IMPROVEMENTS IN THE EMPLOYMENT OF APPARATUS USED IN THE PRODUCTION OF SUGAR FROM SUGAR CANE OR BEETROOT. AND IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PARTS OF THE APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Fryer, of Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Sugar Refiner, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN
THE EMPLOYMENT OF APPARATUS USED IN THE PRODUCTION OF SUGAR FROM
SUGAR CANE OR BEETROOT. AND IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PARTS OF THE
APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH."
Sealed the 2nd October 1869, and dated the 8th April 1869.
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
8th April 1869.
I ALFRED FRYER, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Sugar
Refiner, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM.
PROVEMENTS IN THE EMPLOYMENT OF APPARATUS USED IN THE PRODUCTION OF SUGAR
FROM SUGAR CANE OR BEETROOT. AND IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PARTS OF THE
APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH," to be as follows:-

page_text: up to and including that used for the extraction and subsequent
treatment of the juice.
My improvements in transport have for their object the combination
of the loading of the canes or beets at once upon the cart which shall
convey them to the crushing mill or rasp with the use of tramroads of
narrow gauge and therefore of comparatively small cost. For this purpose
I construct a track, which I prefer to make entirely of metal, and which
is usually furnished with only two wheels keyed fast upon their common
axle; this axle projects through the wheels on each side, and at each
end of it is placed a bracket resting in a bearing upon it and hanging
down nearly to the lowest part of the circumference of the wheel.
Each or these brackets terminates on the outer side in a flange or step
which I prolong in such a manner that by slightly inclining the bracket
its edge comes in contact with the ground. When in this position I am
enabled to draw the wheels of the cart containing the canes or beetroot
on to these flanges, where when the brackets are again brought to a
vertical position they rest, and the carts thus freed from the ground
and resting on the trucks are drawn along the tramway. Several of
these carts are usually formed into a train, the fore part of the one
being supported by the hind part of the adjoining one.
When canes are being operated upon by means of a mill the pressed
cane or megass contains a considerable per-centage of unextracted juice
In order to obtain as much as possible of this saccharine matter I subject
the crushed cane or megass to repeated pressure under water by means
of an apparatus which I call the affusor; this consists of a series of
rollers revolved synchronously and arranged in an upper and an under
row. The megass is passed between these. rows, and is pressed as it
passes between each roller and the one adjacent to it. These rollers
are fitted into a vessel containing water, the water by preference being
heated, and I prefer so to arrange the rollers and water level that the
greater number of the points of contact between the rollers are under
the water level, whilst a smaller number are above it, so that the megass
is first squeezed under water and then as much as possible of the
moisture is wrung out from the affused megass. Water is introduced
into this vessel near the end from which the megass emerges, and
the sweetened water is drawn off at the opposite end, where it
contains the greatest proportion of sugar. As the megass is now
divested of most of its sugar, and as it still contains a considerable

page_text: quantity of moisture, I next take it by means of a megass carrier of the
ordinary construction to my megass drying oven, when the moisture is
removed sufficiently to admit of the megass being used at once with
advantage as fuel. This oven consists of a lofty room or chamber
usually constructed of brick or stone. The megass is delivered by the
megass carrier upon the top of this chamber and there falls upon trap-
doors, which I cause to be opened at intervals, and thus permit the
megass to slip down upon another series of trapdoors placed imme-
diately below them, which on being opened in their turn permit the
megass to pass down into the oven. As I keep one set of these
trapdoors shut whilst the other is open no current of cold air is drawn
into the oven. The megass thus admitted to the oven falls upon one
or more shelves each of which I suspend by its two ends in such a
way that I can easily cause it to revolve or reciprocate, so as to allow
the megass to slip or fall off on to the next lower shelf or shelves.
The megass thus falling from shelf to shelf, resting for a while upon
each, falls at last to the bottom of the oven, whence I take it by means
of a travelling belt to the several furnaces, where it is to be used as fuel.
In the oven thus described the megass is dried by means of the waste
products of combustion, or a part of them, from the furnaces of the
factory, being drawn through it by means of the draught of the chimney
aided where needful by powerful fans.
In order to use to the best advantage for steam raising purposes
the long clear flame of megass dried in the above described or any
other convenient way, I make use of a long boiler of small diameter,
which I place at an inclination in such a way that for a great part
of its length the whole of the circumference of the boiler is exposed
to the flame, while at the same time no flame is allowed to play upon
the boiler above the water level.
In cases where my Patent concretor is the apparatus used for
concentrating saccharine juice, and where more than one concretor is
employed, so that a common chimney is used for several furnaces, I
construct the air heating chamber in such a way that the products
of combustion after ascending through a certain number of the tubes
of the air heater, as at present arranged, are caused to descend through
another certain number, and are then conducted into an under groung
flue leading to the common chimney.

