IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR EVAPORATING AND COOKING
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Bristow Hunt at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th
December 1868. A communication from abroad by Jean François
Cail, of the Firm of J. F. Cail & Co., of Paris.
I, BRISTOW HUNT, of No. 1, Serle Street, Lincoln's Inn, in the
County of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS
FOR EVAPORATING AND COOKING," (a communication to me from abroad by
Jean François Cail, of the Firm of J. F. Cail & Co. of Paris,) to
be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a new combination of apparatus and a new
method of working which offer the facility with only one attendent, and
with the most economical utilization of caloric possible of combining
with processes hitherto known, new applications advantageously adapted
to the necessities of various processes lately invented, such as, for
instance, the alcohol processes patented in France by Mr. Perier, on
May 9, 1866, No. 71,532, the ozmoze processes patented by M,
Dubruntant, on June 22, 1865, No. 59,112, and December 20, 1864,

page_text: No. 65,559, those for the treatment of pulps combined with the
treatment of molasses by Mr. Champonnoir, on November 19, 1864,
No. 65,180, and those for intermittent maceration, patented by the
present Inventor on March 13, 1866, No. 70,717.
The apparatus in question is composed principally of five tubular
boilers, constructed as to their details in accordance with the Specification
annexed to the French Patent of Mr. Cail, dated May 23rd 1860,
No. 45,242, for an apparatus for evaporating by three boilers with some
additions herein-after described. Besides the five boilers it is provided
above and below with an injection or a surface condenser, or with
condensers of another kind, the action and advantage of which are also
herein-after described.
Amongst the new arrangements in the construction of the said
boilers, I may remark in the. first place that instead of the safety vessels
inserted previously between the triple boilers a circulating apparatus of
the form previously patented by the present Inventor is placed directly
and vertically on each boiler. This apparatus being adapted directly to
the evaporating boilers offers this advantage, that as safety vessels they
will withdraw at the same time and in a continuous manner from the
boiler the parts of the juice carried over by the ebullition, and that
particularly in the operation of concentrating raw juice to be treated
by alcohol under Perier's process as above mentioned they will establish
the necessary circulation of these juices which are subject to sudden and
violent action.
To guard against this carrying away of the juice, the upper part of
the boilers above the tubular part is constructed comparatively according
to the arrangements described in the Specification attached to a French
Patent granted to the present Inventor, and dated 23rd May 1860
increased by nearly half its height by raising the upper part. There-are
also long vertical openings provided with glass made in the boilers for
watching the operation instead of round glasses which are difficult to see
through, a modification which has also been the subject of a French
Patent in the name of M. Lachaume, dated July 21st 1864, No. 63,811,
manager of the present Inventor's establishment at Douai.
The first four boilers of the group instead of being of equal dimensions
as in the triple arrangement before alluded to one of gradually
increasing diameters, so that their tubular heating surfaces which act

page_text: at the same time as condensers with regard to the vapors at different
tensions and temperatures arising in each tubular barrel will as
completely as possible condense these vapors, and not allow them by
their accumulation to rise to such a pressure as would injure the degree.
of vacuum desired in each boiler.
Thus as to its details of construction this apparatus comprises in one.
original and novel combination all the improvements hitherto made in
this kind of apparatus.
But what I desire more particularly to call attention to as original
is the new combination and new system of working, which make of
this apparatus a newly constituted whole, having such an arrangement
of organs that it may admit (in the employment of the different methods
of manufacture) of varied applications suitable to each of them, which
none of the evaporating apparatus hitherto constructed would admit of.
This will be evident in describing the action of the apparatus.
As in the triple apparatus heretofore employed the juice is introduced
into the first boiler and passes into the second, according to the process
known and described in the previous Patents referred to.
From this second boiler the combinations peculiar to this apparatus
allow of the following variations in the directions of the juice or syrup
as well as of the steam vapors. As regards the syrup it can at will by
the arrangements of the system of pipes and cocks, firstly, be introduced
simultaneously into the third and fourth boilers; secondly, it may
be introduced into one of these boilers only, whilst the other may
be isolated for repairs, cleaning, or other purposes; thirdly, it may
be directed into the third boiler in order to pass therefrom into the
fourth boiler, so as to effect a fourth concentration under an increased
vacuum; fourthly, it may also be stopped in its concentration at the
third boiler, as in the triple arrangement, to be then passed to the filter
and afterwards taken to the fourth boiler. This fourth boiler will then act
as a cooking boiler, utilizing for that purpose the steam from the juice
in the third boiler, which has never hitherto been practised, and which
can be effected in this instance by the greatly increased surface of the
fourth boiler comparatively to the third, at the same time that by the
greater diameter of the tubes the granulation becomes more easy.
Finally, the fifth boiler added to this arrangement acts as a second
cooking boiler, utilizing either the first castings or the second castings
and foots so that (in case of stoppage or isolation of either) the third or
:

page_text: fourth boiler may be employed indiscriminately for concentrating the
juice, and the fourth or fifth for the cooking.
As regards the steam or vapors from the juice intended to concentrate
or cook under a varying and progressive vacuum the juice or syrup in
the succeeding boilers, the direction thereof from the second boiler may
also be varied in a similar way by a series of valves adapted for that
purpose.
At the beginning of the operation, or at any recommencement of the
work, when only the first three boilers are used for the evaporation, there
is also reserved a means of communication for conducting the vapors of
ebullition from the third boiler to the surface condensers (or evaporating
or immersion condensers), and from thence to the injection condenser.
The return of the water from all these boilers towards the air pump
or to an intermediate vessel is effected in an independent manner for
each of them; this is a point upon the importance of which the Inventor
wishes particularly to insist and which is applied to this apparatus.
The Inventor also claims as a special arrangement the adaptation to
each of the boilers of a small air pump, cither vertical or horizontal,
which will take the return water back independently from each tubular
barrel and create a vacuum in cach preceding boiler. To this system of
air pumps is also added a feed pump and a syrup pump to draw the
concentrated juice from the last evaporating boiler.
Lastly, following the five boilers just described there is, as previously
stated, above and below the injection condenser communicating with
the air pump either a surface condenser or one acting by immersion or
by evaporation.