IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT IN CENTRIFUGAL MACHINES OF SUGAR AND OTHER SUBSTANCES, AND IN THE APPARATUS OR MEANS EMPLOYED THEREIN."
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 10th February 1881. A communication
from abroad by Emile Etienne, of Paris, in the Republic of France.
"
JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex,.
Gentleman. IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT IN CENTRIFUGAL MACHINES
OF SUGAR AND OTHER SUBSTANCES, AND IN THE APPARATUS OR MEANS
EMPLOYED THEREIN." A communication from abroad by Emile Etienne, of Paris,
in the Republic of France.
The operation of liquoring sugar in the form of powder, or in blocks, or in
moulds, has heretofore been effected by means of one of two processes, viz., first,
by means of cleare, that is to say, sugar dissolved in water (this liquoring is
effected under varying pressure or in the centrifugal machine); and, secondly, by
means of dried steam, this latter mode of treatment being usually applied in the
centrifugal machine only.
Now this Invention relates to a system of liquoring in the centrifugal machine
by the employment of cleare without steam.
According to the usual process the cleare is generally projected directly against
the blocks or powder with a degree of force corresponding to the speed of rotation
of the machine; the cleare acting under these conditions disintegrates the
material against which it impinges, and carries the greater part of the particles so
detached away with it through the gauze sides of the basket, at the same time
disfiguring the surface against which it is projected. These two serious dis-
advantages have hitherto deterred manufacturers from adopting the system of
liquoring sugar in the centrifugal machine, the said disadvantages consisting in
the reduction in the yield, and the disfiguring of the surface directly exposed to
the action of the cleare.
In order to obviate these disadvantages it is proposed to interpose a porous body
between the solid material or sugar and the cleare, the said body being capable of
allowing the liquid to pass through it under the action of centrifugal force, but
resisting its passage when under atmospheric pressure only.
In carrying out this Invention cases or boxes of perforated sheet metal are
employed, the same being enveloped in swanskin or other suitable porous or
permcable material, and closed at the upper part with a loose plug or cover of

page_text: wood. These cases are arranged in the basket of the centrifugal machine in the
form of a ring, so as to be surrounded by moulds hereinafter described containing
crystallized sugar for example. The said moulds may be constructed in the form
of a truncated pyramid, having a rectangular base and two parallel sides, and are
arranged in the form of a ring inside the basket, and surrounding the ring of cases
constructed of permeable materials, as herein before described.
The moulds being thus arranged in the machine are first swung until the syrup
is expelled, after which the boxes or cases of porous material herein before
described (previously filled with the cleare or liquid for effecting the liquoring) are
placed in position in the apparatus, which is then again set in motion for a certain
period, after which the loaves when removed from the moulds will be found to be
perfectly white and freed from all traces of syrup.
It will be obvious that filtering material different from that hereinbefore
described may be employed, the same being placed upon the sugar to be liquored
in order to separate it from direct contact with the cleare, so as to prevent the
latter from entering the sugar too abruptly, the said material also forming the
exterior of a vessel, round which it is wrapped.
The system is also applicable to the treatment of other substances than sugar,.
and with other materials than cleare.