IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Smith, of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR."
A communication from abroad by Robert Smith, residing at
Demerara.
-
Sealed the 12th February 1869, and dated the 17th August 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Smith at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th August 1868.
I, ALEXANDER SMITH, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR, AND IN APPARATUS
THEREFOR," which Invention has been communicated to me from abroad
by Robert Smith, residing at Demerara, to be as follows, that is to
say:-
This Invention relates to the manufacture of sugar in improved modes
and by means of general arrangements or combinations of apparatus

page_text: comprising some pieces which are new, together with others that have
already been in use. The new pieces, or some of them, are applicable
in ordinary or other systems as well as in the improved combinations
comprised in the present Invention.
The improvements may be carried into effect under two general
systems or main modifications, the minor details of which may be more
or less varied.
In the first system the apparatus comprises a number of rectangular
vessels or pans set on two straight walls, and with the fire gases from
one or more furnaces at one end passing along under and heating them.
The bottoms of the pans are formed with corrugations to increase the
heating surface, and the corrugations are disposed across the flue for
the fire gases to encounter them. There are seven pans, the first, which
is by preference directly over the furnace, and the second and third
being evaporating pans, whilst the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh are
clarifying pans. In front of the row of clarifying pans there is bolted
a gutter to receive the skimmings from them.
In operating with this apparatus cold cane juice from the mill, after
being defecated with lime or other agent is run into the clarifying pans,
and is brought to the boil, the scum as it rises being raked into the
gutter in front. After being well cleaned the juice from No. 4 (clarifying)
pan is run through valves and pipes into No. 3 (evaporating) pan as re-
quired. Subsequently the contents of the other clarifying pans (Nos. 5,
6, and 7) are run into No. 3 (evaporating) pan when it is ready for them.
The juice in No. 3 will throw up more scum, which is to be brushed into
a gutter fitted between the pans Nos. 3 and 4, when No. 3 will be ready
to supply No. 2 (evaporating) pan, wherein the juice or syrup is further
cleaned by brushing any impurities that rise to the surface over a low
partition into No. 3 pan. The syrup is next transferred from No. 2 into
No. 1 (evaporating) pan, in which it is concentrated to a density of about
25 degrees Beaumé, and from which it is transferred by a discharger or
montjus to the settling cisterns. The herein-before described are the
operations where a vacuum pan of the ordinary or of my improved kind
is used for finishing the process of sugar making. Where it is proposed
to make Muscovado sugar there will be substituted for No. 1 pan or for
Nos. 1 and 2 (evaporating) pans two or more "coppers" of the ordinary
hemispherical shape; or such coppers may be substituted for all three
evaporators, and that whether a vacuum pan is used or not.

page_text: In the second general system clarifying pans are used as in the first,
and also three or more of the evaporating pans, but the latter have
covers to retain the steam, and this steam is used for heating an
improved or ordinary vacuum pan. A pipe from the top of this vacuum
pan communicates with a tubular surface condenser in which the fresh
cane juice is used as the cooling medium, thereby utilising the heat. A
pipe from the surface condenser communicates with an injection con-
denser and air pump, whereby a sufficient vacuum is insured.
In one modification the vacuum pan is made with vertical tubes fixed
in the bottom with their upper ends closed, but with their lower ends.
open to steam, which has access to them by a chamber formed under
the bottom.
In another modification the vertical tubes and their tube plate are
inverted, so that the syrup will be inside of them instead of outside,
as in the first modification. The tubes in the second modification may
be so short as to be mere cups, or they may be of any convenient length.
It is not intended to granulate the sugar in this modification, and the
syrup when concentrated as far as may be considered desirable may be
removed from the tubes or cups by means of pipettes. In this second
modification the steam space is divided into three compartments by
vertical plates, these compartments being separately connected with
the three covered evaporating pans, so that no inconvenience can arise
from difference of pressure in the evaporating pans. In operating with
this apparatus the juice after being clarified in pans Nos. 4 to 7 is trans-
ferred to hemi-cylindrical cisterns, where impurities not removed by the
raking are got rid of by settling or otherwise. It is then received into
a montjus and forced into No. 1 covered evaporating pan. No. 1 will
supply No. 2, and No. 2 will supply No. 3, No. 3 will discharge into the
vacuum pan with vertical pipes, and when the syrup in that pan is
sufficiently concentrated it will be admitted by a pipe into a vessel like
a montjus placed at a lower level, and which is put into communication
with the top of the vacuum pan by a second smaller pipe. When the
charge of syrup is all in the vessel the communications with the vacuum
pan will be closed, and steam will be let on and will force the syrup
through pipes to wherever required.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent;
filed by the said Alexander Smith in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 16th February 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
SMITH, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Merchant,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Alexander Smith, Her
special licence that I, the said Alexander Smith, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alexander Smith,
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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR,'
(a communication to me from abroad by Robert Smith, residing at
Demerara,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alexander
Smith, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
"
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alexander Smith, 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 in writing, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings, that is to say :-
The said Invention relates to the manufacture of sugar in improved
modes and by means of general arrangements or combinations of
apparatus comprising some pieces which are new together with others
that have already been in use. The new pieces, or some of them, are

