IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Hustings Collette, of No. 57, Lincoln's Inn
Fields, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR."-A communication
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Hustings Collette
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
2nd January 1854.
I, CHARLES HUSTINGS COLLETTE, of No. 57, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the
County of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR" to be as fol
lows:-
The said Invention consists in an improved mode of treating cane juice.
molasses, beet root juice, or other saccharine juices and syrups, for the purpose
of obtaining sugar therefrom, freed or separated from the impurities and other
substances with which it may be mixed. The juices, molasses, or syrups from
which sugar is to be obtained are introduced into the defecation pan, together
with the quantity of lime or lime water necessary for producing defecation.
To this is added superphosphate of lime until the lime is neutralized. The
inixture is next filtered, and the cleansed juice or syrup condensed by evapo-
ration until it again becomes turged or thickened; superphosphate of lime

page_text: is then added for the purpose of separating any impurities which may still
remain in the juice or syrup, after which it is again filtered and concentrated,
so as to produce the crystallization of as much sugar as can be conveniently
separated in this manner. The mixture during the last process will be sepa-
rated into crystallized sugar and a residual juice or syrup. From this juice or
syrup a further quantity of sugar may be obtained by the following process:-
The juice or syrup is diluted with water or some sweet jnice, and lime or lime
water added. Heat is then applied, and before it boils superphosphate of lime
is added until no alkaline action is apparent upon a test paper. The mixture
is then filtered, and from the clear juice or syrup by means of concentration and
crystallization a further quantity of sugar and of residual syrup will be produced
as before.
The second residual syrup obtained by the last-mentioned process may also
be submitted to a process similar to that just explained for treating the first
residual syrup, in order to obtain as results a further quantity of sugar and of
residual syrup as before.
In the same manner the process described above may be repeatly applied
to each residual syrup remaining after a previous process until the juice
or syrup operated upon shall be exhausted of sugar, as much so as may be
practicable.
Instead of using the superphosphate of lime in all or any of the above
processes, a superphosphate of an alkali or of an alkaline earth, or some other
superphosphate of salt or compound in which phosphoric acid or phosphorons
acid is in excess, may be employed, preferring that the salts or compounds used
are of such a nature that the products shall be insoluble or nearly so in the
syrup or juice when reduced to a simple phosphate, or when the excess of
phosphoric acid above alluded to has united with the lime.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Hastings Collette in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 27th June 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
HASTINGS COLLETTE, of No. 57, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of January, in the year of our Lord One

page_text: thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Charles Hastings Collette, Her special licence that I, the said Charles Hastings
Collette, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Charles Hastings Collette, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 THE
MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR," (a communication) upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Charles Hastings Collette, 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 Charles Hastings Collette, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the fol-
lowing statement :-
The Invention consists of an improved mode of treating cane juice, molasses,
beet root juice, and other saccharine juices and syrups, for the purpose of
obtaining sugar therefrom, freed or separated from the impurities and other
substances with which it is mixed.
It has been for some time known that the yield of sugar from cane juice,
molasses, beet root juice, and other saccharine juices has been much smaller
than it ought to be, and I believe that the cause of this small yield may be
attributed to the use of a large quantity of charcoal (spodium) to clarify the
syrup, and which absorbs a considerable proportion of sugar notwithstanding
the most careful manipulation, and the large proportion of molasses which is
produced by many of the ordinary processes often contain, I believe, nearly as
much as 50 per cent. of crystalline sugar.
For the purpose of avoiding these evils I use the following process:-The
juices, molasses, or syrups (obtained by any of the usual means from the sugar
cane, beet root, or other plants containing saccharine matters) are introduced
into the defecation pan, together with the quantity of lime or lime water neces-
sary for producing defecation. I find 30 or 40 per cent. of lime is sufficient
for this purpose. As soon as the lime has produced the requisite effect upon

page_text: the liquid I add to it for the purpose of neutralizing the lime a sufficient
quantity of superphosphate of lime, which, I believe, is sometimes called
bi-phosphate of lime, usually in the proportion of about 3 parts of the super
phosphate of lime to 100 parts of the juice. The superphosphate of lime may
be used at 4° Beaumé's hydrometer, or at any higher degree, and it is to be
added as long as reddish litmus paper dipped into the juice is turned blue.
Should too much superphosphate of lime happen to be added, this error can be
rectified by the immediate addition of as much lime or lime water as the super-
phosphate of lime in the solution will neutralize. The mixture will by the above
process become thick and turgid and must be filtered, which may be done in
the ordinary manner through the filtering bags, and the filtered juice or syrup
is then to be concentrated to 18° Beaumé, when it will again become turgid
or thickened. For the purpose of separating any impurities which may still
remain in the juice or syrup, superphosphate of lime is again added so long as
litmus paper dipped in the juice is turned blue, after which the mixture is
again passed through the filter, and the filtered fluid thus obtained must be con-
centrated so as to produce the crystallation of as much sugar as can be separated
in this manner, and the vacuum pan and crystallizing tubs may be used in the
usual way for this purpose. Sugar refined or purified in this manner may be
again dissolved or converted into syrup, and again submitted to the process for
the purpose of further purifying it.
The crystallized sugar thus formed is then to be separated in the usual way
from the residual juice or syrup with which it is mixed.
From this residual juice or syrup a further quantity of sugar may be
obtained by the following process:-The juices or syrups are diluted to about
28° Beaumé, with water or with some sweet juice (I prefer the defecated juice
of beet root), and lime or lime water is added, and about half as much as was
used for the first process will generally be sufficient to produce the requisite
defecation. Heat is then applied, and before the syrup boils superphosphate of
lime is added until the syrup ceases to produce any apparent alkaline action
upon the test paper, and by these means the phosphate of lime will be pre-
cipitated. The syrup must then be filtered as before, for the purpose of
separating it from its impurities, after which the filtered juice or syrup is to be
concentrated and crystallized as before, for the purpose of obtaining from it a
further quantity of sugar. Centrifugal machines may be used for separating
the crystallized sugar from these juices or syrups.
The second residual syrup obtained by this last mentioned process may also
be subjected to the same process as that just described for treating the first

page_text: residual syrup, in order to obtain as results a further quantity of crystallized
sugar to be separated from a third residual syrup, as before.
In the same manner the process above described may be repeatedly applied
to each residual syrup, which may remain after a previous process until the
syrup or juice operated upon shall be exhausted of sugar, or as much so as may
be economically practicable.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Hastings Collette, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of June, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-four.
C. H. COLLETTE. (L.S.)