CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MANU- PACTURING AND REFINING SUGAR
Year: 1850

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, FRANK
CLARKE HILLS and GEORGE HILLS, both of Deptford, in the County of Kent,
Manufacturing Chemists, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the First day of
June (One thousand eight hundred and fifty), in the thirteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,.
the said Frank Clarke Hills and George Hills, our exors, adñiors, and
assigns, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
we, the said Frank Clarke Hills and George Hills, our exors, adñiors, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Frank Clarke Hills and George Hills,
our exors, adiñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of Guern-
sey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and in all Her said Majesty's Colonies
and Plantations abroad, our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MANU-
PACTURING AND REFINING SUGAR;" in which said Letters Patent is contained
a proviso that we, the said Frank Clarke Hills and George Hills, or one of
'us, should cause a particular description of the nature of our said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in

page_text: writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us,
to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto
had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the above proviso, we have
ascertained and set forth the nature of our Invention, and the method of car-
rying the same into effect, in and by the following description thereof, that is
to say
Our Invention consists in a process for removing from saccharine solutions
any excess of sulphuretted hydrogen, or of the hydro-sulphurets of the earths,
which may have been employed to precipitate lead or other metals from
such solutions. We proceed as follows:-When sulphuretted bydrogen is
the agent which has been employed to precipitate the lead or other metals
from the saccharine solution, and it is ascertained by the usual tests that all
the metal is precipitated, and that the solution contains an excess of sul-
phuretted hydrogen, we add to the solution sulphite of lead (made into a
. cream with water), which immediately abstracts the sulphuretted hydrogen
(the solution being kept during the process at about 150° Fah). The addi-
tion of the sulphite of lead is continued until a filtered solution will not
change color or become black by adding a solution of acetate of lead.
Without the addition of the sulphite of lead the solution would be found to
have a most disagreeable taste and smell, owing to the presence of sul-
phuretted hydrogen, which would also seriously interfere in its crystallizing
power if allowed to remain in the saccharine solution. The saccharine solu-
tion is then filtered and boiled down in the usual manner for crystallization.
When, instead of sulphuretted hydrogen, the hydrosulphurets of the earths
are employed to precipitate the lead or other metals from the saccharine
solutions, the excess of the hydrosulphurets may be removed by the addition
of either the sulphite of lead or by the carbonate of lead, or the precipitated
protoxide of iron; and also, if sulphuretted hydrogen be used as a precipitant,
provided the saccharine solution be rendered perfectly neutral or be charged
with an excess of base, the carbonate of lead or the precipitated protoxide
of iron may be employed in lieu of the sulphite of lead to abstract the
sulphuretted bydrogen.
Having thus described the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, we declare that we claim the employment of
sulphite of lead, or carbonate of lead, or precipitated protoxide of iron, to
deprive saccharine solutions of sulphuretted hydrogen or of hydrosulphurets