IMPROVEMENTS IN SEPARATING PARAFFINE FROM ITS SOLUTIONS, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR."
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edmund Richard Southby, of Lanark, in the
County of Lanark, North Britain, Chemist, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN SEPARATING PARAFFINE FROM ITS SOLUTIONS, AND IN
APPARATUS THEREFOR."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edmund Richard
Southby at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 6th January 1868.
I, EDMUND RICHARD SOUTHBY, of Lanark, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEPARATING PARAFFINE PROM ITS SOLUTIONS,
AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR," to be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention consists in cooling a solution of paraffine in a vessel of
moderate depth, by preference closed, and fitted with agitators and
scrapers which keep the solution constantly stirred and prevent the
paraffine from adhering to the sides; by this means the paraffine is
obtained in small, distinct, and very uniform crystals, which are very
easily drained and pressed. The crystallisation of paraffine depending."

page_text: on the cooling of the liquid holding it in solution is greatly retarded
if the paraffine adheres to the sides of the vessel in which it is placed to
cool.
In practically carrying out the present Invention the paraffine solution
is by preference placed in a metallic vessel, the sides of which are kept
cool by air or by cold water applied as a bath or sprinkled on, or by
artificially cooled brine, or by other well-known means. The agitators
with which the vessel is provided cause every portion of the liquid to
come in contact with the sides, whilst the scrapers prevent the paraffine
from adhering to the sides as it crystallises. These improved arrange-
ments are particularly advantageous where the solvent employed is
volatile, as the great loss and danger caused by the evaporation thereof
is avoided in consequence of its being possible to employ a closed vessel.
The cooling and crystallising having proceeded to any desired extent the
liquid is thereafter separated from the crystals by draining in bags and
pressing, or by any other well-known process.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edmund Richard Southby in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 4th July 1868...
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDMUND
RICHARD SOUTHBY, of Lanark, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-first
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Edmund Richard Southby, Her special licence
that I, the said Edmund Richard Southby, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I,, the said Edmund Richard Southby, my
executors, administrators, 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, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, and Invention for "IиPROVEMENTS IN
SEPARATING PARAFFINE FROM ITS SOLUTIONS, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR,"

page_text: upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Edmund Richard
Southby, 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 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edmund Richard Southby, do
hereby declare the nature of my 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, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawings, that is to say :-
My said Invention consists in cooling a solution of paraffine in a
vessel of moderate depth, by preference closed, and fitted with agitators
and scrapers or equivalent details which keep the solution constantly
stirred and prevent the paraffine from adhering to the sides. By this
means the paraffine is obtained in small, distinct, and very uniform
crystals, which are very easily drained and pressed.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, I have hereunto appended a Sheet
of explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and representing
by way of example two convenient modifications of my improved
apparatus. The same reference numerals are used to mark the same
or like parts in all the Figures.
Figures 1 and 2 are vertical and horizontal sections of one modi-
fication, and Figures 3 and 4 are vertical and horizontal sections of the
other. I employ a vessel which I prefer to be of metal, and which is of
a cylindrical form.
In the modification shown in Figures 1 and 2 the main shell 1 of the
vessel is of cast iron, and this has fitted within it an inner shell 2 of
thin copper, there being a narrow space between the two for the passage
of cold water or of artificially cooled brine. There is an inlet 3 for the
water or brine at the bottom of the vessel, and an outlet 4 at the top,
and the current is made to pass a few times round the vessel by a helical
bar 5 placed between the shells 1, 2. A thin sheet iron shell 6 is
applied externally to enclose a space round the vessel to be filled with
sawdust or other non-conducting material. This modification may be
used where the cooling action of the atmosphere will not cause the

page_text: The
separation of the paraffine with the desired rapidity or in sufficient
quantity; but in cases wherein a cooling action of sufficient intensity
and rapidity can be obtained from the atmosphere the modification
shown in Figures 3, 4, may be used. In this second modification the
vessel is formed with a single cast-iron shell 1, which is turned or
bored internally to present a smooth surface for the action of scrapers, to
be herein-after described. The cooling action may be increased in this
second modification by sprinkling water upon the outside of the vessel,
or the surrounding air may be cooled by any convenient means.
two modifications are alike as regards the details yet to be described.
The vessels are closed at the bottoms by end plates 7, in which valves 8
are contrived for the removal of the contents, and which are formed with
bearings 9 for the bottom ends of concentric shafts 10, fitted with
agitating bars 11, and with scrapers 12. The upper ends of the agitator
shafts 10 are carried in bearings in arched brackets 13 fixed on the top
of the vessel, and have worm wheels 14 fixed on their outer ends, to be
actuated by worms 15 on revolving shafts driven in any convenient
manner, a suitable speed for the agitator shafts being from five to ten
turns per minute. The agitator bars 11, the outermost of which are by
preference of wood, are fixed upon iron arms rivetted to the central
shaft 10, and the scrapers 12 are long plates hinged to the outermost
agitator bars 10, and pressed against the sides of the vessel by means of
blade springs.
Brushes may be substituted for the scrapers 12, and will
act in an equivalent manner. The crystallisation of paraffine depending
on the cooling of the liquid holding it in solution is greatly retarded if
the paraffine adheres to the sides of the vessel in which it is placed.
With my improved arrangements however whilst the revolving agitators
cause every portion of the liquid to come in contact with the sides of the
vessel, the scrapers 12 or brushes prevent the paraffine from adhering to
the sides as it crystalliscs. When the solvent containing the paraffine is
not volatile, or when the temperature of the cooling medium employed
is not much below that of the atmosphere, the top of the vessel may be
kept open, as shown; but it is an advantage of my improved arrange-
ments that the vessel may be closed by a cover when the solvent
employed is volatile, so as to avoid the great loss and danger caused by
the evaporation of the solvent. The apparatus is represented as placed
vertically, but it may be disposed in any other convenient position.
The cooling and crystallising having proceeded to any desired extent
in my improved apparatus, the liquid is thereafter separated from the

page_text: crystals by draining in bags and pressing, or by any other well-known
process.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I have to state that I do not
restrict myself to the precise details herein described or delineated, but
that what I believe to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the
separating of paraffine from its solutions by means of cooling apparatus
provided with agitators to keep the liquid in motion combined with
scrapers or brushes to detach the solidified portions from the cooling
surfaces, substantially as herein-before described.
In witness, whereof, I, the said Edmund Richard Southby, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Third day of July, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
EDMUND R. SOUTHBY. (L.S.)