IMPROVED PROCESSES AND APPARATUS TO BE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR, AND IN SAWING, CUTTING, OR FORMING THE SAME INTO CUBES FOR USE
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Gordon, of San Francisco, California, in the
United States of America, at present residing at Liverpool, in the County
of Lancaster, for the Invention of "IMPROVED PROCESSES AND APPARATUS
TO BE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR, AND IN SAWING, CUTTING, OR
FORMING THE SAME INTO CUBES FOR USE."
Sealed the 28th January 1868, and dated the 31st July 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Gordon at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
31st July 1867.
I, GEORGE GORDON, of San Francisco, California, in the United States of
America, at present residing at Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED PROCESSES AND
APPARATUS TO BE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR, AND IN SAWING, CUTTING,
OR FORMING THE SAME INTO CUBES FOR USE," to be as follows:-
In the manufacture of refined sugar raw sugar is dissolved and purged by
filtration of its mechanical impurities and colouring matter while in solution,
then evaporated in a vacuum pan until its crystalline structure is partially
restored, in which condition, namely, that of crystals in mother liquor or syrup,
it is either set to drain in moulds of a conical shape which give it the form of
sugar loaves, or it is rapidly revolved in centrifugal machines, by which the

page_text: mother liquor or syrup is drawn off and the crystals retained more or less dry in
a granular form, after which the sugar so refined is prepared in various forms
for consumption.
My Invention consists, firstly, of an improvement in the implement known
as the vacuum pan. I take the ordinary vacuum pan, which has a bottom
more or less spherical, and a valve at the lowest part to permit the exit of
its contents when sufficiently boiled, and removing the exit valve I place at
that bottom a pocket or downward continuation of the pan. To the bottom
of this pocket I affix a chamber either stationary and with upper and lower
In either case
valves or cocks, or rotatory with upper inlet and lower outlet.
the upper orifice opens while the lower one is shut, so as to permit the chamber
to be filled from the pan; and afterwards the lower one opens while the upper
is shut, so as to permit the discharge from the chamber. The object being to
permit the egress of portions of the contents of the pan without admitting
external air; I then suspend a mass of metal or glass which I call a sugar
weight in the pocket by a rod, wire, or cbain dependant from one end of a
beam, which is affixed to the upper part of the pan as an ordinary scale beam
might be hung. The sugar weight is of such size and gravity that its weight
will tend to keep the wire, chain, or rod by which it hangs rigid and immov-
able by the oscillation caused by the boiling sugar; the sugar weight is then
counterbalanced by a weight attached to the opposite end of the beam to which
it is suspended or by a spring to such an extent that it will sink in water or in
liquid solutions of less specific gravity or density than are required to be let
out of the pan; but will rise when those liquids by the evaporation of their
watery constituents grow dense. By altering the position of counterbalance
on the scale beam, or relieving the resistance of the spring, the sugar weight
will rise in liquid of any desired degree of density; in other words, can by this
contrivance be made adjustable so as to rise and fall in different densities.
The end of the scale beam opposite to which the sugar weight is suspended
projects through the walls of the vacuum pan into a communicating air-tight
chamber, in which there is an index or vernier, upon which are marked
certain degrees or numbers, so that the attendant can know when and to
what extent the sugar weight is rising or falling, and consequently read the
density of the liquor in the pan. To protect the wire, rod, or chain from the
vibration caused by the boiling liquid it is surrounded by a stationary tube, or
by two tubes with an annular space between them and perforated or otherwise.
The object of suspending the sugar weight in a pocket at the bottom of the
pan is twofold; first, that it may be out of the way of the oscillation caused

