IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING VEGETABLE JUICES, AND IN THE APPARATUS AND MATERIALS TO BE EMPLOYED THEREFOR
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Eathorne Gill, of No. 19, Salisbury
Street, Strand, W.C., Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN TREATING VEGETABLE JUICES, AND IN THE APPARATUS AND MATERIALS TO
BE EMPLOYED THEREFOR."
Sealed the 17th September 1872, and dated the 29th July 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Eathorne Gill
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 29th July 1872.
.
I, WILLIAM EATHORNE GILL, of No. 19, Salisbury Street, Strand,
W.C., Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING VEGETABLE JUICES, AND IN THE APPARATUS AND
MATERIALS TO BE EMPLOYED THEREFOR," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to improvements in the treatment of vegetable
juices and generally such juices as are expressed by mechanical means,
and more particularly (but not exclusively) the juice of the sugar cane,
the object being to purify, cleanse, or defecate such juices by separating

page_text: and retaining the grosser impurities, which I do partly by mechanical
means and partly by coagulating or precipitating by chemical and
galvanic agency (either or both) those impurities which are common to
and are held in suspension and in combination or chemical solution by
and in the expressed juices of vegetables. And I further complete the
coagulation and retention of impurities by causing the juice to filter
through a bed of siliceous sand and treat it in manner herein-after
described.
I propose to illustrate my Invention by the application of my improve-
ments to the treatment of the juice of the sugar cane, premising in that
case that I treat such saccharine juice immediately after it has been
expressed from the canes so as at once to arrest the progress of fermenta-
tion, but where the treatment is applied to other vegetable juices, such
as the juice of the grape for wines, of the apple for cider, and such like
juices, it may be adopted later on in the process of the manufacture of
the juices, as may be desirable for the production of the finished article
of commerce.
The mode of carrying my Invention into practice, for instance in the
treatment of sugar cane juice, consists of mechanical and partly of
galvanic and chemical treatment carried on consecutively as a continuous
operation immediately after the cane juice has been expressed and before
it falls into the mill pan and flows into the receiver, whence it is pumped
or raised by any other convenient means to be treated in the strainer
and mechanical portion of the apparatus, in connection with which and
from the period the juice is expressed from the cane, it is at each stage
of the process subjected to mechanical, chemical, and galvanic treatment,
as herein-after described.
I insert a sheet of perforated zinc in the pan of the mill so as to
restrain the progress of and keep back particles of cane or other grosser
impurities from passing into the juice receiver, whilst this perforated
sheet of zinc also sets up galvanic action to coagulate certain of the
impurities contained in the cane juice. This zinc strainer plate should be
coated on the under side with a composition herein-after described, and
some of which composition I place in and around the pan of the mill
and also in the receiver.
I construct a separator tank of wood, and in this tank I place a
cylindrical zinc separator, supported by brackets on a zinc plate, leaving

page_text: an annular opening at the bottom of the cylinder. I cover the bottom
of the tank and surround the separator with siliceous matter, such as
quartz sand, to a suitable depth.
Inside the zinc cylindrical separator I insert a zinc strainer in the form
of an inverted truncated cone, suitably perforated around its circum-
ference, having a loose valvular bottom to admit of its introduction if
necessary when the tank is full of liquor. Another or more shallow
strainer of zinc may be placed within the larger one.
In connection with the use of the separator apparatus, as well as in
and in connection with the mill pan and juice receiver, and for the
purpose of effecting the chemical and galvanic action, I prepare, or
compound and use, or employ a composition to retard fermentation,
which generally consists or is composed as follows:-To suitable and
conveniently procurable pure oleagenous matter I add one or more of
the following materials in quantity sufficient to produce when they aro
intimately mixed and so combined together a compost of a stiff plastic
consistency, viz., animal or other decolorizing charcoal, metallic
sulphides, oxides or basic salts, silica or silicates, alumina or aluminates,
china clay or kaolin when deprived of associated potassa or other soluble
matter, sulphur or sulphites, the sulphate, carbonate, or other insoluble
salt of lime (actually or approximately insoluble, any or either of them
or their chemical substitutes), suitable for my present purpose, and I
reduce them or either of them to an impalpable powder. I do not
confine myself to the use of these, nor to any of them, but include any
suitable body, substance, or compound which is or may be made or
become insoluble in the vegetable juice to be purified when the same is
treated as herein specified, or may be employed to prevent fermentation
from progressing in the juice, and also to act directly or indirectly on or
with the contained albumen, the albumenoids, pectin, and their con-
geners or other impurities in the juice by effecting their coagulation or
rendering them inert for fermentation in the juice so treated, acting
direct by chemical affinity or by chemical decomposition in a manner
well understood by the chemist.
Alumina is well known to be a successful purifier of liquids and a
defecator of organic impurities. It precipitates foreign matters of a
vegetable character or origin. Alumina is the base of all clays, and all
kinds of clay contain potassa or its salts. Potassa is the companion of
9

