IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR EXPRESSING LIQUIDS OR MOISTURE FROM SUBSTANCES
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Needham and James Kite (Secundus), both
of Vauxhall, in the County of Surrey, Engineers, for the Invention of
.. IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR EXPRESSING LIQUIDS OR
MOISTURE FROM SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 22nd July 1856, and dated the 31st May 1856.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said William Needham and
James Kite (Secundus) at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition and Declaration, on the 31st May 1856, pursuant to
the 9th Section of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
NEEDHAM aud JAMES KITE (Secundus), both of Vauxhall, in the County of
Surrey, Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS we are in possession of an Invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR EXPRESSING LIQUIDS OR MOISTURE FROM SUB-
STANCES," and have petitioned Her Majesty to grant unto us, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have
made solemn Declaration that we verily believe ourselves to be the true and first
Inventors thereat.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said William Needham and James Kite,
do hereby declare that the following complete Specification, under our hands
and seals. fully describes and ascertains the nature of our said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed. reference being had to the
Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed (and forming part of this our Speci-
fication), on which Figures or Diagrams illustrating the said Invention are
designed, and similar letters of reference are placed upon and denote similar
parts in each of the Figures respectively.
The object and intention of our present improvements in machinery and
apparatus for expressing liquids or moisture from substances is to further
carry out or perfect the principle of solidifying semi-fluids.on or for which we
obtained Letters Patent, Number 1669, dated the Fourteenth day of July,
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, effecting such improvements by
modifications of machinery orapparatus (herein-after fully explained),varying
from those described in the Specification of our said Patent, Number 1669,
aforesaid,and rendering the apparatus more applicable in its improved arrange-
ment for the expression of liquid or moisture from substances not mentioned
or defined in our said former Specification, but comprised under the general
term of substances capable of being treated by the apparatus as described.
We would observe, before entering into the description of our improvements
for solidifying semi-fluids, holding substances in suspension, or for purifying
fluids, that their use will materially economize the cost of working in all cases.
Theyare applicable to all manufactures where semi-fluids are to be dealt with,
such as the expression of the water from white lead and colors; expressing and
washing tartaric and other acids or chemicals; expressing the serum from the
fibre and albumen of blood; the water from clay for potters use, whereby
greater toughness is secured, with a total absence of air, and a great saving of
time and fuel; the water from clay used in the manufacture of porcelain; the
water from sewage matter, whereby a cheap and profitable manure is formed;
for expressing the water from distillers' spent wash, or from flax refuse; for
expressing the water in the manufacture of starch and starch refuse, or oil
from fatty matters; for reclaiming the soap used in the manufacture of wool-
lens; for filtering sugar, and other matters requiring filtrationor purifying; and
for operating on all opaque liquids and refuse in manufactures, whereby many
substances hitherto valueless are reclaimed and, in fine, for the expression of
liquid or moisture from any substances capable of being treated by or with our
improved apparatus hereafter described.
In the Drawing hereunto annexed, Figure 1 represents a side elevation of
a double-action press, with one pair of slabs or trays only shewu. Figure 2

page_text: being an end view of the same. Figure 3 is a plan view of the top or bottom
(it being reversable at pleasure) of the slabor tray we use in our press, showing
grooves (worked therein or thereon) running in a latitudinal direction.
Figure 4 shews a plan view of a centre piece, termed by us (from its peculiar
action) a float, with grooves constructed inalongitudinal direction. Figure 5
gives a side view of double-action press. with several pair of trays, and with
severalfloats rangedtierahovetier, constructedaccording to our improvements;
Figure 6, an end view of the same. Figures 7 and 9 shew two slabs or trays,
Figure being the upper, and Figure 9 the lower; these are shewn thus
seperate, in order to the better comprehension of the Diagram, Number 5.
Figure 8 is the slab which, from its action within the press, we call a float; the
Figure representing an edge view of the said float, which risesor falls according
to the working of the press. We usually make the whole of the press of wood.
except the supply pipes and cocks, and the iron tie rods and fastenings; we
prefer oak for the bearers, and deal for the slabs, but we do not confine
ourselves to material, as the framing might be of iron,or the slabs and floats of
metal,stone,or inarble, if desired; but we find the materials we say we prefer
to be cheap,durable, and to answer the purposes required of them extremely
well. We would remark, in order to shew that it has not escaped our attention,
that the combination of material may be varied in the construction of the press
for use in its operation on different substances; for some a lighter construction
and finer material, with more numerous and carefully cut grooves (say rounded
or curved) than can be required for the expression of moisture or liquid from
coarser substances. For pressing the water from distillers' spent wash, and
Other similar substances, we make our press very strong.with plenty of room
to allow the floats to work, and to press or solidify the substantive matter intro-
duced therein into stout cakes; such a press is represented by Figures 1 and 2;
but the slabs called floats and trays may be of any number.
But when color
or other lighter material is be operated upon, a larger and more condensed
press is used, constructed after the manner represented by the Diagrams,
Figures 6 and 7. Between each slab or float one, two, or more cloths or other
filtering medium are placed, which cloths are attached to the short pipes b, b.
The material to be acted upon having been by means of a force pump (or any
other adequate means) forced up the supply pipe a, and through the con-
ducting short pipes b, 6, passes into the press, filling the whole vacant space or
spaces thereof.
When suflicient material has passed in. the stop-cocks c, c,
are turned off; but previous to the press being supplied with material it
is necessary to arrange the slabs we call floats (one is shewn in plan at
Figure 4); these are seperately lifted at each end, and supported by a block or