page_text: applicable in ordinary or other systems as well as in the improved
combinations comprised in the present Invention.
The improvements may be carried into effect under two general
systems or main modifications, the minor details of which may be
more or less varied.
And in order that the said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, I have hereunto appended two
Sheets of explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and
representing various modifications of the improved apparatus. The
same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like parts in
all the Figures in which they occur.
Figure 1 on Sheet 1 is general plan, and Figure 2 is a general
elevation of the combined apparatus to be used under what is herein
termed the second system. These Figures are, however, also referred
to herein-after in illustration of the first system.
In the first system the apparatus comprises a number of rectangular
vessels or pans, 1 to 7, set on two straight walls 8, and with the fire
gases from one or more furnaces 9 at one end passing along under and
heating them. The bottoms of the pans are formed with corrugations
to increase the heating surface, and the corrugations which are indicated
by dotted lines at 10 in Figure 2 are disposed across the flue enclosed by
the walls and pans, in order that the fire gases may impinge against or
encounter them in passing along. A channel is formed across the ends of
the corrugations, in order to completely drain or empty the corrugations
when required. The hoods or covers 11 which are shown upon the
three first pans 1, 2, 3, are not used under the first system. The first
pan 1 is by preference directly over the furnaces 9, and it and the next
two, 2, 3, are evaporating pans, whilst the other four, 4, 5, 6, 7, are
clarifying pans. In front of the row of clarifying pans 4, 5, 6, 7, there
is bolted a gutter 12, to receive the skimmings from them. The fire
gases after leaving the clarifying pans are passed through the tubes or
flues of a steam boiler 26, so às to further utilise their heat.
In operating with the apparatus according to the first system cold
cane juice from the mill after being defecated with lime or other agent
is run into the clarifying pans 4, 5, 6, 7, and is brought nearly to the
boil, the scum as it rises being raked into the gutter 12 in front. After
being well cleaned the juice from No. 4 (clarifying) pan is run through
valves or cocks and pipes into No. 3 (evaporating) pan as required.

