IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR EXPRESSING OB EXTRACTING LIQUIDS FROM SUBSTANCES CONTAINING THE SAME, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF A FABRIC EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
26th February 1867.-A communication from abroad by Theodore Poizot
and Alphonse Druelle, both of Serancourt, France.
I, CLINTON EDGCUMBE. BROOMAN, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and
Company, of: 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR EXPRESSING OB EXTRACTING LIQUIDS FROM SUBSTANCES CONTAINING
THE SAME, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF A FABRIC EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as
follows:-
The object of this Invention is to construct an automatic and continuous
acting apparatus to take the place of the present complicated and expensive
arrangements of bydraulic presses, bags, and filtering plates.
The Invention is more particularly intended for expressing juice from beet-
root pulp, but it also applies to expressing liquid from liquid-bearing substances
generally. It comprises the employment of two endless travelling open
meshed cloths which receive the pulp, press it, and filter the juice; but instead
of dividing the operation of conducting it intermittently by employing a large
number of distinct bags which are filled separately, and which are submitted
in separate groups after the interposition of filtering plates to the action of
hydraulic presses, the operation according to this Invention is one and con-

page_text: tinuous; two endless cloths receive in a constant manner the beet pulp
supplied by a mechanical feeder; the two cloths have a continuous and endless
travel, and they conduct and progressively compress the pulp and express the
juice. At the time of their passage between two pressing cylinders a special
arrangement closes the two cloths at the sides during the compression and
thus causes them to assume the form of a permanent bag, which holds the
pulp and prevents it running over, while with the old mode of expressing it
was necessary to empty and wash the bags one after another; here one of the
cloths, that through which the juice is filtered, retains the compressed pulp,
abandons it under the action of beaters, and allows it to fall upon a travelling
apron which carries it clear of the apparatus. If it is desired to wash and
clean the cloths the feed of the pulp is stopped and water is allowed to flow in
sufficient quantity, and this is driven off by the passage of the cloths between
the cylinders. The principle of this apparatus, therefore, lies in the action of
two endless open-meshed cloths drawn into a circulating movement by two
compressing cylinders closed at their edges during the compression so as to
constitute a bag which occupies a fixed position in the space, but which being
movable in a relative point of view is formed at the entrance of the cloths
between the cylinders, and is unformed on issuing therefrom; this bag con-
stantly renewed, and as it were indefinite, serves to receive the pulp, to conduct
it, to press it, and to filter the juice which runs from it.
The following are the chief features of the apparatus:-Constant and
regulated feed of the pulp, trajectory and mode of circulation of the two
cloths, arrangement which joins them in the form of a bag, progressive
squeezing and compression established by levers, precautionary limit to the
approach of the compressing cylinders, regulated tension of the cloths length-
wise and breadthwise, beating of the cloths, filtration and collection of the
juice, discharge of the compressed pulp, manufacture and cleaning of the
cloths.
The apparatus is arranged as follows:-Two compressing cylinders are
mounted in bearings in a suitable frame; the upper cylinder turns in fixed
bearings, while the axis of the lower cylinder is adjustable and is connected to
the upper by a jointed arrangement of rods and levers which allow it to be
shifted, but without altering the parallelism with the upper cylinder. The lower
cylinder is not immediately below but a little behind the upper, and their circum-
ferences overlap. Below the upper cylinder are three small cylinders carried
by side arms and embracing, so to speak, the bottom of the upper cylinder:
these three cylinders are placed gradually nearer the upper cylinder so as to
effect the gradual squeezing of the pulp; they are slightly hollowed in the

