Improvements in Apparatus for and a Method of Manufacturing Sugar.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 30th Mar., 1892-Accepted, 30th Apr., 1892
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for and a Method of Manufacturing
Sugar.
I, RICHARD BROCKHOFF of Aix la Chapelle in the German Empire, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of my invention and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
My invention relates to improvements in apparatus for manufacturing sugar in
slabs or blocks and more especially to apparatus of the kind such as described
in the Specifications of Letters Patent No. 13084 dated 10th Sept. 1888 for
Improvements in the manufacture of sugar and in apparatus therefor and Letters
Patent No. 7517 dated 4th May 1889 for Improvements relating to apparatus
for the manufacture of sugar both of which said Patents were granted to
Gustav Adant.
The main features of my said invention relate to (a) the application of an
appropriate pump instead of the elevated vessel for transferring the cleare or
refining liquor under pressure from the liquor vessel to the centrifugal apparatus
(b) substituting a removable mold basket of octagonal or polygonal form for the
customary removable baskets of cylindrical form and giving the drum (L) and the
casing for charging the mold basket and also the casting or frame in the stationary
refining apparatus a correspondingly octagonal or polygonal form; (c) carrying
out the refining process in a separate apparatus so that the capacity of the plant
can be increased.
My improved apparatus is represented in the accompanying drawing the various
vessels being shown in vertical section the tubing safety-valve and cocks being in
elevation.
The pump a is applied for feeding the cleare or refining fluid from the cleare or
liquor reservoir 6 to the receptacle c, which latter is a closed vessel acting as an
air chamber and being provided with manometer h, and guage glass k, the cleare
or liquor being fed from the said receptacle c by means of a pipe or tube d,
provided with appropriate cock or valve or cocks or valves into the centrifugal
apparatus.
An adjustable safety valve e is arranged above the receptacle c and has a
depending outlet tube which said tube or pipe reaches nearly to the bottom of
the said receptacle c whilst a second pipe or tube g connects the safety valve e with
the cleare or liquor reservoir b.
By appropriately weighting the safety valve e the pressure, under which the
cleare or refining liquor is fed into the centrifugal apparatus can be adjusted
at will.
Should the pump a work quicker or the sugar mass in the removable mold
basket B offer a greater resistance, than is usual, to the passage of the cleare or
liquor, a rising of the pressure in the receptacle or air chamber c is thereby
prevented, that the surplus cleare or liquor, fed into the said receptacle c, is
returned through the tube the safety valve e and the service pipe or tube g, to
the cleare or liquor reservoir b.
Instead of making the dium (L) as heretofore of circular section or of cylindrical
form I prefer to make the said drum of octagonal or polygonal section according
to the number of wedges used said wedges being of the kind and as described in the
aforenamed Letters Patent No. 7517 of 1889 and represented by the letters A & B
in Fig. X of the said Letters Patent, so that the sugar plates will be of rectangular
form.
The drum L of the centrifugal machine and the case for charging the removable

page_text: mold basket B are both of octagonal or polygonal form corresponding to that of
the said removable basket B.
If instead of rectangular slabs, blocks of rectangular form are to be produced
in the apparatus the mold plates, which are provided with ribs, are omitted
between the wedges as described in the aforementioned Letters Patents No. 1308488
and 75178°
.
In order to increase the capacity of the plant the refining process can be
separated from the action of the centrifugal apparatus, the refining carried out in
a separate operation in stationary apparatus and the aforedescribed centrifugal
apparatus only used for drying the slabs, that is, for driving off the last particles
of cleare remaining in the said slabs, plates or blocks, said process being preferably
carried out in devices corresponding in form to the drums L of the centrifugal
machines as described and represented in Letters Patent No. 13084 and 7517 so
that the removable mold baskets can be readily transferred from the stationary
refining apparatus to the centrifugal machine for driving off the last residue of
cleare adhering to the sugar.
The casting or frame of the stationary apparatus for receiving the mold basket
during the refining process is firmly anchored to a suitable fundament and provided
with a system for distributing the cleare which can be fed under pressure through
a centrally or laterally arranged tube, said system acting in a corresponding manner
to that of the distributing tubes or hollow arms M and hollow spaced as described
in Letters Patent No. 13084 of 1888.
It will be evident that the arrangement of the parts can be modified according
to requirements without in any way departing from the nature of my invention.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare, that what I
claim is :
1) Instead of the elevated vessel for the cleare or refining liquor as described in
Letters Patent No. 13084 dated 10th Sept. 1888 the employment of a cleare
pump such as a so connected to a receptacle such as c acting as an air chamber
and provided with safety valve e, that the pressure of the fluid passing through
canals or ways such as M in Letters Patent 13084 & acting on the inner surface of
the sugar mass can be automatically regulated during the operation of the said
apparatus substantially as described in the foregoing Specification and shown in
the accompanying drawing.
2) The improvements on Letters Patent No. 13084 dated 10 September 1888
and Letters Patents No. 7517 dated 4th May 1889 consisting more especially in
the new form of the removeable mold basket the same being of octagonal or
polygonal instead of the customary round form, so that by means of the fixed and
moveable wedges with or without appropriate mold plates rectangularly formed
sugar slabs or blocks can be formed substantially as described in the foregoing
Specification and shown in the accompanying drawing.
3) My improved method of first refining the sugar in stationary apparatus of a
form corresponding to that of the drum of the centrifugal machines employed
and then transferring the removable mold basket with its charge of refined sugar
from the stationary apparatus to the drum of a centrifugal machine in order to
drive off the last residue of cleare from the said sugar substantially as described
in the foregoing Specification and shown in the accompanying drawing.
4) The general construction and application of the parts of my improved centri-
fugal apparatus, substantially as described in the foregoing Specification and shown
in the accompanying drawing.
Dated the 20th
1000
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Agents for the Applicant.