page_text: Subsequently the contents of the other clarifying pans (Nos. 5, 6, and 7)
are run into No. 3 (evaporating) pan when it is ready for them. The
juice in No. 3 pan will throw up more scum, which is to be brushed
into a gutter fitted for the purpose between pans Nos. 3 and 4, but not
shown in the Drawings, when No. 3 pan will be ready to supply No. 2
(evaporating) pan wherein the juice or syrup is further cleaned by
brushing any impurities that rise to the surface over a low partition
into No. 3 pan. The syrup is next transferred from No. 2 into No. 1
(evaporating) pan, in which it is concentrated to a density of about
25 degrees Beaumé, and from which it is transferred by a discharger
or "montjus" 13 to the settling cisterns 14. The herein-before described
are the operations where a vacuum pan of the ordinary kind or of the
improved kind herein-after described is used for finishing the process of
sugar making. Where it is proposed to make Muscovado sugar there
will be substituted for No. 1 or for Nos. 1 and 2 (evaporating) pans two
or more "coppers" of the ordinary hemispherical shape; or such coppers
may be substituted for all three evaporators, and that whether a vacuum
pan is used or not.
In the second general system clarifying pans 4, 5, 6, 7, are used, as in
the first, and also three or more of the evaporating pans 1, 2, 3, but the
latter have covers 11 to retain the steam, and this steam is used for
heating an improved or ordinary vacuum pan 15. A pipe 16 from the
top of this vacuum pan 15 communicates with a tubular surface con-
denser 17, in which the fresh cane juice is used as the cooling medium,
thereby utilising the heat. A pipe 18 from the surface condenser 17
communicates with an injection condenser 19, and with an air pump
(not shown) whereby a sufficient vacuum is insured. The fresh juice is
transferred from the condenser 17 to cisterns 27, whence it is supplied to
the clarifying pans as required.
Two modifications of the improved vacuum pans are shown enlarged
upon Sheet 2 of the Drawings, and in one, which is shown in vertical
section in Figure 3, and in horizontal section in Figure 4, the vacuum
pan is made with vertical tubes 20 fixed in the bottom 21, with their
upper ends closed, but with their lower ends open to steam, which has
access to them by a chamber 22 formed under the bottom 21, and which
chamber in the general arrangement shown on Sheet 1 communicates by
pipes 23 with the evaporator domes 11. In the other modification
shown in vertical section in Figure 5, and in horizontal section in

page_text: Figure 6, the vertical tubes 20 and their tube plate 21 are inverted,
so that the syrup will be inside of them instead of outside, as in the
first modification. The tubes in the second modification may be so
short as to be mere cups, or they may be of any convenient length.
It is not intended to granulate the sugar in this modification, and the
syrup when concentrated as far as may be considered desirable may be
removed from the tubes or cups by means of pipettes. In this second
modification the steam space 22 is divided into three compartments by
vertical plates 24, and these compartments are separately connected with
the three covered evaporating pans 1, 2, 3, so that no inconvenience can
arise from difference of pressure in the evaporating pans. In operating
with the improved apparatus according to the second general system the
juice after being clarified in pans Nos. 4, 5, 6, 7, is transferred by means
of a montjus 25 to cisterns 14, which may be rectangular, as shown, or
hemi-cylindrical, and in which impurities not removed by the raking are
got rid of by settling or otherwise. The juice is then received into a
montjus 13, and forced into No. 1 covered evaporating pan; No. 1 will
supply No. 2, and No. 2 will supply No. 3, No. 3 will discharge into the
vacuum pan 15, and when the syrup in that pan is sufficiently con-
centrated it will be admitted by a pipe into a vessel like a montjus
placed at a lower level, and which is put into communication with the
top of the vacuum pan 15 by a small pipe. When the charge of syrup
is all in the vessel the communications with the vacuum pan will be
closed, and steam will be let on, and will force the syrup through pipes
whithersoever required.
Having thus particularly described the said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, I have to state that
the Inventor does not restrict himself to the precise details herein
described or delineated; but that what I believe to be novel and
original, and claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
1. The manufacturing of sugar by improved apparatus arranged or
combined together and working substantially as herein-before described.
2. The placing of a series of evaporating and clarifying pans with
transversely corrugated bottoms directly upon a flue proceeding hori-
zontally from one or more furnaces, substantially as herein-before
described.
3. The constructing of the vacuum pans with vertical tubes closed

page_text: either at their upper or lower ends, and arranged substantially as herein-
before described.
And, 4. The using of the fresh cane juice as a condensing medium,
so as to utilise the heat, substantially as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Smith, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
A. SMITH. (L.S.)