IMPROVEMENTS IN DISTIL- LATION
Year: 1854

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Warren De la Rue at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, en the 11th
May 1854.
I, WARREN DE LA RUE, of Bunhill Row, in the County of Middlesex,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DISTIL-
LATION"to be as follows:-
The object of my Invention is to effect the distillation of such bodies as
give off vapours in an atmosphere of steam, in such a manner as to avoid the
original body or its vapour being heated beyond the temperature which by
experience is found mest suitable for the distillation, and thus to avoid as far
as possible any decomposition of the body. My Invention is particularly well
adapted for the distillation of city, bituminous, and other bodies which do not
boil, per se, without undergoing decomposition; and to carry out my Invention

page_text: I so construct the still that it derives its heat from a bath containing a fluid,
as, for example, a saline solution or metal (the temperature of which may be
indicated by a thermometer), and causing the steam which passes into the still
(whether previously heated or not) to pass through a coil of pipe or other
heating surfaces, immersed by preference in the same vessel as the still, or
immersed in a separate bath heated to the same temperature.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Warren De la Rue in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
10th November 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WARREN
DE LA RUE, of Bunhill Row, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Warren De la Rue, Her special licence that I, the said Warren
De la Rue, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Warren De la Ruc, 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 DISTILLATION," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Warren De la Rue, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, 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 Warren De la Rue, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof (that is to say):-
The object of my Invention is to effect the distillation of such bodies as
give off vapours in an atmosphere of steam, in such a manner as to avoid the

page_text: original body or its vapour being heated beyond the temperature which by
experience is found most suitable for the distillation, and thus to avoid as far
as possible any decomposition of the body. My Invention is particularly well
adapted for the distillation of oily, bituminous, and other bodies which do not
boil, per se, without undergoing decomposition; and to carry out my Invention
I so construct the still that it derives its heat from a bath containing a fluid,
as, for example, a saline solution or metal (the temperature of which may be
indicated by a thermometer), and causing the steam which passes into the still
(whether previously heated or not) to pass through a coil of pipe or other
heating surfaces, immersed by preference in the same vessel as the still, or
immersed in a separate bath heated to the same temperature.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed to
describe the manner of performing the same. It is well known that it is
often important to carry on processes of distillation at an uniform temperature,
and the use of interposed media between the fires and the distilling vessels has
been often resorted to for regulating the temperature, and to insure that the
heat shall not get beyond a determined degree. For these purposes; as is well
known, baths containing solutions of salts, fluid-metals, or fusible alloys have
been employed, according to the degree of temperature desired; and super-
heated steam has also been extensively used in distillatory processes, both with
and without exterior heating of the vessels employed. I mention these matters
in order to state that I do not claim the use of baths of any heated media by
themselves for distilling; neither do I claim the use of superheated steam by
itself; and I wish it to be undertood that my Invention consists of the combined
use of heated fluid media and superheated steam, when so used and combined
that both the matter to be distilled and the steam are heated and have their
highest temperature determined by the employment of media, so that the heat
of the free superheated steam introduced into a still and the heat of the
matters under process of distillation shall by the interposed media be retained
at (or as nearly as may be) the same temperature, whereby the liability to
decomposition or the burning or the formation of gas, from the over-heating
of such matters, may be entirely avoided, and the heat so regulated as to
insure the production of any decomposition that may be desired. As the
distillation of oily, bituminous, and other bodies, and the description of stills
or vessels employed, as well as the temperatures at which they should be dis-
tilled, are well understood, it will not be necessary to enter into a description.
thereof; and it will only be desirable that I should give such further practical
information in this my Specification as will enable a workman readily to apply

page_text: my Invention to the vessels or stills used by him in carrying on any particular
process of distillation, whether there be in the stills oils, or oily or fatty bodies,
or bituminous or other matters, in the distillation of which an atmosphere of
superheated steam is necessary to be constantly supplied into the stills or
vessels used. I would state that I prefer, wherever it can conveniently be done,
that the same bath of heated medium which is employed for heating the
matters in the still should be used for heating the pipes or tubes or channels
through which the steam from the boiler passes to be superheated; but this
is not essential, as a bath of like medium, or of another medium capable of
keeping the superheated steam up to and preventing it rising materially above
that which is used for heating the matters under process of distillation, may be
employed, although not so conveniently; and in those cases where baths of
media are already applied to stills, all that will be necessary in carrying on my
Invention will be to arrange within such bath a series of pipes, tubes, or
passages, through, and amongst which the steam may pass and become super-
heated in going from the boiler to the still, by which means the steam, when
it arrives in the still, will be lieated to the same, or as nearly as may be the
same, temperature as the matters in the still, and the superheated steam thus
supplied will act as heretofore, and as is well understood, but with the advan-
tage that it is not liable to become more highly heated than the matters in the
still, nor are the matters in the still liable to become more highly heated than
the steam. Hence, a manufacturer will be readily able, when he has deter-
mined at what temperature any body shall be distilled, not only to ensure the
maintaining of the desired temperature to the body to be distilled, by employing
a proper medium, as heretofore, but he will at the same time by the medium
ensure the superheating of the steam to the same degree. In those cases
where baths of media are not already applied to the stills or vessels, then such
vessels are cach to have an external vessel applied, as is well understood, for
containing the medium, and also for having placed therein pipes or hollow
passages suitable for superheating the steam. In those cases where the vessels
containing the medium are not suitable for receiving the pipes or passages for
superheating the steam by the same medium, then a suitable separate vessel
may be employed to receive such pipes or passages, and this separate vessel
may be heated either by the same fire as the still or by another fire, according
to circumstances.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that what I claim is, the
arranging of distilling apparatus in such manner that the still with its contents

page_text: and the free superheated steam which passes into such still may both be
maintained at about the same temperature by means of a bath or baths of
heated fluid media, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Warren De la Rue, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventh day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
ROBERT WARINGTON,
Apothecaries Hall,
Blackfriars.
WARREN DE LA RUE. (L.S.)