IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR EVAPORATING OR CONCENTRATING LIQUIDS
Year: 1853

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Irlam.
Higginson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with.
his Petition, on the 25th May 1853.
I, GEORGE IRLAM HIGGINSON, of Meeting House Lane, Mary's
Abbey, Dublin, Sugar Refiner, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for, "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR
EVAPORATING OR CONCENTRATING LIQUIDS" to be as follows:
This Invention relates to the so arranging hollow metal discs or
screw threads upon a revolving spindle that steam may be passed
through such hollow spaces or casings whilst the external surfaces
of such discs or screw threads are revolving amongst the liquid, to be
evaporated. The plan preferred. is, to form the evaporating surface
into a spiral blade or blades, or a screw of great breadth, and the whole

page_text: of such screw or spiral being hollow or formed as a steam chamber,
the heating steam is made to enter therein through a thoroughfare in
the shaft, which is made tubular for the purpose. Thence the steam
passes out of this shaft and enters the hollow screw threads, being
finally delivered at the other end of these threads into a pipe, taking it
away to the casing of the vessel containing the fluid to be evaporated.
This Invention is specially applicable for the concentration of cane
juice or syrup.
The constant dipping into & emerging from the
evaporating fluid of the heated surface of the screw threads or discs
presents a very extensive evaporative area. At each dip a thin film of
liquid is carried up on the revolving surface, and hence this film is
well exposed to the atmosphere, whilst it is at the same time well
heated from the steam within the casing or screw or disc surface.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Irlam Higginson in the Great Seal Patent
Office, on the 25th November 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
GEORGE IRLAM HIGGINSON, of Meeting House Lane, Mary's Abbey,
Dublin, Sugar Refiner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of May, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the six-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said George Irlam Higginson, Her
special license that I, the said George Irlam Higginson, my exe-2
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
George Irlam Higginson, my executors, administrators, or 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 MACHINERY OR Ar-

page_text: PARATUS FOR EVAPORATING OR CONCENTRATING LIQUIDS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said George Irlam Higginson, by an in-
strument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 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 George Irlam Higginson, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon,
that is to say:
My said Invention relates to various arrangements of machinery,
apparatus, or means to be employed for the evaporation and concentra-
tion of liquids, wherein the liquid to be evaporated or concentrated is
placed in a heated chamber, having hollow steam heated dises or screw
threads revolving in it, and partially immersed in the evaporating liquid..
The arrangement which I prefer is that of a hollow screw or spiral
blade of great breadth, carried upon a horizontal tubular spindle
revolving in bearings above or upon the containing vessel of the liquid.
In this way the whole length of the hollow screw or spiral blade forms
a steam chamber, and the heating steam is passed into and through
it by means of a thoroughfare in the tubular shaft. Entering the.
shaft by one end the steam passes over the whole spiral heating.
surface, and is finally discharged at the opposite end of the shaft into
an external pipe,. which conveys it away to the external casing or.
steam heating chamber of the evaporating vessel. This Invention is
specially applicable to the concentration of cane juice or syrup. The
constant dipping into and emerging from the evaporating liquid of the
heated surface of the screw threads or discs presents a very extensive
evaporative area. At each dip a thin film of liquid is carried up on
the revolving surface, and hence this film is well exposed to the
atmosphere, whilst it is at the same time well heated by the steam

page_text: within the discs or screw blades and the casing of the containing
chamber.
3)
The Figure on my Sheet of Drawing hereunto attached represents a
vertical longitudinal section of an evaporating vessel or chamber as fitted
up with a hollow rotatory screw heater, part of which is represented in
longitudinal section, in explanation of its internal arrangement. In
this Figure, A, is the evaporating chamber containing the liquid to be
evaporated. It is open on its upper side, and is surrounded--externally
on all its other sides by a steam space B, formed by the external jacket.
or casing C. On the upper edge; at each end of this chamber, is a
bearing D, E,' forming the end carrying supports for the main, partially
tubular, shaft F, G, which is made to rotate at the desired rate by
means of a spur wheel H, keyed on one end of the shaft, and in gear
with any convenient prime mover: It is on this main shaft that the
hollow screw blade or spiral disc thread I, is wound. "This screw thread;
which is of narrow, double convex, transverse section externally, as
represented at J' may be conveniently made of dished or hollowed
metal plates, built and soldered or otherwise attached together, presents
a continuous steam thoroughfare from end to end, contrived so as to
present a broad thin stratum of steam to the evaporating liquid; the
level of which, in the containing chamber, is represented at K The
heating steam for the entire apparatus passes from the boiler through
the fixed pipe L, at one end of the shaft, the open inner end of which
pipe is connected with the shaft by the stuffing-box M, so that, the
shaft has liberty to revolve quite independently of the pipe The
open end of the pipe L; is in a direct line with the tubular end Ny of
the main shaft, so that the steam in passing from the pipe Fcan-flow">
through the stuffing box M; without escaping as the shaft revolves.
The tubular portion N of the's shaft, thus supplied with steam has a
lateral opening O, communicating freely with the end of the spiral screw,
through the hollow J, of which the steam can thus flow uninterruptedly!
along the whole of the convolutions. After thus traversing along all
the turns of the screw, the steam similarly escapes through a lateral'
opening P, at the opposite end of the shaft into the hollow Q, at that

page_text: end of the shaft. At this point. a second stuffing box R serves to
form a steam-tight communication between the hollow in the revolving
main shaft and a stationary curved pipe S the other end of which
pipe is bent back and opens into the steam: case B,c.of the con-
taining A at the points this way the steam, after exercising
its evaporatives effect cuponathe spiral iblades: or screw I is employed
in keeping the containing vessel well heated. Whatever water of
condensation may be formed in the steam space B. is allowed to
flow off by a small pipe U; and at the opposite end of the apparatus
is a large pipe V, opening into the containing chamber for the
periodical discharge of the boiled
iled matter. In working this apparatus
the constant: revolution of the screw both exposes a large heating
surface to the evaporating mass, and at the same time traverses and
agitates that mass in the vessel, by the screw action. Hollow discs or
surfaces of other forms may likewise be used instead of screw blades
for a similar purpose, and, instead of causing the heated surfaces to
revolve continuously, reciprocatory rotation may be employed; whilst
for some purposes the steam may be entered the reverse way, first
passing through the outer casing of the containing vessel, and afterwards
through the screw blades.
con
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of
my said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may
be used or carried into effect, I may observe, in conclusion, that I do
not confine or restrict myself to the precise details or arrangements
which I have had occasion to describe or refer to, as many variations
may be made therefrom without deviating from the principles or main
features of my Invention; but what I consider to be novel and
original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,―
First, the general arrangement and construction of machinery, appa-
ratus, or means for evaporating and concentrating liquids, as herein-
before described.
Second, the application and use of rotatory or partially rotatory screw
spiral steam chambers or discs for evaporating and concentrating
liquids

page_text: Third, the system or mode of evaporating and concentrating liquids
by means of hollow heating screws, blades, or discs dipping into the
evaporating liquid, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Irlam Higginson, have here-
nnto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of November,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty--
three.
GEORGE IRLAM HIGGINSON. (L.S.)