IMPROVE- MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CLARIFYING AND DRYING LUMP OR LOAF SUGAR
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Denton Abel, of No. 28, Southampton Buildings,
Chancery Lanc, in the County of Middlesex, for an Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CLARIFYING AND DRYING LUMP OR LOAF SUGAR."
A communication from abroad by the Maschinenbau-Actiengesellschaft, vormals
Breitfeld, Danek, & Co., of Prague, in the Austrian Empire, an Incorporated
Company.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Denton Abel at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 25th March 1880.
"
CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of No. 28, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in
the County of Middlesex. IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CLARIFYING AND
DRYING LUMP OR LOAF SUGAR." [A communication from abroad by the
Maschinenbau-Actiengesellschaft, vormals Breitfeld, Dauck, & Co., of Prague, in
ho Austrian Empire, an Incorporated Company.]
According to the present Invention the clarifying and drying of lump or loaf
sugar is effected by apparatus arranged and operating in the following manner:-A
number of open pans or vessels communicate by means of pipes, firstly, with a
reservoir for cold compressed air; secondly, with a reservoir for heated compressed
air; thirdly, with a reservoir for clarifying liquor; and, fourthly with a steam
supply, each of the said supply pipes having valves or cocks by which the supply
can be regulated. There is a cover common to all the pans, which is shifted from
the one to the other by means of a travelling crane, so as successively to close cach
pan hermetically, as will be presently described. The cold compressed air
reservoir, in addition to communicating with the above described pans, also com-
municates by pipes with the heated air reservoir and the reservoir for clarifying
liquor, and the two latter also communicate by pipes with the steam supply
whereby their contents are heated.
The mode of operating with this apparatus is as follows:-
A number of sugar moulds containing the sugar to be clarified having been
placed in the first of the pans this is closed hermetically by the cover, and a charge
of clarifying liquor is driven into it from the liquor reservoir by admitting air
pressure into the latter.

page_text: The communication with the liquor reservoir being then closed air pressure is
admitted into the pan from the cold air reservoir, which is charged by any
suitable known air compressing machine. The contents of the pan are subjected to
the air pressure for about 3 hours; at about the end of the first half hour steam is
admitted into a pipe within the pan so as to heat its contents to about 55° Fahr.,
and this is maintained until within about half an hour of the termination of the
pressure process. The moulds having by this means become charged with the
clarifying liquor, the cover is removed from the pan, and the next pan having been
charged with sugar moulds, the cover is fixed thereon and the above process is
repeated. The contents of the first pan are at the same time subjected to the
drying process, for which purpose heated air is caused to pass into it from the hot
compressed air reservoir, the pan being simultaneously heated to about 1:30° Fahr.
by passing steam or other heating medium through a coil of pipes in the pan. By
the time the drying process is completed the other pans of the series will have
been subjected to the liquoring process, and the contents of the first pan having
been discharged, it is refilled with sugar moulds and the cover is again fixed on,
the process being thus carried on continuously.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Charles Denton Abel in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 24th
September 1880.
CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of No. 28, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in
the County of Middlesex. " IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CLARIFYING AND
DRYING LUMP OR LOAF SUGAR." A communication from abroad by the
Maschinenbau-Actien-Gesellschaft, vormals Breitfeld, Danek, & Co., of Prague, in
the Austrian Empire, an Incorporated Company.
According to the present Invention the clarifying and drying of lump or loaf
sugar is effected by apparatus arranged and operating in the following manner :-
A number of open pans or vessels communicate by means of pipes, firstly, with a
reservoir for cold compressed air; secondly, with a reservoir for heated compressed
air; thirdly, with a reservoir for clarifying liquor; and, fourthly, with a steam
supply, each of the said supply pipes having valves or cocks by which the supply
can be regulated. There is a cover common to all the pans, which is shifted from the
one to the other by means of a travelling crane, so as successively to close each pan
hermetically, as will be presently described. The cold compressed air reservoir, in
addition to communicating with the above described pans, also communicates by
pipes with the heated air reservoir and the reservoir for clarifying liquor, and the
two latter also communicate by pipes with the steain supply whereby their
contents are heated. The accompanying Drawing represents apparatus arranged
as above described. A is the vessel containing cold compressed air forced into it
by any suitable compressing apparatus; B is the receptacle containing clarifying
liquor; C is the heater consisting of a steam casing with an air pipe passing through
it for warming such of the compressed air as is required to be warmed; D', Dº,
D³, D', and D³ are a number of pans arranged in series for operation on successive
batches of the sugar loaves. These pans are made all of one size and shape so
that one lid F fits each of them, this lid being conveyed from one to another by a
traveller E¹, from which it is suspended, running along a rail E fixed above the line
of pans. These principal parts of the apparatus are provided with suitable fittings
and connections as follows:-On A is a safety valve a, a thermometer b, a pressure
gauge c, and a shut off valve din a pipe o leading to the heater C; it has also a pipe e
with branches w conducting cold air to the pans, an air supply pipe g, and an air
pressure pipe h to the liquor vessel B, to which there is a steam pipe i, and from
which leads a pipe with branches for supplying liquor to the pans.
pipe & supplies liquor to B; is an air pipe and valve; m, a gauge of level of liquor;
n, an outlet pipe with sampling cock. The heater C has a safety valve a',
thermometer b, and pressure gauge c'; it is supplied with air from A by the
pipe o; steam for heating the casing of C is admitted by the pipe p, the water of
condensation issuing by q. The heated air flows by the pipe with branches 2 to
the several pans; & is the vapour or steam pipe with branches and v. The lid F
and each of the pans has a thermometer 6 and pressure guage c². Each pan has a
valve box G and an outlet pipe y. The mode of operating with this apparatus is
as follows:-The first pan D' having been charged with a number of moulds
containing sugar to be clarified is closed tightly by its cover F, and a charge of
clarifying liquor is forced into it from B by admitting air under pressure froin A
to act on the liquor in B. The communication with B being then closed cold air
under pressure is admitted from A to the pan D', the contents of which are
retained subject to the pressure for about 3 hours. At about the end of the first
half hour steam is admitted by the branch v to a pipe coil within the pan, so as to
heat its contents to about 55° Fahr., and this temperature is maintained till about
half an hour before the termination of the pressure period. The moulds having
The

page_text: thus become charged with clarifying liquor the cover F is removed from the pan D¹
and applied to the next pan D³, where a like operation is repeated while the
contents of D¹ undergo drying. For this purpose heated air from the heater C is
admitted to D¹ by the branch u, while the contents of the pan are heated to about
130° Fahr. by steam passed through the pipe coil in the pan. By the time that
the drying process in D¹ is completed the contents of the other pans of the series
have been liquored, and the contents of the pan D¹ being discharged it is refilled
with sugar moulds and the process is repeated, being thus carried on continuously
by distributing its successive stages over a suitable number of pans.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondents, I
claim,―
First. The use of compressed cold and warmed air respectively for charging
with-clarifying liquor and for drying lump or loaf sugar, substantially as herein
described.
Second. The arrangement of apparatus for clarifying and drying sugar, combined
and arranged substantially as hercin described with reference to the accompanying
Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Denton Abel, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty third day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighty.