IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFAC- TURING AND REFINING SUGAR
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Galloway, of Cartmell, in the County
of Lancaster, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFAC-
TURING AND REFINING SUGAR."
Sealed the 20th December 1853, and dated the 20th June 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Galloway at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 20th June 1853.
I, ROBERT GALLOWAY, of Cartmell, in the County of Lancaster, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MANUFACTURING AND REFINING SUGAR" to be as follows:-
In defecating saccharine fluids it has within a few years been the
practice to use lead, which has to be afterwards removed, and various
means have been resorted to for that purpose; generally, however,
sulphurous acid gas has been employed.
Now, this Invention consists in the employment of tannic acid
(sometimes called tannin), gallic acid, pectine, or pectic acid, or the
combination of such matters with potash, soda, or similar substances,
for the purpose of precipitating lead used in defecating saccharine
fluids.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Galloway in the Great Seal Patent Office,
on the 20th December 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
ROBERT GALLOWAY, of Cartmell, in the County of Lancaster, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the seven-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Robert Galloway, Her special licence
that I, the said Robert Galloway, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert Galloway, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MANUFACTURING AND REFINING SUGAR," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Robert Galloway, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to
be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Galloway, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof (that is to say):
This improvement in the manufacture of sugar consists in employ-
ing tannic acid (usually called tannin) or gallic acid, or a compound of

page_text: one of these acids with a base, as potash or ammonia, in conjunction
with the acetates of lead.
The process for deficating cane and beet juice is conducted in the
following manner:-After having added to the juice saccharate of lime,
saccharate of lead, or saccharate of magnesia, or plumbite of lime, and
afterwards neutral acetate or one of the basic acetates of lead, according
to the means described in my former Specification, I add, either before
filtration to free the liquid from the precipitate produced by these neu-
tralizing and deficating agents, or after filtration, a solution of tannic or
gallic acid, or some tannate or gallate, in such quantity as to precipitate
as much of the soluble lead (lead remaining in solution) as these
agents can precipitate. To as rtain when sufficient has been added, a
small quantity of the deficated juice must be filtered through paper
after each addition of the precipitating agent, and a few drops of the
precipitating agent added to this filtered juice; as soon as the precipita-
ting agent produces only a very slight precipitate in the filtered trial
quantity of the solution suflicient of the precipitating agent has been
added. The juice must then be filtered to free it from the precipitate,
and to the filtrate must be added a sufficient quantity of sulphurous
acid or some bisulphite to remove the last traces of lead, as is now well
understood, and as is directed in the Specification of Dr. Scoffern's
Patent. The juice must be again filtered to free it from the insoluble
sulphite of lead thus produced.
The process for sugar refining is conducted in the following manner:
-The raw sugar having been blown up," and saccharate of lime,
saccharate of magnesia, or saccharate of lead, or plumbite of lime, and
afterward neutral acetate, or one of the basic acetates of lead, added
according to the means described in my former Specification, I add
either before freeing the sugar solution (by filtration) from the precipi-
tate produced by these agents, or after a solution of tannic or gallic
acid, or some tannate or gallate, until all the lead these agents are
capable of precipitating has been thrown down. To ascertain when
this point is arrived at, a small quantity of the sugar solution must be
filtered through paper after each addition of the precipitating agent,
and a few drops of the precipitating agent added to this filtered

page_text: solution; when the precipitating agent produces only a slight precipi-
tate in a trial quantity of the solution a sufficient quantity of the
precipitating agent has been added. The solution must then be filtered
to free it from the precipitate thus produced, and to the filtrate must be
added a sufficient quantity of sulphurous acid or some bisulphite to
remove the last traces of lead, as before directed. The sugar solution
must be again filtered to free it from the insoluble sulphite of lead
thus produced.
The solution of tannic acid is prepared by infusing two pounds of
crushed valonia in from two to three gallons of boiling water, and
using the clear liquor, but it may be prepared from other substances.
Gallic acid is prepared by exposing a solution of tannic acid to the air
for some time.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Galloway, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
ROBERT GALLOWAY. (L.S.)