CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF EXPELLING MOLASSUS OR SYRUP FROM SUGARS
Year: 1816

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN HAGUE,
of Great Pearl Street, Spitalfields, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day of
July, in the fifty-sixth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
John Hague, my exors, adññors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Hague, my exors, adiñňors,
and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of years therein
mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE METHOD OF EXPELLING MOLASSUS OR SYRUP FROM SUGARS;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, that if I, the said John Hague,
shall not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent,
and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease,
determine, and become void, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto
bad) may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Hague, do hereby declare that my Invention consists in expelling the
molasses from sugar, by occasioning a pressure of the atmosphere on a surface
of the sugar, and this I do, either by withdrawing the air from the under sur-
face, or by compressing the air on the upper surface of the sugar; when I do
it by the first method, that of withdrawing the air from the under surface, I
make use of a trough or box (open at the top), either square, round, or any
other proper shape. I prefer having it larger at top than at bottom, in order
that, when the sugar shrinks by the expulsion of the molasses, it may, by
sinking, keep tight round the sides, and thereby prevent the rapid passage of
the air between the sugar and the sides of the trough or box. In this trough
or box, at a few inches or any proper height from its real bottom, I put a false
bottom, made of any proper material (but I prefer sheet copper) and thickly
perforated with small holes, on this false bottom I place a cloth or web, made
of hair or some other material, and on the cloth or web I
put the sugar that
is to be operated upon, which I previously moisten regularly with water, lime-
water, or some other liquid. To the real bottom or sides of the above-described
trough or box I fix one end of a pipe or tube, the other end of which I fix to
the upper side or some other part of a receiving vessel, placed at a convenient
distance below the trough or box; this receiving vessel I furnish with a cock
or some other contrivance, for the convenience of drawing off the molasses
when desirable or necessary. From some part of the above-described pipe
or tube I branch off a tubular arm, which leads to an air pump, fixed at
any distance from the already described apparatus. The construction of
an air
pump is so well understood by mechanical persons that it needs not here
being more particularly described. The operation by this method is as follows:
Having prepared the sugar by moistening it with water or some liquid, as
before described, I then spread it about three inches deep, or any other
proper depth, all over the cloth or web that covers the false bottom of the
trough or box, taking care that the sugar comes close to the sides of the
trough or box all round; next, by means of a water-wheel, windmill, steam
engine, animal strength, or other power, I set the air pump to work, which
partially exhausts the air from the other parts of the apparatus; a partial
vacum being thus formed underneath the false bottom of the trough or box,
the pressure of the atmosphere, and the passage of the air through the sugar
separates, and expels the molasses, which, passing through the cloth or web
and the perforations in the false bottom, falls on the real bottom of the trough
or box, and is from thence conducted by the pipe or tube into the receiving
vessel below. This operation I continue by keeping the air pump at work

page_text: until the molasses is sufficiently expelled from the sugar. When I do it by
the other method, that of compressing the air on the upper surface, I make
use of a trough or box covered on the top, which I furnish with a false bottom
and cloth or web, as by the first method. The expelled molasses I convey
from this trough or box, through an aperture, pipe, or tube, to any vessel or
place destined to receive it. The operation by this method is as follows:-
Having prepared and spread on the cloth or web the sugar to be operated
upon, as by the former method, I, by means of a force pump, bellows, or
some other contrivance worked by some power, either natural or artificial,
compress the air on the upper surface of the sugar, which produces the same
effect on it as the operation first described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Hague, have hereunto set my hand