CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS, APPARATUS, AND MACHINERY FOR MAKING SUGAR
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
KREBS CLAYPOLE, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancashire, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her '
Royal Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of Great Britain and Ireland,
bearing date at Westminster, the Ninth day of November, in the eleventh
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Henry Krebs Claypole, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said Henry Krebs Claypole, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Henry Krebs Claypole, should agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thereafter during the terms of years therein
mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of
Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and in all Her said Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE PROCESS, APPARATUS, AND MACHINERY FOR MAKING SUGAR;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Henry Krebs
Claypole, to particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, and to cause the same to be enrolled in Her
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and

page_text: by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Krebs Claypole, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
communicated, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be par-
ticularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof,
reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the different
figures marked thereon, in which the same letters of reference refer in the
several Figures of the same apparatus to similar parts (that is to say) :-
The Invention communicated to me consists in certain new and improved
arrangements of certain apparatus, machinery, and of an improved process for
preparing or making sugar after the juice has been extracted from the cane.
These improvements and process apply chiefly to the machinery, apparatus, and
process used for boiling, clarifying, and crystalizing sugar; and by means here-
after described in detail I am enabled to supersede and replace many parts of
the machinery, apparatus, and process now employed, and to obtain sugar by
the said improvements and process in larger quantity, and far superior in quality,
and to effect, besides, a very great saving of labour, fuel, and time.
Before entering into the details of the several improvements and process
comporting the Invention communicated to me, it is necessary to point out the
present defective state of the mode of preparing sugar in our Colonies, and
the very great obstacles to improve the plants and processes hitherto employed,
and therefore to manufacture a real and progressively improving produce, not-
withstanding the recent introduction of European machinery; and on account
of the vast importance of this extensive and valuable branch of our Colonial
product, the necessity, and consequently the value, of this Invention will be far
more easily understood, appreciated, and adopted. The fabrication of sugar in
the British possessions has not progressed in a ratio similar to the other pro-
ductions. Many of the planters up to the present period employ the same
process for manufacturing sugar that they did fifty years ago; and the defects
in the different systems of fabrication generally adopted are such that a great
quantity of inferior sugar is brought upon our market. Every one has felt
the necessity of improving so important a branch of our trade, the consumption
of which increases every day in a large proportion. At length several talented
men have repeatedly turned their attention to the necessity of innovations, and
have introduced into the Colonies, among others, improvements of great
moments, some of the means of fabrication employed in Europe for beetroot
sugar. Although this valuable machinery, introduced as before mentioned, is
intrinsically of importance; and renders the process far superior to what it had

page_text: been anteriorly, it can only be employed by a very small number of planters
on account of the following causes-Firstly, the high price of machinery
and apparatus; secondly, the necessity of European engineers for managing
them; thirdly, the great consumption of fuel, which is very expensive, in
these apparatus; fourthly, the expense caused by the quantity of animal
charcoal required for the filtration of the juice and: syrup. These objections, as
may be easily seen, will be a constant drawback to the adoption of the said
improvements by the generality of planters. These considerations have
naturally led to more enquiries into the defects of the old machinery and
process of making sugar in our Colonies, and to contemplate what means might
be satisfactorily employed to remedy them without causing any notable
alteration in the premises and plants, and especially with the least possible
expense to the planters. The result of these observations have shewn the
following defects in the machinery and process now generally employed, viz.,
Firstly, that the want of wood, or the difficulty in procuring it, and the high
price of coals in India, where the greatest obstacles to the employment of
steam engines and sugar mills. Secondly, that the clarification of the juice of
the cane, by direct fire, was contrary to the principles of a good defecation, and
that this was the first cause of the bad colour and quality of the sugar.
Thirdly, that the draught of the furnace diminishes in hot countries by the
expansion of the air, and prevents the rapid fabrication of sugar. Fourthly,
that the length of time employed for taking out the sugar from the teache, by
reason of this operation being performed by wooden buckets, is the cause of a
large quantity of molasses being produced. In fact, the time for cooking
sugar to the necessary point is always exceeded before half of the sugar is
drawn from the teache, and on that account alone all the syrup which is
leaking from the buckets, and which falls down on the red hot metal, is burnt
up, becomes uncrystalizable, and takes a brown colour, which is communicated
to the sugar itself. Fifthly and lastly, the crystalization of sugar in large
wooden coolers, where the sugar is poured down several times, is prejudicial to
the crystilizing operation on account of the repeated addition of caloric at the
very moment when the grain is to be formed. The task was therefore to remedy
the evils and gross defects which are so injurious to the production, and which
have been herein-before pointed out in the present mode of fabrication.
However, in endeavouring to reach this end it was incumbent to take care not
to increase the expenses of production, but on the contrary to provide means
within the reach of every planter, by rendering still available the old plants,
machinery, and apparatus in all their simplicity, without any serious or too.
expensive alterations.

