CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANNER OF CUTTING, SHAPING, OR SCRAPING SUGAR LOAVES AND LUMPS, AND OF PULVERIZING AND REDUCING TO SMALL GRAINS OR POWDER SUGAR LOAVES, LUMPS, AND BASTARD SUGAR
Year: 1811

page_text: ALE
HA
COME, I, JAMES
BELL, of Fieldgate Street, Whitechapel, Sugar Refiner, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of March, in
the fifty-first year of His reign, give and grant to me, the said James Bell, His
especial license that I, the said James Bell, during the term of fourteen
years in manner therein mentioned, should and lawfully might use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANNER OF CUTTING, SHAPING, OR
SCRAPING SUGAR LOAVES AND LUMPS, AND OF PULVERIZING AND REDUCING TO
SMALL GRAINS OR POWDER SUGAR LOAVES, LUMPS, AND BASTARD SUGAR;" in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said James
Bell, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a par-
ticular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within two calendar months after the date of the said recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may
more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Bell, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in manner
following, that is to say:-
In order that my Invention may be the better understood, I will first
describe the methods in which different descriptions of sugar are pulverized, or

page_text: reduced to grains or powder, at present. Sugar loaves and lumps are at present
shaved for the purpose of being pulverized, in order to make what are called
stamped loaves (which are loaves formed in metal moulds), by means of
knives set in a fixed frame, against which the loaf or lump is rubbed and
shaved into grains by manual operation. Loaves and lumps, and those lumps
of sugar called pieces and bastard sugar, are broken into small pieces and
reduced to a sort of powder for various purposes, sometimes by being bruised
by means of wooden or metal beaters used with the hand, and sometimes into
an impalpable powder by means of what is commonly called a sugar mill.
or
My Invention may be used in place of all these methods, and will be best
understood by describing more particularly the manner in which sugar loaves
and lumps are at present shaved, for the purpose of making stamped loaves,
before I proceed to describe my Invention itself. The method which has been
generally adopted for the purpose of pulverizing sugar loaves and lumps, in
order to make stamped loaves, is for a workman to take the loaf or lump into
his hands, and rub it upon the sharp edges of blades or knives fixed horizontally,
and set in a fixed frame, through which the sugar so cut or shaved passes down
in the form of grains powder, and is then fit for use. This method of cutting
or shaving the sugar is both tedious and laborious, and does not reduce the
sugar into grains of equal size, an object which is very essential. Much of the
sugar breaks off and falls through in pieces of considerable magnitude; and the
men being obliged to hold the sugar to the blades frequently cut their fingers,
and are liable to be dangerously maimed. In place of thus applying the sugar
to knives or blades set in a fixed frame, my Invention consists in applying to
the sugar, knives or blades set in a moveable frame, which may be put in
motion and made to act against the sugar by any of the common powers now
in use; and the methods which I have found best adapted for this purpose are
the following, viz:-The first is to place knives or blades in a wheel, the
frame of which, containing the knives or blades, may, by means of screws, be
placed less or more obliquely at pleasure, so as to cut the sugar of a smaller
or larger grain as wanted. This wheel, if moving horizontally above the
sugar loaf, or lump, or piece, or bastard sugar meant to be reduced into grains,
is fixed upon a perpendicular rod, which passes upwards and downwards at
pleasure through an iron cylinder that moves horizontally in the frame that
supports the machine. This cylinder is turned by an iron tooth bevil wheel,
which is placed on it, and is acted upon by another iron tooth bevil wheel,
turning vertically assisted by a fly wheel. The machine is constructed on and
supported by a frame in which is a sliding bar acting upwards and downwards
in grooves in the frame, assisted by friction wheels at each end. The appa-

