IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF APPARATUS FOR EVAPORATING CONCENTRATING AND DISTILLING SUGAR JUICE, SEA WATER, AND OTHER FLUIDS.
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Furness at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 11th August 1883.
EDWARD FURNESS of Belvedere in the County of Kent, IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
CONSTRUCTION OF APPARATUS FOR EVAPORATING CONCENTRATING AND DISTILLING
SUGAR JUICE, SEA WATER, AND OTHER FLUIDS.
This invention has for its object the construction of an apparatus for use in
distilling or evaporating operations and is designed for evaporating sea water and
condensing the steam from same so as to produce fresh water and for concentrating
saccharine juices chemical and other solutions and other purposes, and is designed
so as to produce an apparatus cheap of manufacture and with its parts casy of
access.
According to my invention I provide a suitable closed chamber or casing
hereinafter called the "casing" the said chamber being fitted with unions for the
necessary connections and provided with a suitable relief valve or valves and with
a regulating or discharge valve at its bottom and at its top with a dome or column
for a collecting pipe both herein after described.
In the lower part of the said "casing" I place a drum or chamber of a smaller
diameter so as to leave a space round about it and I support this chamber (which I
call the lower inner casing) so as to leave a space or chamber under it between its
bottom and the bottom of the outer case, into the bottom of this lower inner case
and through the outer case I lead a pipe which supplies the entering water or fluid.
The top of this lower inner casing is formed as a truncated cone having an
orifice at the apex of the cone, Within this drum or inner lower casing 1 place a
cylindrical chamber closed at both ends with end plates and having tubes passing
from end to end of cylinder and through both tube plates being jointed to the
plates forming in one chamber the space which surrounds the tubes, this cylindrical
chamber I call the lower condenser.
Or instead of this chamber being cylindrical and tubular it may be of any
suitable shape or configuration so as to give the necessary heating or cooling
surface.

page_text: The sea water or the fluid to be evaporated or concentrated enters by a pipe
into the bottom of the lower inner casing and after completely surrounding and
passing through and about the lower condenser passes upwards through the apex
of the truncated cone into the outer "casing."
A pipe with regulating cock conveys the condensed water from the interior at
the bottom of the "lower condenser" through the bottom of the aforesaid inner
lower casing and through the outer casing.
From the top of the "lower condenser "
the casing to a dome
a pipe proceeds upwards to the top of
This pipe which I term the collecting pipe passes through another tubular
condenser or chamber which I term the "upper condenser" placed in the upper
part of the said casing
This pipe has no connection with the upper condenser but passes through it or
by it to collect the steam from the upper part of the dome before referred to or it
may bo passed from the top of steam dome to the lower condenser in any other
suitable manner.
The upper condenser consists of a cylindrical drum or casing fitted with open
ended tubes fitted into the end plates as before described and as in the lower
condenser through which the water or other fluid in the "casing" can pass, or
this may be any suitable shaped chamber either tubular or other configuration so
as to give the necessary heating or cooling surface. -
To the interior of this upper chamber or condenser I lead by a suitable pipe,
steam either from a-boiler or other generator, or exhaust steam from an Engine or
from any other source. And another pipe from this upper.condenser conveys away
the water caused by the condensation of such steam, this water may be passed
through any approved steam trap into the lower condenser or into any pipe from
it or it may be led into a separate receptacle
-
-
When the collecting pipe is central it forins a stem or guide for a float to slide
upon, above the upper condenser and which is connected to a regulating or
discharge valve before referred to in the bottom of the outer casing first mentioned
Or the said float may be placed in any other suitable position.
The action of the apparatus is as follows.
Sea water enters by suitable pipe or pipes passing through the outer casing and
enters into the first named lower inner casing or chamber and then passes upwards
through the tubes and by the "lower" condenser and through the apex of the
conical end of the chamber into the outer casing, till it here raises the float, opening
the regulating or discharge valve and so allowing that portion of the water super
saturated with salt which by gravity falls into the lowest part of the chamber to
escape, and which degree of saturation can be regulated by opening or closing the
inlet cock on the pipe leading the water into the apparatus.
Steam being admitted to the interior of the upper condenser causes the
surrounding water to boil and its steam rising into the dome escapes into the
collecting pipe whence it passes down to the "lower" condenser whose surface
being in contact with the entering fluid imparts to it its heat and becomes there
condensed it then passes off as fresh water, During its passage it may be aerated
by a suitable aerating pipe led from the top of the dome if desired.
In like manner the apparatus may be used for concentrating fluids such as sugar
juice, the fluids enter the lower inner casing as before described gathering beat
from the lower condenser, it then passes on to the upper condenser and being
heated and having acquired heat from the lower condenser it here absorbs less heat
to cause it to boil, the watery particles are here more or less evaporated from it
passing in the shape of steam by the collecting pipe into the lower condenser
(raising as stated the temperature of the entering fluid) whilst the remainder
gradually by reason of its increased specific gravity falls to the bottom and into
the chamber under the "lower" inner casing, here, as it does not encounter any
current caused by the circulation comes to rest and is drawn off or discharged by
the valve which as before stated is caused by the float to act automatically

page_text: I do not confine myself to this arrangement for the discharge as it may be done
by a syphon pipe or in any other. suitable manner.
The steam collecting pipe need not be led through the upper chamber but may
be placed in any other convenient position, but the first mode is preferable
Of course where such apparatus is used for fluids which attack the surface of
the metal, the various surfaces may be tinned enamelled or protected in suitable
manner to resist such action.