page_text: by the boiling liquid; and, second, that it may be acted upon by the denser
portions of the liquid which naturally fall to the lowest parts of the pan. I
prefer admitting the fresh liquor to be evaporated at the bottom of this pocket,
or into the tube hereafter described, so that it may readily act on the
sugar weight as the said liquor ascends through the denser liquids in the pan
with which by this method of entering it mixes more intimately. Instead of
a pocket the sugar weight may be hung in a stationary tube axed to the pan,
either perforated or in some way open to the circulation of the boiling liquids;
if this be done I prefer two tubes of rather onen wowen wire, with a space
between the inner and outer tubes, which allows the weight to hang in com-
paratively still liquid, but yet allows that liquid readily to mix with the mass
of liquid undergoing concentration. Instead of being suspended to a scale
beam the sugar weight may be suspended from pulleys or rollers, or from a
crank or cranks, and in this way be counterbalanced by springs or weights, or
it may be hung directly to a spring, and in either case there may be index
fingers attached to indicate against a vernier or scale the density of the liquid
(or the sugar weight may be of comparatively light specific gravity, and not
be counterbalanced, but adjusted to rise or sink in the tubes or pocket referred
to with the varying density of the liquid in the pan, and a rod or index made
to project from such sugar weight or its attachments, so that the degrees of
density of the liquid may be read by the attendant). I would here remark that
although I mention an uncounterbalanced sugar weight to ascertain the density
of liquids boiling in vacuo, yet I do not recommend it, because it is less efficient
from its inexactness in working. So far as described this apparatus is merely a
mechanically arranged saccharometer working in boiling liquid in a closed pan,
by which the density of the liquor may be ascertained without opening the pan
itself. I now proceed to describe how this mechanical saccharometer is made to
empty or empty and fill the pan. I bring into and take out of the pan through
its walls a small pipe, the entrance apertures in the wall being made air-
tight; cutting this pipe in the pan I insert in it a delicate cock or valve which
moves with the least possible friction; to a convenient part of the scale beam
or pulleys, cranks, or springs on which the counterbalanced sugar weight hangs
I attach the handle of this delicate cock or valve. I prefer to attach the plug
of a cock directly to the centre shaft, journal, or pivot, on which the said
bean oscillates, and set it in such a manner that when the sugar weight rises
with the density of the liquid the cock opens, and as the weight falls it shuts.
On the outside of the pan one end of this pipe leads to some reservoir of
power, be it water, steam, or air; the other end leads to some engine, such as

page_text: a steam, water, or air engine of any reciprocating or rotatory kind, which
being thus put in motion opens and shuts the chamber at the bottom of the
vacuum pan, as above described, emits a portion of the contents of the pan,
and afterwards opens a cock or valve to admit a fresh supply of thin liquor,
on receiving which the sugar weight falls again and closes the said cock,
connecting the reservoir of power with the engine or contrivance that works the
discharging chamber. To give an illustration of the mode of working in the
case of water being the power employed. With the rise of the sugar weight the
small cock (call it A) attached to the beam in the pan is opened, and a fine stream
passes through the pipe and fills a cup outside of the pan which is attached to
the handle of a cock set in a larger water pipe (also outside of the pan, call it B);
this cup being filled causes that handle to descend and set the cock open, upon
which a supply of water is admitted to a small turbine, water wheel, or other
form of water engine, which rotates a small gear wheel, which again causes a
larger wheel with which in gear to make one revolution; firstly, places the
discharging chamber at the bottom of the pan in open communication with its
interior, and allows it to fill; secondly, closing the communication with the
pan it sets open the chamber to the exterior, and allows it to discharge;
thirdly, opens the supply liquor cock, and admits a new supply into the pan;
and, lastly, shuts the cock B and brings itself to rest while simultaneously the
sinking of the sugar weight closes cock A. There are many variations of the
principle of this Invention, all more or less capable of performing the work;
for instance, instead of a water, steam, or air cock working in the pan, a
rod way project through a stuffing box and work similar contrivances outside
the pan, though at the expense of the additional friction of the stuffing
box; and instead of applying steam, air, or water to work any engine to open
and shut the discharging and charging chambers, weights may be used, and
so forth. The principle of this Invention is, that a weight which rises and falls
with the density of the liquid being evaporated in the pan shall, firstly,
indicate on a scale to the attendant that density; and, secondly, shall open
at any required density to which the instrument may be set some reservoir
power which moving any form of engine shall be sufficient to discharge
or discharge and feed the pan as heretofore described. My Invention con
sists, secondly, in a novel method of "neating" (as it is technically termed)
the sugar in moulds. Ordinarily the concentrated sugar liquor after issuing
from the vacuum pan is filled out into moulds by men with basins in a
part of a sugar refinery known as the "fill house." These moulds have
apertures at the small end, which are stopped with plugs of wood, paper
of

