CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN DISTILLATION
Year: 1828

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
STEIN, of Regent's Street, Oxford Street, in the County of Middlesex, Gentle-
man, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain bearing date at
Westminster, the Fourth day of December, in the ninth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Robert Stein, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Robert Stein, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert
Stein,should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His said Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, my Invention of" CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN DISTILLATION;"
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Robert
Stein, within the space of six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent, should cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be enrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery, as in and by
the said Letters Patent, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large annear.

page_text: which wells the principal part of the wash in the still collects; and it will be
observed that the wash is coloured of a brown colour in this Drawingwherever
it is intended to be represented. The parts marked t, and coloured yellow,
are intended to represent a series of divisions in the cylinder B made of hair
cloth. These divisions are made with circular hoops or frames of metal, with
coarse hair cloth such as is called double warp hair cloth in the shops, or other
suitable open web manufacture, stretched over them. They are inserted
transversely in the cylinder B, and are kept to their places by screws from the
outside of the upper part of the cylinder. V, V, V, V, are a set of four pipes
passing upwards by the side of the wells 1, 2, 3, 4, and leading into the air
chambers 10, 11, 12, and 13. W, W, W, W, are another set of four pipes
passing in the said manner by the side of the wells 5, 6, 7, 8, and leading into
similar air chambers 14,15,16,17. These pipes, marked Vand W, are in fact
a series of pumps, each having a branch pipe a to draw the wash from the well
with one stroke of the piston, which wash is forced into the air chamber above
it by the other stroke of the piston, there being valves to prevent the wash
returning into the well it was drawn from, as shown on a large scale in another
Figure (3). The parts marked a are small pipes, one leading from each air
chamber through the hair cloth division into the compartment of the cylinder B
next adjoining it, so that as the pumps areworked the wash which is drawn out.
of one compartment is forced into the nextat each alternate stroke of the piston.
Zis the piston that works these two sets of pumps; and it will be seen by the
arrangements here shown that while the set of pumps marked Y are drawing
wash out of the wells 1, 2, 3, and 4, by one stroke of the piston Z the set of
pipes marked W are forcing wash into the air chambers 14, 15, 16, 17, and
thence through the pipes e, into the compartments of the cylinder B imme-
diately adjoining them, and that while the set of pipes marked Ware drawing
wash out of the wells 5, 6, 7, 8, by the other stroke of the piston Z the set of
pipes marked V are forcing wash into the air chambers 10, 11, 12, 13, and
thence into their adjoining compartments, in like manner.
Having now described the general action of the pumps, it will he necessary
more particularly to describe the manner in which the wash is forced into the
various compartiments of the cylinder B through the small pipes marked e, so
as to subdivide the wash, and form a shower or mist, as herein-before
mentioned. This is effected in the following manner:-The jet of wash is
caused to take place upwards through a small hole at r in the upper part of
each of the pipese; and imme iiately over each of these holes is supported a
three-sided piece of metal,againstwhich the jet strikes with sufficient force to
disperse the wash in all directions, driving it off against the sides of the
compartment of the cylinder with such violence that it becomes divided and

page_text: subdivided so minutely as to form a complete shower or mist in the compart-
ment, thus exposing a great surface of wash to be acted upon by the steam
which is passing into the cylinder at the time through the steam pipe R from
the boiler A. It should here be stated that the hair cloth must be sufficiently
close woven to prevent the passage of the wash, even in its state of shower or
mist, though it admits the passage of the steam freely enough for the purposes
of the operation; and thus I am enabled to keep the portion of wash in each
compartment of the cylinder separate, and to expose each portion separately
to the action of the steam, as will be seen hereafter wheu I describe the action
of the apparatus.
It only remains for me now to explain the use of the air chambers
10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, & 17. In order that the action of the jet from the
pipes e may be uniform and continuous, it is necessary that some second
power should be furnished to supply the place of the piston, which only acts
alternately on each set of pipes V and W, and which therefore would only
keep four jets playing at a time, if it were not for the air chambers, the effect
of which is as follows:-The column of wash forced up the pipes V and W,
being greater than can possibly get through the holes r during the stroke of
the piston, it fills the lower part of the air chambers, and by its force so
compresses the air in the upper part of the chambers, that when the force of
the piston is removed for the alternate stroke the compressed air expanding
has sufficient force to keep up the jet, which by this means is made con-
tinuous in its action. In the Drawing the jet is only shewn in action
in that compartment of the cylinder nearest the boiler; but it is evident
that by the arrangement herein-before described all the jets will be acting"
at once.
Figure 2 is a transverse section of the cylinder and one of the wells, by
which it will be seen that the former is made in two parts, and is screwed
together by a flange. The part coloured yellow represents one of the hair
cloth divisions set in a brass frame. It will be proper here to state that similar
letters are used to denote similar parts in all the Figures.
Figure 3 is an enlarged view in section of one of the wells, with the branch
pipe a and the jet pipe e, shewing the valves necessary to the proper action of
the
pump, which could not be shewn to advantage in Figure 1, on account of
the smallness of the parts, but which valves must be fitted to all the pipes
V and W in a similar mauner. This Figure also shews more clearly the
three-sided piece of metal for the jet to strike against, and the mode of
supporting it.
Figure 4 is a transverse section of this piece of metal, and of the jet pipe e,
by which it will be seen that the under part of the three-sided piece of metal

