CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR AND THE PRODUCTS OF SUGAR
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, HENRY:
CROSLEY, of the City of London, Civil Engineer, and GEORGE STEVENS, of
Limehouse, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at.
Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of December, in the sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Henry Crosley and George Stevens, Her especial licence, full power,.
sole privilege and authority, that we, the said Henry Crosley and George
Stevens, our exors, adñors, and assigns, and such others as we, the said.
Henry Crosley and George Stevens, our exors, adññiors, or assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of Her Majesty's United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Islands of Jersey,
Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her said Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR AND THE PRODUCTS OF SUGAR;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso that we, the said Henry Crosley and George
Stevens, or one of us, shall cause a particular description of our said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, under our or one of
our hands and seals, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of

page_text: 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 said proviso, we, the said
Henry Crosley and George Stevens, do hereby declare that the nature of
our said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are
particularly described and set forth in and by the following Specification
thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed (that is to
say):
"
When the sugar canes or rattoons have been cut and gathered we express
and discharge the saccharine juice therefrom by the means and in manner
following.
a
Figure 1 is a side view, and Figure 2 an end view, of a hydraulic press
which we employ for this purpose. The parts marked A constitute the
general framework of the machine. The upper portion from a to 6 is enclosed
by the side plates B³, B², and B³, the top plate B', and the front doors C, C,
all composed of iron, and fitting exactly to one another, so as to form a box
or case for the reception of the canes to be pressed, of which box the follower
G, afterwards mentioned, may be considered as the bottom. The side plates
B1, B2, and B³, and the doors C, C, are fluted vertically on the inside. D is
an open reservoir or vessel, a little larger in superficial area than the enclosed
space from a to b. E is a cylinder which is passed through the bottom or
foundation A of the framework a little way into the ground or floor beneath.
F is a solid piston rod or ram which works in the cylinder E through
water-tight leather collar, and passes at top through the centre of the reser-
voir D. G is a follower or pressing table attached to the top end of the ram
F, and so much less in superficial area than the enclosed space from a to bas
to leave a clear space all round of about one inch on its upper face. This
follower is fluted horizontally, and also perforated by a number of holes, but
on its sides is fluted vertically. A plan of the press, through the line c, d, is
given in Figure 3. e is the upper face of the follower G'; and R, R, the
outer edges of the reservoir D. H¹ and H are two force pumps; the one
larger than the other; o is the discharge valve of the former, and that of the
latter. K, K, are the gearing and handles of the two pumps. L-is the water
supply cistern. M is a pipe, common to both pumps, through which the
water is conveyed into the cylinder E. N is the eduction passage (shewn by
dotted lines in Figure 1), with a regulating screw valve t, by which the used
water is returned to the cistern. L. P is a safety steelyard valve. On com-
mencing operations the whole of the enclosed space above the follower G is

page_text: filled with canes or rattoons laid lengthwise one upon the other, singly or in
bundles, and the doors C, C, closed upon them, and made fast by the cross
bars ff. The pumps H', H2, are then worked in the usual way, and either
by manual or any other description of power. The water conveyed by the
pumps through the pipe M into the bottom of the cylinder E forces up the
ram F and follower G; and in proportion to the quantity of water injected
and consequent elevation of the ram and follower, the canes are compressed,
and the saccharine juice squeezed out of them, which, running over the
follower G through the holes perforated in it, and down the fluted channels
on the inside of the enclosed space from a to b, falls into the trough D, whence
it is discharged through the shoot S into the filtering vessel herein-after
described. When the heap of canes or rattoons enclosed within the box is
large it will serve to facilitate the operation of compression to interpose between
them, at distances of from ten to twelve inches apart, thin plates of iron or
zinc or other metal. From the canes or rattoons being thus simply compressed
together in heaps laid lengthwise the outer rind is not broken and chopped.
crosswise, as is usual under the operation of grooved rollers, but is split and
riven in the direction of the fibres only, and the expressed juice is consequently
freer than ordinary from those impurities of which the rind is the source.
From the employment, too, of hydraulic pressure in the manner before.
described, the exhaustion of the juice of the canes or rattoons can be carried
to a much greater extent than is readily practicable by any other known,
means; for whereas, with the ordinary sugar mills, the canes or rattoons, if
not squeezed dry by passing once or twice between the rollers, must be passed
between them again at a most disproportionate expenditure of power, or
allowed to go to trash in their imperfectly compressed state, while, with the
hydraulic press,. any increment of power, however small, required to effect
complete, exhaustion of the juice of the canes or rattoons, can be obtained by
a movement or two of the smaller pump handle without shifting the canes or
rattoons from their place in the press. The cost also of working the hydraulic
press will be found under most circumstances much less than that of the
ordinary sugar mills, whether the press be worked by hand or by cattle or
horse power, or by steam, water, or any other power. And, further, manual.
labour, which is at present only partially applicable to this branch of
the process of manufacturing sugar, may, with the aid of the hydraulic
press, suffice to perform the whole. When one charge of canes has been.
compressed to the utmost by the means aforesaid, the regulating screw valve t
is unwound, which opening the eduction passage N, the water flows back into
the cistern L, the piston and follower F and G descend to their original

page_text: positions, and the press is ready for a repetition of the operation on a second
charge of canes or rattoons, and so on. The pressed canes or megass is, at
the end of each operation, removed from the press by hand. The canes or
rattoons, instead of being placed in the press in such lengths as they come
from the field, may be cut into shorter lengths if thought advisable. With a
bydraulic press such as is represented in the accompanying Drawings, and
before described, the pressure is applied in an upward vertical direction,
which, we think, will, in most cases, be found the most convenient; but it
may also, by suitable modifications of the apparatus, be applied in a downward
vertical direction or laterally. If applied laterally, however, the canes or
rattoons should in that case be laid endwise in the box or case provided for
them. From the press the cane juice is transferred into a filtering vessel
constructed and charged as follows:-The vessel, which may be of any con-
venient form, has a false bottom or grating of iron or wooden bars, on which
is laid a sheet of perforated zinc or copper or wire gauze, and over that a cloth
of coarse horsehair, wool, or cotton, or other like fibrous material. A small air
pipe is passed from the top downwards to below the false bottom. A layer or
layers of filtering materials, of one or other of the varieties to be presently
herein-after described, is then spread upon the cloth to the thickness of two or
three feet or more, and above all is placed another sheet of perforated zinc or
copper, or a wooden cover perforated in like manner, leaving a sufficient
space at the top of the filter for a head of the liquor to collect, in proportion
to the incumbent pressure of which head of liquor the process of filtration will
be accelerated. The filtering materials may consist either, first, of anthracite
coal alone, reduced to grains or pieces of the size of coarse gunpowder; or,
second, of coke alone, made from bituminous or any other description of coal
reduced to pieces of like dimensions; or, third of anthracite cole and coke of
bituminous or other coal, either placed in separate layers one upon the other
or intermixed; or, fourth, of vegetable charcoal (preferring that made from
the shell of the cocoa nut). And each of the said materials or combinations
of materials must be moistened with water before the cane juice is passed
through them. With a good head of liquor in the filter the process of fil-
tration will generally take place with sufficient rapidity; but when occasion
requires, the process may be accelerated by attaching to the filter below the
false bottom an exhaust pipe, connected to an air pump, to produce a partial
vacuum under the false bottom, with a consequent increase of atmospheric
pressure at the top of the filter. After the liquor comes from the clarifier it
is subjected to evaporation and cleansing in evaporating paces or boilers in
the usual way; but while yet in a partially cleansed state, and before trans-

page_text: ferring it to the last pan or boiler of the series, called the striking teache, we
pass it through a second filter, constructed in the same manner as that before
described, and charged with any of the four sorts of filtering materials before
described, and moistened as before directed, or with a mixture composed of two
parts anthracite, one part coke of bituminous or other coal, and one part ashes
of burnt megass, all moistened as aforesaid, or of a mixture composed of two
parts megass ashes, one part clean coarse sand, and one part vegetable
charcoal, preferring, as before, that made from the cocoa nut shell), and also
moistened as aforesaid. To this filter we also apply occasionally an air-
exhausting pump, in manner before described, for the purpose of accelerating
the process of filtration. When it is desired to add to the product of sugar
from the cane, by reboiling the molasses which drains from sugar of the first
formation, or the syrup which is discharged from sugar by the process of
clarifying, or by a magrua of sugar, or the syrup which is discharged by what
is called the pneumatic process of expelling molasses from raw sugar, or any
other of the residual products of sugar, we collect the said molasses, syrup,
or other residual products in a clarifying pan, and add thereto as much clear
lime water in each case as the quality and state of the molasses or syrup may
scem to require (for molasses, about one gallon of lime water for every ten
gallons of the molasses will generally suffice), and also about half a bushel of
charcoal, made from the shell of the cocoanut, which we find to be an excellent
decolorant), for every three hundred gallons of the molasses, syrup, or other resi-
dual product. We then heat the contents of the pan to nearly the boiling point;
but before that is reached we transfer them to a filter, constructed in the same
manner as those before described, and charged with any of the materials or
combination of materials before specified, or (which we prefer) a mixture of
anthracite coal reduced to grains as aforesaid, and coarse-grained vegetable
charcoal (preferring that of the cocoanut shell), and employing, if necessary,
the aid of an exhausting pump, in manner before described.
And having now specified the nature of our said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, we declare that we do not
claim, as of our Invention, the hydraulic press herein-before described in so
far as the mere production of pressure thereby is concerned, such presses.
having been long in use for that purpose in other branches of manufacture;
and that neither do we claim the filter before described as of our Invention,
or restrict ourselves to the precise proportions in which the filtering and
clarifying materials herein-before mentioned are directed to be combined, or
to the use of these materials in combination with the particular mode or
system of pressing the canes before described. But that what we claim is,-

page_text: . First, the method before described of expressing or squeezing out the
saccharine juice from sugar canes or rattoons in such lengths as they are ordi-
narily brought from the field, or cut into shorter lengths, if thought adviseable,
by subjecting them, in heaps of more or less bulk, to a strong insistent pressure
in one given line of direction, whether such pressure is produced by means of
a hydraulic press, as before described, which, however, we prefer, or by any
other equivalent mechanical means.
Second, the laying of the canes or rattoons, or pieces thereof, lengthwise or
endwise, when of suitable length for the purpose), according as the said
pressure is applied vertically or laterally, whereby they are split or riven in
the direction of the fibre only, and whether the canes or rattoons are all laid
one way, or laid crosswise, or at any angle with respect to one another, as long
as the insistent pressure is applied in such a line of direction as to split and
rive the canes or rattoons in the direction of the fibre; and,
Third, the employment, in manner aforesaid, as substances for filtering,
clarifying, and purifying sugar-cane juice, molasses, or syrup, or other residual
products of sugar, of anthracite coal, coke of bituminous or other coal, burnt
megass ashes, cocoanut charcoal, and clean coarse sand, whether the same
are used in the proportions before specified, or in any other available propor-
tions, and whether combined with the method or system of pressing the canes
before described, or combined with the ordinary sugar mills, or any other known
means of compression.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Crosley, on behalf of myself and the
said George Stevens, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-
eighth lay of Tune One thousand sight hundred and c