page_text: cloth, and so forth; they are when the sugar is set and the moulds cool
enough to be handled carried by hand or by a wheeled contrivance to a
hoistway, there deposited, and afterwards hoisted to an upper floor, where men
remove the plugs and set them on pots or over gutters to drain; they are
subsequently moved two or three times in the operations of brushing off,
liquoring, and knocking out. My improvement consists in conveying the
concentrated sugar through a pipe surrounded by a steam jacket (or external
pipe, between which and the inner or sugar pipe steam is admitted) to a box,
car, or wagon on the hoistway platform, which car is fitted with flanged wheels
to run on a tramway. The drainage floors on which the moulds are to be set
to drain are perforated with holes, into which the top of the mould is inserted;
below these floors, in rows under the mould holes, are placed gutters to catch
the syrup from the moulds and convey it away to be worked over again without
loss of time. The empty moulds are placed on these floors, the tips in the
perforations named. Each mould is provided with a plug of wood, iron,
gutta percha, or composition of caoutchouc long enough to penetrate some
inches into the mould, and to extend below the mould through the perforation
in the floor, so that it can be grasped below it by hand or by a tool. The
moulds are set close together in blocks or sections of six to eight moulds wide,
and of any convenient length, and firmly secured from tipping over by bars of
wood or iron surrounding such blocks or sections. Between the blocks are
small gangways, which communicate with a main gangway leading from the
hoistway; rails or tramways which may be permanently fixed to the floors
or be moveable are laid on these gangways. The wagon or box car hereto-
fore mentioned as being upon the platform of the hoistway is provided with a
swinging pipe or pipes which are open to the inside of the car, and have gates
or valves at their exterior ends; they are long enough to reach across balf a
block or section of sugar moulds. The wagon being filled with concentrated
sugar liquid from the vacuum pan through the steam jacketted pipe is hoisted
on the platform, rolled along the main gangway of the drainage floor into the
smaller gangways, and when there the empty moulds are filled from the
swinging pipes. As soon as the sugar in the moulds has set, and without
waiting for the moulds to be cool enough for handling, as in ordinary practice,
a workman goes to the floor below, and from beneath pulls out the long plugs
herein-before named, and unstops the moulds without handling them or
disturbing their contents. In the subsequent operation of brushing off men
walk over the tops of the moulds with an instrument resembling the cutting
end of a wood auger set in a dish through slits, in the bottom of which the

page_text: cutters penetrate. The apparatus is of nearly the diameter of the thick end
or face of the sugar cone, and by an auger-like motion the workmen cut out
and remove the smeary or rough sugar which is generally found on the top of
the mould; other workmen follow in like manner with a hose pipe and a
stirring tool; from the former clear liquor is given to the mould, and with the
latter (which is a disc set horizontally face downwards and studded with iron
pegs, and fixed to a stem resembling an auger handle) is given a rotary or
reciprocal motion, which causes every portion of the face of the sugar to be
scraped by the pegs, and the liquor to be mixed with the scrapings. Where
the orifice or drainage hole at the tip of the mould is rough or irregular in
shape the long plugs herein-before named are fitted with funnel-shaped pieces
of some elastic substance, or with a soft circular wrapping so as to fill the
orifice when the plug is in place.
The third part of my Invention consists in an improvement to the ordinary
centrifugal machine in which concentrated sugars from the vacuum pan are
purged of their syrups. My improvement consists in making the bottom of the
centrifugal machine and the cylindrical sides separate, that is, not united where
they come together, as in ordinary machines; they are both attached to the same
-central spindle or to two spindles, one within the other, the bottom part is driven
in the ordinary manner, and drives the cylindrical sides by the friction of con-
tact only. The machine has a lever which either raises the cylindrical sides
from the bottom, or lowers the bottom from the sides, and at the same time
"breaks," as it is technically termed, or retards by the friction of its contact
the rotary velocity of both bottom and sides. With the retardation of the
velocity the sugar which had during the rapid motion of the machine been held
against the sides falls down (or it may be shaved off with a tool brought against
it) on to the bottom, which still possesses velocity enough to throw it clear of
the machine instantly in a horizontal direction below the sides; this being
done the attendant by his lever brings the bottom and sides together again,
and the machine is ready for another charge.
The fourth part of my Invention consists of an appliance by which sugar
loaves may be sawed and split into small cubical pieces of suitable size for
table use. Upon two parallel shafts are strung circular saws all of the same
diameter, the cutting edges of one set being placed opposite to the cutting
edges of the other. The parallel lines of these edges are distant from one
another from one to four inches; the distance between the saws on the line
of the two shafts is regulated by the thickness of the slabs it is required to
saw the sugar loaf into. Between the saws a skeleton cradle shaped so as to

