CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED IN THE MANUFAC- TURE OF SUGAR
Year: 1843

page_text: IIARDMAN, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fifth day of October, in the seventh year of Her reign, and in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-three, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Lawrence
Hardman, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said Lawrence Hardman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and
such others as I, the said Lawrence Hardman, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England
and Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all the Islands
of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also within all ler
Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED IN THE MANUFAC-
TURE OF SUGAR;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that
I, the said Lawrence Hardman, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited

page_text: more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Lawrence Ilardman, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereto annexed, and the following
explanation thereof (that is to say):
:-
My improvements in machinery or apparatus to be employed in the
manufacture of sugar consist in a novel and peculiar arrangement and con-
struction of apparatus as applied to certain operations in such manufacture,
and whereby the application of the principle of centrifugal force is effectively
employed. The particular process in the manufacture of sugar to which
my Invention applies is separating the molasses and other impure soluble and
colouring matter from sugar. But in order that the novel and particular
application of the machinery employed may be perfectly understood I will first
briefly notice the nature of the impurities generally combined with sugar, and
the common process most usually employed for their separation. The saccha-
rine juice of the cane, the date palm, the maple, or of the beet root, and indeed
of any vegetable, is, I believe, never obtained in a perfectly pure state, but con-
tains resin, gluten, pith, fibre, or other colouring and impure matter. When
the juice is boiled, which it is requisite should be done as soon as possible to
avoid fermentation, these impurities are to a certain extent separated from the
sugar, and the separation is often assisted by the admixture of lime and other
substances, by which some of the feculencies are caused to rise to the surface
in a scum, when it is easily taken off; others are precipitated, and others
coagulated so as to be in part removeable by subsidence and filtration. Heat,
lime, et cetera, although they separate the dregs, have, when not carefully
employed, a very prejudicial effect on sugar, rendering it uncrystallizable and
inferior in quality; and however carefully they be used, or if not used, it is
always found on concentrating the juice that a considerable portion of it does
not come to grain, but remains in a semi-fluid state, enveloping the crystals
or grain of the sugar, and from which it requires to be separated before the
sugar can be considered as in a finished and marketable state. This semi-
fluid is "molasses," and the processes most usually employed for separating
it are as follows:-When the juice is concentrated to such a point as may
be considered most desirable for granulation, the sugar combined with its
molasses is poured into hogsheads, cases, forms, or cones, having holes pierced
in their bottoms, which for the time are plugged up; here it is allowed to
cool, and, as far as it will, to granulate, and when it is considered that the

page_text: grain is sufficiently formed the plugs are removed, the mass is pricked
from below, and the molasses gradually drains from the granulated or
crystallised sugar into vessels placed beneath. In many places it is cu-tomary,
when the first runnings or molasses is drained from the sugar, to place
upon the surface of sugar a mass of wet clay, the water from which,
gradually draining through the sugar, carries off with it a portion of molasses
and colouring matter, which may have remained adhering to the grain or
crystals, and this process is repeated until the sugar be obtained as clear and
free from molasses and other impurity as may be considered requisite, the
clay being removed after each operation. In well-appointed sugar works a
solution of sugar in water of the consistency of syrup is made use of instead of
wet clay, as on many accounts it answers better. It is evident that this process
of draining must be a slow one, and the time occupied in completing it and
rendering the sugar clean and dry depends on the quality of the juice, the care
taken in clarifying and concentrating it; accordingly the time required varies
from three to four days to thirty or forty days. The molasses or drainings
from the sugar are partly capable of being crystallised by again cleansing and
concentrating; but as whilst it contains any impurities it is liable to ferment
and the sugar thereby to become less crystallisable and deteriorated in value,
it is (were it solely on this account) most desirable that the draining should be
accomplished as speedily as possible. My improvements are designed to effect
this desirable object, and, by the use of certain apparatus or machinery, to
perform that in a few minutes or hours which now occupies several days or
weeks, by which a very considerable saving in the manufacture of sugar will
be effected. From the peculiar operation of this apparatus in the separation
of the molasses and other impurities from sugar I intend to denominate the
machinery or apparatus "the disperser."
There are several modifications or arrangements in which the principle
of this apparatus may be brought into operation so as to accomplish the
desired effect, the object being to cause the materials intended to be disper
sed to revolve at a high velocity by means of any motive power whereby a
centrifugal tendency will be imparted to them, and being placed in a bag,
case, or any other suitable vessel which, retaining the granulated or solid
particles, will allow the liquid and soluble particles to be thrown off, a rapid
and effectual separation will take place.
Having now described the nature and object of my said Invention, I will
proceed to shew the manner in which the same is to be performed, and in
order that my improvements may be well understood, I have, by way of prac-
tical illustration, annexed to these Presents a Sheet of Drawings exhibiting the