page_text: alumina and the direct cause of the moisture in the sugar when unpre-
pared alumina is used. If we eliminate the potassa from its companion-
ship with alumina we qualify the latter at once for its continuous use.
-
The oleaginous coating upon the several parts of the apparatus will be
disturbed in the process of its use in the further manufacture of the
juice, the neuclei will be denuded by attrition, laying it bare to act on
to precipitate the albumen, the albumenoids, and the other impurities as
effectually as at first.the composition prevented the passage of the juice'
into an active state of fermentation. Now the accumulated nuclei being
distributed in the juice by their levity and by its agitation they combine
with or act on to coagulate and precipitate the contained impurities
which could have originated and perpetuated active fermentation and
colored the product, they are now rendered inert and incapable of this
destruction and deterioration of sugar. By thus coagulating and pre-
cipitating those impurities they are also retained in the separator tank
or strainer, allowing the juice to quietly rise and flow on pure, to con-
stitute and compose a pure sugar which is impossible when the impurities
and the sugar are boiled together as at present. These impurities being
precipitated necessarily accumulate in the tank to be easily run out by
a suitable nozzle or be forced through a scum press.
The oleaginous matters rise of course to float on the surface of the
juice in the strainer, the separator, or the tank, to be removed by mere
scumming, or if found in the evaporator they will float there also to be
skimmed off. So also the tank can be drained (relatively) dry at any
time by a suitable arrangement in the bottom of it, so that no juice is
lost in this operation nor does any delay occur.
I make the strainer to become another element for generating galvanism
by coating it on the convex side with the composition herein-before
mentioned, the strainer being brought in contact at the upper edge with
the zinc separator, thus completing the galvanic circuit. The galvanism
so generated permeates the juice as it passes through the orifices of the
strainer, or as it escapes from the annular opening at the bottom of the
separator, thus coagulating any of the contained albumen, albumenoids,
or their congeners not already so acted on, which may be dissolved in or
held in suspension by the juice so treated causing the ultimate portion
of the said albumen and albumenoids to become inert in relation to-
fermentation, and precipitated. . Ozone is generated and set free at the

page_text: same time as the galvanic action is set up and liberated in the juice.
Ozone having a well known bleaching quality the further decoloration"
of the juice and of its resultant sugar is the natural consequence.
The separator contains further, impurities and liberates the juice into
the stratum of silex or siliceous sand, which also operates to aid the
coagulation of and impede the progress of the albumen and albumenoids;
now coagulated, and the tank now allows the juice to rise free from the
precipitated impurities, these impurities having been heretofore boiled in;
and with the juice thereby impurifying it and the sugar product. The,
afore-described composition is applied on the under side of the perforated
sheet of zinc which is laid in the pan of the mill, and also put to fill up
the angular portion of the pan so as to present a surface to be abraded
by the juice on its passage and so mix with and prevent fermentation of,
the juice with the utmost promptitude.
A small portion of the composition should be kept in the receiver of
the juice from the mill in which the pump or other machine acts or from
which it flows. I also place a small quantity of the composition in each
strainer or tank for the purpose herein-before mentioned.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Eathorne Gill in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 27th January 1873.
6
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,. WILLIAM
EATHORNE GILL, of No. 19, Salisbury Street, Strand, W.C., Engineer,"
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of July, in the year"
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty--
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said William Eathorne Gill, Her special licence-
that I, the said William Eathorne Gill, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Eathorne Gill, 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

page_text: 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 TREATING VEGETABLE JUICES, AND IN THE APPARATUS AND MATERIALS TO BE
EMPLOYED THEREFOR," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
William Eathorne Gill, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, 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 Eathorne Gill, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement and the accompanying Drawing:-
My Invention relates to improvements in the treatment of vegetable
juices, and generally such juices as are expressed by mechanical means,
and more particularly (but not exclusively) the juice of the sugar cane,
the object being to purify, cleanse, or defecate such juices by separating
and detaining the grosser impurities, which I do partly by mechanical
means and partly by coagulating or precipitating the chemical and
galvanic agency (either or both) those impurities which are common to
and are held in suspension and in combination or chemical solution by
and in the expressed juices of vegetables. And I further complete the
coagulation and detention of impurities by causing the juice to filter
through a bed of silicious sand, and treat such juice in manner herein-
after described.
I propose to illustrate my Invention by the application of my improve-
ments to the treatment of the juice of the sugar cane, premising in that
case that I treat such saccharine juice immediately after it has been
expressed from the canes so as at once to arrest the progress of fermenta-
tion, but where the treatment is applied to other vegetable juices, such
as the juice of the grape for wines, of the apple for cider, and such like
juices, it may be adopted later on in the process of the manufacture of

page_text: The mode of carrying my Invention into practice, for instance in the
treatment of sugar cane juice, consists partly of mechanical and partly
of galvanic and chemical treatment carried on (consecutively) as a con-
tinuous operation applied immediately after the cane juice has been
expressed, and before it falls into the mill pan, and flows on into the
receiver, from whence it is pumped or raised by any other convenient
means to be treated in the strainer and mechanical portion of the
apparatus in connection with which and from the period the juice is
expressed from the cane, it is at each stage of the process subjected
to mechanical, chemical, and galvanic treatment, as herein-after
described.
I insert a sheet of perforated zinc in the pan of the mill, so as to
restrain the progress of and keep back particles of cane or other grosser
impurities from passing into the juice receiver. This perforated sheet of
zinc also sets up galvanic action to coagulate certain of the impurities
contained in the cane juice. This zinc strainer plate should be coated
on the under side with a composition herein-after described, or a chemi-
cally equivalent composition, and some of such composition I place in
and around the pan of the mill, and also in the receiver.
I also construct a separator tank of wood, and in this tank I place a
cylindrical zinc separator supported by brackets or otherwise on a zinc
plate, leaving an annular opening at the bottom of the cylinder. I
cover the bottom of the tank and the zinc plate, and also surround the
separator with silicious matter, such as quartz sand, to a suitable
depth.
Inside the zinc cylindrical separator I insert a zinc strainer in the
form of an inverted truncated cone suitably perforated around its circum-
ference, and throughout its depth having a loose valvular or moveable
bottom to admit of its introduction if necessary when the tank is full of
liquor; this false bottom to be provided with a side as a dish or basket
capable of receiving precipitated feculencies, &c., and easily raised to be
emptied.
In connection with the use of the separator apparatus, as well as in
and in connection with the mill pan and juice receiver, and for the
purpose of effecting the chemical and galvanic action, prepare or com-
pound and use or employ a composition to retard fermentation, which
generally consists or is composed as follows:-To suitable and conve-

page_text: niently procurable pure oleagenous matter of sufficient consistency I add
one or more of the following matterals in quantity sufficient to produce
when they are intimately mixed and combined together a compost of a
stiff plastic consistency; each should be employed to facilitate the com-
bination, videlicit, animal or other decolorising charcoal, metallic
sulphides, oxides or basic salts, silica or silicates, alumina or aluminates,
china clay or kaolin, or any of them when deprived of associated potassa
or other soluble matter, or the same saponified to float on the surface
(the contained alkali or alkalies may be rendered caustic by any of the
well-known processes, and when thus caustic saponified by boiling
together with the aforesaid oleaginous matter), sulphur or sulphites, the
sulphate, carbonate, or other insoluble salt of lime (actually or approxi-
mately insoluble), any or either of them or their chemical substitutes,
suitable for my present purpose, and I reduce them to powder before
mixing with the oleaginous matter. I do not confine myself to the use
of these, but intend to include any chemically equivalent body, sub-
stance, or compound, which is or may be made or become insoluble in
the vegetable juice to be purified when the same is treated as herein
specified, or which may be employed to prevent fermentation progressing
in the juice, and also to act directly or indirectly on or with the contained
albumen, the albumenoids, pectin and their congeners, or other
impurities in the juice, by effecting their coagulation or rendering
them inert for fermentation in the juice so treated, acting direct by
chemical affinity, or by chemical decomposition, in a manner well under-
stood by chemists.
Alumina is well known to be a successful purifier of liquids, and a
defecator of organic impurities. It precipitates foreign matters of a
vegetable character or origin. Alumina is the base of all clays, and all
kinds of clay contain an alkali, such as potassa, or soda, or their salts.
Potassa is a companion of alumina, and often the direct cause of the
moisture in the sugar when unprepared alumina is used. If we eliminate
the potassa from its companionship with alumina, or saponify it, we
qualify this alumina at once for this purpose.
The oleaginous coating upon the several parts of the apparatus will
be abraided in the progress of its use in the further treatment of the
juice. We have now neuclei denuded by this attrition, and laid bare to
act on, to precipitate the albumen, the albumenoids, and the other
impurities, as effectually as at first the composition prevented the

page_text: passage of the juice into an active state of fermentation. Now the
accumulated nuclei being distributed in the juice by their levity and
by its agitation, they combine by affinity or act on to coagulate and
precipitate the contained impurities which could have originated and
perpetuated active fermentation, and would have colored the product.
They are now rendered inert and incapable of this deterioration of the
sugar. By thus coagulating and precipitating such impurities in juice,
prior to its being heated; they are detained in the separator tank,'
allowing the juice to quietly rise and flow on whilst cold to the evapor-
ating pans, where heat is applied to constitute and produce a pure sugar,
which is impossible when the impurities and the sugar are boiled.
together, as at present. These impurities being precipitated necessarily
accumulate in the tank to be easily run out by a suitable nozzle, or be
forced through a scum press.
The oleaginous and saponified matters rise and float on the surface of
the juice in the strainer, the separator, or the tank to be removed by
scumming, or if found in the evaporator they will float and be skimmed
off. So also the tank can be drained comparatively dry at any time by:
a suitable arrangement in its bottom, so that no juice is lost in this
operation, nor does any delay occur.
I cause this strainer to become another element for generating
galvanism by coating it on its convex side with the composition herein-,
before mentioned, such strainer being brought in contact at the upper
edge with the zinc separator, thus completing the galvanic circuit.
The galvanism so generated permeates the juice as it passes through
the orifices of the strainer, or as it escapes from the annular opening at.
the bottom of the separator, thus coagulating any of the contained
albumen, albumenoids, or their congeners not already so acted on, which
may have been dissolved in or held in suspension by the juice so treated,
thus causing the ultimate portion of the said albumen to become inert
in relation to fermentation, and precipitates the coagulum. Ozone is
separated and set free at the same time as the galvanic action is set up
and liberated in the juice. Ozone having a well-known bleaching quality'
the further decoloration of the juice and the resultant sugar is the'
natural consequence of its presence.
The sonarator restrains the progress of impurities and dinaation th