page_text: hold a sugar loaf rises up and down; when the cradle is above the saws a
sugar loaf is placed on it, and as it descends the two revolving lines of saws
cut the loaf into slabs, except in the centre, from one to four inches, which is
not sawn through but retained solid to enable the workman still to handle the
partly sawn loaf as an entirety. When clear of the saws either above or
below them the loaf progresses endways on a table fed with a rack and
pinion, and passes between two cutters sliding together horizontally; these
form nippers and open and close with every feed forward of the table, and
enter the saw scarfs or cuts as they come opposite to the nipper edges. A
nip from both cutters cracks off the unsawed centre part of the loaf, and a
perfect slab or disc of sugar from three-quarters to an inch thick (according
to the distance apart of the saws on the shafts) drops down. These slabs drop
between two pairs of rollers made of rubber or covered with cloth which
steady the slab down between other rollers which have longitudinal and
circumferential knives or projections set in them, which crack the slab into
squares or parallelograms as it passes. Instead of rollers I employ sometimes
two plates in which are set knives or projections forming squares or parallelo-
grams which come together as the slab passes between them and crack it into
pieces. In setting these knives the centre knives are highest, the outside
knives lowest, the edges of the knives form a flat pyramid, the base of which
is the plate in which they are set, the object being that as the plates come
together upon the slab the central cutters may act first, and the others
successively as the plates come closer together. One pair of the guiding
rollers through which the slabs pass on falling from the nippers is covered
with cloth or felt, and parallel to each roller a perforated steam or water pipe
is placed which allows a fine mist of steam or water to impinge on the rollers,
the object of which is to melt the sawdust which adheres to the slabs, hiding
by its floury particles the crystals of the sugar.
The fifth part of my Invention consists in an appliance for compressing
granular sugars as delivered from the centrifugal machine into cubes of
convenient size for table use as lump sugar. In this apparatus I receive the
sugar (preferably hot) from the centrifugal machines on to a belt made of
some strong and tolerably stiff substance, on which it is carried over two or
more strong rollers; above the sugar is another similar belt which passes
under two or more similar rollers. The upper and under rollers are set in a
strong frame or housing, one above the other, and roll inward or together;
the faces of the first pair are placed more distant from each other than those
of the second pair, which are placed nearer to each other or closer, and if

page_text: there are more rollers their faces continue to decrease in distance from each
other. As they revolve the two belts travel with them, and the sugar on the
lowest belt is drawn through each pair of rollers successively, getting more and
more compressed in passing each pair until it issues forth in the form of a
slab; thence it is fed forward on a belt or a table and as it progresses a knife
descends and cuts the slab across in widths of half an inch to an inch; thus cut
it continues its course under a roller which is provided with circumferential
knives or projections, which intersecting the cuts given by the first knife
finally convert the slab into cubes resembling lump sugar. In preparing
the granular sugar for this machine I sprinkle it with a little thick dilute
sugar or gum, or allow a spray of steam to permeate it in order to make the
granular particles adhesive. Instead of or in conjunction with rollers as
described I sometimes employ to compress the sugar travelling between the
belts flat plates placed one above and the other below the belts, which are
brought together with a strong compression, during which the progress of the
belts is arrested; on the relieving of the compression the belts proceed on their
course to the cutting apparatus before described. Sometimes dispensing with
belts I employ plates set vertically or nearly so, which being filled with the
granular sugar close with a strong compression, afterwards on opening permit
the slab to fall through on to any appliance for cutting it into cubes, or it
may be cut into cubes at the moment of compression between the two plates
just named, in which case the cubes are released from the knives or projections
by which they were formed from the slab of the sugar by causing either the
knives to fall back through the compressing plate before the body of the plate
itself moves, or by thrusting the body of the plate through the knives or
cutting projections while they are either stationary or have a different
movement.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Gordon in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
31st January 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
GORDON, of San Francisco, California, in the United States of America, at
present residing at Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord One

