IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO APPARATUS FOR THE EXTRACTION OF GREASE OR OIL FROM SEEDS, NUTS, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES BY MEANS OF SOLVENTS
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Walter Saunders, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO APPARATUS FOR THE
EXTRACTION OF GREASE OR OIL FROM SEEDS, NUTS, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES
BY MEANS OF SOLVENTS."
Sealed the 3rd February 1880, and dated the 5th August 1879.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Walter Saunders at the Office
"IMPROVEMENTS
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th August 1879.
WALTER SAUNDERS, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster.
IN AND RELATING TO APPARATUS FOR THE EXTRACTION OF GREASE OR OIL FROM
SEEDS, NUTS, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES BY MEANS OF SOLVENTS."
This Invention consists in apparatus for extracting oleaginous matter from seeds,
nuts, and other materials by means of oil solvents, and especially of carbonaceous
fluids, such as bisulphide of carbon.
Hitherto the action has generally be on intermittent, and the chambers in which
the oily matter was exposed to the solvent had to be recharged in such manner that
the fumes were permitted to escape into the air, while at the same time the frequent
breaking in the joints caused serious leakage.
Now my Invention is designed to obviate these evils. I place the oleaginous
matter first in drying cylinders, where it is exposed to heat with constant stirring,
or is dried in other ways. When quite free from moisture it is shot or drawn off
by means of a valve and spout into the mixing chambers, where the requisite amount
of solvent is added. From these the combined oil and solvent is allowed to drain
off into a closed tank, and the solid matter is removed by means of archemedian
screws, or their mechanical equivalent, to a drying chamber, where it is kept stirred
by being conveyed backward and forward by archemedian screws or otherwise,
and the vapour is drawn off to the condensing coils, to be used over again as a
solvent. From the closed tanks the combined liquid is pumped up into tanks above,
and from thence is drawn off to the stills, and the solvent distilled off and recondensed
for further use.
The oil, when free from the solvent, is boiled with high pressure steam in the
usual manner.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Walter Saunders in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 5th February
1880.
"IMPROVEMENTS
WALTER SAUNDERS, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster.
IN AND RELATING TO APPARATUS FOR THE EXTRACTION OF GREASE OR OIL FROM
SEEDS, NUTS, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES BY MEANS OF SOLVENTS."
My Invention has for its object the extraction of the oil contained in seeds, nuts,
and other substances by means of various hydro-carbons, such as benzine, naphthaline,
or bisulphide of carbon. Secondly, to remove from the oils so obtained the chemical
agent thus employed, and to recover the same for re-use, the operation being
conducted automatically.
The form of apparatus I adopt consists of two or more steam jacketted seed
kettles, such as are used in all oil mills for heating the seeds before being pressed,
into which the seeds and other like matters previously ground are conveyed by
elevators. These steam kettles are placed on an upper floor of the building, and
directly below them are the extractors, into which the seed falls from the kettles by
means of spouts, after having been sufficiently heated to drive away the super-
abundant moisture; this moisture, if allowed to remain in the seed, would interfere
materially with the due extraction of the oil by the solvents employed. The warm
seed having now been introduced into the extractor, the spout which is attached to
the kettle by hinges is withdrawn, and an iron lid is substituted for the same,
which is screwed to the extractor, thus making the joint good. This plan, though
apparently more clumsy, I prefer to the use of a valve, with which is very difficult
to keep bisulphide of carbon tight. The solvent employed is now introduced by
means of a pipe in the bottom of the extractor, and is forced through the seed either
by gravitation, as in the plan shown, or by pumping, carrying with it all the fatty
oils contained in the seed, and flowing out through an outlet in the upper portion
of the extractor. From thence it passes either direct into the still or through a
condensing worm into a tank below, from whence it is afterwards pumped into
another tank from which the still is charged.
The still consists of a cylindrical shaped tank, the lower portion of which has a
steam jacket, and through which is an iron shaft fixed longitudinally, having arms
attached for the purpose of agitating the contents; there is an outlet in one end at
the top connected with a condensing worm. When the mixture of oil and spirit or
solvent has been conveyed into the still the agitator is set working, and the spirit
is driven off through the condenser, returning to the tank below ready for use again,
whilst the oil remaining in the still is run off through a pipe at the bottom, and is
afterwards refined in the usual way, the mode of refining varying, as at present, with
the kind of seeds, nuts, or material that have been operated upon.
