CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESSES AND APPARATUS FOR PREPARING EXTRACTS AND ESSENCES OF VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL SUBSTANCES
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARDS STAITE, of High Street, Marylebone, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Third day of August, in the eighth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said William
Edwards Staite, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said William Edwards Staite, my exors, adiiors, and assigns, and
such others as I, the said William Edwards Staite, my exors, adññiors, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of Her Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion
of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESSES AND APPARATUS FOR PREPARING EXTRACTS AND
ESSENCES OF VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL SUBSTANCES;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso that I, the said William Edwards Staite, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, under my hand and seal, to be
enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part before recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.

page_text: ´NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
-William Edwards Staite, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention consists―
First, in preparing concentrated extracts and essences of vegetable and
animal substances by means solely of infusions at a moderate heat successively
repeated, whereby their more essential or charasteristic properties. are obtained
in a purer state, and with more effectual exhaustion and less waste of material
than when they are obtained by boiling down, evaporation, or expression, as
usual.
And, second, in subsequently subjecting the said extracts and essences when
so obtained at a moderate heat to an augmented degree of temperature for the
purpose of better preserving the same.
And, third, in subjecting in certain cases the products of the said
successively repeated infusions to subsequent fermentation or distillation, or
both.
And I declare that the manner of carrying the said Invention into effect
is fully described and ascertained in and by the following exemplification
thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is
'to say:
The first and second parts of my said Invention being particularly applicable
to the manufacture of pure and concentrated preparations of tea, I shall first
herein describe the process followed in the making of such preparations, from
which any one may readily understand. how other vegetable substances should
be treated to obtain the like results. I take any given quantity of tea and
-divide it into six, ten, twelve, or more equal, or nearly equal portions, and put
these different portions into as many separate vessels, conveniently. arranged
either in a circle or side by side, stepwise or otherwise. I fill the first of the
series of vessels with water of a suitable temperature, and transfer the infusion
obtained from it to the second vessel, then from that to the third, and so on
through the whole of the intermediate vessels. of the series till it reaches the
last, retaining it a short time in each, whereby it becomes progressively;
strengthened and concentrated. As soon as the first vessel has thus. yielded
its first infusion, I refill it with water as before, and pass the second infusion,
obtained from it through all the intermediate vessels into the second last in
the series. And thus I proceed with the vessels one under the other till they..
are all filled with infusions of more or less strength, each vessel, except No. 1,
being filled with that immediately before it in the series (as No. 2 from No. 1,
No. 3 from No. 2, No. 4 from No. 3, and so on; and No. 1 having had as
many waters as there are vessels in the series, I now draw off the first infusion

page_text: from the last vessel of the series into a general receiving cistern, and refill it
from the vessel next before it, which last-mentioned vessel I refill in like
-
It
manner from the one immediately preceding it, and so I proceed in retrogres-
sive order till No. 1 has been again emptied into No. 2. The tea in No. 1
being now supposed to be sufficiently exhausted, it is taken out and a fresh
portion of tea introduced into the vessel, on which it is removed to the opposite
end of the series, so as to become the last instead of the first of the series.
is then filled with the infusion from the vessel now next before it, which I refill
from the next, and so on until I come to that which now stands first, or
No. 1 of the series, which I fill up with water. The whole of the vessels
having been thus a second time filled, I draw a second concentrated infusion
from the last of the second series into the general receiving cistern, as before.
And thus I proceed working the vessels in a circulating series, so that each vessel
in succession, after occupying the first place and being sufficiently exhausted,
is shifted to the final place in the series, and thence worked back to its original
position, and each addition to the general receiving cistern consists of an
aggregate collection of infusions from the whole of the vessels of the series.
For example: Suppose the series consists of six vessels, I draw off the first
infusion from the vessel No. I into the vessel No. 2, and refill No. 1 with fresh
water; I then after a suitable interval draw off the infusion from No. 2 into the
vessel No. 3, and retill No. 2 from No. 1, and so on down to No. 6, the last
in the series. The vessel No. 1 is refilled with fresh water as often as it is
emptied into No. 2, and each infusion from the vessel No. 1 takes, like
the first, its course from vessel to vessel till the vessel No. 1 has had six
waters, and each of the other vessels Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5, has yielded an
extract of progressively encreasing strength to the vessel No. 6. The highly
concentrated contents of the vessel No. 6 are now drawn off into the general
receiving cistern, from which they are to be taken and further treated in the
manner to be hereafter explained. No. 6 is then refilled from No. 5, No. 5
from No. 4, and so on, until No. 1 has been emptied of its fluid contents into
No. 2. The vessel No. 1 being now sufficiently exhausted is emptied of its
residual contents, and replenished with a fresh supply of tea, after which it is
transferred to the opposite end of a final place in the series, causing that which
was No. 2 to become" No. 1, No. 3 to become No. 2, and so on. From the
vessels placed in this altered order, and replenished, as before described, a
second series of six like infusions is obtained, and the aggregate product is
collected as before in the cistern, and so the process is continued till by the
working of the vessels in such circulating series, as before described, the tea in
every one of the six vessels has been in turn subjected to six washings or

