IM- PROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF AND APPARATUS FOR CLARIFYING CANE JUICE, THE SAME BEING ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE PRODUCTION OF BISULPHITE OF LIME OR OTHER COMBINATION OF SULPHUROUS GAS, OR CARBONIC ACID GAS, OR OTHER GAS WITH AN ALKALI
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Bristow Hunt, of Scrle Street, Lincoln's Inn,
in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF AND APPARATUS FOR CLARIFYING CANE JUICE,
THE SAME BEING ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE PRODUCTION OF BISULPHITE OF
LIME OR OTHER COMBINATION OF SULPHUROUS GAS, OR CARBONIC ACID GAS,
OR OTHER GAS WITH AN ALKALI."—A communication from abroad by
Tahn Cinderrel
21 Taland of Tomaine Tincinger
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Bristow Hunt at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on tlic
3rd December 1874.
I, BRISTOW HUNT, of Serle Street, Lincoln's Inn, in the County
5 of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF AND APPARATUS FOR CLARIFYING
CANE JUICE, THE SAME BEING ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE PRODUCTION OF BISULPHITE
OF LIME OR OTHER COMBINATION OF SULPHUROUS GAS OR CARBONIC ACID GAS, OR

page_text: OTHER GAS WITH AN ALKALI," (a communication to me from abroad by John
Girdwood, of Kingston, in the Island of Jamaica, Engineer,) to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to improvements in the means of clarifying
cane juice, the same being also applicable to the production of bisulphite
of lime or other combination of sulphurous gas or carbonic acid gas, or
other gas with an alkali.
In carrying this Invention into practice a small furnace of ordinary
arrangement for burning brimstone is used, the product (sulphurous gas)
arising from which burning passes up a chimney lined with brick into a
suitable receiver or chamber where it is or may be washed, as has been
hitherto accomplished by a shower of water dropping from an upper
hopper into a suitable space whence it is conveyed by a trap pipe.
The cane juice to bo clarified is fed from the mill into a spreader
trough or gutter provided with a board or slide for regulating its outlet,
through which the juice or liquor passes into two trays perforated with
diamond shaped holes, two trays being used so that if one should become
choked it may be withdrawn by a door at the end of the juice or liquor
box to be cleaned, while the remaining tray will continue to act. The
liquor box has a top cover made with a long slit in which the said liquor
trough is placed. A pipe from the sulphurous gas receiver or washing
chamber conveys the gas into the liquor box below the trays.
To carry the process of this Invention into effect the air in the liquor
box is first exhausted by a Gifford's injector (or any equivalent thereof,
the water or liquid part of which enters the liquor box at the bottom
and the air pipe about twelve inches up from the bottom) which causes
the sulphurous gas to pass from the receiver into the box; the cane juice
is then allowed to fall into its trough from a gutter from the mill. The
trough causes the juice to spread out into a thin stream, so that it falls
through the cover of the box into the trays equally across its whole
width, falling through the holes of the trays in a shower, which owing
to the holes being diamond shaped takes a "fish-tail" shape, widening
as the fall, thereby subdividing the particles of liquor more fully than
round holes could, and absorbing a larger quantity of sulphurous gas.
The cane juice fallen to the bottom of the box is by the usual action of
the injector drawn up by its lower pipe, its upper pipe at the same time
drawing from the box a current of the sulphurous gas, the quantity of

page_text: which may be regulated by an ordinary steam jet as hitherto similarly
accomplished. At the junction of these two pipes the sulphurous gas is
brought again into direct contact with the cane juice and passes through
the injector along with it under a considerable pressure into the pipe
leading to the clarifiers. By these means the cane juice is elevated into
the clarifiers and made to absorb more of the sulphurous gas. In lieu
of the sulphurous gas carbonic acid gas or any other suitable gas may
be used.
The entire apparatus can also be used for the production of bisulphite
of lime or other combination of sulphurous gas, or carbonic acid gas, or
other gas with an alkali, by using water in which lime or any other
alkali has been dissolved in place of the cane juice, which water having
fallen through the atmosphere of sulphurous or other gas in the box
and passed through the injector (as described above for the cane juice)
will be returned by the pipe again into the box through the strainer or
trough (instead of as in the case of the cane juice into the clarifiers),
and the process will be repeated until it absorbs enough of the sul-
phurous or other gas as aforesaid.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Bristow Hunt in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 3rd June 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BRISTOW
HUNT, of Serle Street, Lincoln's Inn, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Third day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto nie, the said Bristow Hunt, Her special
licence that I, the said Bristow Hunt, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Bristow Hunt, my executors, admi-
nistrators, 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,