page_text: In some cases, chiefly where only a single concretor is used, and
where megass is the fuel employed, I place a boiler such as I have
already described underneath the trays of the concretor in such a
manner that the waste heat of the boiler furnace after heating the
boiler will pass through the air heater of the concretor. The top of
the boiler thus placed forms a part of the bottom of the flue of the
concretor, thus utilizing to this extent heat which would be otherwise
radiated and lost.
In other cases the boiler is placed at the side of the trays instead
of underneath them.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alfred Fryer in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 8th October 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1, ALFRED
FRYER, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Sugar Refiner, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent bearing date the Eighth day of April, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Alfred Fryer, Her special licence
that I, the said Alfred Fryer, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Alfred Fryer, 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, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE EMPLOYMENT OF
APPARATUS USED IN THE PRODUCTION OF SUGAR FROM SUGAR CANE QR BEETROOT,
AND IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PARTS OF THE APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alfred Fryer, 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

page_text: the date or the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Fryer, 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 thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention consists in improvements extending from the the
apparatus used in the transport of cane or beetroot from the field to the
factory up to and including that used for the extraction and subsequent
treatment of the juice.
My improvements in transport have for their object the combination
of the loading of the canes or beets at once upon the cart which shall
convey them to the crushing mill or rasp with the use of tramroads of
narrow guage, and therefore of comparatively small cost. For this
purpose I construct a truck, which I prefer to make entirely of metal,
and which is usually furnished with only two wheels keyed fast upon
their common axle; this axle projects through the wheels on each side,
and at each end of it is placed a bracket resting in a bearing upon it and
hanging down nearly to the lowest part of the circumference of the
wheel. Each of these brackets terminates on the outer side in a flange
or step, which I prolong in such a manner that by slightly inclining the
bracket its edge comes in contact with the ground.
When in this
position I am enabled to draw the wheels of the cart containing the
canes or beetroot on to these flanges where when the brackets are
again brought to a vertical position they rest, and the carts thus freed
from the ground and resting on the trucks are drawn along the tram-
way. Several of these carts are usually formed into a train, the fore part
of the one being supported by the hinder part of the adjoining one.
When canes are being operated upon by means of a mill the pressed
cane or megass contains a considerable per-centage of unextracted juice:
In order to obtain as much as possible of this saccharine matter I subject
the crushed cane or megass to repeated pressure under water by means
of an apparatus which I call the affusor; this consists of a series of
rollers revolved synchronously and arranged in an upper and an under
row. The megass is passed between these rows, and is pressed as it
passes between each roller and the one adjacent to it. These rollers are
fitted into a vessel containing water, the water by preference being

page_text: heated, and I prefer so to arrange the rollers and water level that the
greater number of the points of contact between the rollers are under the
water level, whilst a smaller number are above it, so that the megass is
first squeezed under water and then as much as possible of the moisture
is wrung out from the affused megass. Water is introduced into this
vessel near the end from which the megass emerges, and the sweetened
water is drawn off at the opposite end, where it contains the greatest
proportion of sugar.
As the megass is now divested of most of its sugar,
and as it still contains a considerable quantity of moisture, I next take
it by means of a megass carrier of the ordinary construction to my
megass drying oven, where the moisture is removed sufficiently to admit
of the megass being used at once with advantage as fuel. This oven
consists of a lofty room or chamber, usually constructed of brick or
stone. The megass is delivered by the megass carrier upon the top of
this chamber, and there falls upon trapdoors, which I cause to be
opened at intervals, and thus permit the megass to slip down upon
another series of trapdoors placed immediately below them, which on
being opened in their turn permit the megass to pass down into the
oven. As I keep one set of these trapdoors shut whilst the other is
open no current of cold air is drawn into the oven. The megass thus
admitted to the oven falls upon one or more shelves, each of which
I suspend by its two ends in such a way that I can easily cause it to
revolve or reciprocate so as to allow the megass to slip or fall off on to
the next lower shelf or shelves. The megass thus falling from shelf to
shelf, resting for awhile upon each, falls at last to the bottom of the
oven, whence I take it by means of a travelling belt which takes the
megass to the several furnaces, where it is to be used as fuel. In the
oven thus described the megass is dried by means of the waste products
of combustion, or a part of them, from the furnaces of the factory being
drawn through it by means of the draught of the chimney, aided where
needful by powerful fans.
In order to use to the best advantage for steam raising purposes the
long clear flame of megass dried in the above-described or any other con-
venient way, I make use of a long boiler of small diameter, which I
place at an inclination in such a way that for a great part of its length
the whole of the circumference of the boiler is exposed to the flame,

page_text: In cases where my Patent concretor is the apparatus used for con-
centrating saccharine juice, and where more than one concretor is
employed, so that a common chimney is used for several furnaces, I
construct the air heating chamber in such a way that the products of
combustion after ascending through a certain number of the tubes of the
air heater as at present arranged are caused to descend through another
certain number, and are then conducted into an underground flue leading
to the common chimney.
In some cases, chiefly where only a single concretor is used, and where
megass is the fuel employed, I place a boiler, such as I have already
described, underneath the trays of the concretor in such a manner that
the waste heat of the boiler furnace after heating the boiler will pass
through the air heater of the concretor. The top of the boiler thus
placed forms a part of the bottom of the flue of the concretor, thus
utilizing to this extent heat which would be otherwise radiated and
lost.
In other cases the boiler is placed at the side of the trays instead of
underneath them.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Fryer, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this First day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
ALFRED FRYER.
(L.S.)