IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF EXTRACTING THE JUICES Or BEETROOT, APPLICABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR AND TO DISTILLING PURPOSES, AND IN APPARATUS FOR THE PURPOSE
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Spence, of 8, Quality Court, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Iuven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF EXTRACTING THE JUICES Or
BEETROOT, APPLICABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR AND TO DISTILLING
PURPOSES, AND IN APPARATUS FOR THE PURPOSE."-A communication
from abroad by Augusto Collette, of Paris, in the Empire of France,
Refiner.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Spence at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 23rd June 1869.
I, WILLIAM SPENCE, of 8, Quality Court, Chancery Lane, in the
5 County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF EXTRACTING THE JUICES
OF BEETROOT, APPLICABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR AND TO DISTILLING

page_text: PURPOSES, AND IN APPARATUS FOR THE PURPOSE," (being a communication to
me from abroad by Auguste Collette, of Paris, in the Empire of France,
Refiner,) to be as follows:-
'This Invention relates to the extraction of the juices of beetroot,
applicable to the manufacture of sugar and to distilling purposes, and
lias for its object the saving of manual labour for grating, also the
dispensing with liurdles, sacks of woollen and other fabrics, with costly
maintenance and frequent injury to the juices; also the increasing of
the yield of sugar or alcohol by the rapidity of the process of extraction
of the juices, and the complete separation of the pulp by regular washing;
such pulp as it passes from the grater being well pressed, then washed,
pressed again, and allowed to fall into a waggon or other suitable
receptacle, all in the course of about five minutes more or less.
Another advantage proposed to be obtained by this Invention is, the
production of a pulp similar to that produced by hydraulic presses, but
without the defect of containing in any case any carthy matter due to
an incomplete washing of the beetroots. When warm residuary liquors
of distillation are used for diluting and macerating the pulp it has been
found by analysis and by experience that the pulp contains more
nutritive matter than 'the pulp from sugar houses produced by means of
hydraulic presses; it also thickens more easily and keeps longer.
The apparatus for the purpose consists of a washer for the beetroots
and a continuous feeder leading therefrom to a grater, whence the pulp
is raised by a pump into a press, where it is subjected to its first pressure.
Thence the pulp is conveyed to a washer or diluter and pumped with
the liquor in it into a second press, whence it passes in a dry state
into waggons or receptacles after having passed through a mechanical
sieve. Each press is composed of two hollow perforated cylinders
enclosed in a case, one of which cylinders is stationary and the other
. adjustable and furnished with weights to regulate its required nearness
to the stationary cylinder. Over the top of the stationary cylinder is
mounted a smooth pressing roller furnished with weights. The pulp
when pumped into the bottom of the said case is forced between the
perforated cylinders into a space within the case, whence it can only
escape by passing between the pressing roller and the stationary per-
forated cylinder.

page_text: The mechanical washer or diluter consists of a trough containing
liquid, in which trough is mounted a revolving axle with sets of pro-
jecting strikers arranged obliquely thereon.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Spence in the Great Scal Patent Office
on the 22nd December 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
SPENCE, of 8, Quality Court, Chancery Lanc, in the County of Mid.
dlesex, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of June, în the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Spence, Her special licence
that I, the said William Spence, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said William Spence my exccutors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thercafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and, Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE METHOD OF EXTRACTING THE JUICES OF BEETROOT, APPLICABLE TO THE
MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR AND TO DISTILLING PURPOSES, AND IN APPARATUS FOR THE
PURPOSE," being a communication to me from abroad by Auguste Collette,
of Paris, in the Empire of France, Refiner, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said William Spence, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and scals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was.. to
be performed, and cause the same to be, filed in the Great Seal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and: immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW. YE, that I, the said William Spence, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same

page_text: is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawings here-
unto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thercon (that is
to say) :-
This Invention of "Improvements in the Method of Extracting the
Juices of Beetroot, applicable to the Manufacture of Sugar and to Dis-
tilling Purposes, and in Apparatus for the Purpose," relates to thic
extraction of the juices of beetroot, applicable to the manufacture of
sugar and to distilling purposes, and has for its object the saving of
manual labor for grating, also the dispensing with hurdles, sacks of
woollen and other fabrics, with costly maintenance and frequent injury
to the juices; also the increasing of the yield of sugar or alcohol by the
rapidity of the process of extracting the juices, and the complete
separation of the pulp by regular washing; such pulp as it passes from
the grater being well pressed, then washed, pressed again, and allowed
to fall into a waggon or other suitable receptacle, all in the course of
about five minutes more or less.
Another advantage proposed to be obtained by this Invention is, the
production of a pulp similar to that produced by hydraulic presses, but
without the defect of containing in any case any carthy matter due to
an incomplete washing of the beetroots. When warm residuary liquors
of distillation are used for diluting and macerating the pulp it has been
found both by analysis and by experience that the pulp contains more
nutritive matter than the pulp from sugar houses produced by means of
hydraulic presses; it also thickens more easily and keeps longer.
In order however that the said Invention may be fully understood
and readily carried into effect I will proceed to describe it more par-
ticularly by the aid of the accompanying Drawings, in which the
apparatus is represented both as a whole and in some of its separate
parts.

