IMPROVEMENTS IN EVAPORATING IN VACUO
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Aspinall, of Great Tower Street, in the City
of London, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
EVAPORATING IN VACUO."
Scaled the 31st August 1859, and dated the 7th March 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Aspinall at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 7th March
1859.
I, JOHN ASPINALL, of Great Tower Street, in the City of London, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN EVAPORATING IN VACUO," to be as follows:-
My Invention is intended to refer chiefly to the evaporation of liquid from
sugar; but it will apply to the evaporating and drying of other substances.
Hitherto the heat for evaporating in a vacuum pan has been introduced
through a coil of steam pipes at the bottom of the pan, and beneath the sugar
or other substance from which the liquid or moisture was to be evaporated.
Many inconveniences, the most formidable of which in evaporating liquid from
sugar has been the formation of treacle, have arisen from so introducing the
heat; the object of my Invention is to overcome these inconveniences, and it
consists in introducing a series or coil of steam or hot air pipes into the upper
part of a vacuum pan, and in keeping the coil of pipes at or near the surface
of the sugar or other material to be evaporated. I surround the bottom of

page_text: the pan with a jacket for containing hot water, air, or steam. There
are inlet and outlet pipes to supply and take off the steam, hot air, or water,
which pipes are free to rise and fall, and take with them the coil of pipes.
The inlet and outlet pipes work through stuffing boxes and air-tight packings.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Aspinall in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
7th September 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, J, JOHN
ASPINALL, of Great Tower Street, in the City of London, Civil Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by ITer Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Aspinall, Her special licence that I, the said John Aspinall,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
John Aspinall, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, usc,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
EVAPORATING IN VACUO," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said John Aspinall, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
mauner 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 John Aspinall, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hercunto annexed,
that is to say :-
"
My Invention is intended to refer chiefly to the evaporation of liquid from
sugar; but it will apply to the evaporating and drying of other substances.
Hitherto the heat for evaporating in a vacuum pan has been introduced

page_text: through a coil of steam pipes at the bottom of the pan, and beneath the sugar
or other substance from which the liquid or moisture was to be evaporated.
Many inconveniences, the most formidable of which in evaporating liquid from
sugar has been the formation of treacle, have arisen from so introducing the
heat; the object of my Invention is to overcome these inconveniences, and it
consists in introducing a series or coil of steam or hot air pipes into the upper
part of a vacuum pan, and in keeping the coil of pipes at or near the surface
of the sugar or other material to be evaporated. I surround the bottom
of the pan with a jacket for containing hot water, air, or steam. There
are inlet and outlet pipes to supply and take off the steam, hot air, or
water, which pipes are free to rise and fall, and take with them the coil of
pipes. The inlet and outlet pipes work through stuffing boxes and air-tight
packings.
In Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings, I have shown in sectional
clevation one method I adopt for carrying my Invention into effect.
A is a
steam pipe lending from the boiler to a passage B, in communication with a
series or coil of pipes C, C, placed at or near the upper part of the vacuum
pan; D, D, are pipes through which the steam or hot air passes to the steam
jacket E, from which it is drawn off in any convenient manner. The series of
pipes are kept near the surface of the liquid by a pipe F (perforated at top),
into which a screw G takes. The pipe F is raised or lowered, and with it the
coil of pipes, by means of bevil gearing H, H, and winch handle I; J, J, are
sight holes to ascertain the height of liquid in the pan.
I do not confine myself to the use of steam jacket, as the steam or hot air
may be led off through the upper part of the pan.
Figure 2 is a sectional elevation of another method of carrying my Invention
into effect, and in which the steam or hot air pipes are stationary at the upper
part of the pan. A, A, is the pan, surrounded at its lower part by a jacket
B, B; C, C, are the steam or hot air pipes; D is a man-hole, and E
pipe learling to the exhaust pumps; F is the charging pipe; G, sight-hole; H
is an outlet pipe, furnished with valves I and K, for the purpose of enabling
the granulated sugar or other material to be withdrawn, while the evaporation
is still being carried on in the pan; L is an exhaust pipe furnished with a cock
and leading from the discharge pipe to the upper part of the pan. I keep the
pipes just covered, and as the evaporation takes place supply fresh material or
liquor to maintain about one uniform level.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim, evaporating in
vacuo by means of steam or hot air pipes, whether free to rise and fall

page_text: or stationary, maintained at the upper part of the vacuum pan, or at or about
the surface of the liquor or substance to be evaporated.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Aspinall, have hereunto set my
band and seal, this Seventh day of September, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-nine.
JOHN ASPINALL. (L.S.)