IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- FACTURE OF SUGAR
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lanc, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical
Draughtsman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF SUGAR." A communication from abroad by F. O.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent
Newton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 5th April 1875
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 60, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to effect an economy in the process of
refining sugar. The syrup is run into the vacuum pan and submitted to
heat in the ordinary manner until crystals of the desired size are formed.
The contents of the pan (consisting at this stage of the manufacture of

page_text: crystals floating in a medium of syrup) are then run out through a cock
or valve in the bottom thereof into a separate vacuum chamber, where a
further concentration is effected before submitting the sugar to the
clarifying operation.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 2nd October 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing dato the Fifth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her
special licence that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, 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 MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR,” being a
communication to me from abroad by F. O. Matthiessen, of New York,
United States of America, upon the condition (amongst others) that I
the said Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 sıx
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.

page_text: the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement (that is to say) :—
In the ordinary process of refining sugar the raw sugar, or concrete
as it is sometimes called, is clarified, and the resulting sugar liquor is
repeatedly boiled in vacuo, and after each boiling the crystallized sugar
is mechanically separated from the syrup. The reheating of the syrup
in the vacuum pan exposes it to continued carbonization, and the respec-
tive products of the successive boilings are accordingly of increasingly
dark colors and lower grades. After the last boiling and separation there
still remains a portion of fluid, which has to be barreled and marketed
as syrup.
Now the process communicated to me by my foreign correspondent
includes the boiling of the clarified sugar liquor in the vacuum pan until
the usual crystallization has takon place, but instead of mechanically
separating the crystals and reboiling the syrup the entire contents of the
vacuum pan arc discharged directly into a vacuum chamber, where the
hot syrup containing the crystallized portion of the sugar is divided up
or spread over a large surface and subjected to a gentle heat, and the
consequence of which is a prolongation of the processes of evaporation
and crystallization. These processes are preferably conducted to a con-
clusion in vacuo, but the saccharino matter may be removed from the
vacuum chamber after partial treatment therein, and be further heated in
the open air. In either event the treatment is prolonged until the
material operated upon has lost its fluid character and acquired the con-
dition of a granular mass, substantially like what is known as "coffee
sugar," the slight portion of syrup present being adherent to the sugar
crystals.
The heat of the syrup itself as it comes from the vacuum pan is
adequate to effect the required degree of evaporation in the vacuum
chamber if the material operated upon be sufficiently divided up, as for
example, if it be injected into a suitably high vacuum chamber in the
form of spray.
A moderate application of heat will be required when the syrup, &c.,
is deposited in pans or trays in the vacuum chamber, or when the process
is completed in the open air, or when the syrup, &c., is allowed to cool
and harden before being introduced into the vacuum chamber, but the
temperature must not in any event be allowed to rise above two hundred

page_text: and twelve degrees Fahrenheit, and it is preferable not to allow the
temperature in the vacuum chamber to rise above one hundred and
twenty degrees Fahrenheit.
The saccharine matter instead of being discharged from the vacuum
pan directly into the vacuum chamber may be discharged into moulds
and allowed to cool and harden therein. In this case the sugar mass is
removed from the mould and thoroughly disintegrated by a shaving or
scraping operation Being thus disintegrated it is deposited in the trays
in the vacuum chamber, where the desired heat is applied, and the
operation proceeds as before, converting the entire material operated upon :
into so-called coffee sugar.
It will be seen that the distinctive characteristic of the Invention is
the-subjection of the entire product of the boiling in the vacuum pan to
prolonged evaporation primarily in vacuo, and thence there is a con-
tinuity of operation in respect of the avoidance of repeated boiling and
re-exposure of the sugar to carbonization.
The improved process may be applied to the syrup, &c., produced by
the first boiling of the sugar liquor or to the product of either of the
subsequent boilings, the result in all cases being the production from the
material operated upon by the improved process of one uniform grade of
sugar and the utilization of all the sugar present, so that there is no
fluid remainder and no loss by reason of having to market a portion of
the
in the form of syrup.
sugar
In conducting the improved process the Inventor has boiled down the
sugar liquor in the vacuum pan until it contained but eight per cent of
Water Ordinarily the water left in the material discharged from the
vacuum pan ranges from eight to fourteen per cent When, however,
the syrup and crystallized sugar are boiled down in the vacuum pan until
about eight per cent of water is present, and the product is discharged
directly into the trays of the vacuum chamber at a temperature of one
hundred and seventy degrees Fahrenheit, it takes but hall an hour to
complete the operation in the vacuum chamber.
"
If fourteen per cent of water is left in the saccharine matter and it is
discharged from the vacuum pan directly into the trays at a temperature
of one hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit it requires about an hour
and a half to complete the operation in the vacuum chamber. On the
contrary, if the product of the vacuum pan is allowed to cool and harden

page_text: before being introduced into the trays a delay of from twelve to twenty-
four hours ensues, principally because of the time occupied in the
cooling process and in the disintegrating operation. Some additional
time will also be required in the vacuum chamber to bring up the tem-
perature of the material operated upon to the point when the desired
evaporation will take place.
It will be found that when the latter mode of conducting the process
is adopted the sugar will have a somewhat freer grain than it has when
it is discharged from the vacuum pan directly into the trays without
being allowed to cool and without being mechanically disintegrated, but
either mode of conducting the process results in the production of a
single uniform grade of so-called coffee sugar.
Пaving now set forth the nature of the Invention of "Improvements
in the Manufacture of Sugar," as communicated to me by my foreign
correspondent, and explained the manner of carrying the same into
effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited
Letters Patent I claim the improved process of refining sugar hercin
described, which consists, in addition to the ordinary boiling of the
claufied sugar liquor in the vacuum pan, in dividing up or spreading the
syrup and crystallized sugar removed from the vacuum pan into thin
layers or otherwise, and subjecting the same so divided up to a process of
gentle evaporation conducted primarily in vacuo, but prolonged until
sufficient water has been expelled from the material operated upon to
convert it into a granular mass as set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Fifteenth day of September,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-