by my apparatus and arrangements I can effect fractional distillation
in a safe and continuous manner.
The details of the apparatus and arrangements which I have up to the
present time found most suitable for the above object and purpose are these:
I have a boiler with a furnace or fire to heat same, or I can adopt gas or other
heat generator (and if it be desired to provide for the conduct of the process
of distillation with extreme regard to safety from explosion, I can place the
furnace or fire in a field or open ground at a distance, and convey the heat
through pipes or ducts to the other part of the apparatus. The boiler aforesaid
is to be supplied with the crude material for distillation, which may be done
in the way I have hitherto thought best to adopt by having a tank or reservoir
from which by means of a pipe the crude material may descend by its own
gravity into a coil in the boiler, which coil I pass through a pyrometer of
great accuracy for the purpose of enabling the exact degree of heat in the
boiler to be read off with speed and precision; and from the pyrometer the
coil is continued on and passes into a distilling chamber in direct communi-
cation with the boiler, in which chamber I use an arrangement of zig-zagged
trays or partitions on which the flattened coil is supported. When the coil
arrives at the topmost tray or partition it discharges itself upon that tray or
partition, and as each tray is in communication with the one beneath, should
there be any accumulation of residuary material not volatilised and passing
off by the still-head, it will pass on to the trays in succession, and either be
evaporated or volatilised in that recess, or finally pass into the boiler; and
waste material or residuum is continually discharging from the boiler by a
syphon or other waste pipe. The materials undergoing distillation are, it
should be observed, not only in the coil but outside it. I also use another
coil (taking the crude material from the main reservoir) at top of the
chamber aforesaid when necessary for the purpose of rectification. The
volatilised material or spirit passes off by the still-head to the condenser.
From each of the sections between the trays or partitions aforesaid I have a
pipe which is carried into the lower part of the condenser case, and is coiled
(with water around); thus I can draw off products at each of the stages
maintained in each of the said sections as desired without interrupting the
continuity of the operation in all or any of its stages.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Ambrose Coffey in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 20th November 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
AMBROSE COFFEY, of 17, Gracechurch Street, in the City of London, Con-
sulting Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing dated the Twentieth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Ambrose Coffey, Her special licence that I, the said John Ambrose
Coffey, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said John Ambrose Coffey, 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 law-
fully 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 DISTILLING APPARATUS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I. the said John Ambrose Coffey, 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 John Ambrose Coffey, 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:-
The object and purpose of my said Invention is to improve the construction
and arrangement of distilling apparatus for effecting what is known as frac-
tional distillation in such manner that in one and the same apparatus (when
supplied with the substance or substances or thing to be distilled) different
products or different qualities of the same product or products arising at
points of the appa-
different stages of distillation may be drawn off at given
ratus, and this without interfering with the progress of distillation or the
arrangement of the apparatus for any other product or products at any
other stage or stages, whereby I am enabled to effect fractional distillation in
a safe and continuous manner in one and the same apparatus.

page_text: And such my Invention is especially applicable and valuable in the dis-
tillation of petroleum, which consists of several volatile oils and unctuous
substances differing in degrees of volatility, and which for certain purposes to
which they are applied are required to be more or less completely separated
from each other and from a substance of the nature of pitch.
In the usual mode of conducting the distillation of petroleum it is put into
an ordinary still, to which the heat of a fire is applied, and when the lem-
perature of the liquid in the still rises to about 180° Fahr. a volatile oil or
spirit comes over, this being the most volatile constituent of the petroleum or
that which has the lowest boiling point, and as the distillation proceeds the
temperature at which distillation occurs gradually rises, and distilled products
are obtained which are less and less volatile until at last it reaches 500° or 600°,
or more, at which the least volatile products or those having the highest
boiling points are obtained; but when these "heavy oils," as they are called
have been brought over by the application of a high temperature there remains
a residue of thick tar, or pitch, or coke in the still which must be removed
before a fresh portion of the petroleum can be operated upon.