The residual meal remaining in the extractor is now dealt with in the following
manner:-
A tap is first opened in the bottom, from which all the liquid portion of the con-
tents is allowed to flow into the tank below for further use. The extractor has a
shaft passing through it horizontally, to the lower portion of which shaft is attached
an arm or stirrer; the extractor has also an opening in the front at the lower portion,
which opening is closed by a valve during the extracting operation, but is now
opened. The meal is turned out by the stirrer, and falls into the worm box directly
underneath and attached to the extractor; from thence it is conveyed into the
desiccating apparatus, which consists of a closed iron tank heated by steam and
fitted up inside with an arrangement of archimedean screws. By means of these
screws the ineal is kept in continual agitation, and the remainder of the solvent is
driven off through an opening in the upper portion of the desiccator, and passes

page_text: now quite dry, falls from the machine ready for grinding or dressing, as may be
required.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS.
Sheet 1. A, A, are steam kettles provided with shafts, stirrers, and breech openings,
as used in all oil mills, and which must be of the same cubic capacity as the extractors,
one separate kettle being provided for each extractor; B, B, are the extractors
connected with the steam kettles by the spouts; these spouts L, L, convey the meal
into the extractors at the top through an opening in the cover. The spouts are made
of sheet iron, are hinged to the front of the kettles, and can be drawn away when
required to close the openings into the extractors. The extractors are cast iron vases
or cylinders having a double or false bottom about six inches from the bottom. The
false bottom is pierced with holes and has the lower portion covered with wire gauze ;
it has also a footstep to receive the horizontal shaft, to which is attached an arm for
discharging the contents of the vase when required. In the upper portion of the
extractor, about nine inches from the top, is another perforated diaphragm covered
with wire gauze, above which and between it and the cover is the outlet for the oil.
The oil, after proceeding through the condenser C, passes into the receiving tank I,
to be subsequently lifted by the pump O into the charge tank G. This tank is fully
explained in the accompanying Drawing. Pump O also serves to lift the solvent
used (which has been condensed from the still and desiccator and returned to the
tank H) up into the tank F, where it is ready to be again used through the
extractors. In front of these extractors, and covering the semi-circular opening for
discharge of the meal, is a square iron box, the bottom of which is bolted to the top
of the covered box containing the archimedean screw for conveying the meal to the
desiccator. In the front of this box is a small wheel and screw which serve to work
a valve inside the box; this valve is made to close the aforesaid opening while the
extraction of the oil proceeds, but as soon as that is finished the valve is opened,
the stirrer set in motion, and the contents of the extractor are discharged into the
worm box for conveyance to the desiccator D, shown in Sheet 2, and which I now
proceed to describe.
Sheet 2. D, the desiccator consists of a series of archimedean screws arranged in
troughs one above the other, but each one slightly in advance of the one above it, so
that when the meal has travelled to the end of one trough it is discharged into the
trough below it, and as this screw revolves in an opposite direction the meal is
conveyed backwards and forwards again by the third screw, and so on, until finally
it is discharged from the botton trough. As the whole of this arrangement of
screws is contined within an iron box heated by steam the solvent is driven off the
meal and passes out by the opening in the upper portion of the heated box becoming
condensed in C, and returning to the tank H. X is a pipe carrying steam (or other
hot fluid), so as to heat the desiccator.
Having now described my Invention, and the best mode known to me of carrying
it into effect, I wish it to be understood that what I claim and desire protected under
the herein recited Letters Patent is,-
First. In the extraction of oil from nuts, seeds, and other like articles containing
moisture, the heating of the oleaginous material in a separate vessel or heating
apparatus, so as to expel the moisture before transferring the materials to the
extractor to be operated upon by solvent.
Second. In the extraction of oil from seeds and other similar materials by means
of solvent, the withdrawal of the exhausted material from the extractor by means
of archimedean screws or their mechanical equivalent, so as to avoid opening the
extractor or exposing it or the exhausted charge to the air, by which means much
loss of time, evaporation of solvent, and consequent loss and injury to the health of
the workmen, are avoided.

page_text: Third. The construction and general arrangement, substantially as herein described,
of continuous and almost automatic machinery for extracting oil by means of solvents
from nuts, seeds, and other oleaginous material.
In witness whereof, I, the said Walter Saunders, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty ninth day of January, in the year of our Lord 1880.
.
Witness,
WILLIAM P. THOMPSON,
Patent Agent,
6 Lord Street,
Liverpool.
WALTER SAUNDERS. (L.S.)