AN IMPROVED METHOD OR PROCESS, ARRANGEMENT, AND COMBINATION OF APPARATUS WITH CERTAIN AGENTS USED OR EMPLOYED THEREWITH, WHEREBY EVAPORATION OF FLUIDS AND SOLUTIONS MAY BE EFFECTED ADVANTAGEOUSLY, AND ALSO FOR OTHER BENEFICIAL PURPOSES TO WHICH THE SAID METHOD OR PROCESS IS APPLICABLE OR CAN BE APPLIED
Year: 1834

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
CROSLEY, of Hooper Square, Leman Street, in the City of London, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the
Fourth, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain,
bearing date at Westminster, the Eighth day of April, in the fourth year
of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Henry Crosley, His especial licence that I, the said Henry
Crosley, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Henry Crosley, my executors, administrators, 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, or in the British Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention
of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OR PROCESS, ARRANGEMENT, AND COMBINATION OF
APPARATUS WITH CERTAIN AGENTS USED OR EMPLOYED THEREWITH, WHEREBY
EVAPORATION OF FLUIDS AND SOLUTIONS MAY BE EFFECTED ADVANTAGEOUSLY, AND
ALSO FOR OTHER BENEFICIAL PURPOSES TO WHICH THE SAID METHOD OR PROCESS IS
APPLICABLE OR CAN BE APPLIED;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso obliging me, the said Henry Crosley, by an instrument in writing under

page_text: my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the
same to be enrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said 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
Henry Crosley, do hereby declare the nature of my said. Invention, to consist
in an improved method, or process for the introduction of the agents, air, or
steam, into fluids undergoing the process of evaporation, refrigeration, or clari-
fication, as herein-after explained, while those fluids are kept in a state of con-
stant agitation in open pans or vessels, and which I effect by means of the
improved arrangement and combination of apparatus hereinafter described.
And in further compliance with the said proviso, 1. the said Henry Crosley, do
hereby describe the manner in which iny said Invention is to be performed, by
the following statement thereof, reference being afterwards had to the Drawing
hereunto annexed, to the letters and figures marked thereon, and to the
description given thereof.
First, for evaporating fluids or solutions in open pans, under which naked
fire is placed, or in open pans, under and in which steam or other agents, of
heat is applied, in a steam case, or in pipes, or otherwise. I make use of a
wheel or wheels constructed similarly to a coach or carriage wheel, the rim,
spokes, and central box or knave being made of iron, copper, brass, or any
other proper material; in the rim of the said wheel, which rim may be made
of thin metallic plate) holes are made equal in number to the spokes intended
to be used; the spokes may be either straight or curved, or any other proper
or convenient shape and form, and may be made of metallic tubes or pipes,
round, square, or any other proper shape; one end of each spoke is screwed
into or otherwise affixed to the side of the central box or nave, and the other.
end of each spoke that passes through the hole in the rim of the wheel is
closed and affixed to the rim by a plug or cap, screwed or otherwise fixed into
the spoke, or thereto, by which means the rim is kept in its proper curve; the
central box or nave of, the wheel may be made of metal or any other proper
material, and eithor of a circular, square, or any other convenient shape or
form, but the said central box or nave must be hollow; the spokes and also the
central box or uave aro perforated with holes or apertures in the lower or
underneath parts (when the wheel is placed in a horizontal position in the
pan), which holes or apertures are in number and size proportionate to the
dimensions of the apparatus, and are made at such distance from each other,