page_text: aid the coagulation of and impede the progress of the albumen, and such
like matters; and the tank now allows the juice to rise free from the
precipitated impurities. These impurities have been heretofore boiled.
in and with the juice, thereby impurifying it and the sugar product.
The afore-described composition is applied, on the under side of the
perforated sheet of zinc, which is laid in the pan of the mill; and it is
also employed to fill up the angular portions of the mill pan, and cover
the contained surface or surfaces, so as to present a surface to be abraded
by the juice when impinging thereon, and so mix with and prevent
fermentation of the juice with the utmost promptitude. A portion of
the composition should be kept in the receiver of the juice from the
mill in. which the pump or other machine acts, or from which the juice
flows. A portion of the composition may be put in the strainer and
tank, the better to prevent fermentation in either portion of the
apparatus.
In the accompanying Sheets of Drawings I have shown arrangements.
of apparatus which I find convenient for putting my Invention into
practice, but I do not, by illustrating the mechanical arrangements and
disposition of the parts as there shown, intend thereby to confine myself
to the precise details thereof, or to the scale or proportions of the several
parts, or to their respective positions or relations the one to the other, so
long as the action, aim, and intention or objects sought by me, as
described herein, are obtained.
1
Figure 1 is a longitudinal (or vertical) section of a wooden tank,
shown here by preference of a parallelogram shape on the plan, but it
I may be of any other shape or form. Within this tank is contained a
cylindrical separator or vessel of zinc, and within this separator is a
perforated vessel or strainer, having at the bottom thereof a moveable
bottom or basket. The tank is fitted with cocks and other connections,
as herein-after described. Figure 2 is a plan view of Figure 1.
A is a conical strainer to receive the juice when raised by pump or
otherwise from the receiver at or near the mill, thence the juice percolates
by the orifices provided in the surface of the strainer into the surrounding
separator; B is a cylindrical separator in which stands the strainer A, and
receives therefrom the juice, allowing the lighter feculencies to rise, and
directing the heavier portion together with the juice downwards, to escape
by its circumferential opening into a surrounding stratum of siliceous sand;

page_text: C is a false bottom to the conical strainer, which false bottom or basket
can be raised and emptied when full of feculencies without disturbing
the larger vessel A, which is the strainer; D, the elbows or nozzles of
iron, galvanized or otherwise protected from contact of the iron with
the juice, several of which are inserted in the side or sides of tank, to and
from which hoses are attached and depend. These being placed at
differing heights, allow the lighter pure juice or the heavier impurities to
be drawn off and directed through hose into suitable and appropriate
channels or troughs. When not used the ends of the hoses are simply
raised and tied or otherwise secured to the top of the tank. One of
these elbows and suitable hose is placed in the bottom of the tank to
draw off the ultimate portion of juice. E, the tank, which I prefer to
make of wood, is of sufficient capacity to hold enough juice to fill a
clarifier when used, or to satisfy the requirement of the first evaporating.
pan. I provide a shield or strainer of perforated zinc or other efficient.
arrangement for each elbow to keep back any scum or other impurity.
F, the stratum of sand through which the juice is made to ascend and.
percolate by hydraulic head or difference of height, it being higher in
the separator than in the tank.
The modus operandi is as follows:-The juice is to be raised from the
receiver at or near the mill by pump, or "monte jus," or any other
suitable contrivance, and so delivered into the strainer. The lighter
portions of the impurities in the juice will be found floating in the
strainer, or separator, or tank, to be collected and removed from time to
time by the operation of scumming. The heavier portions will pass on
downwards into the pan or dish of the strainer, or flow on with the
current of the juice through the orifices of the strainer to escape from
the separator by its circumferential opening at the bottom. Here the
juice will permeate and filter in the tank by ascension through the
circumjacent stratum of quartz sand, and will rise and fill the tank
gradually, affording an opportunity for the subsidence of impurities, now
coagulated, and reduced in bulk. The purified juice thus separated,
flows away by suitable openings in any convenient part of the side or
sides of the tank, to which openings nozzles and hose are attached.
The better to understand the object of this purification it may be
proper to recognize the character of the impurities which we are dealing
with. The coarser organic' matters consist of the debris of the canes
and will remain floating in the strainer or the separator; the coarser

