AN IMPROVED METHOD OF CONDUCTING THE PROCESS OF DISTILLATION
Year: 1823

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,. ROBERT
WINTER, of Fen Court, in the City of London, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Fourth, in and by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-second day of April
last, for Himself, His heirs and successors, did give and grant unto me,. the
said Robert Winter, my exors, admors, and assigns, His special licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Robert Winter,.my exors,
adiňors, and assigns, and every of them, by ourselves, or by our deputy or
deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, the said Robert Winter, my.
exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, my.
Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF CONDUCTING THE PROCESS OF DISTILLATION,"
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in
all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad; in which said Letters.
Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Robert Winter, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after tho
date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereto had, will more fully appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Winter, do, in compliance with
the said proviso and condition, hereby describe and ascertain the nature of
my said Invention, and the manner of performing the same, as follows (that is
to say)
It is well known that by the common mode of distilling, the operations are
repeated in order to extract the whole of the spirit in a high state of rectifi-
cation from the substance exposed to distillation. My attention has been
much engaged in endeavouring to 'supersede the necessity of so doing, and to
obtain the spirit in greater strength and purity at one operation. I have
succeeded in inventing an apparatus by which I obtain the end desired. By
the common method of distilling, the vapours on leaving the still enter tho
condenser immediately, and are there condensed into what are called by
distillers low wines and faints, which are re-distilled. By my method one
operation only is necessary, and the spirit is obtained in a state of greater
strength and purity.
The following is a description of the process and apparatus :-The vapours
upon leaving the still enter a receiver, the size of which will be larger or
smaller, according to the size of the still. For a still of from nine to twelve
thousand gallons a receiver of from three to four hundred gallons will
suffice. The receiver may be of any regular shape, but should be so formed
as to receive with convenience such part of the apparatus as is hereafter
mentioned to be connected therewith, and for that purpose I find a cylin-
drical, a square, or an oblong shape the best. If a cylindrical receiver be
used, a truncated conical surface or thin plate should be prepared, having
its larger circle of the size of the cylinder, and its smaller circle of the size of
the vapour tube. This conical surface must be inverted and attached in-
ternally to the top of the receiver, and proceed about half way down to
embrace the vapour tube, which should be of greater length than the receiver,
and the lower end of which is there to be inserted, and which is to rise from
thence above the receiver; at the lower end of the vapour tube also an
annular plate is to be attached, the inner circle of which embraces the lower
end of the vapour tube, and the outer circle of which is embraced by and
attached to the surface of the receiver, so as to form a chamber with the
conical surface or plate and the upper part of the receiver. The height and
diameter of the vapour tube will depend upon the size of the receiver, and if
the receiver be one of three or four hundred gallons, the height of the tubo
should be between eight and twelve feet and the diameter between twelve and
eighteen inches. The tube must be covered at the top, and from the upper
part of the tube such a number of small tubes are to pass through the conical

page_text: surface and descend into the chamber as may be able to carry off the vapours;
the number of the small tubes if circular will vary inversely as the square
of the diameter of each, and the united. areas of their sections should equal
the area of the section of the vapour tube, but the tubes may be advantageously
made of a flattened oval shape. In my receiver of two hundred gallons I use
sixteen small tubes of a flattened oval form, and it is adviseable to increase
their number and diminish their area as far as the height of the vapour tube
above the chamber will allow, so that none of the small tubes in a receiver
of the above .size be less than. six feet long; and where from any circum-
stance it would be inconvenient to have the vapour tube so high as to afford
that length, it may be obtained by giving to the tubes a serpentine or zig-zag
direction. In the annular plate which forms the lower part of the chamber
are apertures with tubes to carry off the condensed fluid, and the lower ends
cf the tubes are curved and turned up. so as to allow fluid to escape, but to
prevent air or vapour from entering or returning. The vapours then pass by
means of a tube fixed into the chamber into another or second receiver, and
which may be of the same size as the first receiver, and may be cylindrical or
of any other form, and which is covered at the top. In the cover a number
of apertures are to be made, and to which apertures are to be fixed double
cylinders or annular cylinders, that is; vessels formed by an outer and an inner
cylinder, the space between which should not exceed half an inch, and which
may be one within another in succession, with spaces between each of them
of about three inches for water, as herein-after mentioned; these annular
cylinders must be open at both their ends, and through these annular cylin-
ders the vapours pass, and enter the bottom of another or third receiver,
to be fixed at the top of the cylinders, which third receiver may be of the
same size and form as the second receiver, having apertures in the bottom to
receive the upper ends of the annular cylinders, which are there to be fixed.
From this last receiver the vapours pass into the worm or condenser, which
is in a cold bath, as is usual. The passage for the vapours through these
annular cylinders may be direct, but it is better that it should be zig-zag or
spiral, by means of metal ribs or ribbons, which are to be placed within the
double cylinders, and which also serve to keep them separate and distinct
from each other. The whole of the apparatus being thus completed, each
part of it must be placed in a separate warm bath (which might be of the
substance to be distilled, if the excise would allow it, if not, may be of water);
and in order that the water or substance employed may have access to all
the spaces left as baths between each double cylinder, small pipes open at
each end, and, communicating with the bath, are to pass through the second

page_text: and third receiver. The heat of the bath will depend upon the strength at
which it may be wished to draw off the spirit. I heat the first bath to 170
degrees of Farenheit, when the still begins to work, and I suffer it to increase,
which it will do by the distillation going on, or I lower it at pleasure by
adding cold fluid. The second bath I keep at as low a temperature under
176 degrees Farenheit as will allow of the rising of the vapours; the lower
the temperature of this bath the stronger and purer will be the spirit distilled.
The whole of the above apparatus is made of copper, tinned in the inside,
but may be made of any other metal usually applied to such purposes.
I have described the apparatus as I construct it in reference to a cylindrical
receiver; if the receiver be of any other shape the apparatus may easily be
constructed upon the same principle and to produce the same results, mutatis
mutandis; thus, if the receiver be square, then instead of the conical surface
a pyramidal one may be used, terminating so as to embrace the vapour tube,
which may be either square or circular. Instead of the annular cylinders,
above described, any vessels may be used, and of any form which will expose
the vapour in its passage to the action of the bath, for which purpose the
width or thickness of the vessels should not exceed half an inch. I find
double-inclined planes, connected at their edges and ascending from the
receiver in a zig-zag manner, and so constructed that the vapour shall pass
between them, very convenient, and where the second receiver is of a square
or oblong shape they may be more advantageously used than the cylinders.
In order to render the apparatus more distinct and the operation more clear,
I have annexed Drawings, sections, and descriptions.