page_text: evaporize a liquid or solution by the machinery and apparatus, &c., as before
more particularly described, the operation is as follows-Having charged the
open pan or pans to any required and proper depth with the fluid or liquid or
solution to be evaporized, the air pumps, blowing cylinders, or other proper
apparatus for forcing or propelling air, either in a heated or in its natural
state, are put in motion by any power, natural or artificial, the air is thereby
forced into the condensing vessel or reservoir, whence it passes through the
egress pipe leading therefrom to the main pipe, and thence through one or
more branches into the pipes, as before described, which pipes connect the
metallic wheel or wheels immersed in the fluid, or liquid, or solution within
the open pan or pans, from the central hollow box or nave of the wheel, and
the hollow spokes or tubes connected with the said box and rim of the wheel,
the air finds egress through the perforations, holes, or apertures in the central
hollow box or nave, and in the hollow spokes of the wheel, and first acting in
a downward direction, as a cooling agent upon the heated bottom of the open
pan or evaporator, or upon the upper and heated surface of the pipes placed
within the pan; the air then ascends through the fluid, or liquid, or solution,
and in its passage cools it, and carries off' (with the aid of heat under the pan, or
in the pipes within the pan) the aqueous parts thereof, and accelerates evapo-
ration, and such evaporation is additionally accelerated by the motion of the
wheel, which motion may be increased or decreased according to the velocity
or power employed to propel the wheel in the manner before described. The
operation of evaporating a solution of sugar or syrup by the wheel apparatus,
as described, may be effected in an open pan either of a square, oblong,
circular, or oval shape; but it is essential that the heat, of whatever nature or
denomination, employed as an agent for evaporating should act only on the
external surface of the bottom or parts of the pan over which the air
is being diffused, in order to prevent the deleterious effects of heat upon
the solution of sugar or syrup, the bottom of such an open evaporating
pan under which heat is acting being the medium through which the heat acts
upon the solution within the pan, and as there would be gulphs or recesses
under which heat should not act in square, oblong, or oval pans or evaporators,
such gulphs or recesses serve as reservoirs for scum or extraneous matter in
and floating upon the solution or syrup under evaporation, and also serve for
placing a plug or cock and pipe for discharging the evaporized solution.
An open pan, in size a little longer than two diameters, and a little
wider than one diameter of the hollow wheel, with a gulph or recess on
one side of such a shaped pan, is to be preferred, because, by the rotation
of two wheels in such a pan, the liquid or solution is moved and agitated in a

page_text: contrariwise direction, and thereby a greater evaporation is produced than in
a pan of another shape, but the action and diflusion of the air upon the
internal surface of the bottom of an open evaporating pan of any shape may
be effected generally and uniformly by the means before described, which
beneficial and universal effect cannot be produced by any of the fixed or
immoveable evaporators hitherto used for diffusing air upon the internal bottom
of any description of open evaporating pans. Moreover, if circular pans
under which fire is placed (such as are commonly used in sugar refineries)
are employed, then there may be fixed to one or more of the spokes of the
wheel a knife or scrapers, for the purpose of scraping the internal surface of
the bottom of the pan during the period that the wheel is in motion, and,
when air is being ejected therefrom, for the purpose of evaporating the
solution or syrup within the pan. For the operation of melting or dissolving
sugar for clearance, or what is called by sugar refiners clarification, it is
advantageous to force steam into the mass of sugar to accelerate its disso-
lution; and if the circular and open evaporating fire pan commonly used in
sugar refineries for the purpose of clearance is employed, in conjunction with
the apparatus before described. benefits may be obtained by the employment
of the said hollow wheel by attaching to the spokes thereof a knife or scrapers,
as before described, to prevent the adhesion of the sugar therein, and to stir
up the melting mass when steam, in lieu of air, is forced or ejected through
the holes or apertures in the wheel that moves in the melting mass of sugar
to be cleared or clarified. For cooling or reducing the temperature of fluids
or liquids, &c., the same, or a similarly contrived apparatus. consisting of one
or any greater number of hollow wheels, with apertures in the parts described,
or a series of pipes or tubes with holes or apertures in the underneath parts
thereof, may be framed and formed in any other proper and convenient manner
and shape to suit the cooler, vessel, vat, or reservoir containing the liquid, and
the said wheel or wheels or series of pipes may be made to rotate or move in
any other direction but in a horizontal position, by mechanical or other power,
in the liquid intended to be cooled rapidly, by agitation and by the artificial
and excessive action of atmospheric air, and for other operations upon liquids
requiring agitation and the presence and rapid influence of atmospheric air,
the said wheel apparatus or series of pipes and tubes may also be applied.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of my said improved apparatus. A, ingress
pipe leading from the air pumps or blowing cylinders. B, valve opening inter-
nally to admit the air into the condensing vessel. C. condensing vessel.

