IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OP SUGAR
Year: 1852

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME,
OME, 1, JOHN
FRANCIS EGAN, of Covent Garden, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twentieth day of
July, One thousand eight bundred and fifty-two, in the sixteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Francis Egan, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial license,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Francis Egan,
my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Francis
Egan, my exors, adiñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in the Islands of
Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies
and Plantations abroad, the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OP SUGAR," communicated to me by a Foreigner residing abroad; in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said John Francis Egan,
shall cause a particular description of the nature of the said Invention, and in

page_text: what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being there-
unto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Francis Egan, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say :-
The Invention consists,-
First, in the construction and arrangement of apparatus used in the manu-
facture of sugar; and,
Secondly, the Invention consists in the application of certain matters in the
treatment of cane juice in the manufacture of sugar.
And in order that the Invention may be most fully understood and readily
carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the means pursued by me.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shews a plan partly in section; Figure 2, a longitudinal section;
Figure 3, a transverse section through the line 1, 1, of the apparatus used in
carrying out the first part of the Invention; and Figures 4, 5, and 6 show
separate views of the cooler and instrument for removing the scum from the
surface of the coppers. A spout D, with a lid D', is placed in front of the
fourth and fifth coppers, into which the thick gelatinous and other matters
that separate from the cane juice during its defication are brought unbroken
from the surface by means of a kind of rake p and the spout D, and flow
entirely away. The liquor is thus all but completely clarified, and during its
further ebullition it is cleaned by what are generally called brushes, which,
however, instead of carrying the impurities as formerly from copper to copper
convey them into canals B, also with lids attached between the second and
third and third and fourth coppers, which impurities coming from first, second,
and third copper, together with some partially evaporated juice, flow into the
fourth or fifth copper by the longitudinal canal B', according as the one or
the other is being filled with cold liquor from the mill, there being stops or
sluices S to direct it into one or other as desired. The coolers shewn at
Figures 4 and 5, into which the concentrated syrup has been struck or

page_text: skipped, contain a longitudinal division by means of boards or planks, and have
besides holes in the bottom to which plugs C are fitted. These, the plugs
and boards, are removed after the sugar bas granulated to facilitate the sepa-
ration of the crystallized from the uncrystallized saccharine matter, the latter
however flowing through the plug holes is conveyed by canals C to other
coolers, and there deposits a further amount of sugar on the addition of, to
each cooler of molasses, a strike of highly concentrated syrup.
The second part of the Invention consists in the application of materials in
the manufacture of sugar, attended with scarcely any expense and entirely
innocuous, which materially assist in depurating the cane juice, and to which,
with the mechanical arrangement before described, are due the increased
return in quantity and the extraordinary improvement in quality. The defi-
cating agent used is a combination of the expressed juice of the plantain
tree, ten gallons, and quick lime seven pounds, thoroughly mixed and allowed
to stand until subsidence takes place, when it is very carefully drawn off,
and one ounce of flowers of sulphur added to every six gallons. After the
first thick scum coagulated by the action of the heat has been removed in the
fourth or fifth copper from the cane juice, two or three quarts of the above
liquor are added, and immediately large amount of impurities rise to the
surface, and are carried rapidly and efficiently away by the rake or instru-
ment P used for the purpose. This depurating substance containing a con-
siderable amount of lime does away in many instances with the use of temper,
however the practical and intelligent sugar boiler will readily understand, that
from the nature of the soil, the different varieties of cane, and their various
states of maturity, the quantity of the deficating agent and temper necessary
must vary according to circumstances, and his own practical knowledge will
at once point out the amount required. The object proposed by this simple
inexpensive but efficient improvement (mechanical and chemical) is to remove
completely, and at as early a period as possible, all the foreign noxious impu-
rities before they have had time to react on the saccharine matter contained
in the juice of the cane, and as I believe by experience it will be found that
the object is realized, the conclusion must at once be evident that the quality
of the sugar is thereby improved and its quantity considerably augmented.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Francis Egan, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.
JOHN FRANCIS (L.s.) EGAN.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirty-first day of July, in the
year of our Lord 1852, the aforesaid John Francis Egan came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.