page_text: mineral (say accidental earthy matters) will be found in the dish at the
bottom of the strainer, or if they escape to pass on into and out of the
separator, they will be retained by the sand, or fall thercon by superior
gravity in the quietude of the tank. There are however other and more
subtle impurities almost insignificant in quantity, yet they are most
formidable in effect, being sufficient to destroy all the sugar in the juice.
They are known as albumen and albumenoids, pectic and pectates, and
their congeners, distributed in infinitesimal particles to become so many.
nuclei, or are held in solution to originate or diffuse fermentation
immediately after the juice is expressed from the cane, produced by the
avidity with which they seize on the oxygen of the atmosphere to putrify.
This fermentation goes on with increasing rapidity without destroying
the cause.
Only the sugar which feeds the process suffers a rapid
decomposition, and is no longer sugar. This process is well known to
the scientific chymist as "catalysis." It must be sufficient here to
recognize this enormous loss of sugar resulting from the common process
of treating the juice of the sugar cane. It follows then if we desire to
avoid such a loss of quantity and quality we must avoid the cause of
this loss by separating the impurities, instead of continuing the fermen-
tation in the juice, and simmer and boil them together with the sugar
and thereby impurify the whole product. Therefore, as these impurities
ought to be removed to qualify the product for the grocer, it is evident
that they cannot be separated too soon. We shorten the time of boiling
by purifying the juice and retain that sugar which would be lost by
pursuing the common process. That loss amounts at present to more
sugar than the planters sell.
'
To be definite we may accept the fact that whatever may be in the
juice other than sugar and water is so much impurity. I have already.
shewn how I dispose of the grosser matters. Of the more subtle and
most mischevous impurities we may accept as a type of each of the three.
classes, starch, albumen, and pectin. They are composed of precisely
the same elements as sugar, viz., carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. There,
occurs a slight difference of a few atoms of nitrogen in albumen, to
which has been attributed its avidity for putrefactive fermentation.
Here, too, is the explanation of active destruction, silent when in the
cane, but increasingly active on exposure to the atmosphere. Starch,
which may be in mature, sugar, occurs in minute granules; they swell
with every increment of temperature. They rise to the surface of the

page_text: juice in the clarifier or boiler on the application of heat, and accumulate
there as a crust of scum to be removed before, or burst at about 212° F.
Then the gummy contents of each granule are diffused through the
juice never to be recovered by scumming, nor seen again until it occurs
as molasses, impurifying the sugar product, to be separated afterwards for:
the consumer by the refiner, or drained away as molasses, taking with it
a large proportional of sugar, sold, or made into rum, or pumped over-
board in its transit to the European market. It will be seen that starch
need not now continue with the sugar beyond the separator tank, or at-
most the clarifier, or first boiler, where common attention is afforded to
the scumming.
"
Albumen acts differently. It constitutes the principal ingredient of
the white of an egg. Many have been deceived into the belief that the
albumen of the juice is coagulated by the same process as the albumen
of the egg by boiling, which is a mere vulgar error. In the egg we have
the albumen in its concentrated state, in cane juice it forms only a very
small proportion of it defused through the bulk. Boiling coagulates the
egg, but not the attenuated albumen of the juice. Albumen then
remains in the whole process to obstruct the evaporation and the
crystallization, also to accumulate and assist in the composition of
molasses, or remain with the sugar to beget the offensive acari.
I am not called on here to trace out the failures of others whose best
efforts, like mine, have been absorbed in the endeavour to remove the
impurity from the juice. Perhaps the most noticeable effect which its
history affords was that produced by Dr. Scoffern. It was a scientific
and a practical success, and also a commercial failure, with his well.
known agent "the diacetate of lead," which is also a well known poison.
Here then we get in his success the sufficient evidence that success is
attainable in practice; it teaches us, too, that the impediment to success'
must be removed by some process that can claim perfect freedom from
objectionable matter.
.
My agent is unquestionable, and its efficiency is well known to the
scientific student, even to the delicacy of attenuated quantity. This is
admitted by science, and recorded in the text books, and now, for the
first time, I believe applied in this manner to the purification of vegetable
juices. It cannot introduce what is offensive when it is itself intangible,
and its effects here arc innocuous to all but impurity. It is galvanism,

page_text: generated by the arrangement already in part described, perfected by
the discovery of the late Professor Faraday, and herein applied to the
purification of juice, and sufficient for coagulating the albumen and other
impurities. Thus, the juice as it escapes by every orifice of the strainer
into the separator receives sufficient galvanism to act on the contained
albumen, and the albuminoids. The "compo" lends its aid to com-
plete this coagulation when smeared over the convex surface of the
strainer, as suggested by the experiments of Faraday, also by the
affinities of its component parts for albumen. So also the siliceous filter
augments the power over this active enemy of sugar in cane juice; I
thus accumulate agents for completeness.
There only remains pectin and its congeners to be alluded to here.
This impurity is coagulated by contact with the alkaline earths, and also
with silex, and the silicious filter completes the necessary conditions.
The pectin, arrested at every opportunity, may eventually be seen
accumulated in a gelatinous mass while it is unsweetened molasses,
laying on the quartz sand, whilst the juice rises purified. This semi-
fluid gelatinous pectin, together with any other impurity which may have
accumulated on the sand can be drawn off at any time without at all
interfering with the technical routine operations. Even the tank can be
drained of every drop of juice at any time by a suitable nozzle and hose,
whenever necessary, and with ease and completeness.
i
Of course there is a proper yet differing time for arresting the fermen-
tation of juices intended to produce sugar, wines, or cyder, which time
and experience can best determine, whilst the utmost promptitude is
absolutely necessary for cane juice. To this end any clays used should
be first reduced to impalpable fineness and treated with sufficient caustic
lime and water to bring any contained chemically uncombined soda or
potassa into the caustic state. It is then to be boiled together (after
draining off the aqueous portion) with the oleaginous matter already
alluded to. I provide for this purpose oleaginous matter solid, as pure
tallow or liquid, as pure oil (either or both). I incorporate therewith by
grinding in a mill (such as a paint mill or any other equally efficient
mode), the oleaginous matter or matters and any one or more of tho
following (or their chemical equivalents), in relation to the coagulation
of the impurities of the juice to be treated, viz., animal or vegetable
charcoal; the metallic sulphides, sulphites, oxides, or basic salts
(natural or artificial), of silica, alumina, sulphur, china clay, kaolin or