page_text: is rounded to a shape which I have found best for the purpose of distributing
and dividing the wash. It now only remains for me to describe more
particularly the arrangement of the bath in Figure 1, and then to explain the
general action of the apparatus. And first of the arrangement of the bath.
S, it will be remembered, is what I call the vapor pipe, or the pipe by which
the vapor of distillation passes from the still into the bath. Now this bath is in
fact formed by the outer casings of the vessels M and H, the communication
between which is kept up by the pipe U, and is therefore a sort of double
bath. O is as it were the head of the bath, and is the part at which the hot
vapour of distillation enters the bath, proceeding thence through the pipe T
into the outer casing of the vessel M, thence up the pipe U into the outer
casing of the vessel H, and thence through the pipe E into the worm. Now
it will be observed that the vapor of distillation is made to enter at the upper
part of both of these outer casings, and the advantage of this arrangement is
as follows:-The light and impure vapor will occupy the upper part of these
vessels, while the heavier and purer vapor will be at the lower part, and thus
they will never interfere with each other again, and the heavier vapor will
consequently be found in a purer state than when admitted into the bath from
below. Another advantage of this arrangement is, that the purification in
the bath C, C, D,D, takes place at various temperatures, gradually diminish-
ing from the top, which will of course be the hottest; while by placing a
thermometer at m I can regulate those temperatures in the vessel M to
whatever degree may be considered desirable, for when the apparatus is full I
cut off the communication from the reservoir of cold wash, by shutting the
cock I, and then heat the wash, I will say till the thermometer indicates one
hundred and eighty degrees, and then the cock I being again opened,
if any time it should exceed that, I have only by more or less opening the
cock X to admit such partions of cold wash as to restore the proper
temperature.
I will now describe the method of setting my apparatus to work, and its
general action. The boiler A having been supplied with water, open the
cocks I, f, and g, and shut the cock X, and allow the vessels H, K, M,
to fill with wash, as shewn in the Drawing, which will be indicated by
the cock g; then stop the cocks I and y, and heat the boiler A; and
when the steam comes over the boiler A into the cylinder B, open the
cock I, and begin to work the pump, which will soon fill the wells 1, 2,
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and S, the air vessels 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17, and
the pipes V and W to the required height, and the effect will be as follows:-
Suppose the piston Z to be moved in the direction of the arrow, the wash in the

page_text: wells 5, 6, 7, 8, will be drawn into the pipes W,and the wash previously in the
pipes V will be forced into the air chambers 10, 11, 12, 13,and thence through
the jet pipes into the compartments of the cylinder immediately adjoining those
chambers. At this moment the steam from the boiler A rushing through
the pipe R into the still finds its way through the hair cloth divisions,
and converts a portion of the jets or showers into vapor. That portion which
is not so converted falls into the wells beneath, and on the next stroke of the
piston the wash in the wells 1, 2, 3, and 4 is drawn into the pipes V, and
the wash previously drawn into the pipes W is now forced into the air
chambers 14, 15, 16, 17, and thence through the jet pipes into the compart-
ments of the cylinder immediately adjoining them; and thus it will be seen
that by a series of strokes of the piston Z the wash which was at first in the
well numbered 1 will be pumped from compartment to compartment of the
cylinder till it arrives at the well numbered S, whence it is pumped into the
compartment nearest the boiler, and thence flows through the waste pipe P,I',
into the outer casing of the vessel K, as spent or nearly spent wash; for
having been subjected to the action of the steam at every jet, and that at
grádually increasing temperatures on its passage through the still, very little
spirit worth saving can remain in that portion of the wash, and it is allowed
to flow away through the waste cock Y, or may be subjected to a second
distillation, if thought advisable. While this operation of the still is going on,
the vapor of distillation is forming and passing off through the vapor pipe S
to the head O of the bath C, C, D, D. In its passage through the bath C, C,
it of course heats the wash in the vessel M, and at first will be condensed, and
flow back through the pipe into the still again, but when the spirit becomes
so strong that it will no longer condense at the temperature regulated at this
point, it will proceed on through the pipe U to the outer casing of the
vessel H, warning the wash in that vessel, aud thence proceed down the
pipe E.
Thus it will be seen that the wash from the vessels M and H will
flow into the still at a considerable temperature, which is added to by the
heat of the wash or spent wash which is allowed to flow into the outer casing
of the vessel K, and which heats the wash in that vessel also. And it should
here be observed, that as there will be a constant flow of a waste water or
spent wash through the pipe l', P, on this plan, it must be occasionally
drawn off at the cock Q, to keep the apparatus free. By this arrangement it
will be seen that little or no heat is wasted, and that very perfect separation
or abstraction of the pure spirit from the wash is obtained.
Now whereas the principal parts of my said Invention being the mode of
subjecting the liquid to be distilled in the still to the action of the heat,

page_text: namely, by exposing a continuous supply of it in a minutely subdivided state
to a current of hot steam, it is evident that there are many ways of throwing
the said liquid or wash into this state, as, for instance, by making a hair brush
revolve rapidly in the still, or by the rapid revolution of vanes or paddles, and
many others; but the method herein-before described, is the best which I have
as yet had an opportunity of trying or am acquainted with. And I claim as
my said Invention the following improvements (that is to say) :-
:-
First, exposing a continuous supply of wash or liquid to be distilled to a
current of hot steam, while such wash or liquid is in a minutely subdivided state,
like a mist, shower, or spray. And,
Secondly, the arrangement of apparatus constituting the bath herein-before
described.
And such my Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief,
entirely new, and never before used within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, nor in any of His said Majesty's Solonies or Planta-
tions abroad, I do hereby declare this to be my Specification of the same,
and that I do verily believe this my said Specification doth comply in all
respects fully and without reserve or disguise with the proviso in the said
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained. Wherefore I
do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my said
Invention
In witness whercof, I, the said Robert Stoin, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Twenty-eighth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.
ROBT (L.B.) STEIN.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-eighth day of May, in
the year of our Lord 1829, the aforesaid Robert Stein came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Fourth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand