IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR THE EVAPORATION OR CONCENTRATION OF FLUIDS AT HIGH OR LOW TEMPERATURES, WITH OR WITHOUT THE APPLICATION OF A CURRENT OF AIR OR STEAM
Year: 1875

page_text: ETTERS PATENT to William Morgan-Brown, of the Firm of Brandon
and Morgan-Brown, Engineers and Patent Agents, of 38, South-
ampton Buildings, London, and 13, Rue Gaillon, Paris, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR THE EVAPORATION OR
CONCENTRATION OF FLUIDS AT HIGH OR LOW TEMPERATURES, WITH OR WITHOUT
THE APPLICATION OF A CURRENT OF AIR OR STEAM."-A communication
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William-Morgan
Brown at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 16th March 1875.
I, WILLIAM MORGAN-BROWN, of the Firm of Brandon and Morgan-
Brown, Engineers and Patent Agents, of 38, Southampton Buildings,
London, and 13, Rue Gaillon, Paris, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR THE EVAPORATION
OR CONCENTRATION OF FLUIDS AT HIGH OR LOW TEMPERATURES, WITH OR WITHOUT
THE APPLICATION OF A CURRENT OF AIR OR STEAM," to be as follows:-
This Invention for improvements in apparatus for evaporation or
concentration of fluids at high or low temperatures, with or without the

page_text: application of a current of air or steam, is based upon the ascertained
fact that the evaporation of fluids proceeds the more readily the less the
heat applied, when the layers of fluid are thinner and the vapours more
readily carried away.
I have therefore constructed an evaporation
apparatus in which the fluid to be evaporated flows in a thin film down
the inward side of a conical or cylindrical vertical tube, which is heated
on the outward side, and through or up which is passed a current of air
or of steam, if desired.
For the concentration of sulphuric acid I build an oven with suitable
fire-places, having if necessary a regulating chamber filled with fireproof
stone or brick leading from the fire-places to the oven proper, which is a
vertical cylindrical chamber with a suitable dome or top, perforated with
holes for the passage of the tubes, which are suitably supported by the
dome or top. The tubes are of cast-iron plating, or glass, or other suitable
material; those I prefer in this case are conical, and placed in the oven
with the smaller ends downward. The upper part of the tube is supplied
by a pipe from the reservoir or acid to be concentrated, and the lower
part leads to the receptacle for the concentrated acid. The length of the
tube or tubes may be about 3 or 4 metres, and its diameters above and
below respectively 20 centimetres and 2 centimetres, but the proportion
of the tubes in length and diameter depends upon the required concen-
tration and heat to be given. The fires being lighted the outer part of
the tube gets heated, and the acid being allowed to trickle slowly down
the tube leaves by the lower aperture in a concentrated state.
The hot vapours escaping at the upper part are led into any desired
form of refrigerator or condensing worm, and, if desired, aided to escape
by the draught of a steam jet. If air or steam is desired to pass up the
tube the lower part of the conical tube, instead of fitting close to the
pipe leading to the reservoir of concentrated acid, is made to fit into an
adjustable cone at the end of the conducting pipe, which by its greater
or less distance allows more or less air to enter. The waste heat from
the tube, dome, or chamber may be led to heat the vessels from which
the acid is fed to the vertical tubes. The tubes themselves are some-
times provided inside with little projections or wings for the purpose of
more effectually spreading the acid over the interior of the tubes.
For the evaporation of sugar juice the principle is carried out some-
what differently, the tubes being more numerous, enclosed in a case, and
heated externally with steam. A current of air or steam is passed up

page_text: the tubes, down which also flows the juice. The current of air worked
by a blower or pump passes up the tubes, and is then carried down
about the outer parts of the tubes, and finally escapes. The feeding of
the juice to the tubes is accomplished by letting it trickle down vertical
wires which lead it to the collars surrounding the head or upper parts of
the tubes; from these it enters the interior of the tubes by slits or
openings in the tube itself around its upper part, and it flows away at
the bottom in a concentrated state away to the proper receptacle.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Morgan-Brown in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 13th September 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MORGAN-BROWN, of the Firm of Brandon and Morgan-Brown, Engineers
and Patent Agents, of 38, Southampton Buildings, London, and 13, Ruc
Gaillon, Paris, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Morgan-Brown, Her special
license that I, the said William Morgan-Brown, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Morgan-
Brown, 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 Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR THE EVAPORATION OR CONCENTRATION
OF FLUIDS AT HIGH OR LOW TEMPERATURES, WITH OR WITHOUT THE APPLICATION OF
A CURRENT OF AIR OR STEAM," a communication to me from abroad by
Gustav Adolf Hagemann, of Copenhagen, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said William Morgan-Brown, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one

