AN IMPROVED METHOD OF OBTAINING OR PRO- DUCING SACCHARINE MATTER OR SUBSTANCE FROM WHEAT, RYE, OATS, AND BARLEY, BEAR OR BIGG.
Year: 1816

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
VARLEY, of Hunslet, in the Parish of Leeds, in the County of York, Wire
Worker, and ROBERT HOPWOOD FURNESS, of Bridlington, in the said County,
Soap Boiler, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the First day of November,
in the fifty-seventh year of His reign, give and grant unto the said William
Varley, and Robert Hopwood Furness, our exors, adñiors, and assigns, His
special licence, full power, sole priviledge, and authority, that we, the said
William Varley and Robert Hopwood Furness, our exors, adñors, and assigns
should and lawfully might, during the term of years therein mentioned, make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, our Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF OBTAINING OR PRO-
DUCING SACCHARINE MATTER OR SUBSTANCE FROM WHEAT, RYE, OATS, AND BARLEY,
BEAR OR BIGG.;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso,
that if we, the said William Varley and Robert Hopwood Furness, shall not
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under
our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, and cause the

page_text: same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages
whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become
void, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and
at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
William Varley and Robert Hopwood Furness, do hereby declare that the
nature of our said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be per-
formed, are particularly described and ascertained in the following descriptions
thereof, that is to say:-
We take wheat, rye, oats, or barley, bear or bigg, as the case may be, and
prepare them or either of them for use by crushing or grinding, and thereby
separating the flour from the husk or bran by the well-known methods com-
monly practised in flour mills; when the flour has been separated from the bran
we macerate it in water heated to about one hundred and thirty degrees of
Fahrenheit's scale, which has previously been acidulated by sulphuric acid,
in the method and in the proportions herein-after mentioned. For this purpose
we make use of a tab or vessel which we call a digesting vessel of the follow-
ing construction; the form of the vessel we conceive to be of little consequence,
but we prefer having it made of that kind of fir timber which is usually known
by the name of white deal, and we surround the bottom and sides with brick-
work or with any other materials which have the property of transmitting heat
slowly. When the vessel is thus incased, a strong lid or cover is firmly fastened
upon it, containing an aperture sufficiently large to admit and to stir the in-
gredients, which aperture has also a cover that can be securely fastened down
and made steam-tight, as occasion may require. As our process is performed by
the agency of steam, a wooden tube or pipe is inserted in the centre or in some
convenient part of the lid or cover of the before-mentioned vessel, which reaches
to within a few inches of the bottom of the vessel for the purpose of conveying
the steam among the ingredients. To this wooden pipe is fixed a pipe of iron
or some other metal, and this is so contrived that the other end of it may bo
easily attached to a steam boiler, such as is generally used for steam engines;
the metallic pipe has a stop-cock fixed in it, to enable us either to regulate the
admission of the steam or cut off the communication as circumstances may
require; the cover of the vessel has also a thermometer fixed in it for the pur-
pose of ascertaining the temperature of the mass of ingredients at any period of
operation. Into a vessel of the foregoing construction we pour a quantity of

