AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING SUGAR
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Meyer, of Bow, in the County of Middlesex,
for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING
SUGAR,"
Sealed the 4th January 1878, and dated the 29th October 1877.
.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Meyer at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 29th October 1877.
HENRY MEYER, of Bow, in the County of Middlesex.
PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING SUGAR."
"AN IMPROVEMENT IN. THE
The objects of this Invention are to reduce the cost of the apparatus required for
the manufacture of sugar, and also to effect an economy in the labor employed
therein.
These objects I propose to attain by bleaching the saccharine liquor in the
vacuum pan, or while the concentration of the saccharine solution is being carried
оп.
Hitherto it has been the practice to run the saccharine liquor into leaden tanks,
and there to subject it to the bleaching action of sulphurous acid gas. Then after
subsidence of the heavy impurities to pump the liquor into the vacuum pan.
I now propose, instead of using the bleaching tanks, to run the liquor into the
vacuum pans, and to inject into the pans sulphurous acid gas, and thereby to use
those pans as a substitute for the bleaching tanks, and avoid the cost of pumping
the liquor from the tanks to the pans. The vacuum or partial vacuum set up in'
the pans will also serve to draw in the sulphurous acid gas.
When the liquor is bleached, and sufficiently concentrated, it is pumped out of
the pans into tanks, where it is allowed to settle; it is then decanted, and the
manufacture proceeds as heretofore.
By this improved process of manufacture, the labour of the attendants will be.
simplified, and the space required for the plant will be greatly reduced.
'

page_text: the said Henry Meyer in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 26th March
1878.
HENRY MEYER, of Bow, in the County of Middlesex. "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE
PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING SUGAR."
The objects of this Invention are to reduce the cost of the apparatus required for
the manufacture and refining of sugar, and to effect an economy in the labour
employed therein.
•
The Invention essentially consists in bleaching the saccharine liquor by means of
sulphurous acid gas in vacuo, while the operation of concentrating the saccharine
solution is being carried on.
Hitherto the saccharine liquor has been bleached by running it into leaden tanks,
and subjecting it while there to the action of sulphurous acid gas pumped into such
tanks. The bleached liquor was then, after subsidence of the heavy impurities,
drawn into the vacuum pan to be there concentrated. This method necessitated
the employment of costly apparatus and the expenditure of some pumping power,
which by the application of my Invention will not be required.
Another method, which has also been employed, is to introduce sulphurous acid in
a liquid state into the vacuum pan; this method, however, although it reduces the
cost of the apparatus employed in making sugar, has proved tedious and otherwise
unsatisfactory; inasmuch as it is expensive, because the liquid sulphurous acid
has to be manufactured by an independent process requiring the use of distinct
apparatus.
I now propose to manufacture the sulphurous acid gas as the concentration of the
saccharine solution is procceding, and to introduce the gas directly into the vacuum
pans, so that these pans will become a substitute for the bleaching tanks before
mentioned. The cost of the tanks and of the pumps or apparatus for pumping the
gas into such tanks, is thus saved, and the labour necessary for carrying out
the manufacture or refining of the sugar is proportionately economized, while
the saccharine liquor is properly bleached. The vacuum or partial vacuum set up in
the pans in the ordinary way is sufficient to draw in the gas, which will come by
preference direct from the apparatus in which it is generated and purified.
The sulphurous acid gas may be introduced into the vacuum pan either inter-
mittently or continuously until a sufficient charge thereof has been admitted.
When the liquor in the vacuum pan has become bleached and sufficiently con-
centrated, it is drawn off into tanks, and the process of manufacture will then
proceed as heretofore.
In order that the Invention may be clearly understood, I annex a Drawing,
showing in longitudinal elevation (partly in section) the arrangement of the
apparatus which I prefer to employ.
A is the stove in which the sulphurous acid gas is generated in the ordinary
manner; B is a pipe leading therefrom to a purifier C; D is a pipe leading from
the purifier to the vacuum pan E, which is provided with the usual necessary
appendages; F is a cock on the pipe D for regulating the admission to the pan Ĕ
of the gas, which is discharged into the saccharine liquor through a perforated coil
of pipe G forming a continuation of the pipe D; H, is a pipe which connects the
pan with the pump exhaust; I is a pipe for admitting the saccharine liquor to the
pan; K is a coil of steam pipe for heating the saccharine liquor; and L is the tank
into which the liquor, when bleached and sufficiently concentrated, is run from the
pan E through the discharge valve M..
From the foregoing observations it will be understood that by my improved
process of manufacture, not only is the cost of the apparatus much diminished, but
also the labour of the attendants is simplified, and the space required for the plant
is also materially reduced,

page_text: Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "An Improvement in the
Process of Manufacturing Sugar," and explained the manner of carrying the same into
effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters
Patent I claim, subjecting the saccharine solution, in an exhausted vessel, or while
being concentrated, to the action of sulphurous acid gas, in the manner and for the
purpose above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Meyer, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the 19th day of March, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-eight.
HENRY MEYER. (LS.)