New- INVENTED BOILER FOR EVAPORATING THE JUICE OF THE SUGAR CANE, OR SYRUP
Year: 1818

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BAIRD, Manager for the New Shotts Iron Company, Parish of Shotts, and
County of Lanark, Scotland, North Britain, send greeting.
WHEREAS His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, acting in name and
on behalf of His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eleventh day of July, in the
year Eighteen hundred and eighteen, in the fifty-eighth year of His reign,
did give and grant unto me, the said John Baird, my exors, admors, and
assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said John Baird, my exors, adñors, and assigns, during the term of
years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my "New-
INVENTED BOILER FOR EVAPORATING THE JUICE OF THE SUGAR CANE, OR SYRUP

page_text: DERIVED FROM THENCE;" in which Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso obliging me, the said John Baird, under my hand and scal, to cause
a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery in England within four calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, me, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Baird, do hereby declare that my improved method of manufacturing
the aforesaid cast-iron boilers or pans is as follows:-
The boilers are cast of the shapes and size used in the various sugar
plantations in the Colonies, but with this difference, that they are only about
one half the usual thickness, and they are rendered less brittle or less liable
to crack or break in consequence of sudden changes of temperature or other
accidents, and more durable, by undergoing the process of annealing with
charcoal, or any other substance suitable for that process, in a furnace or kiln
of a peculiar construction of my own invention, and of which a Drawing is
annexed, and which may described as follows:-
The letters A, A, A, A, are the outter walls of the furnace, and made of fire
brick, surrounded and bound together by a case or ring of cast iron. B, B, B,
is the chest, also made of fire brick, in which the boilers or pans meant to be
annealed are placed. C, C, C, is the moveable dome arched upon a cast-iron
ring D, D, to which wrought-iron eyes are fastened for fixing the eight chains
E, E, E, E, of which only four appear in the section. F, F, F, F, F, F, F,
F, F, F, represent eight fireplaces, by which the furnace or kiln is heated.
G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, are the flues underneath and surrounding the
chest. H is the passage from the furnace to the chimney, part of which, by
being built on a plate protected by bricks against the fire, is so constructed as
to be moveable, and is taken away before the dome is removed. I is the
chimney. K, K, is the crane for removing the dome and putting in and taking
out the boilers or pans.
Another set of chains is used for putting into the furnace and lifting out
of it the pans or boilers. The boilers meant to be annealed are introduced
to the number of eight, ten, or more, into the kiln or furnace before described
by removing the top or dome. The boilers are successively placed in the
furnace, and packed with charcoal or other substances proper for annealing,
and are heated to a proper temperature, known to artists acquainted with

page_text: annealing of cast iron, and are kept at that temperature for about seventy
hours, or till the process of annealing is completed.
The advantages arising from the furnace or kiln being constructed with a
moveable dome, as before described, are shortly these, that it admits of boilers
or vessels being annealed of much larger dimensions than has hitherto been
done by the cominon annealing furnaces. Besides, it will be observed that,
according to the Deponent's construction of these furnaces, boilers or vessels
can be annealed of a size near equal in diameter to that of the inside of the
furnace itself, and thereby he has been enabled to anneal boilers of greater
magnitude than was formerly practised.
The boiler, as formerly observed, is cast much thinner, or about one half of
the usual thickness, and although thinner, it is, by the process of annealing
in the furnace constructed as before described, rendered less brittle and
more durable than the boilers usually made, and consequently much better
adapted for evaporating the juice of the sugar cane or the syrup derived
from thence.
Boilers or vessels used in evaporating the juice of the sugar cane are
generally made of cast iron, and are usually formed of a round shape, and for
the sake of recognizing fuel are made of large diameter and very shallow.
From the sudden alternations of temperature, and the want of skill and attention
on the part of the servants who are employed in the process, they are very apt
to crack or split in pieces; and as the planters have no means of repairing
tliem when an accident of this kind happens, the boilers are totally lost, thus
occasioning a loss to the planter not only of the whole price of the boiler,
with the freight and charges of bringing it to the plantation, but also occa-
sioning the loss of the sugar in process, besides the inconvenience and loss
which are always consequent on an interruption of a process of this kind. It
will be found that the Deponent's improved method of manufacturing sugar
boilers is calculated to remove these defects, for being much thinner than
those commonly used, they consequently require much less fuel for effecting
evaporation, which of itself is an object of great importance to those
countries in which they are used; and being annealed in the manner already
described, they are rendered less brittle and more durable than those at
present in use.
The Deponent having thus described his improved method of manufacturing
cast-iron sugar boilers, shall only further add, that his process consists of
making or casting sugar boilers thin; and by the process of annealing, which
was formerly applied only to small vessels, they are rendered less brittle and

page_text: more durable. This is accomplished by a kiln or furnace, with a large
moveable dome, as already described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Baird, have set my hand and
seal to and have subscribed these Presents, written on stamped
parchment by James Gardiner, Clerk to Robert Paul, Writer to the
Signet, before these Witnesses, the said Robert Paul and the said
James Gardiner, the Twelfth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighteen.
ALUDERT
Writer to the Signet, Edinburgh, N.B., Witness.
JA. GARDINER,
Writer in Edinburgh, N.B., Witness.
Robert Paul, of the City of Edinburgh, in North Britain, Writer to the
Siguet, maketh oath and saith, that on the Twelfth day of October last past,
he, this Deponent, was present, and did see John Baird, Manager for the New
Shotts Iron Company, in the.Parish of Shotts, in the County of Lanark, in
North Britain, sign, seal, and as his act and deed deliver, in due form of law,
the Deed Poll hereunto annexed, bearing date the said Twelfth day of October
last past, and purporting to be a Specification or particular description of the
nature of a New-invented Boiler for Evaporating the Juice of the Sugar Cane,
or Syrup derived from thence, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, for which Invention the said John Baird hath obtained His Majesty's
most gracious Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eleventh day
of July last past; and that James Gardiner, of the said City of Edinburgh,
Writer, was also present, and did see the said John Baird duly sign, seal, and
deliver the said Deed Poll, and that the name "John Baird," set and
subscribed to the said Deed Poll, is of the proper handwriting of the said
John Baird, and that the names "Robert Paul" and "Ja. Gardiner," sub-
scribed as Witnesses to the execution of the same, are of the proper hands-
writing of this Deponent and the said James Gardiner respectively; and this
Deponent further saith, that he and the said James Gardiner were also present
and did see the said John Baird at the same time subscribe his name to the
Plan referred to in the said. Deed Poll or Specification, and, also hereto