page_text: water, and then by opening the stop-cock, we let in a sufficient portion of
steam to heat the water to about one hundred and thirty degrees of Fahrentheit's
thermometer. When the water has required this temperature, we then add
some concentrated sulphuric acid or good oil of vitriol of commerce to the pro-
portions of three pounds of the acid to every forty-five gallons wine measure of
the heated water, and well mix them together by stirring. Then to every forty-
five gallons of water thus acidulated by sulphuric acid, we add one hundred
pounds weight of any of the afore-mentioned kinds of flour, which we do by
degrees or by a little at a time, taking care not to cease stirring the ingredients
with a large wooden spatula or plunger during the time that the flour is added,
in order to facilitate the combination, and break down whatever lumps may be
formed during the mixture. When the water, the flour, and the acid are thus
united into one uniformi mass, the aperture into the vessel containing the ingre-
dients is completely closed by the cover before mentioned, and this and all other
joints being inade steam-tight, the stop-cock connecting with the steam appa-.
ratus, which has already been described, is opened. (In charging the digesting
vessel, care is taken not to have it more than three parts full, when the cover is
fastened down, that the increase from the admission of steam may not occasion
any inconvenience.) The steam is thus thrown into the mixture of water, acid,
and flour sufficient to raise the whole to the temperature of two hundred and
twelve degrees Fahrenheit, or the boiling point of water, at which temperature
we usually continue it (or as nearly as possible) for the space of thirty hours,
because we have found by experience that during this time the saccharine
matter is in general formed. When this period has clapsed, we therefore close.
the stop-cock to prevent any farther admission of steam. The next operation
is to separate the insoluble matter from the saccharine fluid, which we effect
by throwing the whole contents of the digesting vessel upon some common
woollen filters, of a proper degree of fineness, to detain the impurities while
the fluid is allowed to percolate thro' them. When the weak syrrup is
thus obtained, we usually concentrate it by evaporation to one-fourth part
of its original bulk by means of an apparatus of the following construc-
tion: We have a shallow cast-iron pau, about one inch and an half deep,
cast with a broad flange round its outer edge, such a one as is commonly
known by the techinal term of an iron jacket. This pan has an iron pipe
entering the bottom at any convenient place, the other end, of which has a
communication with the steam boiler, and in some convenient part of this pipe
a stop-cock is fixed for the purpose of regulating the quantity of steam which
is to be admitted. In any convenient part of this iron pan another pipe is

page_text: fixed, and furnished also with a stop-cock, for the purpose of letting off at
proper intervals the condensed water. When the iron pan thus constructed
has been securely fixed in brick-work, we place upon it a strong flat-bottomed
leaden vessel, so contrived that it can be closely fixed and firmly attached by
iron pins and screws to the flange of the iron pan already mentioned. The
apparatus being thus prepared, we charge the leaden vessel with the saccha-
rine fluid which we wish to concentrate, and then by opening the stop-cock we
admit steam from the boiler into the iron jacket, which occasions the syrrup to
begin to evaporate, although the steam comes in contact only with the bottom.
of the leaden vessel, without heating the sides, a matter of considerable con-
sequence to be attended to in the constructions of the apparatus. When the
syrrup has been sufficiently concentrated by the process just described, wo do
put it into a wooden vessel, and add lime until the acid is nearly neutralized;
we then add carbonate of lime or pulverized chalk, or instead of the latter, the
following substances may also be used, videlicit, limestone, marble, oyster-
shell powder, or any other combination of lime with carbonic acid, by a little
at a time, stirring the whole with a wooden spatula at frequent intervals until
we can perceive that the effervescence, which is occasioned at every addition of
the chalk by the escape of carbonic acid, has intirely ceased, and the syrrup
shews no signs of the presence of an acid by any of the chemical tests usually
employed for that purpose. Having thus completely neutralized the sulphuric
acid-which remains in the fluid, we suffer it to remain at rest a sufficient time
for the sulphate of lime, which is formed by the addition of lime and chalk, to
subside, and then we draw off the syrrup for use.
Such is the nature of our improved method of obtaining the saccharine
matter, and which, therefore, consists in the direct production of it from the
farinaceous substances above mentioned, namely, wheat, rye, oats, or barly,
bear or bigg, by means of the chemical changes which these substances
undergo when acted upon by delute sulphuric acid in the manner before stated,
and which substance or saccharine matter is obtained therefore without sub-
mitting the flour to undergo any other previous chemical changes whatever, or
without separating from it by any preliminary processes any of the constituent
parts of which the flour of the grain or seed is naturally composed.
And, lastly, we have to observe that we give the preference to barley flour
as being best suited for the production of this saccharine matter. We do not
confine ourselves to the proportion of the acid before mentioned, nor to the
time during which we continue the operation, nor to the mode of using flour
seperate from the bran, but we prefer that before mentioned; nor do we con-

page_text: fine ourselves to the time of adding the lime or chalk, &c., for when it is more
convenient to use the saccharine fluid in a weak state (without its being concen-
trated into one-fourth of its original bulk), the acid may then be neutralized
before it is so used.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Varley and Robert Hopwood
Furness, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-first
day of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and seventeen.