page_text: thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
George Gordon, Her special licence that I, the said George Gordon, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said George
Gordon, 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 "IMPROVED PROCESSES
AND APPARATUS TO BE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR, AND IN SAWING,
CUTTING, OR FORMING THE SAME INTO CUBES FOR USE," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said George Gordon, my executors or adminis-
trators, 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 performed, 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 George Gordon, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement in writing, and on reference to the accompanying Sheet of Drawings,
that is to say-
In the manufacture of refined sugar raw sugar is dissolved and purged
by filtration of its mechanical impurities and colouring matter while in
solution, then evaporated in a vacuum pan until its crystalline structure
is partially restored, in which condition, namely, that of crystals in mother
liquor or syrup, it is either set to drain in moulds of a conical shape which
give it the form of sugar loaves, or it is rapidly revolved in centrifugal
machines by which the mother liquor or syrup is drawn off and the crystals
retained more or less dry in a granular form, after which the sugar so refined
is prepared in various forms for consumption.
My Invention consists, firstly, of an improvement in the implement known
as the vacuum pan, which will be readily understood on reference to the
accompanying Sheet of Drawings and the figures and letters of reference
marked thereon, similar letters of reference being placed upon corresponding
parts of the apparatus in the several Figures. Figure 1 is a vertical section
of a vacuum pan and its adjuncts constructed according to my Invention ;
Figure 2 is an external view of the same shown partly in section; and

page_text: Figure 3 is a transverse section of the rotating discharge cock. I
place at the bottom of the ordinary vacuum pan A, Figure 1, a pocket
or downward continuation B, to which I affix a chamber with valves, or a
cock with upper inlet and lower outlet, in such a manner arranged that one is
always shut whilst the other is open in order that any portion of the contents
of the pan may be withdrawn without admitting external air; I then
suspend a weight C of any suitable material, which I will call a sugar weight,
in the pocket B by a rod or wire dependent from one end of a scale beam D
affixed to the upper part of the pan; this sugar weight is counterbalanced by
a' weight E attached to the opposite end of the scalebeam or by a spring to
such an extent that it will sink in water or other liquid solutions. of less
specific gravity than the liquor required to be let out of the pan, but will rise
when such liquid by the evaporation of its watery constituents grows.dense.
By altering the position of the counterbalance the sugar weight will rise in
liquid of any desired degree of density, in other words it can be made adjust-
able so as to rise or fall in different densities. The one end of the scale beam D
forms an index which indicates on a marked scale the rise and fall of the
weight C according to the degrees of density of the liquor in the pan. To
protect the wire or rod from the vibration caused by the boiling liquid it is
surrounded by a stationary tube (or two tubes with an annular space between
them) of wire cloth or perforated metal. The object of suspending the
sugar weight in a pocket at the bottom of the pan is twofold; first, that it
may be out of the way of the oscillation caused by the boiling liquid; and,
second, that it may be acted upon by the densest portions of the liquid for
the same reason the fresh liquor is admitted through this pocket to the pan
in order that it may act upon the sugar weight and cause its fall before it
mixes intimately with the denser contents of the pan. Instead of a pocket
the sugar weight may be hung in the above-mentioned tubes, or it may be
suspended from pulleys or cranks instead of a scalebeam, and in this way be
counterbalanced by springs or weights, or it may be hung directly from a
spring, and in either case there may be index fingers attached to it to indicate
against a vernier or scale the different degrees of density, or the sugar weight
may be of comparatively light specific gravity and not be counterbalanced,
and indicate by a rod or index projecting from it the degrees of density.
So far as here described this apparatus is merely a mechanically arranged
saccharometer working in boiling liquor in a closed pan by which the densities
of the liquor may be ascertained without opening the pan itself; I now
proceed to describe how this mechanical saccharometer is made to empty (or

