Improvements in Treating or Purifying Paraffin Wax, and in Apparatus therefor.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 11th July, 1891
Complete Specification Left, 9th Apr., 1892-Accepted, 14th May, 1892
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Treating or Purifying Paraffin Wax, and in
Apparatus therefor.
1, NORMAN MACFARLANE HENDERSON, of Broxburu, in the County of
Linlithgow, North Britain, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows, that is to say :—
My said' invention has for its object to diminish the cost of plant and labor, in
treating or purifying paraffin wax, and to simplify the apparatus and improve its
action.
In carrying out my present invention I prefer to employ sweating apparatus.of
the kind described in my Patent Specification, No. 1291 of 1887; my present
improvements are however also applicable with other kinds of such apparatus.
The crude paraffin wax having been treated in the ordinary way in a filter press,
80 as to separate from it a large portion of the oil mixed with it, is by my present
invention at once melted and run into the sweating apparatus, without being first
operated on, as ordinarily practised, in hydraulic presses for the purpose of
separating more of the oil or liquid. After the paraffin wax has solidified in the
sweating apparatus, and after the water upon which it was run has been drawn off,
the sweating heat is applied, the temperature being raised in a gradual manner as
heretofore, but the heat is kept for a longer time than heretofore at about
80 degrees, Fahrenheit, in order that the larger quantity of oil in the paraffin wax,
may be drained off, before the temperature raised to the maximum usual for the
first sweating stage.
In my former sweating apparatus the paraffin wax, was supported in trays upon
wire gauze or perforated sheet metal covered with a suitable woven fabric or felt.
The wire gauze or sheet metal used was comparatively coarse or open its office
being simply to support the cloth or felt. By my present invention dispensc
with the cloth or felt, which is liable to become choked with impurities, and I
have the paraffin wax supported on wire gauze of a suitable fineness, say having
about sixteen meshes to the inch, or on perforated sheet metal of corresponding or
suitable fineness.
DL:
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EDMUND HUNT,
Applicant's Agent,
Per pro David Ferguson.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Treating or Purifying Paraffin Wax, and in
Apparatus therefor.
1, NORMAN MACFARLANE HENDERSON, of Broxburn, in the County of
Linlithgow, North Britain, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described aud
ascertained in and by the following statement, that is to say :-
My said invention has for its object to diminish the cost of plant and labor, in
treating or purifying paraffin wax, and to simplify the apparatus and improve its
action.
In carrying out my present invention 1 prefer to employ sweating apparatus to
some extent of the kind described in my Patent Specification No. 1291 of 1887;
my present improvements are however also applicable with other kinds of such
D '
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page_text: .
apparatus. The crude paraffin wax having been treated in the ordinary way in a
filter press, so as to separate from it a large portion of the oil mixed with it, is by
my present invention at once melted and run into the sweating apparatus, without
being first operated on, as ordinarily practised, in hydraulic presses for the purpose
of separating more of the oil or liquid. After the paraffin wax has solidified in the
sweating apparatus, and after the water upon which it was run has been drawn off,
the sweating heat is applied, the temperature being raised in a gradual manner as
heretofore, but the heat is kept for a longer time than heretofore at about
80 degrees, Fahrenheit, in order that the larger quantity of oil in the paraffin wax,
may be drained off, before the temperature is raised to the maximum usual for the
first sweating stage.
In my former sweating apparatus the paraffin wax was supported in trays upon
wire gauze or perforated sheet metal covered with woven fabric or felt. The wire
gauze or sheet metal used was comparatively coarse or open, its office being simply
to support the cloth or felt. By my present invention I dispense with the cloth
or felt, which is liable to become choked with impurities, and I have the puraffin
wax supported on wire gauze of a suitable fineness, say having about sixteen
meshes to the inch, or on perforated sheet metal of corresponding or suitable
fineness.
And in order that my said invention and the manner of performing the same may
be properly understood I hereunto append two sheets of explanatory drawings to be
hereinafter referred to and representing paraffin sweating apparatus as made with
my present improvements.
Figures, 1, and 2, on Sheet, 1, of the drawings are a sectional plan and a sectional
side elevation showing the general arrangement of the apparatus; and
Figures, 3, and 4, on Sheet, 2, are enlarged views showing in plan and in
sectional side elevation the construction of the sweating pans and accessory
parts.
In these drawings the same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like
parts wherever they are repeated.