page_text: な
blocks of wood (or other material) under the said ends, by which means the
slab or float will be fixed in the centre of the space between the trays (say
one float to each pair of trays). This position of a float is shewn at Figure.5,
on reference to which the red dotted lines marked thereon will distinctly shew
how the float rests when the press is prepared for action. When the floats are
so placed,and the component parts of the apparatus are fully secured together,
the force pump is set to work, the cocks turned on, and the material forced
into the chambers of the press until they are quite filled: the pump continuing
to work till the liquid or moisture yielding to the pressure finds vent through
the clothis, runs along the channels and makes its escape, leaving the more
solid particles between the slabs or floats until the press refuses to receive any
more which condition will be easily ascertained by the slower speed or stoppage
of the drainage from the press. When this stage is attained, each alternate
upper cork is closed or shut off, when by the pressure from below the float
boards will be raised. The supporting blocks are now to be taken from under
the ends of the floats; the material still being forced into the lower chambers,
that in the upper becomes, from the pressure, more solid. At this stage, after
shutting off all the cocks the iron side rods d, i, are withdrawn, the pipes b, b
unscrewed at their union joints e, e, and the solid material removed from the
upper chambers, leaving the cloths or bags in the said chambers empty; the
side rods d, d, are then replaced, and the lower cocks are then turned off and
the upper ones turned on; the material operated upon then fills the upper
chambers, whereby the material is in like manner in its turn inade solid and
ready for removal, and the operation reversed, and so on, alternately. The
foregoing series of operations being continually repeated,gives at each opening
of the pross alternate layers or cakes of material for removal. When it is
desirable to preserve the liquid or exudation issuing from the orifices of the
grooves of said slabs (as in acids, oils, and similar matters), a trough or
receiver of any kind should be so arranged as to intercept and retain such
liquid or exudation. We have not deemed it necessary to describe such trough
or receiver, as any workman can aflix it under the direction of the operator.
The top and bottom of our press are supplied with strong cross pieces f, f
which are kept or held in a fixed position, and pinned or otherwise fixed to the
longitudinal square pieces g. which are used to obt:in the necessary space for
the working of the slabs we call "floats." The rods d, d, with a cottar at one
end and a key at the other (or two keys may be used), secure the whole
apparatus together, resisting the strain on the inside of the press,and securing
it from expansion in any of its parts except where such expansion has been
otherwise provided for, as by the division h, between the grooved blocks i, i.

page_text: No fixed number of grooves constructed in or on the slabs called floatsortrays
can be given, as they may be varied to suit the requirements of particular
cases, and are to be determined by the nature of the material to be operated
upon, soine substances allowing of greater area for pressure than others;
those shewn in the Diagrams are square cuts, or nearly so, but there isnoreason
why curved or other shaped cuts should not be grooved into or constructed on
the wood or other substance of which the slabs may be made, if the substance
to be worked shall require such alteration of shape. On reference to Figures 3
and 4, it will be observed that the grooves are cut into the slabs in a sense
opposed to each other. Fig. 3 is a tray, and the grooves therein are cut in
cross pieces of timber, and pinned or otherwise firmly secured together by long
strips of wood (or other material), one on each side, of sufficient thickness to
keep the trays open for the up and down motion of the floats, see Figures 7
and 9, while the grooves on the floats, see Figure 4, are cut longitudinally with
the timber of which the slab is made, so that when placed above the trays,
although both float and tray are one above the other longitudinally, multi-
farious squares are formed by the crossing of the grooves of the float and tray.
At Figures 5 and 6 we have shewn the floats,j, down and resting in the
grooved blocks i, i, in the trays, except, as before mentioned, at the red dotted
lines at Figure 5, where one of the floats is thereby placed in position to receive
the material from the conducting pipes when the force pump is put into
operation.
We have now described a double-action press according to the mode
we prefer; but in certain cases, as where ordinary hydraulic or screw presses
are in use, which are in their nature ill adapted for pressing semi-fluids,
we construct our slabs or floats with the cloths between the head and follower
of the said hydraulic or screw presses; the semi-fluid is thus forced into the
chambers, and the same result will be effected as by the presses made in the
mode herein-before described. In certain cases it may also be desirable to
charge the chambers otherwise than by the metal pipes b, b, in which case we
simply make a hole through each slab or float, making a corresponding hole in
the cloths, to which is attached a piece of hose pipe; these pipes communicate
with each chamber through the hole made in each slabor float, andare secured
to each other by folding their ends together, thus forming a continuous tube.
Where heat is required, the whole of the parts herein-before described, orany
part or parts thereof, may be made hollow, so as to admit of steam or hot
air.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and shewn the
means by which the same is carried into practical effect, we would state that

page_text: we do not claim the exclusive use of any of the parts (taken as parts) of the
apparatus described and shewn, but only in so far as the same is used in com-
bination for the purposes of our Invention, which we declare to be, and we
claim, the exclusive use of the combination of parts herein-before described,
forming apparatus or machinery for expressing liquids or moisture from
substances.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Needham and James Kite,
have hereunto affixed our hands and seals, this Thirty-first day of May,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness to both signatures,
W. E. GEDGE,
4, Danes Inn, Strand.
J. KITE.
(L.S.)