IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR EVAPORATING SACCHARINE AND OTHER SOLUTIONS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Bancroft Espeut, of No. 14, Southwick
Street, Hyde Park, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR EVAPORATING SACCHARINE AND OTHER
SOLUTIONS."
Scaled the 23rd February 1875, and dated the 25th September 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Bancroft
Espeut at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 25th September 1874.
:
I, WILLIAM BANCROFT ESPEUT, of No. 14, Southwick Street, Hyde
Park, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR EVAPORATING
SACCHARINE AND OTHER SOLUTIONS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for
evaporating saccharine and other solutions. For this purpose I employ
an air-tight vessel of cylindrical or suitable form, and containing trays
mounted on hollow trunnions or axes in such manner that the incli-

page_text: nation of the trays may be adjusted from time to time by means of
levers or handles fitted to them whilst the apparatus is in use. The
trays are double bottomed, and the hollow axes serve for the passage
of steam through them.
The liquor to be evaporated is caused to flow in a zig-zag course
over each tray, or as many of them as may be wished in succession
until it arrives at the bottom of the evaporating vessel, and from thence
it passes into one or other of two receivers, which by suitable passages
furnished with a cock communicate with the evaporating vessel in such
manner that either may be disconnected at will from the vessel itself
to enable its being emptied without destroying the vacuum within the
vessel. A vacuum is maintained in the evaporating vessel and receivers
by a steam jet, and the steam so used, and the vapour extracted in the
evaporation of the solution in the pan, circulate through the trays and
through the jackets and steam pipes of the vessel and receivers by which
a suitable temperature is maintained in the apparatus. The steam and
vapour is in this manner for the most part condensed into water, and
loss of heat latent in steam and vapour is avoided.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Bancroft Espeut in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 25th March 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
BANCROFT ESPEUT, of No. 14, Southwick Street, Hyde Park, in the
County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said William Bancroft Espeut,
Her special license that I, the said William Bancroft Espeut, my exc-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said

page_text: William Bancroft Espeut, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR EVAPORATING
SACCHARINE AND OTHER SOLUTIONS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said William Bancroft Espeut, my executors or admini-
strators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one 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 per-
formed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal 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 Bancroft Espeut, do hereby
declare 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 :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for
evaporating saccharine and other solutions. For this purpose I employ
an air-tight vessel of cylindrical or suitable form, and containing trays
mounted on hollow trunnions or axes in such manner that the incli-
nation of the trays may be adjusted from time to time by means of
levers or handles fitted to them whilst the apparatus is in use. The
trays are double bottomed, and the hollow axes serve for the passage
of steam through them.
The liquor to be evaporated is caused to flow in a zig-zag course
over each tray, or as many of them as may be wished in succession
until it arrives at the bottom of the evaporating vessel, and from thence
it passes into one or other of two receivers, which by suitable passages
furnished with a cock communicate with the evaporating vessel in such
anner that either may be disconnected at will from the vessel itself
to enable its being emptied without destroying the vacuum within the
vessel. A vacuum is maintained in the evaporating vessel and receivers
by a steam jet, and the steam so used, and the vapour extracted in the
evaporation of the solution in the pan, circulate through the trays, and
through the jackets and steam pipes of the vessel and receivers by which

page_text: a suitable temperaturo is maintained in the apparatus. The steam and
vapour is in this manner for the most part condensed into water, and
loss of heat latent in steam and vapour is avoided.
To assist the steam jet in forming and keeping up the vacuum a pump
may be fixed to the end of the exhaust pipe if desired.
Figure 1 is an elevation partly in section; Figure 2 is a vertical
section; Figure 3 is an horizontal section; and Figure 4 is a plan of
apparatus arranged according to my Invention.
This apparatus consists of a closed vessel A, A, the top of which is
connected by a suitable pipe B to an ejector C, this ejector consisting
of a suitable arrangement of steam jet for creating a vacuum in the
vessel A. Arranged inside the vessel A are a number of trays; these
trays D, of which there are four shown on the Drawing, are formed
with a steam casing, underneath each end of which is connected by
hollow trunnions E passing through stuffing boxes with the connecting
boxes F fitted on to outside of vessel. This chain of boxes and trunnions
forms a passage for the steam from the ejector to the vessel G, and by
passing through the casings of trays D the heat of the steam serves to
evaporate the cane juice or solution. The juice or solution flows into
the vessel through the pipe marked H regulated by the cock I, and falls
on to the upper tray, which tray can be provided with partitions, as
shewn in the plan, so that the juice or solution may be retained longer
in contact with the heating surface. After it has passed to the other
side of the tray it falls through the orifice provided for that purpose
on to the tray below, and so on throughout the series. These trays are
so arranged that their angle may be varied by means of hand levers
marked J secured on to the ends of trunnions, and adjusted by means
of a set screw in connection with the curved bars K, so that as the juice
or solution increases in density the angle of the tray may be increased
to help its flow. Below the vacuum vessel are situated two steam cased
receivers L; the connection with these receivers is formed by two valves
M, N, and the bottom of each of these receptacles being provided with