page_text: The improvements herein-after described being applicable only to the treat-
ment of the sacharine juice when extracted from the same, it is superfluous to
enter into a detail of the mode of conducting the operations of extraction; and
as the improvements communicated to me are intended to remove all the
obstacles and defects herein-before mentioned in the production of sugar, I
will successively describe them in, the same order, to point out more strongly
the beneficial results of their adoption.
The first part of the Invention relates to an improvement in the machinery
for cooking cane juice, ensuring a much smaller consumption of fuel, and at
the same time suppressing the steam furnace, except for a short time at the
commencement of the grinding, and until the teache and boilers are supplied
with juice to permit the fire under the same to be lighted.
DESCRIPTION OF THE MACHINERY.
In Figure 1, Drawing I., A is a bird's-eye view of a sugar furnace A,
of the ordinary size and dimensions, entirely set up, having four cast iron
boilers c, c, c, c, and being provided with improved vertical tubular steam
generators or boilers F, F.
Figure 2 represents a front view in elevation of the same furnace A, having
also the two improved vertical tubular generators F, F. F, F, are two
tubular vertical generators or steam boilers placed as aforesaid between the
larger boilers c, c, c, c, and chimney of the usual sugar furnace. The size of
these generators is fourteen feet high, and three feet and a half in diameter, of
an engine of twelve horse's power is required. They are internally provided
with thirty-two iron tubes V, V, V, V, which are bolted at both extremities at
intervals, and which are represented by dotted lines in Figure 1, Drawing I.
B, the furnace mouth for burning baggass. C', the teache, with canal and
valve. D, the flues, through which the flame passes under the boilers
c, c, c, c. E, the bridges for compelling the flame to touch the bottom of the
boilers 'c, c, c.
G, the receiver of the steam of the two generators F, F.
HI, H, the sheet-iron chimneys of the two generators F, F. I, the injection
pipe and cocks.
J, the flue to let out the flame up the chimney when no
steam is required. K, the dampers to change the direction of the fire. L, a
small furnace, used when the canes have begun to be ground: M, the safety
valves of the generators F, F. N, the usual chimney of. the sugar furnace.
O, the steam pipe of the engine.
Figure 1, Drawing II., represents a sectional elevation of one of the vertical
tubular generator or boiler F, F, on an enlarged size, compared with the
generators represented by F, F, Figure 2, Drawing I.

page_text: Figure 2, Drawing II., represents an horizontal section of the thirty-two iron
tubes of the generators F, F, shewn by Figure 1, of the same Drawing.
These tubes have a larger surface than those represented in Figure 2,
Drawing I., for the purpose of producing in the generators F, F, a great
quantity of steam. In the Figures 1 and 2, Drawing II., B' is a double bottom
with which the generators F, F, are provided, to serve as a recipient for the
mud and sediment engendered by the generation of steam; it has also four
man-holes for the purpose of cleaning and repairing it. V, V, V, V, represent
the iron tubes of the generators F, F; they receive the flame to produce the
steam; they are about three inches in diameter, and are fixed to the gene-
rators. As it will be seen, on reference to the Drawings I. and II., all other
parts of the sugar furnace are similar to those of the machinery of the same
kind now in use, and therefore require no particular description. From what
has been herein-before described, and the inspection of the Drawings, it must
be understood that the flame produced by the combustion of bagass at the
furnace B passes underneath the teache, and three boilers c, c, c, of the sugar
furnace, and enters afterwards in the direction shown by the arrows into the
herein-before mentioned sixty-four tubes V, V, V, V, contained in the two
aforesaid steam generators F, F. These latter are filled with water, except
about eighteen inches of the top, which is left empty for the generation of the
steam. It will be easily conceived that the flame which is not entirely
exhausted, after having passed under the teache and three boilers c, c, c, as
before stated, and which still contains a great amount of caloric sufficient to
heat the two generators F, F, will produce in them enough of steam to supply
the engine of the cane mill. Thus the same fire will serve for the process of
cooking sugar, and produce the steam necessary to give motion to the steam
engine. Before the above improved mode of making such a successful appli-
cation of the fire in cooking sugar, that superabondance of caloric still contained
in the fuel was uselessly lost. The success of this improvement is attributable
to the large quantity of surface presented by the sixty-four tubes V, V, V, V,
of the two generators F, F, to the action of the fire. The surfaces thus heated
are no less than six hundred and twenty-four square feet; that is to say, they
offer to the action of the fire of the sugar furnace an area four times the
quantity required by a steam engine of twelve horses' power, whose boiler would
be heated by the usual operation of a direct coal furnace. It is easy to under-
stand that the size of the two steam generators F, F, and the surface of the
sixty-four tubes V, V, V, V, may be increased also.in the same ratio if more
power is required.

