AN IMPROVED APPARATUS OR INSTRUMENT FOR EVAPORATING OR. DISTILLING LIQUIDS
Year: 1852

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said David Stephens
Brown at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 5th October 1852.
I, DAVID STEPILENS BROWN, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS OR INSTRUMENT FOR EVAPORATING
OR. DISTILLING LIQUIDS" to be as follows, namely:
To be an improved instrument or apparatus for evaporating or
distilling liquids in vacuum, and consists of a pipe or tube, open at
one or both ends, made in the form of a horseshoe, or the three sides of
a square, and having its legs of sufficient length to prevent the pressure
of the atmosphere from forcing the liquid to be evaporated, &c. to the
top of such tube, when it is placed in a vertical position with its two

page_text: ends downwards, and having a vacuum inside. The said tube may or
may not be of uniform bore, may contain bulbs, and portions of it may
consist of cylinders of much greater diameter than the tube itself.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said David Stephens Brown in the Great Seal Patent
Office, on the 5th April 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
DAVID STEPHENS BROWN, of Number 2, Alexandrian Lodge, Old Kent
Road, in the County of Surry, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the sixteenth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said David Stephens Brown, Her special licence
that I, the said David Stephens Brown, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said David Stephens Brown, iny.
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
AN IMPROVED APPARATUS OR INSTRUMENT FOR EVAPORATING OR DISTILLING
LIQUIDS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I the said David
Stephens Brown, 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 immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said David Stephens Brown, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner

page_text: the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement, with the aid of the Drawings
therein referred to (that is to say):
It is an apparatus for evaporating and distilling liquids in vacuum,
and consists in its simplest form of a tube, open at both ends, made in
the form of a horseshoe, the three sides of a square, or the two sides of
a triangle, and having its legs of sufficient length to prevent the
pressure of the atmosphere from forcing the liquid to be evaporated or
which has been distilled to the top of such tube, when it is placed in
a vertical position with its two ends downwards, and having a vacuum
inside. Figure 1, in the two copies of the Drawings which accompany
this Specification represents such an apparatus having the lower ends
of its two legs consisting of the cylinders (a.) and (b) dipped in the
two open buckets (c) and (d.) When used, the liquid to be evapo-
rated is placed in the bucket (c), and some liquid is also placed in the
bucket (d) sufficient to immerse both ends of the said cylinders.
The air is then to be exhausted from the interior of the apparatus
by means of the tube (e), one end of which tube is placed inside the
apparatus, and the other end is intended to be connected with an air
pump. This will have the effect of causing the liquids contained in the
said buckets to rise in the cylinders (a, and b.) The liquid, in
the cylinder (a,) is then to be heated by means of a worm or otherwise,
and the said fluid may also be stirred whilst heated to prevent its being
charred; (f) represents an apparatus for so stirring it, consisting of a
cylinder with arms, the lower end of which cylinder extends outside of
the cylinder (a), by means of which a rotary motion may be com-
municated to it, and such stirrer may be substituted for a worm to heat
the liquid, if made hollow throughout, and have a current of steam or
hot air passing through it, and it may be made to revolve with such
velocity as not to allow the hot surface of its arms to be in contact with
the liquid for a sufficient length of time to injure it. When the fluid
has been thus heated it will pass over through the cross cylinder (g,)
into the cylinder (b), where it is to be condensed either by the external
application of cold water or wet cloths to such cylinder, or by means of

page_text: an internal jet of water flowing in from without through a tube similar
to the tube (e) or one passing in direct" through the side of the said
cylinder (6); and when the vapour of the fluid which has been evaporated
is of no value, the water ejected in for condensing such vapour should
be impregnated with salt or other soluble substance in order to expel
the air contained' therein, which solution may be used over and over
again when cooled, or water may be employed from which the air has
been expelled by means of an air pump; and for the same reason the
liquid to be evaporated should likewise be so impregnated when the
vapour only of it is of value. Or sulphuric acid may be substituted to
absorb such vapour, or sand- or other substance fendered very dry by
having been 'first heated:
The vapour thus condensed as well as the liquid employed to con-
-dense it'will' then descend through the cylinder (b), and be received in
the bucket (d). The cross cylinder (g) may also be employed to
-condense the vapour in the same manner as the cylinder (b), and may
have 'a. 'constant current of cold water passed over its outer surface by
means of a cyphon, which would elevate the water for such purposé,
and then bring it down again; tlie red lines in this Figure represent än
árrangement for such purpose, the cylinder (g) being surrounded by the
outer cylinder (h), which outer cylinder receives the water when it has
ascended through one of the legs of the cyphon, and brings it into
contact with the cylinder (g) and then allows it to descend through the
other leg of the said cyphon. The dotted line (,) shows the elevation of
the liquids in the respective cylinders and buckets, also of the sand or
-other such substance when used to absorb the vapour of the liquid to
be evaporated. The small ridge () is to prevent the distilled vapour
from returning to the cylinder (a). Figure 2, is a modification of the
apparatus, a glass or other tube (k), being substituted for the bucket
(c); and the stack or chimney of a fire is passed through the cylinder (a,)
for the purpose of heating the fluid, instead of a worm, (m,) being such
stack of 'chininey of a fire supposed to be about the position (n), and
the lower part of the tube (6) is enlarged to receive the dry sand or
-other such substance when used as before described. The apparatus is

page_text: to be employed for concentrating and crystallizing saccharine and other
solutions, purifying water, distilling spirits, and condensing the steam of
steam engines.
In witness whereof, I, the said David Stephens Brown, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fifth day of April, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
D. S. BROWN. (L.S.)