page_text: within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS
OF AND APPARATUS FOR CLARIFYING CANE JUICE, THE SAME BEING ALSO APPLICABLE
TO THE PRODUCTION OF BISULPHITE OF LINE OR OTHER COMBINATIONS OF SUL-
PHUROUS GAS OR CARBONIC ACID GAS, OR OTHER GAS WITH AN ALKALI,” (a commu-
nication to me from abroad by John Girdwood, of Kingston, in the Island
of Jamaica, Engineer,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Bristow Hunt, 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 tho 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 Bristow Hunt, 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 in writing, and on reference to the accompanying
Drawings, that is to say :-
This Invention, which is illustrated on the accompanying Drawings
in Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4, relates to improvements in the means of and
apparatus for clarifying cane juice, the same means and apparatus being
also applicable to the production of bisulphite of lime or other combina-
tion of sulphurous gas or carbonic acid gas, or other gas with an alkali.
In carrying this Invention into practice the sulphurous gas is or may
be produced as usual by burning brimstone on a metal plate built into the
brickwork of a chimney 2, and kept sufficiently heated by the fire of a
small furnace 3 of ordinary arrangement. The gas thus produced'
passes up the brick lined chimney 2 into a suitable receiver 4 and box
10, herein-after more particularly referred to, through a chamber or
space 5, where it is or may be washed, as has been accomplished by a
curtain of water dropping from an upper hopper 6 into the space 5, and
thence to the bottom of the receiver 4, whence it is conveyed by a trap
pipe 7.
The cane juice to be clarified is or may be fed from the mill by a
suitable gutter into a straining.trough or tray 8, perforated with holes 9
and fitted above or on the top of or covering the juice liquor or mixing
box 10, allow the liquor to accumulate to about one inch deep over the.

page_text: perforations to prevent the escape of gas from the box 10. The sul
phurous gas is conveyed from the receiver 4 into the mixing or incor.
porating box 10 below the tray 8, through or by means of a pipe,
opening, or communicating hole 11.
To carry the process of the Invention into effect the air in the liquor
or mixing box 10 is exhausted by a Gifford's or an ordinary injector, or
any suitable adaptation thereof, the water or liquid pipe (13 of which
enters the box 10 at the bottom and the air or gas pipe 14 about twelve
inches up from the bottom, upon which more of the sulphurous gas
passes from the receiver 4 into and completely fills the box 10, the cane
juice is also allowed to flow into the straining trough or tray 8 from
the mill, and falls through the holes 9 thereof in a shower and absorbs
a quantity of the sulphurous gases. The cane juice fallen to the bottom
of the box 10 is upon a vacuum, being created by the rushing of
steam through the steam pipe 15 of the injector drawn up through the
pipe 13 at a high velocity. The impetus or momentum thus imparted
to the liquor causes it to draw from the box 10 a current of the sul-
phurous gas through the pipe 14, the quantity taken up by which may
be increased or decreased, and regulated by an adjustable steam jet 16
fitted at or opposite the mouth of the pipe 14. Or the liquor may be
drawn from the box 10 and the required impetus given to it to draw the
sulphurous gas from the upper part of the said box, by the use of an
ordinary direct acting pump, or of a pump worked from the mill, or of
any other suitable appliance fitted with a contracted nozzle 12, and dis-
charging the liquor drawn from the bottom of the box 10 into a leaden
chamber 18 with which the pipe 14 is in communication, see Figure 4.
The sulphurous gas and cane juice are thus brought again into direct
and intermingling contact, and they together pass under a considerable
pressure (capable of being regulated by regulating the pressure of steam
from the boiler) through the contracted nozzle 19 of the pipe 17, of the
injector into a larger pipe 20, provided at its end with another contracted
nozzle opening into the clarifiers. By these means the cane juice is
elevated into the clarifiers, being previously subjected to a considerable
pressure, and made to absorb more of the sulphurous gas. In lieu of.
the sulphurous gas carbonic acid gas or any other suitable gas may
be used.

page_text: other gas with an alkali, by using water in which lime or any other
alkali has been dissolved in place of the cane juice, which water having
fallen through the atmosphere of sulphurous or other gas in the box
and passed through the injector (as described above for the cane juice)
is continually returned by the pipe 20 into the box 10, through the
strainer or trays (instead of as in the case of the cane juice direct into
the clarifiers) until it absorbs a sufficiency of the sulphurous or other
gas as aforesaid.
.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature and
object of the said Invention, together with the manner in which the same
is to be or may be performed, or carried into practical effect, I would
remark in conclusion that I claim as the Invention communicated to me
by the above-named John Girdwood,—
Firstly. The combination of the mixing box and straining trough or
tray, for partially impregnating cane juice or other liquor with sul-
phurous gas, or other suitable gas.
Secondly. The further combination therewith and use of a Gifford's
or of any ordinary injector, or of the modification above described and
illustrated on the accompanying Drawings, or of any other suitable
adaptation thereof, or of a direct acting or other suitable pump, or of
any other suitable appliance for lifting, and subsequently exerting a
pressure upon the cane juice as above partially impregnated for the par-
ticular purpose of causing it by the impetus or momentum [thus
imparted to it to draw the sulphurous or other gas from the said mixing
box, so that it shall be more thoroughly impregnated therewith, and
they together subjected to any desired pressure before passing to the
clarifiers.
And, Thirdly. The general combination and arrangement of the com-
ponent parts of the apparatus, as above described and as illustrated on
the accompanying Drawings, but not the arrangement of any such parts
separately, or the arrangement or combination of any less number of
parts than the whole together, except the particular combinations
without referring to any particular arrangement of the component parts
thereof) specified in the two preceding paragraphs.
And, lastly. The application and use of the above described arrange-
ment and combination of annamb
...

page_text: of lime or other combination of sulphurous gas or carbonic acid gas, or
other gas with an alkali, substantially as in the manner herein above
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Bristow Hunt, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of May, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.