Now my Invention provides efficient means by which the distillation can be
continued without the interruption caused by the removal of the residual tar,
pitch, or coke from the still, and by which the several fractional products
can be obtained simultaneously and continuously.
The apparatus and arrangement by which I obtain these results are also
applicable and valuable in the distillation of other substances besides petro-
leum, whose several products are required to be obtained by what is called
fractional distillation.
As regards the nature of my said Invention whereby I effectuate the
objects and purposes aforesaid, I have a boiler provided with a furnace or
fire to heat the same, or (in lieu thereof) I can adopt gas or other heat
generator (and if it be desired to provide for the conduct of the process of
distillation with extreme regard to safety from explosion, 1 can place the
furnace or fire in a field or open ground at a distance, and convey the heat
through pipes or ducts) to the apparatus.
For keeping up the supply of the crude or raw material or thing to be
distilled make use of a tank or reservoir placed at such altitude and position
that the crude material to be distilled may upon opening and shutting a stop-
cock or valve descend by its own gravity into a coil in the boiler, which coil I
either pass through a pyrometer of great accuracy, or I use such a pyrometer
in connection with the said coil in the manner shewn by the Drawing, and
hereafter described in reference thereto; by means of which pyrometer so

page_text: placed in connection as aforesaid I am enabled to read off the exact degree
of heat in the boiler with readiness and precision. From or near to the
pyrometer the coil is produced or continued, and passes into a continuous
fractional distilling chamber (or system of chambers) in direct communication
with the boiler. This chamber or system of chambers is made up of an
arrangement of trays or partitions on which the coil laid flat thereon is supported.
The coil is continued from one tray or partition to another tray or partition
throughout the whole series or system till it reaches the topmost, and there
it discharges its contents, and as each tray or compartment is in communication
with the one beneath, by means of a duct in the centre or other part thereof,
should there be any accumulation of residuary material or substance not
volatilised and passing off by the still-head it will pass into the trays or par-
titions in succession, and either be evaporated or volatilised on the partitions or
partition of some or one of them, or finally pass into the boiler. Waste
material or residuum is discharged from the boiler by a wasie pipe or syphon.
The material undergoing distillation is (it should be observed) not only
inside the coil but also outside it. The volatilised material or spirit (not
drawn off at intermediate points, passes off by the still-head to the refrigerator
or condenser, and from each of the sections or chambers between the trays or
partitions aforesaid I have a pipe carried into the lower part of tlie condenser
or refrigerator or other suitable receptacle for condensation or refrigeration,
and this pipe is coiled therein and surrounded with water or cooling liquid, by
which means can draw off different products or qualities at each of the
stages of the said sections or chambers as desired. without stopping the con-
tinuity of the operation at all or any of the stages, thus effecting continuous
fractional distillation.
That the details of my apparatus may be readily understood I have annexed
a Sheet of Drawings to these Presents.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
A denotes the boiler, with furnace or fire beneath the same: A', stirrer or
agitator to be used therein (Figure II., shewing plan view thereof); B, pipe
conveying crude material into a coil C in the boiler, the material either
descending by its own gravity as aforesaid, or being forced in by means of an
ordinary force pump, as shewn on the Drawing: D, pyrometer, one end of
which is in the boiler, the dial being outside thereof; E, distilling chamber
or system of chambers proceeding from the top of the boiler. a denotes the
coil pipes, and b small pipes for discharging refuse from one tray to another,
F denoting the trays or partitions on which a flat part of the coil is supported,

page_text: the section of this flat part of the coil being shewn by the small circles; G,
still-head; H, pipe leading to a refrigerator or condenser, which is dis-
chargeable at the point H; I, another condenser or refrigerator; K denote
pipes from the distilling chambers or compartments leading to condensing
worms in connection with said pipes (K), the said worms being situate in
the condenser or refrigerator I aforesaid, and being surrounded with cold
water or cooling media; L, drawing-off pipes with stop-cocks; M, pipe pro-
ceeding from the bottom of the boiler, the crude stuff or material therein
rising in the upright transparent portion thereof, so as to shew the level in the
boiler.
