IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HARD SUGAR
Year: 1885

page_text: "
I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co Patent Agents
Southampton Buildings in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature
of my invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HARD SUGAR and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :—
This invention relates to an improved process of transforming soft sugar into
hard sugar.
This transformation has heretofore been effected by causing lightly compacted
and dried cakes of soft sugar to be permeated with a more or less concentrated hot
solution of white sugar, by the crystallization of which, when the cakes were
allowed to cool off, the particles of soft sugar were cemented together, as more
fully described in the specification of former letters Patent granted to me and
dated May 26th 1885 N° 6432. This process of transforming soft sugar into hard
sugar by the cementation of the particles of soft sugar to each other resulting from
the crystallization of sugar from the white liquor applied as described, produces a
more or less dense and heavy block sugar.
By my present invention I effect the transformation of soft sugar into hard
sugar without this increase in density, and produce blocks or cubes of comparatively
light hard sugar having but two smooth sides; the remaining four sides having the
rough appearance produced by cleavage.
In carrying out my invention, I spread upon a horizontal table, or preferably
upon the bottom of a horizontal pan, a layer of soft "A" sugar of say of an
inch in thickness.
Instead of using soft sugar alone, I may mix some granulated sugar with the
soft sugar, or I may use only granulated sugar to which a suitable amount of
moisture has been added. I then subject the layer of sugar to such compression,
between the bed upon which it rests and the horizontal base of a compression
plate, as will reduce its thickness by from to of an inch. The extent of
pressure required at this stage of the operation will vary according to the percentage
of moisture present in the sugar which is being operated upon. The more moist
the sugar, the less will be the pressure required.

page_text: Having compressed the layer of sugar to the required extent, I then subject it to
moderate heat for a period of say six hours. I prefer to form the layer of sugar in
a pan which can be removed from the table, upon which it is supported during the
compressing operation, and placed in a suitable oven wherein the compressed layer
of sugar is baked.
The compression and subsequent baking of the layer of soft sugar transforms
it into a cake of hard sugar, which is then removed from the oven, and
divided into cubes or blocks, by cleaving it in parallel lines both lengthwise and
crosswise.
The sugar thus produced is hard and light, and all of the cubes or blocks, except
those produced from the edges of the cake of hard sugar, will have but two smooth
sides and those two sides will be opposite to each other, while the remaining four
sides will have the peculiar appearance and irregularities of surface characteristic of
the planes of cleavage of hard sugar.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is
First. The process herein described of transforming soft sugar into cubes or
blocks of comparatively light hard sugar, which process consists in forming from
soft sugar, or moistened granulated sugar, or mixtures of soft and granulated
sugar, by suitable compression and baking, a cake of hard sugar, and in then
cleaving such cake of hard sugar in parallel lines, both cross-wise and length wise
and thereby dividing it into cubes or blocks of the required dimensions.
Second. A cube or block of hard sugar, comparatively light in density, two
opposite sides of which cube or block have the smoothness characteristic of pressed
surfaces, and the remaining four sides the roughness and irregularities characteristic
of the planes of cleavage of hard sugar.
Dabad thin 4th Is A 100K