page_text: and so divided and placed, as to permit the ejection and diffusion of the air,
steam, vapour, or aeriformed fluid in the greatest, most universal, convenient,
or desired direction into the liquid solution or substance within the open pan,
evaporator, or other vessel employed or used; and also to permit the ejection
and diffusion of the air, &c. upon the internal surface of the bottom of the
open pan, evaporator, or other vessel, or upon the pipes or tubes within the
open pan or evaporating vessel, under the bottom of which naked fire, steam, or
other agents of heat is acting, or through which pipes, steam, or other agents
of heat are circulating or forced for the purpose of producing the evaporation of
the liquid or solution. On the top or upper part of the said central box or nave
(when the wheel is in its proper and horizontal position) a pipe or tube made
of metal. or any other proper material may be screwed or otherwise fixed, and
this pipe or tube axle may extend upwards to any proper and convenient
height, and on the upper end of the said pipe or tube axle, on the external
part thereof, a conical collar or plug is screwed or affixed by a pin or screw
and the said conical collar or plug is ground into the extremity or lower and
internal part of another pipe or tube of a somewhat larger bore or calibre,
which last mentioned pipe or tube may be made of metal or any other proper
material, the extreme or upper end of which last mentioned pipe or tube
enters into a stuffing box fitted up with a gland in the usual way, or the said
pipe may be attached to the branch pipe above by a universal revolving
joint, or any other contrivance well known to mechanical persons may be
adopted in lieu of the said conical collar or plug or stuffing box or universal
revolving joint, provided the said pipe or tube (into which the tube axle enters)
is fitted air or steam tight, as its junction with the branch pipe above and with
the previously described pipe or tube axle, which is intended to slide inwards
and upwards into the intermediate pipe before described, which said pipe
must also freely move and rotate by the mechanical or other power that
propels the apparatus; the said pipe or tube axle, and the pipe above into
which the pipe or tube axle slides, must also be connected together when
the apparatus is in motion, either by a feather or projection on the conical
collar (which feather or projection fits into a groove at the lower part or
extremity of the pipe into which the pipe or tube axle slides), or the said
two pipes may be joined together and fixed by means of a pin or screw, and
by these or any other means well known to mechanical persons the wheel and
pipe or tube axle attached thereto may be raised by a cord chain and pulley
out of the open pan or evaporator whenever needful, and by placing a cock or
throttle valve to or in and at a proper height in the branch pipe leading from
the main pipe, by which cock or throttle valve the quantity of air, steam,

page_text: vapour, or acriformed fluid may be regulated at pleasure; the stuffing box, as
previously described, or any other contrivanco suitable for the purpose afore-
said, must also confine the air or steam or vapour or acriformed fluid that is
forced through the pipes which pass through the said stuffing box or other
substituted contrivance, into which said stuffing box or other suitable contri-
vance in lieu thereof, another pipe or tube, made of metal or any other proper
material, descends or branches off from the main pipe, which leads and is
affixed to the vessel or reservoir for condensing or compressing the air which is
forced therein by pumps or blowing cylinders, and which said vessel or reservoir
may be made of iron or any other proper material, and upon the top or cover
thereof a valve may be placed and aflixed, and weighted in the usual way, for
the purpose of regulating the degree of compression of the air, steam, vapour, or
aeriformed fluid that may be forced into the said vessel or resorvoir; but if steam
is forced into the said vessel for the purpose of clarifying a solution of sugar.
or for other purposes, then it is needful to attach to the bottom thereof a pipe
or pipes in any of the usual ways for conveying the condensed steam or water
that may be formed in the said vessel, or in the ingress and egress pipes con-
nected thereto; and a rotary motion must be given to the wheel or wheels
immersed in the liquid or solution, within the open pan or pans or vessels
employed, by a sheive and driving band, as hereinafter described; and
in order to support and suspend the hollow wheel intended to rotate at
a proper depth in the open pan, and at a proper distance from the bottom
of the pan, or from and above the pipes placed within the open pan, through
which pipes steam or other heated agents circulate; two bearings of
wood or iron are placed horizontally across and at a convenient and
proper height above the pan, at such a distance from each other as to
admit the pipe that ascends from the pipe or tube axle to pass and to be
placed vertically over the centre of the pan. This said pipe terminates in the
stufling box, or is affixed to the branch pipe above by a universal revolving
joint. Upon the upper surfaces of the said bearings a metallic plate is fixed,
and there is also affixed on the pipe attached to the pipe or tube axle another
metallic plate, with friction rollers, which rotate upon the plate fixed upon the
bearings, and support the apparatus when it is in motion, or in lieu of the
wheel or wheels for diffusing the air ejected therefrom, a series of pipes or
tubes may be framed, and formed and made in a similar way to those pre-
viously described for the hollow wheel, to which said series of pipes or tubes
framed and aflixed together in a rim, similar to the rim of the wheel, as before
described, rotatory or any other more convenient notion may be given to the
said series or tubes by means well known to mechanical persons. But to

page_text: eserve or disguise with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent contained; wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive
ight and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Crosley, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-four.
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the
within named Henry Crosley, in the
presence of
HENRY (L.s.) CROSLEY.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fifth day of September,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Henry Crosley came before our
Lord the King in His 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.

