IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR RECOVERING THE ALKALI FROM WASTE LEYS USED IN BOILING VEGETABLE FIBRES, AND IN UTILIZING THE PRODUCTS OBTAINED THEREBY
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Anthony Gapper Southby, of Three, New Inn, Strand, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR RECOVERING THE ALKALI FROM WASTE
LEYS USED IN BOILING VEGETABLE FIBRES, AND IN UTILIZING THE PRODUCTS
OBTAINED THEREBY."
ealed the 21st July 1876, and dated the 24th January 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Anthony Gapper Southby
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 24th January 1870.
ANTHONY GAPPER SOUTHBY, of Three, New Inn, Strand, in the County of
Middlesex, Civil Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS
FOR RECOVERING THE ALKALI FROM WASTE LEYS USED IN BOILING VEGETABLE
FIBRES, AND IN UTILIZING THE PRODUCTS OBTAINED THEREBY."
I treat very concentrated waste leys to produce a more or less dry solid matter
by running it on to a shallow evaporating pan set in a flue, so that the heated gases
from a fire may pass over it. I make the end of the pan to slope gradually up out
of the ley, and I rake the crusty matter as it forms on top of the ley up the slope
to a place where it may drain and dry at as high a temperature as is convenient
short of its catching fire. I destructively distill the more or less dry solid matter
so obtained in suitable retorts, and I use the resulting gas for lighting and heating.
If the resulting gas is to be used only for assisting the evaporation of the ley
it may escape directly to the fire. But if it is to be conducted away for
lighting or other purposes the retort should be fitted up as in gas retorts, and the
gas purified in the usual way to remove the acetic and carbonic acids and other
impurities.
I incinerate the coke from the retort on a series of plates or tiles arranged in
steps in a flue, each plate or tile overlapping and leaving an air space between
it and the one below. I burn off the carbon remaining in the ash after the
incineration by laying it in a thin layer on the bed of an oven or sole kept
at such a temperature by its position in a furnace or by a graduated current of
hot air that by a regulated current of fresh air the carbon may be consumed
while the heat shall not be suflicient to fuse the alkali.
The liquor may be concentrated to the point requisite for commencing the
treatment above described in any effective apparatus; one that I have found to

page_text: answer well is similar to the upper part of the furnace described in Ward, Ibotson,
and Southby's Specification, No. 3504, A.D. 1868.,
I sometimes combine two or more of my present improvements in the same
furnace, and I prefer to combine the concentrator with them, setting the retorts so
that they may receive the first heat of the fire.
When it is not desired to produce a white merchantable ash, but only a clear
solution fit for reuse I take the coke as it is drawn from the retort, and allow it to
cool in the air by which it gets rid of any remaining volatile matter, and I then
lixiviate it preferably in vessels with false bottoms or in cages. After the coke has
been thoroughly lixiviated I allow it to drain and dry more or less in the air and
use it for fuel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Anthony Gapper Southby in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
24th July 1876.
ANTHONY GAPPER SOUTHBY, of 3, New Inn, Strand, in the County of Middlesex,
Civil Engineer.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR RECOVERING
THE ALKALI FROM WASTE LEYS USED IN BOILING VEGETABLE FIBRES, AND IN
UTILIZING THE PRODUCTS OBTAINED THEREBY."
I treat very concentrated waste ley to produce a more or less dry solid matter
by running it into a shallow evaporating pan set in a flue, so that the heated gases
from a fire may pass over it. I make the end of the pan to slope gradually up out
of the ley, and I rake the crusty matter as it forms on top of the ley up the slope
to a place where it may drain and dry at as high a temperature as is convenient
short of its catching fire.
The pan may be of any convenient shape and the slope may be divided so as to
conduct to more than one drying place. A convenient depth for the liquour in the
pan is from one and a half inches to four inches deep, and the liquour should not
reach more than half way up the slope when the pan is at the fullest.
The liquour
when run into the pan should when hot be of the consistency. of treacle and the
drained crust should be removed to the drying place from the slope, and a fresh lot
of crust drawn on to it at intervals of from five to ten minutes, or as often as tho
crist has attained sufficient consistency to bere removeal by the rakes, which time
will vary with the intensity of the fire.
The drying place may be formed by widening the slope at a less inclination,
three inches to the foot will answer well for the inclination of the slope, and one-
half inch to the foot for the drying place. If the slope and drying place are formed
in one, an area for the two that will answer well is one-third that of the pan, and
the fire-grate may be one-quarter the area of the pan.
An opening closed by a door must be made for working the rake and withdrawing
the dried matter, and the sides of the opening, drying place, slope, and pan should
be so made as to be easily reached from the opening by the rake by champhering
off any corners that the shape of the pan may occasion.
The drying place may also be made under the pan, in which case the crusty
matter should first be drained on the slope, which must be provided as before
described with an opening and door, and when drained the crusty matter may be
drawn through the opening and so as to fall into the drying place or into a hopper
communicating with the drying place. If the hot gases passing over the pan flow
in the direction away from the slope the fire or the flue admitting the hot gases
may commence at the line of the perpendicular of the bottom of the slope. If the
hot gases flow towards the slope the opening conducting them away after passing
over the pan must end at the line perpendicular with the bottom of the slope. If
the hot gases flow in front of the slope the openings by which they are admitted
and conducted away must be well in front of the bottom of the slope, and the slope

