Improvements in Apparatus for Heating and Manufacturing Chocolate.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 6th Mar., 1899-Accepted, 15th Apr., 1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Heating and Manufacturing
Chocolate.
I, JOHN WERNER, of The Highlands, in the City of Rochester, in the State of
New York, one of the United States of America, alanufacturer, do hereby declare
the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:--
This invention relates to chocolate apparatus and particularly to apparatus
for maintaining the melted chocolate or cocoa mixture in a uniform state of
fluidity, and, in the embodiment of the invention set forth in this application,
it is shown and described as applied to means for coating confections with
chocolate or cocoa mixture.
In manufacturing chocolate confections, whether in the form of chocolate
drops or of confections coated with chocolate, it is essential for uniformity of
the product, both in appearance, hardness and in keeping qualities, that the
chocolate should be maintained and manipulated at a temperature of between
84 and 88 degrees Fahrenheit. It is essential, too, for attaining the same results,
that the chocolate should set or harden quickly, after it has been formed into
the drop, or has covered the confection. The chocolate should be hard, in order
that it may not be too easily damaged in the handling and, when used as a coat-
ing, should form a dense cover for the confection, in order that the interior
mixture may not evaporate or tend to liquify. It should be uniform in color,
in order that the product may show uniformity of manufacture. If the choco-
late is mixed properly and is used at the temperature above stated, it will cool
and harden quickly at a moderate temperature and the product will have the
highest degree of hardness possible for chocolate, and its appearance will be a
rich one of uniformly bright color, and it will have good keeping quality. If,
however, the chocolate is used when too warm, it will cool very slowly and the
confections will have a dull, grayish, unattractive, appearance, and the choco-
late will not be as hard as it should be; and the keeping quality of the confec-
tion is not as great as when the chocolate is manipulated under the conditions
above mentioned. Even goods of high grade, when manipulated in such a
manner as to produce a lack of uniformity of appearance will be inferior in the
market to goods of much lower grade when manipulated under proper conditions.
Chocolate is first melted and then should be cooled to about 86° Far.; at this
temperature it should be stirred or "mixed" until it reaches its proper setting
condition and consistency. If, after having been thus stirred, it is maintained
at 84° 88° Far., during further manipulation, it will keep in proper condition
for use for a long time, and, when allowed to cool, will set quickly and hard,
and with a good color and the product will be very_uniform in color, keeping
qualities, hardness and in thickness of the coating. Unless these conditions are
complied with, the chocolate may remain so fluid as to run, after the manufac-
ture of the confection, and during the cooling, and a variable and inferior
product is the result.

page_text: Two methods of manipulating chocolate, either for making chocolate drops or
tablets, or for coating confections, are now employed. The first method is to
keep a quantity of hot, molten, chocolate in a tank, supplying the tank from a
mixing kettle. The tank is set in a table upon which, adjacent to the tank,
is a marble slab. The operator takes a small quantity of the hot chocolate from
the tank, places it on the slab, and stirs it with the hand until it is cooled in
his judgment to the right degree, and then uses as much of it as he can until
the chocolate is too cool for proper manipulation, whereupon more hot chocolate
is added to the cooled chocolate upon the slab, the operator stirs the cool and
the hot chocolate together until the right temperature is reached. The choco-
late often congeals and must be returned to the mixing or melting kettle. It
is obvious that in this method of manipulating chocolate, the chocolate in the
tank must be kept hotter than is necessary, while the chocolate on the slab
tends to become cooler than is necessary. And it is further obvious, that the
temperature of the chocolate at which it is to be manipulated is left wholly to
the judgment of the operator. It is further obvious that much time is necess-
arily employed in mixing the fresh supply of the hot chocolate with the cooled
chocolate on the slab, and that the temperature, and therefore the qualities, of
the chocolate are constantly varying.
The other method of manipulating chocolate, is to place a large mass of hot
chocolate in a pan and to stir it with a spatula or other instrument until it is
sufficiently cool; then a fork or other suitable instrument is used for dipping
the confections into the chocolate for coating the same.
In this case a large
amount of chocolate must be mixed at one time, and when it congeals, a consider-
able amount of labor and time is necessary to re-heat it and to mix and stir
it again until it has the right consistency.
The latter method of coating or dipping chocolate confections is employed by
some manufacturers of confections, but the former method is much cheaper and
is in wider use.
The mixing and cooling of chocolate has heretofore required about one third
the time needed for the coating process, in the method first above described,
and in the last described method, the loss of time is still greater.
In both of the methods above mentioned, uniformity and perfection of product
depends on the judgment of the operator, and, even for low grade goods, necessi-
tates skilled and correspondingly high-priced labor.
The object of this invention is to avoid loss of time, loss of labor and to per-.
mit the employment of less skilled and, therefore cheaper, operators than is
possible under the two methods above mentioned, and thus to quicken and
cheapen the production of chocolate and cocoa confections, while at the same
time improving the product.