page_text: gear
empty and fill) the pan. When the liquor in the pan by evaporation has
become of such density as to cause the weight C to rise the scale beam D
presses against a projection 6 on the little rod a, the end of which is
attached to the spring c, thus the weight f outside the chamber upon the
same shaft with the notched. pinion d and retained by it in an upright
position looses its hold and falls by its own weight, pressing down at the same
time the rod e, and pushing by means of a double lever the clutch h iuto
with the clutch on pinion J, of which the former is fixed upon the shaft W, which
revolves at a very slow speed; thus the larger wheel I upon the shaft of the
cock P is put in motion, the latter takes from the pan during one revolution
a quantity of the liquor equal to its contents, and empties it downward
through the opening j, the smaller opening n at the same time serving the
purpose of admitting alternately air or vacuum to the cock by means of two
pipes (see Figure 3). The ball G connected with the handle of the supply
cock F supplies the pan with fresh liquor, entering through four pipes 1, 1,
and immediately surrounding the weight C. In order to prevent the entrance
of fresh liquor before all communication between the pan and the discharging
cock is shut off, a ring L attached to the circumference of wheel I retains the
levers on the cock F until the discharge cock has revolved sufficiently far.
Upon the side of the wheel I is the projection k; when the opening j in the
discharge cock has been opposite the lower exit and emptied the contents of
the cock this projection encounters the weight m attached to a lever, the
upper end of which being connected by a rope or chain with the weight f will
raise this from its lower position, and as at that time the entrance of fresh
liquor has caused the weight C to return to its normal station, and has
liberated the spring c, the latter will lock again the notched pinion d and
retain it, the weight of it being raised lifts up the rod e, which again puts the
clutches out of gear, and thus the whole apparatus comes to a state of rest
till the concentration of the liquor causes the weight C again to rise and to
renew the afore-described operation. Instead of the above-described arrange-
ment any other power may be applied to discharge or discharge and fill the
pan, as, for instance, a cock may be fixed directly to the pivot of the
scalebeam, which by the rising of the weight C is opened and admits a
stream of air, water, or steam to any sort of machinery usually driven by
these powers, and such machinery may discharge and fill the pan, or weights
may be used instead for shutting and opening the discharging and feeding
valves or cocks. The principle of this Invention is, that a weight which rises
and falls with the density of the liquid being evaporated in the pan shall,

page_text: firstly, indicate on a scale that density; and, secondly, shall at any required
degree to which the instrument may be set connect it with such a power as
will be sufficient to discharge and feed the pan, as heretofore described.
My Invention, secondly, consists in a novel method of "neating" (as it
is technically termed) the sugar in moulds. Ordinarily the concentrated
sugar liquor after issuing from the vacuum pan is filled out into moulds by
men with basins in a part of a sugar refinery known as the fill house; these
moulds have apertures at the small end, which are stopped with plugs of
wood, paper, cloth, and so forth; they are, when the sugar is set and the
moulds cool enough to be handled carried by hand or by a wheeled contrivance
to a hoistway, there deposited, and afterwards hoisted to an upper floor, where
men remove the plugs and set them upon pots or over gutters to drain; they
are subsequently moved two or three times in the operation of brushing off,
liquoring, and knocking out. My improvement consists in conveying the con-
centrated sugar through a pipe surrounded by a steam jacket (or by an external
pipe, between which and the inner or sugar pipe steam is admitted) to a box,
car, or waggon on the hoisting platform, which car is fitted with flanged wheels
to run on a tramway. The drainage floors on which the moulds are set to drain
are perforated with holes into which the top of the mould is inserted; below
these floors in rows under the mould holes are placed gutters to catch the syrup
from the moulds and convey it away to be worked over again without loss of
time; the empty moulds are placed on these floors with the tips in the per-
forations named; each mould is also provided with a plug of wood, iron, gutta
percha, or composition of caoutchouc, long enough to penetrate some inches
into the mould, and to extend below the mould through the perforations in
the floor, so that it can be grasped below it by a hand or tool. The moulds
are set close together in blocks or sections of six to eight moulds wide and of
any convenient length, and firmly secured from tipping over by bars of wood
or iron surrounding such blocks or sections; between the blocks are small
gangways and rails or tramways, which may be permanently fixed to the floors
or be movable, are laid on these gangways. The wagon or box car heretofore
mentioned as being upon the platform of the hoistway is provided with a
swinging pipe or pipes, which are open to the inside of the car and have gates
or cocks at their interior ends; they are long enough to reach across half a
block or section of sugar moulds; the wagon being filled with concentrated
sugar liquid from the vacuum pan through the steam jacketted pipe is hoisted
on the platform, rolled along the main gangway of the drainage floor into the
smaller gangways, and when there the empty moulds are filled from the

