IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CUBE SUGAR
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CUBE SUGAR."—
A communication from abroad by Gustavus Finken, of Brooklyn, Kings
County, State of New York, United States of America.
Sealed the 23rd May 1862, and dated the 30th December 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
30th December 1861.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CUBE SUGAR," to
be as follows:-
In the manufacture of cube sugar from what is known as "refined" and
from other granular sugar much difficulty has been encountered, partly owing
to the want of some practicable method of rendering adhesive the grains or
crystals of which the sugar is composed, and partly for the want of some
practicable system of moulds to produce the cubes with a moderate expenditure
of power and with little manual labour. The object of this Invention is to
overcome these difficulties.
The first part of the present Invention consists in exposing the grains or

page_text: crystals preparatory to their introduction into or while on their way to the
moulds or cube-forming apparatus to the action of steam, by which their
surfaces are subjected to the necessary degrees of heat and moisture to give
them the requisite degree of adhesiveness to form the cubes.
This part of the Invention may be performed in various ways and by the
aid of various apparatus.
A convenient apparatus for the formation of the cubes in the manufacture of
cube sugar is an arrangement of an endless or continuous series of moulds
provided with a corresponding number of pistons fitted to the moulds. A cam
or other equivalent contrivance is employed for operating these pistons one or
more at a time in succession. This is effected by causing the lower ends of the
pistons to pass in contact over the surface of the cam, and be thereby pushed
up, the descent of the pistons being effected by means of coiled springs, which
surround the lowest parts of the piston rods.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Edward Newton; in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 30th June 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Edward Newton, Her special license that I, the said William
Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said William Edward Newton, 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 "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CUBE SUGAR," being a communication from
abroad, upon the condition, amongst others, that I, the said William Edward-
Newton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should parti..
cularly 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

page_text: 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 Edward Newton, 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 fol-
lowing statement, reference being had to the Drawing héreunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
In the manufacture of cube sugar from what is known as "refined" and from
other granular sugar much difficulty has been experienced, partly owing to the
want of some practicable method of rendering adhesive the grains or crystals
of which the sugar is composed and partly from the want of some practicable
system of moulds to produce the cubes with a moderate expenditure of power
and with little manual labor. The object of this Invention is to overcome
these difficulties.
The first part of the present Invention consists in exposing the grains or
crystals (preparatory to their introduction into or while on their way to the
moulds or cube-forming apparatus) to the action of steam, by which their
surfaces are subjected to the necessary degrees of heat and moisture to give-
This part of the
them the requisite degree of adhesiveness to form the cubes.
Invention may be performed in various ways and by the aid of various
apparatus.
In the accompanying Drawing I have shewn the mode and apparatus which
has been found practicable and convenient.
Fig. 1 in the Drawing is a vertical section of the apparatus. A is an
upright trunk of quadrangular or other form in its horizontal section, fitted
with a number of screens B, B, so arranged one above another and inclined in
opposite directions that the granular sugar delivered on to the top one
will roll down it and fall on to the next one below it, and so pass from
each one to the one below it, and from the lowest one through an
opening in one side of and near the bottom of the trunk, from whence it
may be delivered directly to the moulding apparatus or to any suitable
receptacle from or by which it may be carried to the moulding apparatus.
The meshes of the screens B, B, are not large enough for the grains or crystals
of sugar to pass through. C is an endless band elevator for conveying the
sugar to the uppermost screen; D is a steam pipe adapted to the trunk A,
below the lowest screen for the introduction of the steam, which ascends
through the trunk and through the screens, thus passing through, among, and
over the surface of the sugar which is rolling down the screens, so that every
grain will be subjected to its heating and moistening influence, and so have its