page_text: of their hands and seals, 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 Scal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Morgan-Brown, do hereby
declaro 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) :-
:-
Regarding it as an ascertained fact that the evaporation of fluids
proceeds the more easily the casier the heat applied, the thinner the
layer of the fluid, and the easier the vapours are carried off, I have con-
structed an evaporation apparatus on the principle that the fluid to be
evaporated flows in a thin film down the inward side of a conical or
cylindrical tube, which is heated on the outward side, and through
which is led a more or less strong current of air or of steam. It is this
principle the practical application of which I will now illustrate.
1. Apparatus for the Concentration of Sulphuric Acid.-Plate 1,
Figures 1, 2, and 3, exhibits an oven in different sections. The oven has
one, two, or more fire-places or hearths a, from which the flame first
passes through a wide fire-fluc filled with loosely arranged fireproof
stones; hereby the heat that enters the oven itself is regulated, which
is especially of consequence with regard to the firing. The oven itself is
a vertical cylinder, in the centre of which is one or several conical
tubes c of (cast iron), platina (glass or the like). Through the fire-
flues & the smoke then passes under the lead evaporating pan d, d, to
the chimney.
The platina tube is shown in the Drawing on an enlarged scale,
Figure 4. It is morcover provided with several small incisions, which
had better be oblique and accurately of equal depth, and around these
incisions is a ring or collar of platina firmly soldered on to the tube
itself, and which thus forms a lock for the acid, into which the lead
cap e fits. A collar of cast iron supports the tube. The lead cap
lengthens to a single cooling tube g, which is placed in a tank, and the
vapours not condensed there pass through the lead tube to a steam

page_text: injector i, which leads them into the lead chamber j. Instead of this
contrivance a common refrigerator or condensing coil consisting in a
lcaden tube may be employed.
The platina tube dips below into a small platina cup k, which extends
to a platina cooling apparatus of the usual construction. This cup can
bo made either to fit close to the tube, as in the Drawing, or may be
placed so far from it as to leave an opening for the air, which by means
of the steam injector i may so be brought to pass through the tube.
The process is now as follows:-From the lead pan d, d, a sufficient
stream of sulphuric acid (60° B.) is allowed to flow into the platina
collar, whence it flows through the incisions into the tube, and covering
the interior surface of the latter with a film of acid, and adhering to it
partly by gravitation and partly by attraction flows slowly down. If a
modcrate fire be now kept up on the hearths, and the current of acid be
regulated accordingly, the acid will be concentrated, and will come out
of the worm beneath 66° in strength.
The acid vapours pass to the concentrating apparatus. The evaporation
is considerably facilitated when by means of the injector a current of air
is made to pass through the tube.
The advantages to be derived from this apparatus are evident. The
entire surface of the platina is exposed to the action of fire; the thick-
ness of the platina employed is considerably less than that of platina
pans of the present construction, and the evaporation is considorably
greater from its taking place gradually, the film of liquid being thin,
and the vapours immediately being carried off.
It will likewise be evident that this apparatus will give a great saving
in fuel compared with the platina pans of older construction.
In order to facilitate the proper distribution of the down current
small wings of platina may be fixed here and there within the tube.
In the apparatus hero described the tube is conical, because the
temperature around the tube's outer surface is very high, and adhesion
therefore not being sufficient to effectuate a constant moistening of the
whole surface of the tube.
We may take it as a rule that the greater the difference between the
boiling point of the liquid and the exterior temperature of the tube the
"

page_text: more conical must the form of the latter be. With a platina tube sucli
as shown in the Drawing 6000 lb. (300 kilg.), 66° strength, sulphuric
acid can be produced in 24 hours.
In order to drive the concentration above that quantity the tubo must
be made more conical.
Instead of platina glass or the like may be employed, or else lead or
iron tubes in conjunction with the vacuum, but the difference in the cost
is inconsiderable, the platina being so thin, while the expense of the
process is so much greater that tubes made of the substances above
named will not prove advantageous.
As a trial a tubo of cast iron however will answer very well, and the
results of the experiments on which this Patent is founded have been
made with a cast-iron tube.
Figure 6 shows the upper part of a tube of cast iron. The collar is in
this tube made inside, and the acid flows into the tube through the small
holes p. There is no difficulty in concentrating sulphuric acid in this
tube, but the acid produced will of course contain iron. Where this
impurity is of no consequence the iron tube is very applicable.
2. Apparatus for the Concentration of Sugar Juice or similar Solu-
tions. Plate II.-a is a vertical plate iron cylinder tightly closed at
both extremities, with the ending plates b and c, which are provided
with holes through which the pipes pass (the pipes are of metal) d. In
the lowest plate the pipes are made water-tight, with wooden rings,
while in the uppermost ending plate c they are only fitted as tight as
they can be made to do without employing any material to render them 2
tighter. The intermediate plates e, f, g, h, are very open around the
pipes, except f, but even ƒ does not fit so tightly as c. Below the ring i
with the bottom j terminates the cylinder a. The blow pipe from the
rotary blower & enters into i. The pipe b, which conducts the steam
(waste steam) for the heating of the apparatus, joins a, as does the 3
pipe, which fits into the ring a, which again is connected with the
juice reservoir p. In the bottom of the last, draining holes aro made, in
which are placed copper wires s, which serve as juice conductors to the
pipe collars q. Finally from a proceeds the escape pipe t.

page_text: shown for the purpose of evaporating fluids or the use of similar apparatus
for those purposes, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Morgan-Brown, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of September,
in the year of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-
five.
WILLIAM MORGAN-BROWN. (L.s).