IMPROVEMENTS IN CENTRIFUGAL APPARATUS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Thomson, of Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire,
Sugar Refiner, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CENTRIFUGAL
APPARATUS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR."
Sealed the 22nd August 1854, and dated the 24th June 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Thomson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th
June 1854.
I, JOHN THOMSON, of Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire, Sugar Refiner,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
CENTRIFUGAL APPARATUS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR" to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object better means of applying water or cleansing
liquid to sugar when being subjected to centrifugal action; and the Invention
consists of constructing centrifugal apparatus or machinery with a compart-
ment at or near the centre, and of filling the same with fibrous or other
absorbent matter to receive or absorb water or other cleansing fluid, and to
part with it by the centrifugal action of the machine, by which means the
fluid will be presented to and will pass amongst the sugar in a highly divided
state.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Thomson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 20th
December 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
THOMSON, of Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire, Sugar Refiner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of June, in the year of our Lord
Ono thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Thomson, Her special licence that I, the said John Thomson,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
John Thomson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any timo
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
CENTRIFUGAL APPARATUS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said John Thomson, 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 six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Thomson, 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) :-
This Invention has for its object better means of applying water or cleansing
liquid to sugar when being subjected to centrifugal action; and the Invention
consists of constructing centrifugal apparatus or machinery with a compart-
ment at or near the centre, and of filling the same with fibrous or other
absorbent matter to receive or absorb water or other cleansing fluid, and to
part with it by the centrifugal action of the machine, by which means the
fluid will be presented to and will pass amongst the sugar in a highly divided
state.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed to
describe the manner of performing the same.
Various arrangements and forms of centrifugal apparatus have now for a
long time been used for separating fluids from sugar and for cleansing sugar,

page_text: and the same are well known. In some of such apparatus, means of applying
syrup water or other cleansing liquids to the sugar have been employed when
such apparatus have been at work, and I mention these facts, in order to state
that I do not claim the use of syrup water or other cleansing fluids when
working to cleanse sugar by centrifugal apparatus; my Invention consisting
of means of causing such cleansing fluids to be applied under more favorable
circumstances, and this I do by introducing fibrous or other absorbent matters
near the centre of such apparatus, in such manner that the absorbent matter,
having taken up a quantity of cleansing fluid, that fluid shall, by the rotation
of the centrifugal apparatus, be gradually separated from the absorbent matter,
and applied to cleanse the sugar in the centrifugal apparatus under more
favorable circumstances than has heretofore been done; and this arises from
the circumstance that fluid, thus separated by centrifugal action from ab-
sorbent materials, will, in flying off from the absorbent materials, be infinitely
more finely divided than can result from the simple interposition of fine wire
cloth or perforated metal between the cleansing fluid and the sugar to be
operated on thereby. For this purpose it is preferred to construct the central
portions of centrifugal apparatus or machines with a compartment or compart-
ments, in such manner as to admit of a cylinder or other form of vessel
(containing absorbent matters) being introduced into and readily removed
from the centrifugal apparatus or machine. But it is not essential that the
cylinder or instrument containing the absorbent matters should be made to
separate from the centrifugal machine, if convenient means be provided for
saturating the absorbent matters contained in the central compartment or
compartments. I, however, prefer that the cylinder or other form of vessel or
instrument used to contain the porous or absorbent matters should be readily
moveable, so that when one cylinder has been exhausted of fluid it may be
replaced by another cylinder wherein the absorbent or porous matters are
saturated. The vessel containing the porous matter is, at its outer periphery
or surface, to be made with wire cloth or wire work, or it may be made with
perforated metal, so as, on the one hand, to retain the absorbent matters
securely, and admit of their being closely packed in the interior, and yet, on
the other hand, to admit of as free passage as may be to the infinitely
divided fluid thrown off by the centrifugal action of the apparatus. The
absorbent matter I prefer to use is the fibre of flax or hemp, though other
matters may be employed, and I cause such matters to be closely packed and
pressed into the vessel or instrument. The vessel or instrument containing
the absorbent matters is to be fixed in the centrifugal apparatus, taking care
that the means of receiving and fixing of such vessel in the centre part of a

page_text: centrifugal apparatus do not cover up the reticulate surface of the periphery
of such vessel. By such means, when a centrifugal apparatus is charged and
set to work, the sugar will be in the space between the outer periphery of the
vessel containing the absorbent matters and the outer circumference of the
centrifugal apparatus or machine, and the cleansing fluid contained amongst
the absorbent materials will, by the rotation of the apparatus, be given off in a
very highly divided state, and consequently will be more favorably applied to
the sugar than heretofore.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I make no claim to the
construction or use of centrifugal machinery employed for the purposes herein
described, nor do I, in carrying out my Invention, confine myself to any
particular form of such apparatus; but what I claim is, the applying in centri-
fugal apparatus a suitable vessel or instrument with suitable absorbent matters
to contain water or cleansing fluid, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Thomson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
0;
GEO. HARDMAN,
Flour Dealer,
Birkenhead.
JOHN THOMSON. L.8.