Figure 2, horizontal section or plan on line Z. Z. of boiler (Figure I.);
Figure 3, plan or horizontal section on line at Figure 1.; Figure 4, plan or
horizontal section on line M, M, at Figure I.; Figure 5, plan or horizontal
section on line R, R, of Figure I.
If it should be thought desirable the Invention in the following modified form
may be adopted for the distillation of petroleum or other such like substances:
I have, as already described, a boiler or heating bath charged with some of
the least volatile of the heavy oils obtained in the distillation of petroleum;
or, in place of this, it may contain a fusible metal, or salt, or any substance
which remains liquid at the temperature required to be applied. In the
distillation of petroleum the temperature will be between 500° and 600°
Fahrenheit, and the least volatile of the oils of petroleum can be used with
advantage for charging the vessel. In the said boiler or heating bath, and
suspended a few inches from the bottom, there is a coil of iron pipe, as before
described, which by an extension communicates with a force pump and a tank
containing a liquid to be used as a heat carrier; another extension of the
pipe passes through the distilling chambers, which are similar, save as here-
after described, to those herein-before described and shewn by the Drawing.
These distilling chambers, however, are most conveniently and economically
made of cast iron, being all similarly formed, and upon the bottom of each
there is a channel, through which the liquid to be distilled runs in a zig-zag
direction, and the pipe already referred io passing from the boiler or heating
chamber lies in the bottom of this channel, running the entire length of it.
and passes upwards to another chamber, and thus through the whole series.
The liquid running through the aforesaid channel passes through an opening
and a tube into the chamber beneath, where it enters below the surface of the
liquid there. and it thus passes through the whole series of chambers or
through any number of chambers that may be required. In each of these
chambers there is a ledge projecting from the sides a few inches above the

page_text: surface of the liquid contained in the zig-zag cliannel, and any condensed
vapour collected in the groove formed by this ledge passes, together with
uncondensed vapour, into a pipe communicating with a refrigerator. The
extension pipe, after passing through the channels of the distilling chambers
(which are those nearest to the boiler or heating bath), passes upwards into
another series of similarly formed chambers, which 1 term heating chambers,
and is discharged into the open channels of the uppermost of these, and
passing from chamber to chamber of these heating chambers it finally runs
out into the tank herein-before mentioned provided for its reception, from
whence it is forced back again by the force pump, thus forming a continuous
circulation. The crude liquid to be distilled is contained in another tank, and
it is allowed to run by its own gravity through the pipe which passes to and
lies in the channels of the upper or heating chambers, and it is then dis-
charged into the zig-zag channels of the distilling chambers below, where it
undergoes distillation. The boiler or heating bath is to be charged with the
liquid which is to be the medium for communicating heat to the heating pipe,
and thus being heated by the furnace to a temperature of 550° or 600°, the
liquid contained in the first-mentioned tank is to be sent. by means of a force
pump, through the coil in the boiler, where it will become heated. also through
the heating pipes in the distilling chambers, until after passing through the
heating chambers, as already described. it is finally conveyed back into the
tank to be used over again. This liquid serves as a carrier of heat to the
distilling chambers and to the heating chambers. It passes into the lowest of
these chambers at its highest temperature, and losing heat as it travels
onwards it enters each succeeding chamber at a lower temperature than that
at which it entered the preceding one, and when it has thus been reduced to a
iemperature at which it is no longer capable of volatilizing any of the con-
stituents of the petroleum it should be made to pass into the heating chambers,
and be transferred there to the open channels, where its remaining heat will
serve to heat the petroleum running from the tank through the pipe. This
petroleum thus heated will enter the open channels of the distilling chambers,
where, by contact with the hot pipe, it will give off its most volatile parts,
which will pass through the tube to the refrigerator. After passing over the
whole length of the hot pipe lying in the zig-zag channel of the upper distilling
chamber, that which remains of the petroleum will pass through the tube into
the chamber beneath, where it will be subjected to the action of a higher
temperature, and will give off such of its constituents as volatilize at this
temperature, which, as in the previous instance, will pass to the condenser of
this chamber, and will constitute the second fractional product of the process,

page_text: In this way the petroleum will pass from chamber to chamber, and be exposed
to a gradually increased temperature as it proceeds, until it is so far deprived
of its volatile parts that it may be allowed to escape into a suitable receptacle
in the form of thick tar or fluid pitch. The number of chambers to be used
as distilling chambers and as heating chambers, and the rapidity with which
the liquid from the tank is made to circulate through the coil and the heating
pipe, as well as the quantity of crude material operated upon, should be so
adjusted that the lowest distilling chamber shall have a temperature of not
less than 500°, and the highest distilling chamber a temperature of not more
than 190°.
