AN IMPROVED MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR DRYING CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS AND OTHER SUBSTANCES
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Stirling Newall, of Gateshead, in the County
of Durham, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF AND APPARATUS
FOR DRYING CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS AND OTHER SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 9th February 1864, and dated the 12th August 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Stirling Newall
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 12th August 1863.
I, ROBERT STIRLING NEWALL, of Gateshead, in the County of Durham, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MODE OF
AND APPARATUS FOR DRYING CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS AND OTHER SUBSTANCES," to be
as follows:-
The nature of this Invention is to effect an economy in the operation of
drying chemical compounds and other substances by exposing them to a
current of air regulated in velocity and temperature. I prefer to place the
material to be dried upon a travelling surface, which carries it forward through
an air chamber, and exposes it to the action of a current of air regulated in
velocity and temperature, the effect of which will be to evaporate rapidly the
moisture therefrom.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Stirling Newall in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 12th February 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
STIRLING NEWALL, of Gateshead, in the County of Durham, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Robert Stirling Newall, Her special license that I, the said Robert
Stirling Newall, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Robert Stirling Newall, 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 "AN
IMPROVED MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR DRYING CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS AND OTHER
SUBSTANCES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Robert
Stirling Newall, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
'
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Stirling Newall, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
-:
The object of this Invention is to effect an economy in the operation of
drying chemical compounds and other substances. To this end 1 spread or
otherwise dispose the substance required to be dried on an extended travelling
surface, and expose the same to a current of air regulated in velocity and
temperature. The apparatus admits of modifications in detail, but its general
features may be thus described:-The travelling surface for carrying the
material to be dried may consist of a series of trays carried by endless chains,
pr an endless belt of latticework, or of a band of cloth or other material

page_text: suitable to the character of the material it is designed to receive. This endless
carrying surface is to be so mounted that it will travel through an air chamber,
through which a current of air is maintained, in the reverse direction to that
of the motion of the travelling surface. At the other side of the chamber,
opposite to that at which the dry air is admitted, is an orifice for the escape of
the humid air. The velocity of the current of air is regulated by a valve or
otherwise.
In the accompanying Drawing I have shewn in longitudinal section an
arrangement of apparatus suitable for drying chemical compounds, say, for
example, white lead. A, A, is an air chamber, supported on framework B,
and fitted at its opposite ends with air pipes C and D, the former for admitting
a current of heated air, which is propelled forward in the direction of the
arrows by a blower E, and the latter for leading off the air after it has become
charged with humidity in passing over the moist substance to be dried, as that
substance is travelling through the air chamber; F, F, are a series of trays
made of earthenware or other suitable material, and carried by endless chains
G, G, which pass over pairs of pulleys H, H', from one pair of which the
chains are driven. The ends of the chamber A are pierced to allow the
chains with the trays to pass through, and they are guided in their course by
the guides or supports a, a, affixed to the opposite ends of the chamber; a
valve or damper I in the pipe C permits of the regulation of the quantity of
air to be admitted to the air chamber, and the regulation of the temperature
may be effected either in the air-heating apparatus, or by allowing the
blower E to draw in a portion of cold air from the atmosphere, and discharge
it mingled with the heated air into the chamber A. I have shewn no means
of charging the trays, but they may either be laden by hand or from a hopper
placed at the feeding end of the apparatus with the material to be dried. If
the material is of a plastic nature a kind of pug mill arrangement may be
used to cause the material to exude from a die or mouth-piece in thin sheets,
or in other forms that will ensure the exposure of a large surface to the action
of the current of air to which it will be subjected in passing through the air
chamber. The speed of traverse of the trays or other carrying surface will
be determined by the requisite duration of exposure of the material to the
blast to expel tho moisture therefrom.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "An Improved Mode of
and Apparatus for Drying Chemical Compounds and other Substances," and
explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be under-
stood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent, I claim, exposing

page_text: damp or moist substances to currents or blasts of air in the manner and for
the purpose above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Stirling Newall, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
R. S. NEWALL. (L.S.)