The sweating apparatus is arranged in a horizontally elongated chamber, 5,
constructed with brick or stone walls and a suitable roof, and fitted for being heated
by steam or hot-water pipes, 6. According to the size of the establishment, the
apparatus comprises one or more vertical series of trays, 7, each series comprising
nine or other convenient number of trays one over the other. Figure, 2, shows the
lower trays of one vertical series and portions of those of the next series, Figure, 1,
being a corresponding sectional plan. Besides the heating pipes, 6, ranged along
the sides of the chamber, 5, there are transverse heating pipes, 8, under each tray,
these pipes serving also to carry the trays and being fixed in vertical standards, 9.
The outer ends of the transverse heating pipes, 8, are connected in series by short
longitudinal pipes, 10, the several sets receiving their supplies from standard
pipes, 11, and discharging into other standard pipes, 12.
The paraffin wax is in a melted state when charged into the trays, 7, being
floated upon water which is supplied to the trays by standard pipes, 13, fitted with
stopcocks. The melted wax is fed into the topmost trays of each vertical series
from melting tanks not shown in the present drawings but of a kind described or
referred to in my earlier Specification hereinbefore referred to, and it overflows
from each tray to the next lower one until all of a series are charged. The level
of the water in the trays, 7, is at the height of diaphragms or strainers with which
the trays are provided and it prevents the melted wax from running through the
strainers. When the trays have been charged the wax is allowed to congeal and
then the water is run off from under it; and after the withdrawal of the water the
sweating heat is applied. The bottoms of the trays communicate by short pipes, 28,
with swivelling nozzles, 14, fitted to a standard, 15, and constructed with wormwheel
teeth on their necks so that they can be turned by worms on a vertical shaft, 16,
having a handwheel, 17, at its upper end, an arrangement allowing all the swivelling
nozzles, 14, of a vertical series of trays to be turned at once. The liquids separated

page_text: from the wax are drained off through the swivelling nozzles, 14, into cups or
hoppers, 18, fitted to standard pipes, 19, which lead them into inclined pipes, 20,
through which they pass to suitable receptacles. When the sweating operation is
complete the remaining wax is melted and run off through the same nozzles, 14, and
pipes, 19, 20, into other receptacles.
The construction of the trays, 7, with their diaphragms or strainers will be.best
understood from Figures, 3, and 4, Sheet, 2. Instead of comparatively short narrow
trays arranged transversely I now arrange them longitudinally making their width
about the same as the former leugth, and their length considerably greater, thus
very much simplifying the construction, diminishing the number of fittings, lessening
the cost, and reducing the labor required. Each tray is made of sheet iron or steel,
the upper parts, with which the wax is chiefly in contact being lined with wood, 21.
The diaphragms consist each of a frame made of tubes, 22, preferably brass, united
at the corners by right-angle pieces fixed into the tube ends. On each frame, 22,
are fixed longitudinally and transversely strong wires, 23, about 2 inches apart, as
shown at the right-hand side of Figure, 3, the wires being fixed by bending round
the tubes, 22, and brazing or soldering. Upon the wires, 23, wire gauze, 24, is laid
as shown at the left-hand side of Figure, 3, being fixed by lacing with wire round
the tubes, 22. The diaphragms are supported by longitudinal bars, 25, which have
studs, 26, fixed in them to rest on the bottom of the tray, and which are kept in
position and additionally supported by transverse tie bars, 27, the ends of which are
turned down to rest on the bottom of the tray. The trays, 7, are made with their
bottoms slightly inclined down to one side, the discharge pipes, 28, being fitted at
one end of the lower side. At about the middles of these sides of the trays, 7, at
which the bottoins or lower, overflow, ducts, 29, are constructed, for the melted wax
to pass on from each tray, as it becomes filled, to the next lower tray.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :
1 The construction and combination of parts, constituting as a whole my
improved apparatus for treating or purifying paraffin wax, substantially as herein-
before described.
2-The improved construction of diaphragm or strainer with fine wire gauze or
fine perforated sheet metal substantially as hereinbefore described.
3 In treating or purifying paraffin wax subjecting it without previously
applying hydraulic pressure to it, to a modified sweating process in which it is
kept for a suitable time at a moderate temperature of about 80 degrees Fahrenheit
before the temperature is raised to the usual maximum substantially as herein-
before described.
Dated this Seventh day of April 1892
EDMUND HUNT,
Applicant's Agent.