In the distillation of other liquids besides petroleum it may be necessary to
vary the arrangement, so that the upper distilling chamber shall have the
temperature required for the volatilization of the most volatile constituents of
such liquid, while the lowest or bottom distilling chamber shall have the
temperature required for volatilizing the least volatile of the required products,
and these results can be regulated in the manner already indicated, for it will
be readily understood that by increasing (within certain limits) the rapidity
with which the liquid from the tank is forced through the coil in the heating
bath, and made to circulate through the distilling chambers, the amount
of heat carried into these will be increased while increasing the flow of
the liquid from the tank containing the crude material through the apparatus
the heat will be more rapidly absorbed and the temperature of the chambers
reduced. The number of chambers used both as distilling chambers and as
heating chambers may be varied according to the nature of the liquid submitted
to distillation and the nature of the required products, the object being to
adjust the arrangement so that the liquid to be distilled shall be heated up to
or near the lowest point of volatilization in passing through the heating
chambers, and that all the required products of distillation shall be distilled
off during its passage through the distilling chambers. In the distillation of
petroleum and other analogous substances, such as coal tar, I prefer to usc
some of the least volatile of the distilled products of these substances for
charging the boiler or heating bath, and also for circulating through the coil
and heating pipes, and these oils while used for the latter purpose will be
deprived of any of the more volatile oils they may retain, and while used for
the former purpose they will give up some of the less volatile of the oils or
unctuous producis, for the collection of which provision is made. But while
in the cases referred to I prefer to operate in the manner indicated, there
are other cases in which, as already stated, it may be found advantageous to
use a fusible metal, or a fusible salt, or both together, in the heating bath,

page_text: and in which either water or steam used under pressure or superheated steam
may be made to circulate through the coil and heating pipes. If water or
steam be thus used as the heat carrier, it will be necessary to modify the
arrangement, to omit the heating chambers at the top of the column, and to
let the water or steam pass out from the heating pipe through a valve, by
which the pressure, and thereby the heat, may be regulated. In the event of
steam being thus used the force pump may also be omitted, and the steam
supplied directly from a steam boiler either under pressure or otherwise.
When heavy oil of petroleum or other analogous substance is used in the
boiler or heating bath, and the same liquid is made to circulate through the
coil and pipes, the arrangement may be modified in the following way:-The
coil may be omitted and the force pump may be made to force the liquid from
the upper part of the contents of the heating bath through the heating pipes,
this liquid returning to the bath and entering in its partially cooled state
through a pipe at the bottom.
The modus operandi just described applies (generally as far as differences of
construction will allow) to the apparatus shewn by the Drawings as well as to
the modification of the apparatus lastly described.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I hereby declare
that I claim as my Invention the improvements in distilling apparatus relating
to the improved constructions and arrangements herein set forth in regard to
the distillatory portions of such apparatus, it being understood that I do not
claim any of the mechanical details thereof per se, and apart from the
purposes of my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Ambrose Coffey, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
0 Witness,
WILLIAM WALKER,
Architect,
17, Gracechurch Street.
IN A.
(L.S.)