IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING CRYSTALLIZABLE SUGAR TO RENDER IT MORE SUITABLE FOR FERMENTATION AND CONVERSION INTO ALCOHOL AND VINEGAR
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Bird Herapath, of 82, Old Market Street,
in the City of Bristol, Physician and Consulting Chemist, for the Inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING CRYSTALLIZABLE SUGAR TO RENDER IT
MORE SUITABLE FOR FERMENTATION AND CONVERSION INTO ALCOHOL AND
VINEGAR,"
Sealed the 10th February 1863, and dated the 14th August 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Bird Herapath
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
14th August 1862.
WILLIAM BIRD HERAPATH, of 32, Old Market Street, in the City of
Bristol, Physician and Consulting Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of
the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING CRYSTALLIZABLE SUGAR TO
RENDER IT MORE SUITABLE FOR FERMENTATION AND CONVERSION INTO ALCOHOL AND
VINEGAR," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in treating crystallizable
sugar, to render it more suitable for fermentation and conversion into alcohol..
I employ hydrochloric acid or other dilute mineral acid free from contamina-
tion with iron to convert crystallizable sugar into uncrystallizable sugar, so as
to render it more suitable for the purpose of fermentation and conversion into

page_text: alcohol, or for the manufacture of vinegar, and I afterwards neutralize the free
acid by means of carbonate or bi-carbonate of soda or potassa, or some alkaline
solution, thus producing a soluble alkaline chloride or other combination, the
presence of which in small quantities is unobjectionable.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Bird Herapath in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 14th February 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
BIRD HERAPATH, of 32, Old Market Street, in the City of Bristol, Physician
and Consulting Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Bird Herapath, Her special licence that I, the said William
Bird Herapath, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said William Bird Herapath, my 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
65 IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING CRYSTALLIZABLE SUGAR TO RENDER IT MORE SUITABLE
FOR FERMENTATION AND CONVERSION INTO ALCOHOL AND VINEGAR," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said William Bird Herapath, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, 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 William Bird Herapath, 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 following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
My Invention consists in preparing cane, beet, or other crystalline sugar of
like character, so that its fermentable properties shall be greatly increased, and

page_text: the process of fermentation rendered more certain and constant thereby, and I
treat it in the following manner :-I dissolve the sugar in hot water, either
previously or subsequently acidulated with tolerably pure hydrochloric acid
(but more especially rendered free from all contamination with iron) and having
raised the temperature of the mixture from about 180° Fahrenheit to 212",
and kept it at that temperature during 2 or 3 hours, more or less, I neutralize
the acid by adding to the mixture a sufficient quantity of carbonate of soda,
carbonate of potassa, lime water, milk or cream of lime, carbonate of lime, or
any other suitable substance, and if no excess of these neutralizing agents has
been improperly applied, the solution will be immediately in a fit state for under-
going the process of fermentation without undergoing any further change than
the simple reduction of the temperature and gravity to those points at which
the process is usually begun in the brewing trade; but if the colour of the sugar
employed has been dark or high colored, it might be necessary for some
purposes to further submit it to a decolorizing or bleaching process, so as
to render it sufficiently free from colour to be serviceable for the end in view.
The manner in which I carry my Invention into effect is as follows:-To
each hundredweight of cane or beet sugar dissolved in water so as to form a
syrup of the gravity of from 8° to 85° Beaumé I add from 8 to 4 fluid ounces
of pure hydrochloric acid, having a specific gravity about 1.160 previously
diluted with water or not as found desirable, and then I maintain the solution
at a temperature varying from 180° Fahrenheit to 212° Fahrenheit from a
period varying from one to three hours, at the expiration of which time the
desired change in the composition and properties of the sugar will be effected.
I do not limit myself to the above-named proportions, periods, or tempera-
tures, as a smaller quantity of acid will effect the change at a lower gravity of
saccharine solution, or if the action be continued during a longer period at an
increased temperature.
Other acids will effect the same change, but none appear so suitable for
the purpose of my Invention as the hydrochloric, as the soluble products
which remain in the solution of the sugar after the acid has been neutralized
by any of the salts or preparations of soda, potassa, or lime, are the ordinary
constituents of most spring or river waters, and of those generally employed
in the arts, whilst the quantities found necessary for the purpose are so incon-
siderable, that the extra products may be safely disregarded as immaterial and
unimportant. The change will be known to have been accomplished by the
use of the polariscope, the primitive rotation from left to right being changed
from right to left, and the process of conversion should be continued until the