page_text: D, valve at top of ditto, to regulate the pressure. E, egress pipe leading into
the main pipe. F, F, main pipe. G, branch pipe from main pipe. H, a slide
valve with shieve wheel and endless rope, by which a screw is turned to or fro
to regulate the opening and shutting off the valve. I, a pipe connected to the
underneath part of the valve box, and terminating in the stuffing box. K, a
stuffing box with gland, and fitted up in the usual way on the top of the pipe.
L, L, the pipe leading to and occasionally attached to the tube axle pipe. M, the
tube axle pipe attached to the nave or hollow centrical box of the air escape
wheel by a screw collar and jam nuts. N, the nave or hollow centrical box
of the air escape wheel. O, O, the hollow spokes of the air escape wheel.
P, P, the rim of the air escape wheel. Q, Q, a bracket or bearing attached
to the top edge of the pan for the purpose of steadying the tube axle pipe when
in motion. R, R, two counter balance weights, with ropes connected to two
eyes attached externally to the tube axle pipe of the air escape wheel, which
ropes pass over two shieves for the purpose of raising the wheel out of the pan
when required. S, a shifting pin to attach the tube axle pipe to the pipe L.
which pin is withdrawn when it is necessary to raise the wheel and the tubo axle
pipe out of the pan. T, a conical collar screwed on to the pipe L, which
collar is accurately fitted to a corresponding cone on the top of the tube axle
pipe M, in order to prevent the escape of air, steam, &c., when the apparatus
is in operation. U, a flaunch cast on the pipe L, which flaunch rests on three
metallic balls that rotate in the grooves formed on the plate V. V, the plate
upon which the balls rotate, through the centre of which plate the pipe L
passes and is guided by W, a wooden bearing for supporting the apparatus.
X, a shieve or rigger which is made to rotate by a band or strap propelled by
mechanical or other power; this shieve runs loose on the pipe L, and when it
is necessary to give motion to the pipe the clutch Y is dropped down so that
the nugs or projections on the underneath side of the clutch fall into corre-
sponding spaces on the top of the shieve; the clutch slides up and down the
pipe, and is prevented from turning, without moving the pipe L, by a key fixed
into, and projecting from the pipe L, which key also fits into a groove formed
in the boss of the clutch. Z, lever standard and rope for raising and lowering
the clutch. No. 1, an open fire pan set in brick work in the usual way.
No. 2, a lip or gulph into which the impurities flow that float on the surface of
the solution or liquid. Figure 2 is a plan of the underside of the hollow air
escape wheel, showing the holes or perforations in two of the hollow spokes,
and partly in the nave or centrical hollow box; but these holes or perfora-
tions are to be made in each and all of the spokes, and also in the nave

page_text: or box. The said holes are to be made in number and size proportionate to
the size of the wheel acting within the pan, and about equal in their total area
to the area of the tube axle. b, b, b, b, b, b, b, b, the hollow spokes of the wheel
passing through apertures in the rim and screwed into the nave or conical
hollow box. each spoke at the end that passes through the rim has a screw
cap, through which one or more holes are perforated; the holes in the spokes
should be so made and divided that streams of air, &c. forced therefrom should
not act on the same part or surface of the bottom of the evaporating pan, in order
to diffuse the air, &c. as much as possible over the whole of the internal
surface of the bottom of the pan. c, c, the rim of the wheel. d, the nave or
centrical hollow box of the wheel.
Figure 3 is a plan of the wheel in its proper position within the pan,
shewing the spokes furnished with a set of knives or scrapers, c, c, c, c, c, c, c, c.
for the purpose of scraping or cleansing the internal surface of the bottom of
the pan from any substance that may adhere thereto when the operations of
evaporating or clarifying of sugar are to be performed; there is also a knife
or scraper underneath the nave or centrical hollow box, which cannot be seen
by this Figure. These means by which the knives or scrapers are fixed to
each of the hollow spokes of the wheel is shewn by Figure 4, in which Figure
is a coupling hinge, through which the spoke passes, and is affixed thereto
by a pin; g, the knife, the top of which has a common hinge joint attached to
the coupling hinge by a pin passing through it. When steam is used for the
cleansing or clarification of sugar the steam is admitted into the condensing
vesselc by the cock h, and j is the cock for letting off the condensed steam
or water that may collect from time to time in the condenser.
Now, whereas I claim as my said Invention the improved method or process,
berein-before described, of injecting air, steam, or other the like agents into
fluids or solutions undergoing the process of evaporation, refrigeration, or (as
in the case of sugar refining) cleansing and clarification, in open pans or
vessels, while the said fluids or solutions are kept constantly agitated otherwise
than by the mere passage of the air through the fluid, and by means of the ar-
rangement and combination of apparatus herein-before described; and such my
Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief, entirely new, and never
before used within that part of His said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland called England, His said Dominion of Wales, and Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, nor in any of the British Colonics and Plantations abroad,
I do hereby declare this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily
believe this my said Specification doth comply in all respects fully and without