page_text: apparatus employed, and which, with the following explanation, will render my
Invention perfectly explicit. Similar letters of reference are marked upon
corresponding parts of the mechanism in all the Figures.
Fig. 1 is a plan or horizontal view of a machine or apparatus designed to
illustrate the application of my improvements, being drawn upon a scale of
about one inch and a half to the foot; Fig. 2 is an elevation of the same, with
the outer casing removed, in order to expose the interior; Fig. 3 is a plan or
horizontal section, and Fig. 4, a vertical section taken through the middle of
the machine. a, a, is the central shaft of the machine, supported in a footstep
or bearing at b below and in a pedestal or bearing c above, either attached to a
cross beam or placed in an independent framing, as preferred; (this shaft is
made hollow from above, as shewn in Figure 4, and is perforated plentifully
with holes all round). Upon this shaft are keyed the top and bottom plates
d and e, the revolving apparatus being firmly connected together by means of
the vertical ribs f. ff.f; this revolving case or drum is divided by means of a
fine sheet of wire gauze or cloth g, g, thus forming the two circular chambers
or compartments h and i, and the whole is enclosed by means of two thick-
nesses of wire gauze or cloth k, k. The upper plate d is furnished with doors,
valves, or openings 1, 1, (for the admission of the sugar), and also openings or
valves m, m, (for the admission of air), and the bottom plate e is also furnished
with openings or valves n, n, (for the discharge of the sugar after the dispersion
of the molasses or other impurities). The bottom plate also bears upon a disc
or plate o, o, which is kept up against the bottom plate e whilst the machine is
in operation by means of the nut p and spring q, but is by the same means
withdrawn, giving vent to the discharge valves n, n, after the operation is com-
pleted. The whole of this apparatus is to be enclosed in a easing or chamber
r, r, which remains stationary, and may be open at the top and provided
with discharge pipes, openings, or valves s, s, by which the molasses or other
matter discharged from the sugar is drawn off. This apparatus is to be put
in motion by means of any suitable gearing, or by a strap passing round the
driving pulley t above.
The operation of the machine is as follows:-The sugar in its raw state
(combined with molasses, &c.) is to be placed in the compactment i, i, of
the revolving apparatus through the opening 1, 1, and a high velocity (say, eight
hundred or one thousand revolutions per minute) given to this chamber through
the driving shaft a, a, when the molasses and other soluble matter will (by
centrifugal force) be immediately dispersed through the gauze or cloth k, k,
(which is of too close a texture to allow any of the granulated sugar to escape)
into the outer casing r, r, and pass off by the pipes s, s, below, and thence con-

page_text: ducted into any convenient cistern, and the dried sugar will be retained in the
chamber i, i, and may be removed by the openings n, n, on releasing the bottom
plate o, o.
When the molasses is sufficiently dispersed from the sugar, a
quantity of syrup may be introduced down the hollow shaft, and passing
through the perforations and gauze g, g, into the chamber i, i, the apparatus
may again be caused to revolve rapidly, when a portion of impurity which may
remain adhering to the sugar will be carried off, and this process may be
repeated until the sugar be freed from any impurity, as far as may be
required.
In conclusion, I would remark that it will be perfectly evident to the
competent mechanic that a great variety of modifications and arrangements of
mechanism may be readily adapted to the same purpose. I have, therefore,
confined my illustration of this Invention to the above simple arrangement of
the apparatus; and I desire it to be perfectly understood that I do not intend
to confine myself to such or any other particular construction of machine to be
employed for this purpose, nor to any particular mode of applying the motive
power, nor to any degree of velocity at which the machine shall be made to
revolve; but that I claim as my Invention, the application of the principle of
centrifugal force for the separation or dispersion of molasses and other soluble
impurities and colouring matter from sugar, and as a means of syruping
or watering sugar from which its molasses and impurities have been in part
removed, in order further to cleanse and purify the same.
In witness whereof, I, the said Lawrence Hardman, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this First day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-four.
LAWRENCE (L.S.) HARDMAN.
the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Lawrence Hardman came before
our Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided.
Innalled the Bounth love of mil
in the w