page_text: index of rotation of the polariscope remains constant for the same gravity of
syrup and for the same temperature.
In the neutralization of the acid, I prefer a solution of carbonate of soda
or other suitable preparation of soda for the purpose, as it has been often found
desirable by brewers to add a certain proportion of the product, common salt,
to a brewing of wort when the water employed is deficient in that ingredient,
but should the water already contain a large proportion of common salt, it
may be preferable to use carbonate of potassa or other suitable preparation of
potassa, as the product chloride of potassium is less easily discovered by the
palate; but in case the water is comparatively free from salts of lime, it may
be preferable, on the grounds of economy alone, to use lime water, cream of
lime, or any other suitable preparation of lime for the purpose of combining
with the free hydrochloric acid used, as the product then will be chloride of
calcium, and not injurious to the syrup, and incapable of interfering with the
process of fermentation, whilst the quantity employed will be inappreciable to
the taste, and not capable of being discovered except by processes of chemical
analysis. All those compounds being present in most spring waters are not
objectionable, and do not increase the hardness of the water; but should it be
advisable to destroy the color of the saccharine solution, after conversion, and
previously to submitting it to the processes for fermentation, the neutralization
of the hydrochloric acid may be accomplished by employing a solution of hypo-
chlorite of lime or hypochlorite of soda, which containing, as it usually does,
free lime, or, in the latter case, carbonate of soda, also readily neutralizes the
acid, and discharges the dark color at the same time.
The point of neutralization is indicated in the usual way by the fact that
blue litmus paper is no longer reddened by the acid. Every fluid ounce of
pure hydrochloric acid of specific gravity 1-16 will require about eleven
drachms and ten grains of crystallized carbonate of soda for its neutralization,
and will produce four drachms and a half of common salt, the loss in weight
being due to the water present in both the hydrochloric acid and the crystals
of carbonate of soda employed. It has been found desirable, therefore, to
dissolve crystallized carbonate of soda in the proportion of eleven drachms and
ten grains to each gallon of water; when thus made every gallon of this
solution will exactly neutralize one fluid ounce of the hydrochloric acid used.
If nine pounds and nine ounces of crystallized carbonate of soda be dissolved
in one hundred gallons of water, each gallon will be of the said strength, and
capable of neutralizing one fluid ounce of the above hydrochloric acid.
The employment of acid in this process somewhat limits the materials

page_text: employed for the formation of the apparatus or vessels necessary; but as
wooden vats are in common use in all breweries, &c., these are at hand, and
will be serviceable for the purpose, but all iron, zinc, or copper materials
should be most carefully avoided, as the acid will corrode and destroy them.
I prefer lead as the metal to be used for the pipes necessary for conveying
steam into the vessel in order to maintain the fluid at the proper temperature,
and I employ either a coil of lead pipes placed within or around the inside of
the trough, and traversed by steam, or I heat the acid saccharine liquid by
"blowing in steam" in the same manner as that usually adopted by sugar
refiners in dissolving or "blowing up" their sugars, as this mode of heating
exposes a smaller quantity of lead pipe to the action of the acid, and occasions
a more uniform distribution of the heat, and a more thorough mixing of the
sugar with the water and acid employed. The neutralization of the acid may
be accomplished in the same vessel immediately after the conversion, or the
liquid may be run off into another vessel for that purpose, as thought
desirable.
In using this process for the preparation of cane or beet sugar for the
purposes of distillers or vinegar makers, it may not be necessary to so
scrupulously avoid the presence of iron as when employing it for the brewing
trade, as the hops which must be subsequently used would produce a black
color with the ferruginous impurity. The hydrochloric acid may be added to
instead of being mixed with the water previous to the solution of
the syrup
the sugar.
The choice of methods may be governed by that mode of applying heat to
the mixture which is subsequently to be made use of; if the preferable
process of "blowing up by steam". be adopted," the ready mixing of the
materials is ensured by the motion given to the mixture by the action of the
steam, and when desirable the production of various currents may be accom-
plished by the introduction of several "steam blowers" into the apparatus if
this be of large size, so that it would be immaterial whether the acid be added
to the water first, or the sugar previously dissolved. But if a coil of steam
pipe be used as the heating method, the acid should be previously added to
the water as it would more readily mix, and the sugar should be dissolved by
placing it on trays or supports of cane or wicker work. Canvas or other
suitable material placed at or near the surface of the water, and arranged so
as to permit the hot water or steam to have free solvent action on the sugar,.
whilst the gravity of the solution produced would carry it away, and the
boiling motion of the acid watery liquid occasioned by the steam coil would

page_text: produce the necessary mixture of the various materials. All mechanical
means of agitating the mixture would thus be rendered unnecessary, as such
motion is not requisite for the conversion of the sugar, and does not assist in
accomplishing it.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Bird Herapath, have hereunto!
set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
WILLIAM BIRD HERAPATH. (L.S.)