IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING AND REFINING SUGAR
Year: 1852

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE. PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
GALLOWAY, of Cartmell, in the County of Lancaster, send greeting.
.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by
Her Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date Westminster, the Twenty-first-day
of December, One thousand eight bundred and fifty-two, in the sixteenth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Robert Galloway, my exors, adiñors, and assigns,
Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Robert Galloway, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Robert Galloway, my exors, adñiors, or 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, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
and in the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and in
all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING AND REFINING SUGAR;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Robert Galloway, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in

page_text: 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, I, the said
Robert Galloway, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner of performing the same, are fully described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention consists of employing lime, combined with lead or saccharate
of lead or lead in such forms as to act in a similar manner to plumbite of lime,
in refining sugar, or saccharate of lead when an acetate of lead is used, to
act on saccharine matter, and employing lime or magnesia before or after the
use of an accetate of lead.
The Invention also consists of using an acetate of lead twice, employing
another or other processes immediately, and using bicarbonate of lime or
bicarbonate or carbonate of magnesia, or matters acting similarly, to separate
the lead.
The Invention also consists of recovering back the lead employed in such
processes by washing the scum or refuse matters with acetic acid, thus
obtaining acetate of lead for further use.
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the means pursued by me.
And as the several matters employed are not generally manufactured by
chemists, I will first explain how I prepare the same, and I will then explain
how the same are used by me. In preparing plumbite of lime litharge is
intimately mixed with quicklime in the proportions of 112 lbs. of litharge
to 28 lbs. of quicklime; the mixture is dissolved in boiling water suffi-
cient to dissolve the same. Or it may be prepared by adding litharge
to boiling lime water so long as the litharge continues to be dissolved.
In preparing saccharate of lead, finely powdered litharge is added to a
boiling solution of sugar, so long as the litharge continues to be dissolved.
The density of the sugar solution I prefer for this purpose is 26° Beaume.
In preparing saccharate of lime slacked lime is added in excess to a cold
solution of sugar of the above-mentioned density. In preparing saccharate
of magnesia, caustic magnesia is added in excess to a cold solution of sugar of
a like density to that above mentioned.
In carrying out my Invention I employ the above-mentioned materials in
the following manner:-The raw sugar is dissolved in water in the vessel
called the blow-up, which is heated by means of steam. Before adding to
the sugar solution any of the deficating agents, a sample of it is treated by
adding to it basic acetate of lead in such quantity as to precipitate nearly all
the impurities capable of being precipitated by acetate of lead, which is ascer-

page_text: tained by filtering a portion of the sample liquor treated with basic acetate of
lead, and adding to the filtered liquid a few drops of a solution of acetate of
lead. If this latter salt of lead produces only a slight precipitate in the filtered
liquid, sufficient of the basic acetate has been added. The next thing to be
determined is, whether the sample solution which has been treated with tho
basic acetate of lead is neutral or acid; to ascertain this, the solution is
filtered and a slip of blue litmus paper is dipped into the filtered liquid.
If the colour of the paper is unaltered, I conclude that the solution is neutral,
but if it turns red, the solution in that case is acid. When the sample solution
is neutral the sugar solution in the blow-up is to be deficated in the following
way: The temperature of the sugar solution being about 150° Fahrenheit,
and its density from about 30 Beaumé downwards, I add a solution of saccharate
of lime or saccharate of magnesia, or saccharate of lead or plumbite of lime,
until test paper indicates that the sugar solution is neutral; I then add a
solution of basic acetate of lead, in such quantity that on a portion of the sugar
solution so treated being filtered, it gives, on the addition of a solution of
acetate of lead, no precipitate or a very slight one. When the sample solution-
is acid, the sugar is to be dificated in the following way-To the raw sugar,
dissolved in water, is to be added, when the temperature of the sugar solution
is about 150° Fahrenheit, and its density from about 30 Beaume downwards,
a solution of basic acetate of lead in such quantity that on a portion of the
saccharine solution being filtered, it gives, on the addition of a few drops of a
solution of acetate of lead, only a slight precipitate; I then neutralize the
solution either with a solution of saccharate of lime or saccharate of magnesia
or saccharate of lead or plumbite of lime; I then add again basic acetate of
lead until all or nearly all the impurities are precipitated. After having treated
the sugar solution by either of the methods above described, I add bicarbonate
of lime or carbonate of magnesia or bicarbonate of magnesia to precipitate
a portion of the lead remaining in solution. The liquor is then filtered;
before filtering it may be heated up to a temperature of 180° Fahrenheit. The
lead remaining in the filtered liquid I get rid of by sulphurous acid gas, as is
well understood, and for which Letters Patent were granted to Dr. Scofferin..
Bicarbonate of lime is prepared by passing carbonic acid through water,
holding in suspension carbonate of lime or slacked lime until no more
carbonate is dissolved. Bicarbonate of magnesia is prepared by passing
carbonic acid through water holding in suspension carbonate of magnesia
or causter magnesia until no more carbonate is dissolved. The process
for dificating cane and beet juice is conducted in the following manner :-
The juice is heated to a temperature of about 140° Fahrenheit, a solution

page_text: of saccharate of lime, or saccharate of magnesia, or plumbite of lime is
then added until the solution is neutra!; the heat is then to be gradually
increased until it approaches the boiling point, and until a thick scum forms
upon the surface; I subsequently add a solution of basic acetate of lead until
all or nearly all the impurities are precipitated; bicarbonate of lime or caibo-
nate of magnesia, or bicarbonate of magnesia is then added to precipitate a
portion of the lead remaining in solution; the juice is afterwards filtered.
The lead remaining in the filtered liquid is got rid of by sulphurous acid
gas. The scum which remains in the first filter bags, whether the result of
manufacturing sugar from juic or of refining, and which consists of the
the sugar impurities in combination with the oxide of lead, I treat in the
following manner :-I first of all wash it, in order to remove any saccharine
matter which may be mixed up with it. After it has been. washed I add to
it some acetic acid, and allow the acid to remain in contact with it for some
time. After the acid solution has been drawn or filtered off from the insoluble
portion, this latter is dried and ignited in contact with atmospheric air until
all organic matter is destroyed; the substance which remains behind is oxide
of lead, which is again used, as is also the acetic solution, in the manufacture
of acetate or basic acetate of lead; or I dry and ignite the washed scum in
contact with air, without previously digesting it in acetic acid, and use the
oxide of lead thus obtained in the manufacture of acetate or basic acetate of
lead, or other lead preparation.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Galloway, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.