page_text: ratus being thus arranged, the wheel containing the blades or knives, being
suspended by a pulley, is let down upon the sugar loaf or lump, which is placed
on a board on which are short metal prongs, and the wheel, by means of a
metal prong in the centre, lays hold of the sugar loaf or lump, and the fly
wheel being turned, the sugar loaf or any piece of sugar placed under it is
shaved down into grains with great quickness until the wheel reaches the
prongs which hold the sugar, when the slice or piece which remains is to be
taken off and another sugar loaf or lump put in its place. This machine may
be worked by the hand, or a number of them may be worked by steam, water,
or wind, or by a horse or horses. In order that this machine may be the better
understood, a Drawing of it is annexed, shewing it as it may be worked by
hand, with references, by means of alphabetical letters, describing its different
parts.
This machine represents six blades or knives fixed in a moveable frame,
but the number may be encreased or diminished at pleasure. It also represents
these blades or knives fixed horizontally in a wheel moving above the sugar
loaf, or lump, or piece of sugar meant to be reduced into grains.
The second method which I have found best adapted for reducing sugar into
grains or powder by means of knives or blades set in a moveable frame is to
fix the knives or blades, either transversly or straight, on a moveable cylin
drical frame placed parallel to the floor, and moving vertically on pivots, to
one of which is fixed a cog wheel, acted upon by a lesser cog wheel, to whichi
motion may be given by a handle or any of the powers now in use. Fronting
the knives or blades fixed in this moving cylindrical frame is placed, almost
close to them, a board or tray, with a steel plate on one edge thereof. At the
opposite edge of the tray is placed a sliding bar which, by means of chains or
cords fixed to it and wound round friction pullies attached to the spindle or
shaft of the small cog wheel, pushes the slide forward to the blades, and it stops
when it reaches them by means of a catch box which disengages the friction
pullies. The loaves or lumps, or other sugars intended to be shaved, being placed
in the tray are pressed on to the knives or blades by the sliding bar, and the
sugar is cut with great rapidity into grains, which may either be made smaller or
larger by the friction pullies being of a lesser or greater diameter. The sliding
bar may then be pulled back by the workman, so that another parcel of lumps
or loaves may be placed on the tray, and the machine being again set in motion,
the sliding bar will press the sugar on to the blades as before, and it will then
be cut and reduced into grains. In order that this machine may be the better
understood, a Drawing of it is annexed, shewing it as it may be worked by
band, with references, by means of alphabetical letters, describing its different
!

page_text: parts. This machine may be worked by hand, or a larger one or a number of
them may be worked by steam, water, or wind, or by a horse or horses; and
upon the same principle, the same sort of moving cylindrical frame, with the
blades, thercon, may be placed perpendicularly, or it may be placed obliquely,
and the loaves, or lumps, or other sugar placed on the tray may be pushed in
a similar manner on to the blades, the edge of the tray and the slide being
made with a curve to adapt it to the form of the cylindrical frame, but this
manner of placing the cylinder does not answer so well as the other.
The third method which I have found best adapted for reducing sugar into
grains or powder by means of knives or blades set in a moveable frame is to
place knives or blades on a wheel-in a similar manner to that described in the
first-mentioned method, but to move vertically with a shaft on which is fixed
a cog wheel, acted upon by a lesser cog wheel, moved by a fly wheel and handle.
At the side of the wheel on which are fixed the knives or blades is a long
trough, placed obliquely close to the wheel, and proceeding from thence by an
angle upwards. On the loaves, or lumps, or pieces of sugar intended to be
shaved being put into this trough, they will press forward by their own weight
on the knives and blades, and will be cut and shaved very quickly into grains.
This machine, like the others, may be worked by the hand, or a larger one or
a number of them may be worked by steam, water, or wind, or by a horse or
horses. A Drawing of this machine is also annexed, with references, by
means of alphabetical letters, shewing its different parts.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Bell, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of May, in the year of our
Te thousand night hunload anal

page_text: The perpendicular Rod
The Cylinder.
The Horizontal Bevil Wheel
Perpendicular Do
The Shaft
The Fly Wheel and handle
The Frame
Sliding bar with friction Rollers
The Grooves
Board to support the sugar loaf
Space for trough to receive the pulver
Pullies to draw the Wheel
Front view of the Wheel of Blades.
Section of one of the Blades as fioce

page_text: nire er Blades fired, transversely on ameving Cylindrical Fra
with regulating screws to adjust the Blades
The King of the Cylinder enwhich the Blades and regulating
Screws are fixed.
The Plumber Blocks that carry the Axle.
The steel plate faed on the Tray fronting the Blades.
Friction Pullies that draw up the sliding Bar by chains er Re
which disengage back by catch Bexes.
The Tray that the slide werks in.
The large Coy wheel.
The small Ceg whech
Plumber Blocks that carry the hunille and shaft.
The Frame in which the Machine is fined.
The Fly wheel and hundle
The slide that works in greaves at each end of the Tray.
Chains er Corde to draw forward the slide to the blades.