page_text: middle, so that the space between them and the upper cylinder may be almost
in the form of a bag. In front of the upper cylinder is a conducting roller,
and in front of and below this is a return roller. An endless cloth passes round
the upper cylinder and round a roller at the back; and a second endless cloth
passes round the lower compressing cylinder, and also round the conducting
roller, the return roller, and another roller below the lower cylinder. The
edges of the cloths are turned down upon the ends of the rollers and cylinders
so as to be well held; they form two circuits which approach each other near
the conducting roller which leads the pulp, and setting out from this the two
cloths move parallel to each other pressed between the same cylinders. The
pulp is first supplied to a feeding hopper which feeds it to the apparatus; this
hopper, suspended above the space between the conducting roller and the
upper cylinder is composed of a' funnel and two rollers below held in a frame.
The pulp falls between the two rollers, one of which is adjustable by a hand
wheel and bent lever so as to regulate the passage of the pulp. An endless
cord at each side of the apparatus, and guided at the lower part of its travel
by grooved wheels, is wound first round the conducting roller, it next passes
between the three small cylinders and the upper compressing cylinder, then
between the two compressing cylinders; grooves are formed near the end of
the cylinders to receive and guide it. These.cords play an important part in
the apparatus, as they support the lower cloth from the time it leaves the
conducting roller until it reaches the point of contact of the compressing
cylinders, and they raise it near its edges and make a sort of bag of it which
holds the pulp; at the point where the two cloths approach each other the
cords form near the sides a sort of rim, which owing to the pressure forcibly
enters the groove of the upper cylinder, whereby it produces a bernetic closing
of the edges of the cloths, which then affect the progressive conformation of a
bag; this is an essential condition of the working of the apparatus. The
expressed juice falls into a basin below the cylinders from which it may be
conveyed by a pipe; the compressed pulp mostly adheres to the lower cloth,
because the filtered juice passes through this cloth. Revolving beaters, one
behind and another below the cylinders, or otherwise, strike this cloth and
detach the compressed pulp which falls upon a travelling apron, and may be
thereby conveyed away.
I now proceed. to explain the arrangements for regulating the play of some
of the parts of the apparatus. The jointed arrangement connecting the two
compressing cylinders exists at each side of the apparatus, and consists of two
forked rods, one fitted to the axis of each cylinder. The forks are in the same
plane and are connected by a weighted lever which traverses the forks and is

page_text: jointed with them to two points, one of which is the centre of oscillation of the
lever, the second the point of resistance, the point of attachment of the weight
being the point where the power is applied; the weighted levers are supported
by straps passing round a shaft held by ratchet wheels. This arrangement
serves to stop the pressure when it is desired to disengage the cloths; it is
sufficient to raise the levers to turn the shaft. To limit the pressure and the
space between the two compressing cylinders, which if too close would cut the
cloth, I fit to the apparatus a spherical abutment which is connected by a
stuffing box to the axis of the adjustable cylinder, the head of which in the
form of a ball following the direction of the two axes abuts against a spherical
recess in the frame. The distance of the abutment from the box is regulated
beforehand by screws, and consequently the extent to which the cylinders can
approach each other is also regulated; this will be about equal to the thickness
of the two cloths. The progressive squeezing produced by the three small
cylinders will be easily regulated by raising the supports of their side arms; the
combination of these cylinders, the supports of which oscillate upon axes, thus
afford a sort of flexibility favourable to the working. To limit the tension of
the cloths lengthwise the bearings of the return rollers which are fitted to
slide on the frame are shifted by screws and hand wheels; the tension
breadthwise may be regulated by movable rings fitted to the ends of the
cylinders and rollers, and into the grooves of which the endless cords before
described enter; the tension of these cords is regulated by shifting one of the
guiding wheels by a lever turned by a hand wheel. The cords may be of any
textile or flexible material, caoutchouc, for example, and the grooves of the
cylinders which they enter may be covered with caoutchouc or other flexible
substance.
The apparatus is driven by any convenient power, and the motion is
transmitted from the main shaft to the cylinders, rollers, and other rotating
parts by gearing, endless chains, and straps.
This Invention also comprises a particular mode of manufacturing the
cloths for use in the apparatus. The mode essentially consists in strengthening
the cloth at the desired parts by suitably contracting or bringing together the
warp threads at the sides, and folding or doubling them upon themselves at the
two ends; the cloth is thus, as were, composed of 5 zones, the middle and
two outer of which are equal in warp and weft, while in the two intermediate
zones the warp is double to give greater resistance at the parts corresponding
to the grooves of the cylinders and to the fold made upon the edge of the
cylinder; the the ends of the warp are then folded or doubled in the interior of
the fabric to give more solidity at the parts which are joined to form the

page_text: endless cloth. The cloths are preferably made with a very supple twisted
thread, itself composed of other threads simply gathered or brought together,
and which is readily flattened at the points of the strong pressure exerted by
the large cylinders, and allows the juice to filter well while the solid matters
are retained.