page_text: "
other suitable clay, the carbonate or sulphate of lime, or such other
matters or things that can be capable of acting on or uniting with by
chemical affinity or other action to coagulate or precipitate any impurity
as albumen, pectin, or their congeners, or those gummy matters known
to the analyst of Muscovado sugars as "extractive matters," or such as
those impurities commonly found held in suspension or chemical solution
by vegetable juices. For this purpose I employ or use those bodies,
substances, compounds, or things such as are insoluble in the juice when
properly prepared, which condition is imperative. I bring the resultant
mass into an impalpable, homogenous, cohesive, or plastic state. This
substance or "composition" I herein refer to as compo,"
," I cause it to
be used and applied on every possible opportunity for bringing it into
contact with the juice, the better to prevent fermentation therein. To
this end I apply it by smearing it over the "batea," or pan of the mill
when dry and before the mill be set to work; I also leave there a portion
of "compo" pressed there to adhere to and cover the bottom of the pan,
but more particularly were the juice flows away therefrom. I use and
apply in a similar manner another portion of "compo" in the receiver
(of the juice from the mill) from whence it is raised to the strainer.
Before putting the strainer in its place in the separator, I smear and so
carefully cover over (by adhering to) the outer or convex surface with
"compo," I thus bring the "compo" into juxtaposition with the juice
thoroughly and completely as it proceeds downwards through the
separator, yet more, for I gain another important point by thus smearing
the strainer, for I perfect the galvanic arrangement and coagulate
albumen and the albumenoids by a double process. Should any of these
impurities escape unacted on, I am content to leave them and the pectin
to be acted on, coagulated or gelatinised by contact with (as the juice
permeates and rises up through) the bed of silex in the tank, to which
bed the silicate of lime or chalk may be added, say half an inch thick
more or less on the sand. I thus repeatedly fortify my position to
secure success by repeated checks on impurity without impeding the
progress of the juice, confusing the operations, or requiring skilled labour.
The accumulation above the surface of the sand where albumen, pectin,
and similarly constituted impurities will be found coagulated or
gelatinised in the tank (they are not yet sweetened molasses because not
boiled in or with sugar) the height of which accumulation can be
ascertained by dipping therein a glass tube of sufficient length to reach
the sand and open at both ends. This tube can be withdrawn
•

page_text: immediately after stopping the upper end, say with the forefinger, to
prevent the air from entering; when charged with the liquid the
relative depth of the impurity can be at once read off by the distinctive
colors of purity and impurity. A glass guage fixed in front of the tank
can accomplish this at a glance. Impurity must not be allowed to
accumulate high enough to flow away with the juice. Impurity may be
removed at any time and in a very simple manner by opening a nozzle
placed next above the stratum of sand. The impurities being semi-fluid
are capable of flowing away, and particularly so when compelled by
hydraulic pressure due to the depth of fluid in the tank.
The quality of the juice in relation to acidity may be interfered with
by the accidental use of a damaged cane, rotten or rat gnawed, which
are well known to precipitate or urge on the acetic stage of fermentation
in the juice; it must be prudent to guard against such undesirable
effects by adding to the stratum of sand, and occasionally replenishing
it with say a quarter or half an inch thick of pulverised chalk or whiting
already alluded to. If this be found, by using the litmus test paper to
be insufficient and the reddened tint of the paper be deeper than a light
rose, then the manager may fall back on a sufficiency of the milk of
lime, adding it in the clarifiers or the boiler, the former in preference
but never in the tank.
I may remark here that ozone is generated and liberated in this juice
with this arrangement in its completeness, and ozone is a well known
decolorizer and purifier of liquids.
The daily routine with these arrangements is very simple. The dish
or false bottom of strainer should be examined occasionally, and raised,
emptied, and replaced when necessary. The strainer should be lifted
and cleaned when necessary, when dry it should be carefully smeared
over with "compo" on the convex side and then replaced. Each known
place for using and depositing "compo" should be examined and
replenished, particularly the "batea" or pan of the mill, and also the
juice receiver there, after which the person in charge should examine
and regulate the amount of impurity laying on the sand in order to
remove it if necessary. The nozzles are to be kept clear to act at any
time. The mill can now go to work and continue uninterruptedly
throughout the day. The strainer is to be frequently examined and
scummed, and the tank also.