page_text: should be divided by piers reaching to the bottom of the slope, and champhered off
towards the pan, or any way so that the slope and the crust draining upon it shall
te out of the draught of the flue.
The pan may be made in any way and of any materials that have been found
suitable for the evaporation of waste leys by the hot gases from a fire, but I prefer
to build it of fire-tiles with the ends built into side walls and covered in the same
ways as described in Specification No. 3504, A.D. 1868. I destructively distill
the more or less dry solid matter as obtained by the above prosess in suitable
retorts, and I use the resulting gas for lighting and heating.
If the gas is to be only use for assisting the evaporation of the ley it may
escape from the retort directly to the fire; but if it is to be conducted away for
lighting and other purposes, the retort should be fitted up as in gas retorts, and the
gas purified in the usual way to remove the acetic and carbonic acids and other
impurities.
an aware that waste leys have been used for producing gas by distillation in
gas retorts, but all the processes yet proposed have failed from the difficulty of
obtaining the residue in a dry state, and I have discovered that it is essential to
success that the per centage of moisture remaining on the matter when put into the
retort shall be very small, say not more than five per cent. The retorts may be
then ordinarily used for making gas from coal and be set and fitted in the same
way, but a lower heat is necessary for the residue than for coal. Or if the gas is to
be used only as fuel for assisting the evaporation of the leys the retort may be
built up of fire-tiles and bricks set in fire-clay, the mouth opening into the flue of
the furnace with a graduated air supply to perfect the combustion of the gas, as for
instance, the mouth of the retort may be in the flue over the incinerating fire-place
next described, so that the coke may be drawn out on to the fire-place, and the
retort may be filled by a door at the other side of the flue or the other end of the
retort.
I incinerate the coke from the retort on a series of plates or tiles arranged in
steps in a flue, each plate or tile overlapping and leaving an air space between it
and the one below, the overlap should be something wider than the height of the air
space, which may be one or two inches, with the tiles, say nine inches wide, with
a door above the topmost tile which is built into the end wall of the furnace, the
space below being left open for the admission of air, and a space may be left under
the lowest tile for the withdrawal of the ash. I burn off the carbon remaining in
the ash produced by the incineration of the dried down residues from the waste leys
by laying the ash in a thin layer on the bed of an oven or sole kept at such a
temperature by its position in a furnace or by a graduated current of hot air, that
by a regulated current of fresh air the carbon may be consumed while the heat
shall not be sufficient to fuse the alkali. The oven for this purpose may be built as
described for the pan, and may be placed over the pan, being fitted with a door to
introduce and remove the ash, a graduated inlet for the admission of fresh air, and
an outlet to a flue of the furnace to cause a draught. Or a similar oven may be
built with an inlet from a fire, and an outlet provided with a damper to a chimney
of sufficient height to draw hot air from the fire to heat the oven, and fresh air
from outside for the combustion of the carbon. This form is very suitable when
two furnaces are worked side by side, one used for evaporation only, the other for
hoth evaportion and the incineration of the resulting residue; this second furnace
requires a very free admission of air for the incineration, so the draught is not so
strong as in the furnace used for evaporation only, and a suflicient amount of the
hot gases from the fire of the incinerating furnace or from the incinerating ash can
he drawn through the oven by the greater draught of the other furnace, together
with the fresh air for the combustion of the carbon.
The liquour may be concentrated to the point requisite for commencing the
treatment above described in any effective apparatus, one that I have found to
answer well is similar to the upper part of the furnace described in Ward, Iboison,
and Southby's Specification, No. 3504, A.D. 1868.

page_text: I sometimes combine two or more of iny present improvements in the same
furnace, and I prefer to combine the concentrator with it or them, as for instance,
the evaporating pan with its draining and drying place may be built so that it is
fed from the concentrating furnace above mentioned, while the hot gases after thay
have passed over the pan exaust their remaining heat in the concentrator, and
the dried matter after it is drawn from the drying place may be burnt on a
sole below, as is well understood, or in a furnace similar to that described for the
coke, but in either case I prefer that the only opening from the sole or fire-place
into the flues of the furnace shall be immediately over the fire that heats the furnace,
so that any volatile matter arrising from the burning residue that have escaped perfect
combustion may be consumed by the fire, and in the same furnace the oven for
finishing the ash may be placed as above described. Or where the retorts are used
I set them so that thay may receive the first heat of the fire, after which the hot
gases may pass over the pan, then heat the finishing oven, and then exaust their
heat in the concentrating furnace, while the incinerating furnace may be so placed
as to assist the fire. Or where it is not desired to produce a white merchantable
ash, but only a clear solution of alkalie fit for reuse, I take the coke as it is drawn
from the retort, and allow it to cool in the air in a layer, say about six inches deep,
by which it gets rid of any remaining volatile matter, and I then lixiviate it
preferably in vessels with false bottoms or in cages, and after the coke has been
thoroughly lixiviated I allow it to more or less drain and dry in the air, and use it
for fuel.
Having thus described the nature of my Inventioned and in what manner the
same is to be performed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Anthony Gapper Southby, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twentyeth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
A. GAPPER SOUTHBY. (L.S.)