IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING BEET AND OTHER ROOTS AND VEGETABLE BODIES IN ORDER TO EXTRACT SACCHARINE AND OTHER MATTERS THEREFROM, AND IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR EFFECTING THE SAME
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Campbell and Charles
James Appleby at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 2nd January 1871.-Partly a communi-
cation from abroad by Jules Leplay, of Paris, France.
We, ROBERT CAMPBELL, of Buscot Park, in the County of Gloucester,
Gentleman, and CHARLES JAMES APPLEBY, of Emerson Street, in the
Borough of Southwark, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING BEET AND OTHER ROOTS AND
VEGETABLE BODIES IN ORDER TO EXTRACT SACCHARINE AND OTHER MATTERS
THEREFROM, AND IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR EFFECTING THE SAME," to be
as follows:-
Our Invention relates to certain modes or processes by which
saccharine and other matters are extracted from beet and other roots
and vegetable bodies for the manufacture of sugar, vinous liquors, and
alcohol in a more efficient manner and at less cost than by the processes
at present adopted; also in the arrangement of the machinery or
apparatus as well as the construction of certain parts thereof by which
we are enabled to carry out the above processes..
According to our process we first wash or cleanse. the root or other
matter in a bath or vessel which has a revolving or oscillating motion

page_text: imparted to or within it by any known mechanism. From this bath the
roots are removed by hand or by mechanical means and placed upon a
lifting apparatus, belt, or travelling articulated table to be conveyed to a
measuring or weighing apparatus so as to divide the mass into given
quantities, or to a cutting or slicing machine so as to be reduced into
slices preferably in a longitudinal direction, as in that condition we have
found in practice that the saccharine matter is drawn from it in larger
proportions than if cut crosswise. The slices are then placed or fall
upon other belts or travelling tables to tanks or vats into which the
material is allowed to fall. The vat has a false bottom in it for the
material to rest upon, and when the required weight or quantity of slices
is in the vat a small quantity of diluted sulphuric acid is poured or run
into it to assist the fermentation. When the fermentation is complete
the false bottom is raised by degrees or stages so that it can be removed by
hand shovels or by mechanical means and laid upon another travelling
belt or table, the liquor being retained in the vessel. The solid matter
is carried by the belt to the distilling column or vessel where it falls
upon partitions or diaphragns which are placed therein so as to form
layers superposed one above the other, and when the vessel is full it is
closed by a tightly fitting cover and the matter is distilled in the usual
way until the saccharine matter or alcohol is withdrawn. The cover is
then removed and the diaphragms are lifted by means of a crane and
nippers for scizing hold of the bosses of the diaphragms, or by a ram
(attached to a hydraulic or steam apparatus) which passes up through
a stuffing box in the bottom when the diaphragms can be removed
singly by a crane or other appliance. After a certain number of the
diaphragms have been placed in the distilling column, steam is admitted
by an injection pipe or by passing steam into a coil which is wholly
or partially immersed in liquor at bottom of vats, the vapour rising
therefrom causing the saccharine matter to be evolved without causing
the pulp or residue to be surcharged with moisture. If lifted by a crane
we propose to lift the diaphragm with a tipping or tilting frame, so
that
the pulpy or refuse matter may fall off them on to a shoot or slide and
thence into a cart or other vehicle to be carried away and stored for
feeding cattle or for other purposes. The diaphragm is then to be
lowered upon a trolley or carriage or into another distilling column,
which is then being charged and the crane made to lift the next
diaphragm in a similar way, and so on until they are all removed; the

page_text: piston or ram causing them to rise to the top in. succession as the higher
ones are removed.
Instead of carting the pulpy matter away as before described, the
shoot may lead into a trough from which it may be pumped, or into a
creeper as required.
66
1
1
Under certain conditions of temperature it may be necessary to heat
the fermenting vessel, and when such is required we propose to introduce
a steam or hot water pipe into the bottom, cither in a zig-zag or
serpentine manner, so as to heat the liquor which has drained from the
solid matter. The mass may also be stirred by means of a rake or
stirrer, and in order to aid fermentation a little brewers' yeast may be
introduced; this would however only be necessary in extreme cases.
The muddy deposit from the washing operation is received in a tank or
receiver, and can be raised by an elevator or chain pump to any position
to be carried or transported back to the land, where it will form a good
manure, as it contains vegetable matter to a large extent, only in
minute particles. The platform of the weighing or measuring machine
may be formed with a central bottom so that when turned over to empty
one compartment the other one comes uppermost to receive the next
weighing, and so on. The diaphragms may have undercut rings or
sockets for jointed hooks to take under to lift them from the distilling
column or vessel, in which case the hooks are constructed to open by
self-acting mechanism and hold the diaphragms in raising and lowering.
The mode of forming a close joint to the cover of the distilling vessel
is as follows:-The top rim of the vessel is grooved, into which a soft
metal or other body is run or fitted, and on or into which a metallic
V shaped ring attached to the cover is caused to bear by means of screws
and nuts or other tightening mechanism.
We have heretofore mentioned travelling belts or articulated tables
as being the apparatus for carrying the material from one vessel or
apparatus to the other, and this would be advisable in square, rectangular,
or other similarly shaped buildings, but in buildings of a circular shape
a tramway could be laid down so that trucks could be run thereon for
the same purpose, and again, for lifting and depositing the diaphragms
a crane could be used so as to operate upon each of the vessels in
succession, and thus facilitate the operation, the vessels being arranged
in a circular manner to enable all or any one of the distilling columns
to be charged from any one of the fermenting vats.

page_text: From the foregoing.it will be observed that the main object we 'have
in view is to establish a system of preparing and treating beetroot and
other vegetable substances containing saccharine matters by mechanical
means, so as to produce sugar and other similar bodies and alcohol
therefrom of a superior quality and with less hand labour than is required 5
at the present time by the ordinary means.