IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR THE MANU- FACTURE OF SUGAR
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Oliver Robinson, of Westminster, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil and Mechanical Engineer, for the Invention
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Oliver Robinson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
10th September 1859.
I, HENRY OLIVER ROBINSON, of Westminster, in the County of Middlesex,
Civil and Mechanical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR THE MANU-
FACTURE OF SUGAR," to be as follows, that is to say:-
gear
This Invention relates to that part of the machinery or apparatus for the
manufacture of sugar from the cane, termed the sugar cane mill, and the
motor which actuates it or drives it. Between the motor and the mill certain
wheels and pinions, termed gear or gearing, intervene. The kind of
which has always heretofore been used or employed, is that which is termed
spur gear, with the teeth or cogs of the wheels placed upon the outside of the
rim of the wheels, and the pinions working into such wheels are necessarily
outside the rim of the latter.

page_text: Now, the first part of the present Invention relates more particularly to the
said gear, and is as follows:-Instead of employing wheels with their teeth
or cogs constructed as aforesaid, wheels with teeth or cogs turned inwards are
adopted, the pinions working into such wheels being necessarily placed inside
the rim of the latter. This kind of gearing is sometimes termed "internal
gearing."
The second part of the present improvements has reference to a previous
improvement in the machinery for crushing canes, for which a Patent for
England was granted to the said Henry Oliver Robinson, bearing date on or
about the 10th day of October 1844, No. 10,345.
According to that improvement, the steam engine or motor, the gear and
the mill, were constructed in such a manner as to be combined upon a
horizontal base plate of cast iron. In order to effect this, the crank shaft of
the steam engine with the fly wheel upon it, and the gear, were elevated or
raised up and supported upon frames, so as that they might work clear of the
base plate. The power or motion of the steam engine was carried upwards to
the said crank shaft. This arrangement has been found objectionable in
practice; and the purpose of this second part of these improvements is to
apply a remedy, which is as follows:-The combination of the parts retained,
but is effected differently. Instead of the said base plate, two girders or
beams of wrought iron or cast iron of suitable length are used. Upon these
the mill, the gear, and the steam engine are placed, but instead of the crank
shaft with the fly wheel upon it, and the gear being elevated or raised up and
supported upon frames, they are placed below and partly in the space
between the said girders, so that the "centres of effort" are brought very near
the plane of the girders or base line. The fly wheel is placed upon the
outer end of the crank shaft and beyond the ends of the girders altogether.
Instead of the kinds of engine to which the old combination was limited, the
following kinds of engine are employed and applied under this improvement,
namely, the common over-head beam engine, the inverted cylinder direct-
acting engine as used for the screw propeller of steam vessels, the table
engine, and the horizontal engine, all of which are capable of being combined
with sugar mills under this said improvement.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Oliver Robinson in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 10th March 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
5 OLIVER ROBINSON, of Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, Civil and
Mechanical Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Henry Oliver Robinson, Her special license that I, the said
Henry Oliver Robinson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Henry Oliver Robinson, my executors, administrators,
or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and 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 MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR THE MANU-
FACTURE OF SUGAR," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry
Oliver Robinson, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Oliver Robinson, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings and
to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
My said Invention relates to a new construction and combination of the
gearing or wheels and pinions for communicating the motive power of steam
engines to sugar cane mills, the mill and engine being fitted on to a base plate
or frame of iron. The motive power is communicated to the mill from the
main shaft of the engine by means of two pairs of internal toothed wheels and
spur pinions, arranged in such a form or manner that the cranked or main
shaft of the engine may be placed at a low elevation with respect to the plane
of the bed plate or bed frame, in lieu of having it elevated, as it necessarily is
in my previous combination of the steam engine with sugar cane mills. By

page_text: means of this new combination I am enabled to use certain kinds of steam
engines, which were practically inapplicable in my former combination; the
centres of effort and the strains of the machinery are brought nearer to the
plane of the base line, the fly wheel is brought down to a convenient level,
and the injurious vibrations incident to the former elevated positions of these
parts are obviated. The descriptions of steam engines to which this Inven-
tion is more particularly applicable are the beam steam engine, the table
steam engine, the inverted cylinder steam engine, and the horizontal steam
engine.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood, I shall
now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose
I shall refer to the several Figures on the Sheets of Drawings hereunto
annexed, the same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts through-
out all the Figures.
Figure 1 on Sheet 1 of my Drawings represents a side elevation of a beam
steam engine and sugar cane mill combined on one iron bed plate or base
plate, and shews the internal gearing in section, and Figure 2 is an elevation
at right angles to Figure 1. The front elevation of the double internal
gearing is shewn more clearly at Figure 4 on Sheet 2 of my Drawings. In
these Figures, A is the sugar cane mill; B, the internal gearing; C, the steam
engine; D, the steam cylinder, which may be either cased or jacketed, as
shewn on the Drawing, for the admission of high-pressure steam into the
casing to prevent condensation inside the cylinder, or left uncased as may be
preferred; E is the fly wheel; and F, the crank shaft working in plummer
blocks a short distance above the bed plate or iron base frame G.
Figure 3 on Sheet 2 of my Drawings represents a longitudinal sectional
elevation of a table engine combined with a sugar cane mill, of which
Figure 4 is a transverse vertical section, shewing the double internal gearing in
front elevation. In this combination the cane mill A and internal gearing
B remain unaltered, but the crank shaft F and pinion thereon for driving the
mill A, are carried by hanging brackets or plummer blocks secured to the
under side of the bed plate, and consequently work below in place of above
the bed plate, as in the previous conbination.
Figure 5 on Sheet 3 represents a sectional elevation of an inverted cylinder
engine as applied to the driving of a sugar cane mill, It is proposed to
combine this engine with the mill in a similar manner to that illustrated on
Sheet 2 of my Drawings, that is to say, with the crank shaft F working below
the bed plate; consequently I have not considered it necessary to repeat the
drawing of the mill itself in this case, but have merely shewn the spur pinion

page_text: on the main or crank shaft in gear with the first of the two internal toothed
wheels.
When a horizontal steam engine is combined with the cane mill, the crank
shaft F will remain in the same position as that shewn in Figure 1, and the
steam cylinder will be bolted horizontally on to the raised plinth or table 9, in
lieu of being in a vertical position as in the three previous combinations.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into
effect, I may observe, in conclusion, that I lay no claim to any of the parts
separately; but what I consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim
as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent is, the combinations of sugar cane mills and steam engines upon bed
plates or bed frames of iron with double internal gearing, as herein-before
described and illustrated by my Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Oliver Robinson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of March, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty.
HENRY OLIVER ROBINSON. (L.S.)