page_text: In Fig. 1 A is a washer for the beetroots; B, a continuous feeder
leading therefrom to a grater C. The pulp issuing from this grater is
raised as required by the pump D, which deposits it on the press E,
where it is subjected to a first pressure. The juice extracted by this
press in the proportion of seventy to seventy-five per cent. is conveyed
either to the distillery or the sugar house. The pulp falls into a washer
or diluter F, in which it is diluted with water or residuary liquor in a
heated state issuing directly from the columns of the still. This pulp
charged with liquid is drawn out by the pump G, and introduced into
the second press E', whence it falls in a completely dry state into
waggons after having passed through a mechanical sieve. The juice or
liquor produced by the washing oscapes through the pipe c on the
grater, and thereby obviates the necessity for the ordinary use of water.
In factories in which sugar and alcohol are manufactured together
the pure juice or liquor extracted from the first pressing serves to make
the sugar, and that from the washing of the pulp to make the alcohol.
It is advisable now to describe one of the presses in detail. Fig. 2 is
a longitudinal clevation; Fig. 3 is a transverse section. The press is
composed of two hollow permeable cylinders A, B, that is to say, covered
with plates of copper, iron, or other metal, which arc pierced with holes
enlarged outwards in order to facilitate the escape of the liquid. These
plates are used in substitution for the metallic cloths hitherto employed.
The bearings of the cylinder B are fixed, while the cylinder A. may be
moved in a longitudinal direction in order to allow of the passage of
pieces of beetroot or hard foreign matters which could not be mixed
with the pulp. These two cylinders arc enclosed in a pulp box, the
cylinder A. as far as E, that is to say, to the top part, perpendicular to
its horizontal axis. The levers L, L', serve to regulate the pressure and
maintain the requisite degree of contact of the two cylinders A, B.
Over the fixed cylinder B there is a smooth pressing roller C acted
upon by springs or by weighted levers 7. The use of this roller is to
press the pulp a second time, and for this purpose the pulp in passing
from the first rolling between the permeable rollers or cylinders A, B,
becomes enclosed in a second chamber F closed and furnished at
G with a leather rubbing against the smooth roller C, and following
its movement, so that the pulp can only leave the chamber F by passing
between the permeable cylinder B and the smooth roller C, by which

page_text: means it is pressed a second time. The second pulp chamber is sepa-
rated from the first D by two leathers spread out in opposite directions;
and fixed at E perpendicularly to the axis of the moveable cylinder A.
It is to be here observed that in case of need several smooth cylinders
might be arranged one behind another with intermediate rubbers. Stops:
on the small cushions prevent the immediate contact of the two moveable
cylinders A and C with the fixed cylinder B, and regulate the necessary
distance between them in order to prevent thic rolling of the perforated
plates and the deterioration of metallic tissues. The perforated plates
rest as on a cushion, and are only fixed at one end so as to leave them
free to move in all other directions. The liquor issuing from the press,
and conveying more or less pulp according to the dimensions of the
holes in the perforated plates, becomes completely refined by passing
through one or several sieves of copper perforated in different degrees of
fineness. These mechanical sieves are similar to corn sifiers, and are
composed of a cylinder of fine metallic tissue inclined and turning on
two axes, so that the liquor on being introduced at the upper part
passes while being refined through the tissue; whilst the pulp owing to
the rotary movement is collected and drawn out of the cylinder, and falls
again into the exhaust of the pulp pumps.
Fig. 4 is a section parallel to the axis of the washer or diluter F,
which is no more than a kind of trough with a circular bottom, in which
turn with suitable speed the wings j,j, mounted on the axle f. These
wings or beaters serve the purpose of an agitator, and thereby facilitate
the action of the water or the residuary liquor employed for washing
the pulp.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention communicated
to nic from abroad, as aforesaid, I hereby declare that what I claim as of
the said Invention is,-
First. The process herein-before described for extracting juice from
beetroot, whether applied to the manufacture of sugar or for distilling
purposes, with the advantages as stated, and with reference to dis-
tilling purposes the use of the residuary liquors between the two
pressing processes, as described.

page_text: And, lastly. The particular construction of the circular press for
extracting the juice from the pulp.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Spence, have hereunto
set my hand and scal, the Twenty-second day of December,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine.
Witness,
W. A. JACKSON,
8, Quality Court.
WILLIAM SPENCE. (L.S.)