page_text: the steam is not sufficient to elevate within the time required the temperature
of the juice to two hundred and twelve degrees Fahrenheit, which is necessary
for a good defecation; and on account of the low temperature of the exhausted
steam the heat thus produced in the double bottom of the tank prevents the
clarification ever being completely effected, and therefore the sugar is not
purged of all the foreign bodies and impurities which deteriorate its quality
and colour. To obviate these radical defects in that important part of the
process of making sugar, a double-bottom clarifier, A, Figure 4, Drawing II.,
with exhausted steam, is also employed; but it is provided with an iron pipe
B, of five inches in diameter, and having the shape of the clarifier bottom.
In that tube a small quantity of high-pressure steam, obtained from the
generators by means of a connecting pipe, is introduced at F. By this simple
but powerful means the heat of the juice is properly increased to the required
temperature of two hundred and twelve degrees, with the rapidity necessary to
insure a safe and good defecation.
The fourth part of the Invention communicated to me relates to the teache.
Figure 5, Drawing II., represents a sectional elevation of the teache. Figure 6
is a bird's-eye view of the teache with its cast-iron valve. Figure 7 is a sec-
tional elevation of another part of the same apparatus, but showing only some
of its parts. The improved teache, Figures 5, 6, and 7, Drawing II., is of cast
iron, and of the same form as those usually employed for finishing the operation
of cooking sugar; but its bottom is provided with a canal B, which crosses
the brickwork of the furnace, and which terminates by a mouth shut by a cast-
iron valve c, moved by a lever D, provided with a proper weight E at F, which
keeps the mouth of the canal B shut. When the operation of cooking is per-
formed, and the sugar has arrived at the proper point, the valve c is lifted up
by means of the lever D, and the sugar runs out of the teache through the
canal B into proper iron coolers, as herein-after described. That operation is
over in a few seconds.
The fifth part of the Invention communicated to me relates to the crystaliza-
tion of sugar.
Galvanised sheet-iron coolers or crystalizers are used, similar to
those represented by A in Figure 8, Drawing II., which shows a sectional
elevation, and by Figure 9 of the same Drawing, which represents the plan
of one of them. They are portable by means of the handles B, B, and do not
contain more than fifty pounds of sugar each. When the matter to be crys-
talized, having reached in the teache the proper point of cooling, is introduced
into these coolers, the evaporation of the heat is soon ensured, on account of
the vessels being made of iron, which is a good conductor of caloric, so that
the crystalization of sugar is completed in six hours, and is then ready to be

page_text: put in hogsheads. The result of this improvement is, that the grain of the
sugar is superior, and that a saving of twenty-five per cent. of molasses is effected.
The adoption of these herein-before described valuable improvements
will remedy at a small cost all the defects, inconveniences, obstacles, and
losses encountered in the old mode of fabrication. The plant and apparatus
already existing in every estate can be at once employed without notable
alterations. It will vastly increase and improve the fabrication of sugar in the
English possessions, and will enable the planters to avoid the very great
expense incurred by the adoption of the vacuum pans, and other apparatus
now proposed, to enable them to enter into a fair competition. It is under-
stood that these herein-before described improvements and process can be
employed on all the estates which are already provided with steam cane mills.
They will only require to be supplied with the generators and the other described
apparatus; and the said improvements and process do not prevent the use of
steam cane mills in the countries which are destitute of wood, and in those
parts situate at too great a distance from the sea coasts to be provided with
coals; but the cost of the necessary fuel will be considered as a small expense
comparatively to the advantages resulting from the use of the herein-before
described improvements and process.
And having now described the Invention communicated to me, and the
manner of performing and carrying out the same, I wish to observe that I do
not claim as the Invention the several parts of the machinery, apparatus, or
process herein-before described, nor do I confine myself to the exact propor-
tions or modii operandi herein-before described, provided their general features be
the same as herein laid down, reference being had to the present description and
Drawings. But what I do claim as new, and as the Invention communicated
to me, and to be protected by the herein in part recited Letters Patent, are,
Firstly, the application of two separate generators, provided each with a
certain number of tubes, and fixed above the sugar furnace, to the manufacture
of sugar, as herein-before described in reference to Figures 1 and 2, Drawing I.,
and Figures 1 and 2, Drawing II.
Secondly, the use of a current of high-pressure steam in a chimney to faci-
litate and promote the egress of the atmospheric air by the top, and producing
a perfect vacuum in a sugar furnace, as herein-before described in reference to
Figure 2, Drawing II.
Thirdly, the process of clarifying sugar by the application of an iron tube
to a double-bottom clarifier, and of increasing rapidly the temperature by high
pressure steam, as herein-before described in reference to Figures 3 and 4
Drawing II.

page_text: Fourthly, the application of a canal to the teache for the running out of
the sugar, as herein-before described in reference to Figures 5, 6, and 7,
Drawing II.
Fifthly, the use of galvanized sheet-iron coolers to cool the sugar, as herein-
after described in reference to Figures 8 and 9, Drawing II.
And this the said Invention, communicated to me, being, to the best of my
knowledge and belief, entirely new, and never before used within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, or in the Islands of Guernsey,
Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, as in any of Her said Majesty's Colonies
and Plantations abroad, I hereby declare this to be my Specification of the
same, and that it doth comply with the proviso in the, herein in part recited
Letters Patent; wherefore I claim to maintain exclusive right and sole
privilege to the same.
In witness whereof, I, Henry Krebs Claypole, do hereby set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.