page_text: swinging pipes. As soon as the sugar in the moulds has set, and without
waiting for the moulds to be cool enough for handling, as in ordinary practice,
a workman goes to the floor below, and from beneath pulls out the long plugs
herein-before named, and unstops the moulds without handling them or dis-
turbing their contents. In the subsequent operation of brushing off men
walk over the tops of the moulds with an instrument resembling the cutting
end of a wood auger set in a dish, through slits in the bottom of which the
cutters penetrate. The apparatus is of nearly the diameter of the thick end
or face of the sugar cone, and by an auger-like motion the workmen cut out
and remove the smeary or rough sugar, which is generally found on the top of
the mould; other workmen follow in like manner with a hose pipe and a
stirring tool; from the former fresh liquor is given to the mould, and with
the latter (which is a disc set horizontally face downwards and studded with
iron pegs and fixed to a stem resembling an auger handle) is given a rotary
or reciprocal motion, which causes every portion of the face of the sugar to be
Scraped by the pegs, and the liquor to be mixed with the scrapings. Where
the orifice or drainage hole at the tip of the mould is rough or irregular in
shape the long plugs herein-before mentioned are fitted with funnel-shaped
pieces of some elastic substance, or with a soft circular wrapping, so as fill
the orifice when the plug is in place.
The third part of my Invention consists in an improvement on the ordinary
centrifugal machine, in which concentrated sugars from the vacuum pan are
purged of their syrups. My improvement consists in making the bottom of
the centrifugal machine and the cylindrical sides separate, that is, not united
where they come together, as in ordinary machines; they are both attached
to the same central spindle, or to two spindles, one within the other; the
bottom part is driven in the ordinary manner, and drives the cylindrical sides
by the friction of contact only. The machine has a lever which either raises the
cylindrical sides or lowers the bottom, and at the same time breaks or retards
by the friction of its contact the rotary velocity of bottom and sides. With
the retardation of the velocity the sugar which had during the rapid motion of
the machine been held against the sides falls down (or it may be shaved off
with a tool) into the bottom, which still possesses velocity enough to throw
it clear of the machine instantly in a horizontal direction below the sides;
this being done the attendant by his lever brings the sides and bottom again
together, and the machine is ready for another charge.
The fourth part of my Invention consists of an appliance by which sugar
loaves may be sawed and split into small cubical pieces of suitable size for

