IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING AND REFINING CANE, BEETROOT, AND OTHER CRYSTALLIZABLE SUGARS
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Primerose Howard Vaughan,
F.C.S., at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 25th March 1876.
A communication from abroad by Louis Zéphira Jouve, residing at Porto Rico.
EDWARD PRIMEROSE HOWARD VAUGHAN, F.C.S., of 67, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Patent Agent. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING AND
REFINING CANE, BEETROOT, AND OTHER CRYSTALLIZABLE SUGARS." A communi-
cation from abroad by Louis Zéphira Jouve, residing at Porto Rico.
The object of this Invention is to provide a more simple, efficient, and economical
method than has been hitherto known for extracting the crystallizable constituents
of the juices, syrups, or molasses derived from canc, beetroot, sorghum, maple, and
other analogous sources. It is well known that the heat employed for the evapo-
ration of saccharine liquids in the existing processes of manufacturing and refining
gives rise to certain alterations in the nature of the sugar, part of which is converted
into glucose, whilst the mass becomes more or less discoloured by a commencement
of the process of caramelization. In the open boiling pans still used in many manu-
factories, the amount of sugar thus converted is very considerable, and even in the
apparatus now generally employed, in which the vacuum is applied, the sugar
undergoes sufficient alteration to entail material loss on the manufacturer and
refiner.
The present improvements are based on the suppression of all evaporation by
boiling and the substitution therefor of a process of supersaturation of the saccharine
juices, syrups, or molasses by means of raw or white sugar, which supersaturation
is effected at a temperature below that of ebullition, and is carried to the point of
nascent crystallization of the mass, that is to say, to the point at which, in ordinary
processes, the boiling is usually arrested in order to allow of crystallization by
cooling. The densification of saccharine liquors by addition of sugar is a well-
known process, but as hitherto practised it involves the necessity of boiling, the
avoidance of which constitutes an important feature in this Invention.
In order to render more clear the difference between the system hitherto adopted
and that embraced by the present Invention, it may be stated that heretofore the
object of such addition of sugar has been to increase the density or richness of the
liquor whilst refining the added sugar, whereas in the present process the object is
to bring the liquor by supersaturation to the crystallizing point without boiling.
In carrying this Invention into effect, the saccharine liquor is defecated, clarified,
and filtered in the usual manner, and is then supersaturated by the addition of
sugar in the ordinary re-heater or other suitable receptacle, the incorporation of
[Price 2d1

page_text: the sugar so added with the saccharine liquor being effected by means of any
suitable apparatus. The operation is facilitated by heating the mixture to a tem-
perature of from 190° to 195° Fahrenheit, or more or less, according to circum-
stances, as will be well understood by persons conversant with such manufactures
and operations. The mass having been thus supersaturated to the crystallizing
point is then run off and cooled in suitable vessels, and is afterwards treated by the
ordinary processes according to the quality of sugar to be obtained. It is preferred
to employ white sugar for the above-described operation, but, when required, un-
refined sugar nay be substituted therefor, the resulting product being of course in
such case more or less coloured.
In treating molasses for the extraction of the crystallizable sugar contained
therein, the mass is first reduced by the admixture of hot water or hot sugar
liquor to the density of about 20° of Baumé's aerometer, after which it is brought
to the usual density of from 27° to 30° Baumé (approximately) by the addition of
raw sugar.
It is then clarified in the ordinary way, and, if required, treated with
animal charcoal. The syrup thus obtained is supersaturated, as above described,
by the addition of white or raw sugar, according to the quality of product desired,
and on attaining the crystallizing point is run off for cooling and subsequent
finishing by the ordinary processes.
By the above described mode of treatment a large proportion of the crystallizable
saccharine matter contained in the molasses is recovered and converted into concrete
sugar.