In the drawings:-
Fig. 1 is an elevation of a plant comprising my invention, a part thereof
being shown in vertical section;
Fig. 2, is a top plan of a portion of the dipping or coating table, showing two
forms of dipping tank or kettle;
Fig. 3 is a cross section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2;
Figs. 4 and 5, are respectively, side and end elevations of the dipping tank
shown at the right in Fig. 2; and
Fig. 6, is a cross section on the line 6-6 of Fig. 2.
A is the operating table, B is one form of dipping tank, which is set in the
face of the table, and is composed of the chocolate receptacle or kettle 6, and
the outer receptacle for fluid consisting of the jacket, or double bottom 61, there
being a space between the kettle 6 and the jacket 6. An inlet, for fluid of
suitable character, is provided into the double bottom 61, preferably at about
the highest portion of the space between the kettle and the jacket. The fluid,
therefore, may circulate through the jacket, and it may be steam, water, air
or other mobile fluid. Upon the face of the table and adjacent to the open

page_text: kettle is a lab C, preferably of marble. The hot chocolate is taken from the
kettle, is placed upon the slab C, and is there manipulated as desired, and sub-
stantially in the manner above described. When chocolate cools upon the slab,
it is scraped back into the kettle, and if the temperature of the fluid in the
double bottom is kept uniform and the flow of fluid through the double bottom
is sufficient to give off its heat freely to the kettle, the chocolate in the kettle
may be kept at a uniform temperature and may be used in small quantities upon
the slab C.
On the left hand side in Fig. 2, there is shown another form of dipping
kettle D; which is shown also in section in Fig. 6. This kettle is set upon the
upper surface of the operating table A, and consists of the kettle proper d, the
jacket d', forming a double bottom between the kettle and the jacket for the
circulation of fluid, as just described with reference to the kettle B, and pro-
vided with like inlet and outlet. The kettle d, like the kettle b, is of heat con-
ducting material such as iron, steel, or copper, and may be provided with a
flange or lip d, which may either be united to the kettle d in such a manner
that heat will be conducted from the kettle to the lip, or the lip may be formed,
as shown in the drawings, integral with the kettle. The lip will, therefore,
be heated by conduction from the kettle or tank d and its temperature will be
substantially that of the kettle and of the chocolate in the kettle and but slightly
lower. The lip is preferably inclined to the surface of the table, in order that
the chocolate thereon, if fluid, may flow back into the kettle. E, is a suitable
heater for the fluid, which is conducted to and through the double bottoms of
the kettles above described. The form of this heater is immaterial, except
that it must be adapted to heat the fluid in the circulation system leading to
and from the kettles. In may be adapted to heat air or to produce steam or
to heat water. In the present instance, it is a water heater adapted to be heated
by gas. The gas main E¹ leading into the heater, is provided with a regulating
cock E³ and the heater is provided with an inlet pipe E° and an outlet pipe E.
In the outlet pipe E is a thermostat, consisting of a rod of suitable metal e
inside the pipe and extending outside thereof, and connected with an electrical
contact arm e adapted to make and break connection with a contact point e³.
A battery e³, or other suitable source of electrical power, is connected with the
contact point 2, as by the wire e. The contact arm e¹ is connected by the wire,
or electrical conductor e with an electrical motor, consisting, in the present case
of the electromagnet or magnets and the armature e. The armature e is
set upon the pivoted lever es having a counter-weight e, or other suitable device
for moving the lever oppositely to the pull of the magnets 6. The lever is
also connected, as by the link el, with operating arm of the regulating valve E2.
The battery is connected by the wire or conductor el with the motor, so that
the current flows from the battery through the conductor e", the electromagnets es,
the conductor e, the contact arm e¹ and the conductor et. In connection with
the gas inlet E¹ leading to the bas burner inside of the heater E, is a pilot
flame pipe E10, in constant connection with the gas inlet and independent of
the cock E³. A small flame constantly burns inside of the heater, fed by the
pipe E, and when the cock E2 shuts off the flame to the heating burner and
the cock main supplies gas to the burner, the pilot flame re-lights the gas at
the burner. This pilot flame construction and mode of operation, is well known
to those skilled in the art of gas management, and therefore, needs no further
explanation.
The outlet pipe E continues past the thermostat e and is connected with
the distributing main F. . The inlet pipe E° runs from a suitable pump G, shown
in the present instance as a rotary pump, driven by the belt G₁ from a suitable
driving shaft. The pump G produces a positive or forced circulation, but other
modes of producing this result are considered equivalents for the pump, such,
for instance, as gravitation from the tank J¹. The inlet to the pump, is con-
nected with a return main H. The distributing main F, has a connection run-

page_text: ning therefrom to each of the double-bottomed chocolate kettles. In the present
instance, these connections are short pipes f, f, and in order that the distribu-
tion of the water to the various kettles should be uniform, the interior cross
section of the distributing pipe F, is always equal to or greater than the sum of
the internal cross sections of the connecting pipes f.
