CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS USED FOR DISTILLING AND RECTIFYING
Year: 1830

page_text: BUSK'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS' SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
BUSK, of Leeds, in the County of York, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His late most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth
did, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of January, One thousand eight
hundred and thirty, in the tenth year of His reign, give and grant unto me;
the said Robert Busk, His special licence that I, the said Robert Busk,
my exors, adiňors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said Robert Busk,
my exors, admors, 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 mentioned..
should and lawfully might make, üsë, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS USED FOR DISTILLING AND RECTIFYING" (communicated to me by a
certain Foreigner residing abroad);' in which said Letters' Patent is con-
tained a proviso that I, the said Robert Busk, shall 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
within six calendar months next' and' immediately after the date of the said' in'
part 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
Robert Busk, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, which is
applicable to such distilling and rectifying apparatuses as' are composed of
horizontal compartments' or vessels, placed one above another; does consist,

page_text: First, in a cylinder or chamber to receive fluid, placed vertically and passing
through some or all of the said horizontal compartments or vessels; and,
Secondly, in a peculiar mode of so conducting the vapours raised from the
still or boiler, to which an apparatus, composed as aforesaid, is attached, in
their ascent through the said apparatus, that they shall freely pass both
immediately under each of the said compartments charged to a certain depth
with the liquid to be distilled, and immediately over the surface of the said
liquid, without ever entering into or mingling with the said liquid itself.
And in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Robert Busk, do
hereby describe the manner in which the said Invention is to be performed
by the following description thereof, reference being had to the Drawing
annexed, and, to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say :-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a section of an apparatus for distilling or rectifying, composed of
six horizontal vessels or compartments over the boiler or still, placed one above
another (but a little, distant from each other), with the said improvements
applied thereto. A is the boiler or still. B, C, D, E, S, and T, the six hori-
zontal vessels placed over it. The four lowest and largest, B, C, D, and E,
are filled to a certain depth with the liquid to be distilled or rectified, as repre-
sented by the brown colouring, and furnished with overflow and communication
pipes f. F is the central cylinder or chamber, placed vertically, and passing
through the centre of the five upper horizontal vessels C, D, and E, S, and T,
wherefore I call it the central chamber, and fixed on the top of B, which is
the lowest of these vessels.
G is a pipe, leading from the bottom of the
cylinder F to the lowest horizontal vessel B, which it enters near its bottom,
and is provided with a cock r, for the purpose of emptying the cylinder when
necessary. H is an internal overflow pipe to fill the boiler or still I. J is
another overflow pipe for filling the horizontal vessel E from the central
chamber F; and N is a pipe for carrying off to the worm any vapour that
may rise from the wash or spirit in the central chamber, which chamber is
closed at its upper end. K is the reservoir of the liquid to be distilled or
rectified. L is a feed pipe leading from it into the central chamber F; and it
will be as well perhaps here to describe the manner in which the apparatus is
filled from the reservoir K. The cock M in pipe L being opened, the wash
or spirit from the said reservoir flows into the central chamber F, passes down
that chamber, and then up the long arm I of the overflow pipe I, J. When
the central chamber F is filled as high as the upper part of the said overflow
pipe I, J, the wash or other liquid flows along the upper part of the said over-

page_text: flow pipe, and down its short arm J into the horizontal vessel E, whence the
lower vessels and boiler are all filled through the ordinary overflow and com-
munication pipes. And it will be observed by this arrangement that the
stream of fresh wash or other liquid constantly flows down the central
chamber F, through the three horizontal vessels C, D, and E, before it passes
through pipe I, J, into the uppermost of them, E, thus producing a constant
partial condensation in those vessels. The long vertical pipe l, and the short
horizontal connecting pipes m, furnished with cocks, serve to empty the
compartments B, C, D, E, and boiler A, as occasion requires.
And now I will proceed to describe the said mode of conducting or directing
the course of the vapours, represented by the grey colouring, and which is as
follows I provide each of the vessels C, D, E, with a second or false
bottom O and a pipe R, leading from the space between the two bottoms into
that left vacant over the liquid contained in the said vessels. I also open a
communication from this space between the said two bottoms to that left
vacant at the top of the vessel next below, by means of the connecting pipes P ;
and by this arrangement it will be seen that the vapours formed in the boiler
will pass up the pipe Q, following the directions of the arrows up the pipe P
into the space O under the vessel C, thence up the pipe R into the upper part
of the vessel C, and so on until they arrive into the chambers S and T, whence
they pass off into the worm through the pipe V, by which means these vapours,
without ever entering into or mingling with the liquid contained in vessels
B, C, D, and E, are brought nine times in contact with the condensing
cylinder or central chamber at nine different degrees of temperature. It may
be proper to remark, that the false bottoms O and short connecting pipes P
are only required when the horizontal compartments of an apparatus are
separated from each other by open spaces, as C, D, E, are represented in the
annexed Drawing. When these compartments are ranged close one over
another it is plain that the single pipe R, fixed on the bottom of a compart-
ment, and passing through the liquid contained therein, will serve to conduct
the vapours from the vacant space at the top of the compartment next below
into that at the top of the compartment in which the said pipe is so fixed;
and a series of such pipes alone will suffice for conducting, all the vapours
through the whole apparatus in the peculiar manner I intend and have above
described as constituting the second improvement. At the top of the appa-
ratus is an open vessel to receive water for the purposes of condensation.
This water, represented by the blue colouring, flows into the said vessel from
the pipe W, and thence through the pipe X into the second open chamber
or space between S and T, whence it escapes into waste pipe Y. In order to

page_text: apply the said improvements to the purpose of rectifying or distilling, in cases
where a continued supply of spirit or wash cannot be obtained, it will only be
necessary to fill the central chamber F with water (instead of wash or spirit),
from the open vessel at the top of the apparatus aforesaid, and to lead the
short arm J of the overflow pipe I, J, into the space between S and T, instead
of leading it into compartment-E. Figure 2 is a plan of the bottom of one
of the horizontal vessels. Figure 3 is an external elevation of the whole
apparatus.
Now whereas I claim as the Invention aforesaid only,-1st, the vertical
condensing cylinder or central chamber F, with or without its pipe I, J; and,
2ndly, the arrangement of pipes R. (combined or not with the false bottoms O
and pipes P), or the application of such pipes and manner of employing them
requisite for conducting vapours through an apparatus, in the peculiar mode
that constitutes the second improvement as aforesaid. And such Invention
being, to the best of my knowledge and belief, entirely new, and never before
used within that part of His Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland called England, His said Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, or in any of His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, I
do hereby declare this to be my Specification, and that I do verily believe that
this my said Specification doth comply, in all respects, fully and without reserve
or disguise, with the proviso in the said berein-before in part recited Letters
Patent contained; wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and
privilege to the said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Busk, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of July, in the year of our Lord'
One thousand eight hundred and thirty.