page_text: I prepare my "composition ("by mixing together into one mass of
uniform consistency, three hundred pounds of suet free from taint or
offensive odour, one hundred and twenty pounds of kaolin, twenty
gallons of pure vegetable or other oil, and one hundred and fifty pounds
of animal charcoal reduced to a fine powder. I first incorporate the
vegetable or other oil and the pulverized charcoal well together.
I prepare the kaolin by reducing it to a fine powder, and then add it
to a sufficiency determined by the amount of contained free or uncom-
bined alkali as soda or potassa present in the kaolin of caustic lime
dissolved in water and well stirred together. After allowing the grosser
portion of the lime to subside, I pour off and use the other the finer
portion of the lime whilst suspended in this caustic solution, and add
them as "milk of lime" to the kaolin, stirring well, and I prefer boiling
them together and stirring well during a sufficient length of time for
the lime to absorb any carbonic acid, to render the free alkali (soda or
potassa) caustic, and after allowing time for more or less complete
subsidence I pour off the clear liquor retaining the residium which I
add to the melted suet and boil them together during a sufficient time
to saponify any free contained (now caustic) alkali. I then remove
the more or less saponified mass from the fire, and stir into it the afore-
described mixture of animal charcoal, and vegetable or other ore
producing a composition of uniform consistency.
I do not confine myself to the use of these proportions, nor to those
matters or things named, having already enumerated other matters or
things, which may also be employed and used as required.
In recognizing the utility (or value) of alumina for coagulating
albumen and its congeners, I admit also the failure of the many attempts
to use alumina or its salts in the purification of the juice of the sugar
cane. As this application may be the most difficult of all other vegetable
juices, the explanation of my mode of using it in and upon that juice
may be sufficient for this present purpose, and indicate somewhat gene-
rally the proper treatment of other such juices.
Alumina is the well-known base of all clays, so also all clays contain
potassa. But potassa is inimical to sugar, being then deliquescent, and
the sugar retains its moisture to the detriment of the grocer and of his
customer; also, therefore, for this reason the clays have been rejected.
The salts of alumina, which contain potassa or soda, arc treated in a
B

page_text: similar manner from a similar cause. By removing these impediments
we obtain success. To this end I take alum (as free from iron as possible)
and dissolve any quantity in pure water. I take chalk, whiting, or
carbo-silicate of lime reduced to a fine powder, and mix it with pure
water, sufficient to bring this mixture to a cream-like consistency after
adequate pulverisation and trituration. I now add this creamy mixture
of whiting and water to the solution of alum, stirring well for several
minutes. I now allow the insolubles (sulphate of lime and the hydrate of
alumina) to precipitate, and so remain two or three hours before renewing
of the agitation. I then ascertain if there be any sulphate of alumina
held in solution by taking a little of the clear supernatent liquor in a
glass and adding thereto a few drops of lime water. If I get a precipitate
I renew the agitation with the addition of the whiting mixture and repeat
this treatment if necessary. If I find this process fails to throw down
all the alumina I add lime water until I succeed, so that no alumina
remains dissolved or suspended in this mixture. After allowing the
insolubles to fall down and the supernatent liquor to become clear, I
pour off this liquor which now only contains the obnoxious sulphate of
potassa, and thus I get rid of it. Lest any potassa should remain I again
fill the vessel with pure water and agitate the contents sufficient to wash
every particle therein contained. I now test the supernatent liquor in
the usual way for the sulphate of potassa. If I find any sulphate in
solution I repeat the washing and the agitation also with clean water,
until it be free from this salt or any other soluble salt or matter
whatever.
If it be desirable to obtain alumina from any other source I reduce it to
a fine powder, and digest it during several days in sulphuric acid diluted
with eight or ten times its weight of water, agitating the same often
whilst so operating. The potassa will be thus dissolved out and held in
solution as well as the now soluble sulphate of alumina. Therefore the
clear liquor may be drawn off into another vessel, and the insoluble
which remains can be again so treated if held to be desirable. Into this
clear solution of alumina and potassa I pour the whiting mixture with
water (as already described) and continue the treatment as before with
alum, throwing away the solution of potassa and retaining the pre-
cipitated sulphate of lime and the hydrate of alumina (two well-known
decolorants) for subsequent treatment. I proceed to get this (now one
'although a compound) precipitate as dry as practicable, and grind it in

page_text: a mill, such as a paint mill, together with its bulk more or less of bone
charcoal and of pure oleagenous matter, enough to coat over each atom
of the precipitate, and sufficient to cause them to cohere when pressed
together. If I think it is desirable to add a little or any quantity of
pure vegetable oil to this mixture at any stage of its manufacture or its
use I do so.
Furthermore, I add to the oleaginous matters when passing through
the mill already alluded to, the following, and in sufficient quantity to
produce a stiff yet filastic and cohesive composition, namely, decolorising
charcoal, metallic sulphides or oxides, basic salts, sulpher, silica or
silicates, alumina or aluminates, china clay or kaolin (when deprived of
any contained soda or potassa), or such alkalies saponified by reducing
the material to an impalpable powder and mixing it with a quantity of
caustic lime dissolved in water, the better to render any uncombined
alkali (of any clay used) caustic. The water to be poured off and the
clay to be well drained and then boiled together with the aleagenous
matter or matters already described, thus saponifying the uncombined
alkali or alkalies to float as scum in the juice when under treatment,
as herein described. These, or any one or more of them, when so mixed
and compounded, that with materials or substances, which will (when
so compounded) remove, coagulate, or precipitate coloring matters or
any impurity contained in the juice under treatment, preferring and
using only those substances, bodies, or compounds that are insoluble
in any juice so treated, as described.
I do not confine myself to those matters already named, but include
any body, substance, or compound, being insoluable in the juice so
treated, acted with or on, directly or indirectly, i.e., by producing the
same or similar results of purification in the juice by chemical decom-
position, or by direct affinity (as is well understood by chemists) acting.
with or by any one or more of these matters named, be they simple or
compound, natural or artificial, when they coagulate or precipitate
contained albumen, albumenoides, pectin or pectates, starch, fatty
matters, gum or gummy matters, these or any other impurities,
constituents of vegitable juice or juices.
For the purpose of further adding to the filtering power of the
apparatus (illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, Sheet 1), I may in some cases
introduce screen plates of zinc, mounted in frames, made to slide in

