IMPROVEMENTS IN MAKING AND IN REFINING SUGAR
Year: 1833

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, CHARLES
TERRY, of Shoe Lane, in the City of London, Merchant, and WILLIAM
PARKER, of New Gravel Lane, Shadwell, in the County of Middlesex,
Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth
hath granted unto us His Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day
of June, in the fourth year of His reign, for using, exercising, and vending,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in
all His said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, our Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MAKING AND IN REFINING SUGAR," subject to the usual pro-
viso obliging us to describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed,
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Charles Terry and William Parker, do hereby describe and ascertain the
nature of our said Invention to be,—
First, preventing or diminishing fermentation in the process of making
sugar, and in the process of refining sugar by the use of what we call ferro-
cyanic acid for that purpose; and,
Secondly, in the process of either refining or making sugar, promoting, and
increasing that effect called crystallization, and producing larger quantities of
sugar by the use of sulphuric acid for that purpose.
And in further compliance with the said proviso, we, the said Charles
Terry and William Parker, do hereby describe and ascertain the manner in

page_text: which our said invention is to be performed by the folowing statement
thereof, that is to say:-
We use three solutions herein-after described and called, for the sake of
distinction, solution No. 1, solution No. 2, and solution No. 3.
For solution No. 1.-Take ten ounces avoirdupois of crystallized sulphate
of zinc, and dissolve it in three gallons of cold water; then add three ounces
measure of sulphuric acid, specific gravity 1,845. This is sufficient for one
ton of raw sugar.
For solution No. 2.-Take nineteen ounces avoirdupois of best prussian
blue in powder, and six ounces and a half avoirdupois of unslaked lime, also
in powder, and 13 pints imperial measure of distilled water; digest them
together at a moderate heat, say, 120° Fahrenheit, in an earthen vessel, gently
stirring this mixture with wood until all the blue colour has disappeared.
Allow the whole to stand till it is cool, and then filter it. This liquid we call
ferrocyanate of lime. It should be brought by concentration or dilution, which-
ever may be requisite, to the specific gravity 1,020 when at 60° Fahrenheit.
10 pints imperial measure of this liquid is sufficient for one ton of raw sugar.
Solution No. 3.-Take 10 ounces avoirdupois of crystallized sulphate of
zinc, and dissolve it in five gallons of cold water; then add five ounces
measure of sulphuric acid, specific gravity 1,845. This is sufficient for one
ton of green syrups or molasses with or without a mixture of sugar, to which
respectively this solution is to be applied as herein-after pointed out. In
pointing out the above quantities of the several solutions with reference to a
ton, we adopt this mode for convenience; but if more or less than a ton is to
be operated upon, a proportional quantity of each of the solutions required is
to be used accordingly.
Mode of application, &c.-We mix one ton of raw sugar with the usual
quantity of water; boil it in a wooden or earthen vessel in preference to metal,
and remove the impurities, as far as can be effected, by scumming in the ordi-
nary way, blood or white of eggs being employed in the usual manner for that
purpose. We then boil this, which is called liquor, and while in a boiling
state we add to it the solution No. 1. We bring the liquor up to boiling
again, and continue this boiling a few minutes until a peculiar and violent.
action in the liquid is produced, which will be immediately comprehended on
trial, and we then immediately throw in three pounds of pulverized chalk,
and add the solution No. 2, and then stir and boil the whole for five minutes.
The whole may then be filtered, evaporated for crystallization, and completed
in the usual manner to produce lumps or loaves in moulds; but we prefer, as
a better mode, that the white of eggs or bullocks' blood and animal charcoal

page_text: should be used in the usual manner before filtration, after adding and stirring
and boiling the solution No. 2, as above pointed out. The green syrups, as
they are called, which run from moulds, are to be submitted to the foregoing
process, adding to them any proportion of raw sugar; but the solution No. 3
is in this case to be used instead of No. 1, in the above specified quantity for
every ton of the syrups and sugar so mixed, and five pounds instead of three
of pulverized chalk are to be used; but solution No. 2 will be required in the
same quantity and manner as before stated. Green syrups, without any addi-
tion of raw sugar, may be subjected to this process; but we prefer the addition
of sugar as pointed out above. The green syrups remaining from the crystal-
lization of green syrups, as above mentioned, may also be again subjected to
the patent process, in like manner as the green syrups before described; but
beyond this we do not propose to repeat our operations. With reference to
syrups or cane juice, from which sugar has not been separated or made, the
proportion or quantity of saccharine matter or sugar which it contains is first
to be ascertained by the saccharometer or other usual means, and then it is to
be treated as raw sugar, the proportions of the solutions Nos. 1 and 2, and of
the pulverized chalk or carbonate of lime, having reference only to the weight
of saccharine matter or sugar which such syrup or juice contains. We apply
our process to the working of molasses in the mode above pointed out as to
green syrups.
Now whereas the sulphate of zinc used in the solutions Nos. 1 and 3 is
merely to decompose the ferrocyanate of lime: And whereas sulphuric acid
has been used in the manufacture of sugar, but at a different period of the
process, and for a totally different purpose than herein-before described: And
whereas carbonate of lime has been used to neutralize the sulphuric acid when
so used as last aforesaid: And whereas we use carbonate of lime or chalk also
for the purpose of neutralizing the sulphuric acid, and for that only; therefore
we do not claim as our Invention the use of chalk herein-before described, or
any other carbonate of lime for the purpose aforesaid; neither do we claim
for the use of the exact quantities before described of the solutions; nor do
we claim for the use of any particular compound of ferrocyanic acid, nor for
the particular use of the salt called sulphate of zinc, for the final removal of
the ferrocyanic acid, since ferrocyanic acid in other states than in combination
with lime and other salts than sulphate of zine may be used, though we
prefer the process we have described; but we claim as our Invention,--
First, the use of ferrocyanic acid for preventing or diminishing fermentation
in the process of refining sugar, and in the process of making sugar; and,
Secondly, we claim the use of sulphuric acid in the making and in the

page_text: refining of sugar, for promoting and increasing that effect called crystallization,
and producing larger quanties of sugar. And such our Invention being, to
the best of our knowledge and belief, entirely new, and never before used
within that part of His said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland called England, His said Majesty's Dominion of Wales, or Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, nor in any of His said Majesty's Colonies or Plantations
abroad, we do hereby declare this to be our Specification of the same, and
that we do verily believe this our said Specification doth comply in all respects,
fully, and without reserve or disguise, with the proviso in the said herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent contained: Wherefore we do hereby
claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to our said Invention.
In witness whereof, we, the said Charles Terry and William Parker,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, the Twenty-sixth day of
December, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
thirty-three.