CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN BOILERS FOR MANU- FACTURING SUGAR, AND IN THE MODE OF FIXING THE SAME, WHEREBY MUCH LABOUR AND FUEL WILL BE SAVED
Year: 1806

page_text: AND RUDDIN
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
CURTIS, of the City of Bristol, Coppersmith, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twentieth day of August,
in the forty-sixth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
James Curtis, together with JOSIAS ROBBINS, of Liverpool; in the County
Palatine of Lancaster, Millwright, our exors, adñors, and assigns, His especial
licence, that we, the said Josias Robbins and James Curtis, our exors, admors,
and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of years therein men-
tioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of. Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and Planta-
tions abroad, our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN BOILERS FOR MANU-
FACTURING SUGAR, AND IN THE MODE OF FIXING THE SAME, WHEREBY MUCH LABOUR
AND FUEL WILL BE SAVED;" in which said Letters Patent, there is contained a
proviso obliging us, the said Josias Robbins and James Curtis, or one of
us,. by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the
hand and seal of one of us, to cause a particular description of the nature of
our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar
month 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Curtis, do hereby declare that our said Invention is described by the
Drawings and references thereto and other description of the said Invention.
hereunto annexed.
The boilers are made of an oblong or any other convenient shape, the
utility of which is to expedite the evaporation of the cane juice and the
saving of fuel; by the fire acting entirely upon the bottom, they are less
liable to be burnt or worn out, and are prevented from corroding. Upon
this principal the liquor runs from the clarifier into the grand or great
skimming boiler. The bottom of the skimming boiler is placed a little
above the top of the evaporating boiler, so that by opening a cock or
other proper convenience it will feed the evaporating boiler. The evaporing
boiler is fixed a little above the top of the taiches, and has two cocks
to feed the two taiches. The two taiches have a cock or other proper
conveyance in cach, which discharge the sugar into ye coolers, and under the
taiches are fixed damper plates, to prevent the sugar from being burnt at the
time of discharging, on account of which the sugar will be much better in
quality. All these boilers are fixed in cast-iron or other metal curbs, which
may be taken off, and the boilers taken out and replaced in a much shorter
time than they now are when a boiler is wanted to be replaced or for
repairing, and will save the planter the immense expence of leading and
soldering, as used in the present mode. The fires are made under each taich,
and from them conveyed under the evaporating boiler, from that to the grand
or great skimming boiler, and from that to the clarifiers (if wanted), but when
they are not required the flame is conveyed into or up the first chimney by
means of a damper. These two boilers and taiches, upon the dimension laid
down in the Drawing, are capable of making forty hogsheads of sugar or
thereabouts per week, with the labor of about six negroes; whereas, according
to the old system, it takes from twenty to twenty-two of the best negroes (and
upon some estates more), which will make a saving to the planter of from
fourteen to sixteen negroes. The principal upon which boilers are now set
up has many inconveniences. First, the sugar cannot be prevented from
burning at the time of skipping or ladling. Secondly, the fire acts so forcibly

page_text: REFERENCES TO THE DRAWINGS.
Note. The corresponding parts in the plan and section are marked with
the same letters.
A, the clarifiers; B, the grand or great skimming copper; C, the evapo-
rating copper; D, the taiches; E, the fireplace; F, the flues under the
boilers; G, fireplace for the clarifier only; H, H, H, arches to support the
whole, or the same may be supported in any other convenient way, according
to circumstances; I, course of the flues from the boilers under clarifiers;
a, a, a, a, appertures to draw off the liquor from one boiler to another, by means
of cocks, or in any other convenient way; b, a damper to shut off the fire
from the clarifier, and confine it in the chimney F; c, c, dampers to take off
the fire from the taiches while emptying or filling; d, a damper to stop the
flue leading to the chimney F, when the clarifier is used; e, e, cast-iron or
other metal curbs surrounding the boilers; f, a division of the flue under the
clarifier, to throw the flame more equally under the boiler; g, cooling house
floor.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twelfth day of September,
in the year of our Lord 1806, the aforesaid James Curtis came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowleged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Sixteenth day September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and six.