page_text: grooves on or be otherwise fixed against the inner sides of the tank as
at a, b. These frames having perforated zinc plates fitted therein should
have on their under side or the side angling downwards, fine horse-
hair screen cloths or other fine screening sheets, through which the cane
juice as it rises would pass through and press the screening sheets against
the perforated zinc plates which will support them and prevent them
being strained, and so allows the juice to pass into the smaller portion of
the tank, divided from the rest by the angularly placed screen, of which
there may be a series of two or more, one behind the other. I mount a
sliding or traversing brush so as to remove any accumulated matter or
deposit from the face of the fine horsehair or other filtering cloths, so
that the screens need not be so frequently removed for the purpose of
being cleansed.
The drawing-off cocks, which are shewn in Figures 1 and 2, may be
otherwise disposed, and in some cases may be fitted through the bottom
and rise to different heights within the tank, and be protected by finely
perforated cones or roses to resist the passage of foreign matter through
them.
In Sheet 2, Figures 3, 4, and 5 show a modification of the apparatus
shewn in Sheet 1. Here the conical and cylindrical vessels of zinc are
similar to those in Figures 1 and 2, but they are fitted within a square
box, and the wooden tank and filtering arrangements are fitted and
applied within a separate tank or vessel, which may be placed at a lower
level than the other box containing the filter cone and separator
cylinder, and be connected thereto by means of a tube connection,
having branches which are laid along the bottom of the box and are
covered to a suitable depth with fine sand. These tubes or pipes are
pierced with fine holes on the under side so as to allow of the free flow
outwards of the juice amongst the sand, forming the filtering bed on the
bottom of the oblong box. These tubes may extend from end to end
outside the box and be closed at one end by a cap or cover to allow of a
brush being inserted when necessary, the other end of each tube is
connected to a junction pipe made to receive them and connect them
with the box containing the zinc vessels, as herein-before described.
Above the filter bed within the oblong box may be two or more
horizontal frames containing finely perforated zinc plates, on the under
side of each of which plates the fine woven horsehair sheets are secured,
and the filteration being by the upward passage or flow of the juice the

page_text: upon
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cloths or sheets.
The several frames may contain perforated plates and filter sheets of
increasing fineness as they approach the top of the tank.
In some cases this oblong tank may be longitudinally divided into two
or three parts, with water-tight divisions, so that one portion may be
out of use whilst the plates and filters are being cleaned, and the other
or others may be at work.
The galvanic action may be increased in the several zinc linings and
vessels by connecting them with an acid battery or putting them into a
galvanic circuit.
In my herein-before in part recited Specification I have described the
objects I had in view, the theory of the treatment provided by my
process, and the mode or method of putting my process into practice,
and after describing the apparatus in which the treatment is effected and
the process conducted, I proceeded to describe some of the compositions
and arrangement and composition of materials employed by me for
producing the chemical and active operations in aid of the galvanic or
galvanico-chemical action upon the fluid juice as expressed from
the sugar cane; and I have further herein-described the mode of
preparing and testing the condition of the agents I prefer to employ.
And in so describing and illustrating in the foregoing portions or parts
of the Specification, the form and arrangement of the parts of the
apparatus employed, or the selection or proportion of the several
materials I have described as forming the composition or "compó,” and
also the agents to be used or employed for, the several purposes in the
manner and for the purpose herein stated, I wish it to be understood
that I do not intend thereby to limit myself strictly thereto as they may
be varied according to circumstances, for producing the effects I have
described, in the manner I have described them for effecting the
defecation or purification of such juices, and instantaneously arresting
the injurious process of fermentation usually set up in the expressed
juice of the sugar cane by coagulating the albumen and such like
impurities in the manner herein-described immediately upon the juice
being expressed, and whilst cold and before the stage of boiling.

page_text: Σπου
apparatus as melem-described and mutated in ՄԱՆԵ ՍԱ
and two of the accompanying Drawings, or any mere modification
thereof.
:
Second. The use or employment of zinc vessels and linings for vega-
table juice receivers employed in combination with the composition as
herein-described, for the purpose of setting up galvanic action in such
vessels in the manner set forth.
Third. The composition or combination of materials herein set forth
to be used as a coating or preparation for covering parts of the apparatus,
passages, and vessels for receiving and containing vegetable juices, and
preventing their fermentation, as herein set forth.
Fourth. The mode or method herein-described of defecating or purifying
the juice of the sugar cane, and arresting the progress of fermentation
therein.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Easthorne Gill, have hereto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of January,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
three,
WILLIAM EATHORNE GILL. (L.S.)
Witness,
WILLIAM SMITH, C.E.,
19, Salisbury Street,
Strand, W.C.