The purpose of this arrangement is, that the contracted orifices into the tanks,
composed of the pipes of small bore, restrict the amount of fluid passing through
the connections and tend to produce uniformity of jet, or flow, into the series
of kettles. If the connecting pipes should be larger than described, the flow
would be greater through those nearest the inlet end of the supply main and
would be less through those farthest away; thus producing variable feed of the
fluid, and a difference of temperature in the kettles. Each kettle has an outlet
orifice, leading to the highest point of the space in the double bottom, and a
connection, consisting of a pipe h, leads from the double bottom to the return
main H. The return main and the connecting pipes h, are each of a
sufficient diameter to give free outlet for the fluid from the double bottoms of
the tanks. To the inlet of the return pipe II, and therefore to the inlet to the
pump G, there is connected a supply pipe J, from a supply tank J. If the
fluid should, by leakage or otherwise, diminish in quantity, the supply is still
kept constant by this means. The tank J¹ permits expansion of the water in
the system and escape of air.
Suitable cocks hi having handles extending to convenient positions, as for
instance, above the table, as shown, are inserted in the outlet connections h,
for regulating the flow of the fluid, or for shutting it off.
In the outlet pipe E is placed a thermometer 01, for determining the tem-
perature of the outlet water, in order to set and regulate the operation of the
thermostat and for other purposes.
The contact arm of the thermostat, is normally out of contact with the
contact point e².
The operation of the device is as follows:-
The heater having been started, the pump G is also started, forcing the water
through the heater and through the circulation system, composed of the pipes Eº1,
the supply main F, the connections f, the double bottoms of the kettles, the out-
let connections h, and the return pipe H. This forced circulation is kept up
by means of the pump.
The kettles, of course, become heated to the tempera-
ture of the water passing through their double bottoms. If the supply of choco-
late is now placed in any of the kettles through which heated water is circu-
lating, the chocolate will be heated to the temperature of the water. The ther-
mostat bar e is, of course, heated to the same temperature as the water, and its
length depends upon its temperature. If its temperature rises above the point
to which it is regulated, it will lengthen and move the contact arm e¹ into
contact with the contact point, which energizes the magnets e6, pulls down the
armature e and arm e³, turning the cock E2 and shutting off the gas supply to
the heater. As soon, however, as the water passing the thermostat
falls below the desired temperature, the thermostat bar e shortens,
breaks the contact between the arm e¹ and the point e2, de-energizes the mag-
nets e, and the counter-weight e re-opens the gas cock E³, whereupon the pilot
flame of the pipe el re-lights the burner and the heating of the water in the
heater is again set up. It will thus be seen that, by means of the thermostat,
a very delicate regulation of the heat of the water can be maintained, and in
fact, it is found that the temperature of the water can be maintained within one
degree of the normal temperature for which the device is regulated.
On account, also, of the forced circulation, it is found that the water as it
returns through the system to the heater can be so regulated that the water,
after supplying the heat to the kettles, falls less than one degree in temperature
from the water issuing from 'the heater. Thus a uniform heating of the choco-
late in the kettles is produced.

page_text: From the kettles having the lip 2, the chocolate is taken out in small quanti-
ties, placed upon the lip and there is manipulated as desired, whether for coat-
ing confections or otherwise, and by the use of small quantities and the conduc-
tion of heat into the lip, the chocolate is kept at a very uniform temperature,
while being manipulated. On the slab C, the chocolate, of course, falls in tem-
perature while thereon, but when too much congealed may be scraped directly
back into the kettle B and is there re-heated for use.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said in-
vention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
1. In a chocolate apparatus, a chocolate kettle having a double bottom, a heat-
ing tank, a circulation system connecting the heating tank and the double bottom
of the kettle, and means for automatically controlling the temperature of the
fluid in said system, substantially as described.
2. In a chocolate apparatus, a chocolate kettle having a double bottom, a
heating tank, a circulation system connecting the heating tank and the double
bottom of the kettle, means for automatically controlling the temperature of the
fluid in said system and means for positively moving the fluid through the
circulation system, substantially as described.
3. The combination of a series of chocolate kettles, each having a double bottom,
a heating tank, a distributing main connecting with said tank, a series of inlet
connections from the distributing main, one to each double bottom, the interior
cross sectional area of the distributing main being at least equal to the sum
of the cross sectional areas of the connections to the double bottoms, and a series
of connections from said double bottoms to said return main, substantially as
described.
4. In a chocolate apparatus, the combination of a chocolate kettle having a
double bottom, a system of pipes communicating with said double bottom for
circulating fluid therethrough, means for producing a circulation of fluid in said
pipes, and thermostatic mechanism for automatically regulating the tempera-
ture of the fluid in said pipes.
5. In a chocolate apparatus, the combination of a receptacle for fluid having
a chocolate kettle set therein, a circulation system including said receptacle,
heating apparatus for heating the fluid in the circulation system, and thermo-
static mechanism for automatically controlling the temperature of the fluid in
the system.
Doted this 21st day of Wah 1000