page_text: surface brought to the adhesive condition necessary to permit the manufacture
of cubes of sufficient tenacity to prevent their being easily broken or crumbled
in packing or transportation.
The second part of the Invention consists in the formation of the cubes by
means of machinery composed principally of an endless or continuous series of
moulds fitted with compressing and discharging pistons, and having applied in
combination with them, a cam or cams or their equivalent for operating the
pistons one or more at a time in regular succession throughout the whole
series, so that if the moulds are regularly supplied with granular sugar a con-
tinuous delivery of compactly compressed cubes will be effected.
The continuous series of moulds may be formed in a horizontally rotating
disc or in a vertically rotating cylinder. As it will be more convenient to have
them arranged in a disc, a machine on that plan is shewn in the Drawings, in
which Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the machine shewn partly in section; Fig. 3
is a side elevation of the same, also shewn partly in section; Fig. 4 is a plan of
the same.
Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in these
Figures.
A is the rotary disc, in which are formed the moulds a, a. This disc is
firmly secured to a vertical shaft B, which works in a fixed bearing on or in
the framing C, and to which rotary motion is imparted by a pair of bevil
wheels D, D', from a horizontal driving shaft E. The moulds consist of square
holes in the disc arranged in a circle concentric with the shaft B, or in two or
more such circles, and each mould is fitted with a piston or plunger F, which
enters at the bottom. The lower portions or stems of these pistons work in
guides or holes in a disc or plate G, which may be secured to the shaft B by
columns g, g, or to the disc A, or to both, and shoulders b, b, are provided on
the stems to prevent the pistons from dropping out of or descending too low
within the moulds a, a. Springs c, c, coiled round the pistons under the
disc A, keep the pistons down with their shoulders b, b, in contact with the
plate G until they are forced upward by passing, over the face of the stationary
cam H, which is secured to or formed upon the framing below the plate G.
The springs c also press the pistons down again after they have been forced
up by the cam H. The lower ends of the stems of the pistons are furnished
with antifriction rollers d, d, to facilitate their motion over the surface of the
cam H, and this cam is so constructed and arranged that each of the pistons
will be caused to begin rising just as it arrives under the stationary bar or
plate C, which extends across the disc A, and which constitutes the upper
portion of the framing of the machine. After rising till its end is at a distance
from the upper surface of the disc A equal to the width of moulds a, a, the

page_text: piston will remain stationary until it has passed some distance from under the
bar or plate C, when it will rise until its end is flush with the upper face of
the disc A. The first rise of the piston is to compress the sugar against the
under surface of the bar or plate C³, so as to produce the adhesion of the
grains or crystals and form the cube, and the second rise is for the purpose of
discharging the cube from the mould. As it is desirable to have a very
smooth surface to that part of the bar or plate C¹, under which the moulds and
pistons pass, and which constitutes a top to the moulds, that part should
be faced with a plate of glass h, which will prevent the crumbling of the
crystals at the upper surfaces of the cubes of sugar. The bar or plate C¹ might
however, be fitted with or have substituted for it a roller against which the
sugar might be compressed by the pistons. The disc A rotates in the direction
of the arrow shewn upon it in Figure 4, and the sugar is supplied to the
moulds in suitable quantity by being fed into a fixed trough I which is arranged
over the disc A, and which fits close to the disc; this trough has no bottom, save
the bottom constituted by the disc itself. The lower edge of the end i of the
trough constitutes a scraper to scrape off the sugar from above the moulds and
leave it even with the face of the disc as they pass under it. After the sugar
has been compressed into cubes in the moulds and discharged therefrom by
the action of the plungers as herein-after described, the cubes are carried
round on the tops of the pistons, which it will be understood are then level
with the upper face of the mould disc A, until they arrive at a stationary
knife or thin edged iuclined plane of metal j, whose edge touches the surface of
the disc, when, by the continued rotation of the disc A they will be pushed up
on to the knife and be deposited upon a continuously moving endless apron J,
by which they will be conveyed away to any suitable receptacle. The apron J
is supported by a roller 7 working in bearings in two fixed standards K, and
these standards also serve to carry the knife j.
Instead of a single circle or row of moulds several rows may be constructed
and arranged within the same rotating disc A, so that in each revolution of the
disc a large number of lumps of sugar may be produced. It is obvious that
the form of the moulds may be changed so as to produce lumps of sugar of
other than strictly geometrical cubical forms.
When the moulds are formed in a vertically rotating cylinder (that is to say)
in a rotating cylinder having its axis in a horizontal position, the pistons work
radially to the cylinder, and the cam or cams for operating them are
arranged either within the cylinder or in such a position as to be surrounded
by the pistons.
Having described this Invention of "Improvements in the Manufacture of

page_text: Cube Sugar," and having explained the manner of carrying the same into
effect, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, I claim as the
.Invention secured to me by Letters Patent as aforesaid,―
The preparation of the granular sugar for the moulding or cube-forming
apparatus in the manufacture of cube sugar by submitting it to the action of
steam as herein specified.
Second, the apparatus herein set forth for the formation of the cubes in
the manufacture of cube sugar, or any mere modifidation thereof, in which an
endless or continuous series of moulds is provided with a corresponding number
of pistons fitted to these moulds and actuated by cams or their equivalent
.contrivances as herein set.forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, the Thirtieth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
'Witness,
FRED. WALKDEN,
66, Chancery Lane.
W. E. NEWTON.
(L.S.)