IMPROVEMENTS IN EVAPORATING AND CALCINING ALKALINE SOLUTIONS WHICH HAVE BEEN USED TO BOIL VEGETABLE FIBRES
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Isaac Palmer, of Reading, in the County
of Berks, Gentleman, and William Purdham Goulding, of Reading,
aforesaid, Surveyor, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
EVAPORATING AND CALCINING ALKALINE SOLUTIONS WHICH HAVE BEEN USED
TO BOIL VEGETABLE FIBRES."
Sealed the 13th July 1869, and dated the 2nd February 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Isaac Palmer
and William Purdham Goulding at the Office of the Commissioners
of Patents, with their Petition, on the 2nd February 1869.
We, WILLIAM ISAAC PALMER, of Reading, in the County of Berks,
Gentleman, and WILLIAM PURDHAM GOULDING, of Reading, aforesaid,
Surveyor, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN EVAPORATING AND CALCINING ALKALINE SOLUTIONS WHICH HAVE
BEEN USED TO BOIL VEGETABLE FIBRES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in evaporating and
calcining alkaline solutions which have been used to boil vegetable
fibres..

page_text: In carrying out the evaporating process great difficulty has been
experienced in drying the thickened liquor produced by evaporating
pans sufficiently to allow of its freely burning and being so cleansed
of the carbonaceous and other foreign matters prior to re-using the
alkali.
For these purposes we employ, firstly, a shallow pan or hearth, by
preference with a concave surface, and heated by furnaces or flues. To
this pan or hearth we attach an agitator so fixed and driven as to
perpetually rake, stir, or agitate the surface of the thickened liquor, by
which the rapid evaporation of the remaining aqueous particles is
greatly promoted. The agitator which we prefer to employ is a toothed
scraper or rake suspended by rods from an horizontal axis over the hearth
or pan, and caused to vibrate to and fro so that the teeth may pass over
every part of the surface of the hearth or pan. As the material solidifies,
when
the scraper or rake brings it to the sides of the hearth or pan,
it becomes further dried and is afterwards removed, whilst the parts
remaining liquid descend constantly to the lowest part of the hearth or
pan.
Secondly. We employ a furnace in which the alkaline substances
dried by the means firstly described are burnt or calcined, and such a
furnace may be annexed to an ordinary coal furnace and arranged in
such a position that the resinous and other combustible matters which
are mixed with the alkali, and which are decomposed and evolved in the
form of gaseous vapour, pass over the fire of such ordinary furnace, and
there igniting add their heating power to that of the ordinary furnace,
to the great saving of the fuel therein used. Below the furnace bars a
moveable pan or vessel is placed, in which the ashes of the calcined
alkali fall and are preserved.
We prefer to arrange the furnace in the following manner:-Beyond
the fire-bars there is a surface in which a concavity is formed into which
the dried material is fed by a hopper, and here it melts. The heat of the
fire on the fire-bars causes it to give off combustible gases, which pass
on into the coal fire of the evaporating pan and are there burnt, or they
may ignite at once if sufficient air be supplied, and pass in an ignited
state into the coal furnace; or the coal fire may be dispensed with, and
this is especially the case when the heat from the combustion of the
dried alkaline material is applied to the drying of a further quantity
of the same material. As the gases are driven off the material is drawn
E

page_text: forward on to the fire-bars, and a further quantity is supplied through
the hopper.
The portion of this our Invention firstly described may be employed
with or without any prior process of evaporation, and the portion
secondly described may be used in conjuntion with the former, so that
the evaporating pan can be wholly or partially heated by the combustion
of the gaseous contents of the substances calcined in the furnace.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Isaac Palmer and William Purdham
Goulding in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 31st July 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
ISAAC PALMER, of Reading, in the County of Berks, Gentleman, and
WILLIAM PURDHAM GOULDING, of Reading, aforesaid, Surveyor, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in
the thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto us, the said William Isaac Palmer and
William Purdham Goulding, Her special licence that we, the said
William Isaac Palmer and William Purdham Goulding, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said William Isaac
Palmer and William Purdham Goulding, our 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, 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 EVAPORATING AND
CALCINING ALKALINE SOLUTIONS WHICH HAVE BEEN USED TO BOIL VEGETABLE
FIBRES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said William
Isaac Palmer and William Purdham Goulding, our executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals,
or under the hands and seals of one of us or them, 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

page_text: 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 we, the said William Isaac Palmer and William
Purdham Goulding, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof,
that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in evaporating and
calcining alkaline solutions which have been used to boil vegetable
fibres.
.
In carrying out the evaporating process great difficulty has been
experienced in drying the thickened liquor produced by evaporating
pans sufficiently to allow of its freely burning and being so cleansed
of the carbonaceous and other foreign matters prior to re-using the
alkali.
For these purposes we employ, firstly, a shallow pan or hearth, by
preference with a concave surface, and heated by furnaces or flues. To
this pan or hearth we attach an agitator so fixed and driven as to per-
petually rake, stir, or agitate the surface of the thickened liquor, by
which the rapid evaporation of the remaining aqueous particles is greatly
promoted. The agitator which we prefer to employ is a toothed scraper
or rake suspended by rods from a horizontal axis over the hearth or pan,
and caused to vibrate to and fro so that the teeth may pass over every
part of the surface of the hearth or pan. As the material solidifies the
scraper or rake brings it to the sides of the hearth or pan, when it
becomes further dried and is afterwards removed, whilst the parts
remaining liquid descend constantly to the lowest part of the hearth
or pan.
Secondly. We employ a furnace in which the alkaline substances
dried by the means firstly described are burnt or calcined, and such
furnace may be annexed to an ordinary coal furnace and arranged in
such a position that the resinous and other combustible matters which
are mixed with the alkali, and which are decomposed and evolved
in the form of gaseous vapour, pass over the fire of such ordinary furnace,
and there igniting add their heating power to that of the ordinary fur-
nace, to the great saving of the fuel therein used. Below the furnace
bars a moveable pan or vessel is placed, in which the ashes of the
calcined alkali fall and are preserved.

page_text: We prefer to arrange the furnace in the following manner :-Beyond
the fire-bars there is a surface in which a concavity is formed into
which the dried material is fed by a hopper, and here it melts. The
heat of the fire on the fire-bars causes it to give off combustible gases,
which pass on into the coal fire of the evaporating pan and are there
burnt, or they may ignite at once if sufficient air be supplied and pass
in an ignited state into the coal furnace; or the coal fire may be dis-
pensed with, and this is especially the case when the heat from the
combustion of the dried alkaline material is applied to the drying of a
further quantity of the same material. As the gases are driven off the
material is drawn forward on to the fire-bars, and a further quantity is
supplied through the hopper.
The portion of this our Invention firstly described may be employed
with or without any prior process of evaporation, and the portion
secondly described may be used in conjunction with the former, so that
the evaporating pan can be wholly or partially heated by the combustion
of the gaseous contents of the substances calcined in the furnace.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Isaac Palmer and William
Purdham Goulding, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this
Twenty-eighth day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-nine.
WILLIAM ISAAC PALMER. (L.s.)
W. P. GOULDING.
(L.S.)