page_text: digestions. The process need not, however, be there stopped, but may be
carried on in the same successive order for any length of time. The vessels
are kept all the time at a suitable temperature by being surrounded with hot
water or steam. The degree of heat is varied according to the quality of the
substance to be operated upon, and of the extract or essence required, some
substances being digested more readily than others, but in general it is not
allowed to exceed 200° nor to be less than 75°. The time, allowed for each
infusion, that is to say, during which the fluid is retained in each vessel
through which it passes, varies also with the quality of the tea and of the
desired extract, but need uot in general exceed the minutes. All access of
the external atmosphere to the vessels is carefully excluded, and in order that
the solid residuum left in each vessel after it has become exhausted or nearly
so may be removed without disconnecting or disturbing the vessel itself, each
is fitted inside with a moveable case, (having a hole or holes in the bottom
thereof) into which the tea is placed, and where the residuum remains for
removal. Having collected in a general receiver or cistern, in manner before
described, the products of a series of infusions, I pass them through a filter
into a close vessel, whence the purified extract is transferred into metallic
tubes (of the description known by the name of Rand's Patent Collapsablo
Tubes), or into bottles or canisters, or other suitable vessels. They are then
subjected to the action of the heat, either by surrounding them with hot water,
steam, or otherwise, until the contents become raised to the boiling point, after
which the tubes are removed and allowed to cool gradually down. If the
extract or essence has been transferred into Rand's or any like collapsable
tubes, they are closed up before being so heated, but if into a bottle, canister,
or other vessel which not collapsable, the vessel is stopped up closely as soon as
the boiling point has been obtained, and then set aside to cool. Extracts of
țea or coffee so obtained and preserved will be found to possess their original
strength and flavour for a great length of time under all changes of tem-
perature or climate, and to yield, when diluted with water, a beverage equal
and in some respects greatly superior to that usually obtained from fresh
infusions made in the ordinary way.
In the Drawings hereunto annexed, I have shewn three several forms of
apparatus marked A, B, and C, by which the processes which have been herein-
before generally described are carried on.
Figure 1 is a side elevation of the apparatus marked A; Figure 2 a ground
plan; and Figure 3 a section on the line a, b, of Figure 2. B is a hollow
circular metal case, within which are placed in circular order the 12 cylindrical
vessels C, C, C, each fitting into a corresponding orifice in the top or cover

page_text: of the case, and being there firmly soldered. c, c, are moveable perforated
cases with close covers placed within the vessels C, C, C, for the purpose of
holding the material to be infused, as before explained. E is a pump placed in
the centre of the case, which communicates by pipes d, d, and e, e, with the
whole of the cases c, c, through the vessels C, C, at bottom and top, cach
of these pipes being shut or closed by means of cocks f, f, attached thereto.
On commencing to work with this apparatus, the bottom communication (d),
between the vessel No. 1 of the series (which may be any of the 12) and the
pump, is opened, and the piston of the pump drawn up, on which the exhaus-
tion of the air in the pump causes the liquid contents of No. 1 to flow into
the pump barrel. The communication which was last opened (d) is then
closed, and that (e) between the pump and the top of the vessel No. 2 is
opened, when on pressing the piston down, the liquid is forced out of the pump
into No. 2, and so the process is continued until the whole of the vessels in
work have been successively pumped of their liquid contents, and these have
been discharged into the receiving cistern. The heating of the vessels is
effected by letting in either hot water or steam through the pipe P into the
case B around the vessels C, C. w is a tap for drawing off the waste water
when required. An apparatus of this description I find particularly suitable
for the preparation of extracts from coffee and all other substances of a like
heavy quality.
Figure 4 is a side elevation of the apparatus marked B; Figure 5, a
ground plan; and Figure 6, a section on the line a, b, of Figure 5. Here
the vessels are disposed one above the other stepwise, so as to allow the
liquid contents to descend from one to the other by the force of gravity,
which renders the employment of a pump unnecessary. But with this appa-
ratus it is requisite at the conclusion of each series of infusions to remove by
hand or otherwise the vessel which is at the top of No. 1 of the series to the
bottom, and to raise all the others one step up each, so that No. 2 may
become No. 1, No. 3 No. 2, and so on.
.
Figure 7 is a side elevation of the apparatus marked C; Figure 8, a ground
plan; and Figure 9, a section through the centre. In this, the vessels are
placed in a line side by side on one level, and not connected by pipes nor
worked either by exhaustion or force of gravity. The vessels are emptied into
one another by hand or otherwise, and they are also shifted by hand or other-
wise from one position to another, as required.
In respect to the second part of my Invention, which relates to the subjecting
the products of such concentrated infusions as aforesaid to a high temperature,
and also with regard to the third part of my Invention, which relates to

page_text: the subjecting (in certain cases) the products of repeated infusions obtained
in manner aforesaid to subsequent fermentation or distillation, or both, I
declare that in so far as regards the said processes of heating, fermentation, and
distillation, I do not claim to have invented anything new, and do not therefore
describe the same. But that I claim the combination of my method of preparing
extracts and essences by successively repeated infusions, as before described,
with subsequent subjection to a high temperature, and in certain cases with
fermentation or distillation, or both, whenever such additional processes of
fermentation or distillation, or either of them, may be necessary for the per-
fecting of such extracts and essences, or may be calculated to improve the
quality of the same, or may be requisite to convert such extracts and essences
into other useful matters.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim as
of my Invention is,-
First, the preparation of concentrated extracts and essences of vegetable
and animal substances, by means solely of successively repeated infusions at a
moderate heat, as before described. And,
Second, the combination of the said processes of preparation by successively
repeated infusions at a moderate heat, with subsequent subjection of the
extracts or essences to an augmented degree of temperature, and, in certain
cases, with fermentation or distillation, or both, as before explained.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this First day