page_text: table use. Upon two parallel shafts are strung circular saws all of the same
diameter, the cutting edges of one set being placed opposite the edges of the
other; the parallel lines of these edges are distant from one another from one
to four inches; the distance between the saws is regulated by the thickness of
the slabs into which it is required to saw the sugar loaf. Between the saws a
skeleton cradle shaped so as to hold a sugar loaf rises up and down. When
the cradle is above the saws a sugar loaf is placed upon it, and as it descends the
two revolving lines of saws cut the loaf into slabs, except in the centre, from
one to four inches, which is not sawn through, but retained solid to enable the
workman still to handle the loaf as an entirety. When clear of the saws,
either above or below them, the loaf progresses endways on a table fed with
a rack and pinion and passes between two cutters sliding together horizontally;
these form nippers and open and close with every feed forward of the table,
and enter the saw scarfs or cuts as they come opposite to the nipper edges.
A nip from both cutters cracks off the unsawed centre part of the loaf, and a
perfect slap or disc of sugar from three-quarters to an inch thick (according to
the distance apart of the saws) drops down; these slabs drop between two pairs
of rollers made of rubber or covered with cloth, which steady the slab down
between other rollers which have longitudinal and circumferential knives or
projections set in them, which crack the slab into squares or parallelograms as
it passes. Instead of rollers I employ sometimes two plates, in which are set
knives or projections forming squares or parallelograms which come together as
the slab passes between them and crack it into pieces; in setting these knives
the centre knives are highest, the outside knives lowest ; the edges of the knives
form a flat pyramid, the base of which is the plate in which the knives are
set, the object being that as the plates come together upon the slab the
central cutters may act first, and the others successively as the plates come
closer together. One pair of the guiding rollers through which the slabs pass
on falling from the nippers is covered with cloth or felt, and parallel to each
roller a perforated steam or water pipe is placed which allows a fine mist of
steam or water to impinge on the rollers in order to melt the sawdust which
adheres to the slabs and hides the crystals of the sugar.
The fifth part of my Invention consists in an appliance for compressing
granular substances as delivered from the centrifugal machine into cubes of
convenient size. In this apparatus I receive the sugar (preferably hot) from
the centrifugal machines on to a belt made of some strong and tolerably stiff
substance on which it is carried over two or more strong rollers; above the
sugar is another similar belt passing under rollers. The upper and under

page_text: rollers are set in a strong frame or housing one above the other, and roll
inward or together; the faces of the first pair are placed more distant from
each other than those of the second pair which are placed closer, and if there
are more rollers their faces continue to decrease in distance. As they revolve
the two belts travel with them, and the sugar on the lower belt is drawn
through each pair of rollers successively, getting more and more compressed
in passing until it issues forth in the form of a slab, thence it is brought
forward on a belt or table, and as it progresses a knife descends and cuts the
slab across in widths of half an inch to an inch; thus cut it continues its
course under a roller which is provided with circumferential knives which
intersecting the cuts given first finally convert the slabs into cubes.
In pre-
paring the granular sugar for this machine I sprinkle it with a little thick
dilute sugar or gum, or allow a spray of steam to permeate it in order to make
the granular particles adbesive. Instead of or in conjunction with rollers as
described I employ sometimes for compressing the sugar travelling between
the belts flat plates placed one above and the other below the belts, which
are brought together with a strong compression, during which the progress
of the belt is arrested; on the relieving of the compression the belts
proceed on their course to the cutting apparatus. Sometimes dispensing
with belts I employ plates set vertically or nearly so, which filled with
the granular sugar close with a strong compression, and afterwards on opening
permit the slab to fall through on to any appliance for cutting it into
cubes, or it may be cut into cubes at the moment of compression between
the two plates just named, in which case the cubes are released from the
knives or projections by which they were formed from the slab of sugar
by causing either the knives to draw back through the compressing plate
before the body of the plate itself moves, or by thrusting the body of the plate
through the knives or cutting projections while they are either stationary or
have a different movement.
Having now described the nature and object of my said Invention for
"Improved Processes and Apparatus to be used in the Manufacture of Sugar
and in Sawing, Cutting, or Forming the same into Cubes for Use," together
with the manner in which the same is to be or may be performed or carried
into practical effect, I would remark in conclusion that I claim as my
Invention,
Firstly, the adaptation to a "vacuum pan" of a mechanical saccharometer
working automatically in the boiling liquor so as alternately to discharge a
portion of the same and admit a fresh supply as it arrives at the required

page_text: density, substantially as herein-before described with reference to the annexed
Drawings.
Secondly, I claim the method herein-before described of "neating" the
sugar in the moulds.
Thirdly, forming the bottom and cylindrical sides of a centrifugal machine
separate from each other, substantially in the manner and for the purpose
herein-before described.
Fourthly, the method of and apparatus for sawing and splitting sugar
loaves into cubical pieces of suitable size, substantially as above set forth.
And, fifthly, I claim the method of and apparatus for compressing granular
sugar into cubes of a convenient size for the table, substantially as herein-
before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Gordon, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
Witness,
CHAS. MASON.
GEO. GORDON. (L.S.)