IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR THE MANU- FACTURE OF SUGAR
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Oliver Robinson, of 16, Park Street, in the
City of Westminster, Civil and Mechanical Engineer, for the Invention
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Oliver Robinson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
29th November 1859.
I, HENRY OLIVER ROBINSON, of 16, Park Street, in the City of Westminster,
Civil and Mechanical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR THE MANU-
FACTURE OF SUGAR," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a peculiar construction and arrangement of machi-
nery and apparatus employed in the manufacture of sugar in tropical countries
from the juice of the sugar cane, and consists, first, of a peculiar form or con-
struction of the pans used for boiling the juice. It is proposed to make these
pans of the form of a rectangular intersection of two semi-cylinders or semi-
elipses of equal or different diameters, by which construction the top edges or
mouth of the pan assumes a square or rectangular form in place of circular,
and consequently offers greater facilities for the adaptation thereto of the tops
or upper works required to confine the juice when in ebullition.

page_text: According to the second head of this Invention it is proposed to make the
tops or upper works of sugar pans detached and separate from the pan, and to
bolt or rivet them thereto afterwards, such arrangements being applicable
either to the above described improved form of pan or to spheroidal pans; in
the former case the tops will consist of straight pieces, and in the latter case
of curved pieces.
Under the third head of this Invention it is proposed in lieu of the ordinary
system of ladling the contents from one pan to another pan of the series, as
is now usually done by hand, it is proposed to transfer the contents of the
several pans to each other respectively by suitable mechanical contrivances,
actuated by the engine employed in driving the cane mill or worked by hand.
These contrivances may consist of vertical or horizontal pumps or other
suitable fluid elevators which will raise the juice from one pan and direct it
into its neighbour.
And lastly, under the fourth head of this Invention it is proposed to " gal-
vanize or coat with zinc the interior of the pans, and tops or upper works,
of whatever form or construction they may be, in order to prevent the oxida-
tion, by the action of the juice upon their surfaces, which now takes place.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Oliver Robinson in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 29th May 1860..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
OLIVER ROBINSON, of Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, Civil and
Mechanical Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Henry Oliver Robinson, Her special licence that I, the said
Henry Oliver Robinson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Henry Oliver Robinson, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF

page_text: SUGAR," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry Oliver
Robinson, my executors or administrators, 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 Henry Oliver Robinson do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawing, and
to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
My said Invention relates to that part of the machinery and apparatus for
the manufacture of sugar from sugar canes in tropical countries termed a train
of sugar pans for the conversion of the juice into sugar.
The apparatus usually consists of a series of 5 or 6 spheroidal cast-iron
vessels set in a row in brickwork, the fire-grate being placed at one end, the
chimney at the other, and the flue passing under the bottom of the pans, and
causing the evaporation of the aqueous constituent of the cane juice. In the
course of the process it is necessary to transfer the liquor from one pan or
vessel to the other, which is done by ladling, and it is also necessary to the
operation that the scum should be skimmed or "sabred" from one pan to
another or removed away altogether. These operations render it necessary to
connect the whole series of pans over their rims or edges, which is ordinarily
effected on the spot, abroad, by building up the brickwork higher than these
rims, and lining the former with lead or copper. An improvement on this.
clumsy and temporary contrivance was designed and patented by me in the
year 1844, which improvement consisted in casting upon each of the pans
forming the series a species of tops, which were brought out from the circular
to the square shape upon each pan, and adapted to be joined by screw bolts to
the adjoining pan upon each side, dispensing or partially dispensing with the
raised brickwork and the lead or copper lining above referred to. But it has
been found that if these tops were made of sufficient size, they would render
each pan so large and unwieldly that it could not be transported abroad
without great expence and risk of breakage, consequently these tops are
always formed too small to afford the space or room required for the violent
ebullition which takes place, and thus the practice prevails abroad of still
making additions by the old contrivances of brickwork and linings. To other
practical difficulties have been experienced in forming or casting the said.tops

page_text: with each pan, namely, firstly, that at the angles or corners of the square the
inclination is necessarily much less than at the other parts of the square, and
at these corners a lodgment of the syrup forms, where it becomes charred or
caramelized and discolors the sugar; and secondly, that the contraction and
expansion of the hemispherical or bottom part exposed to the fire which takes
place is unequal to the expansion and contraction of the tops, and severance of
the parts or fracture is apt to occur. To meet these difficulties and evils is
one of the objects of the present Invention, and according to it the pan or
bottom is cast or made by itself, and top, sides, or upper works are cast
or made in straight pieces separately from the pan or bottom, and in such
a manner that they can be readily joined or attached to it at their destination
abroad. The bottom or pan is formed by the rectangular intersection of two
semi-cylinders or semi-ellipses of equal or different diameters, by which con-
struction the top edges or mouth of the pan assume a square or rectangular form
in place of a circular shape, and consequently render it very easy and cheap to
connect the pan or bottom with the top sides or upper works, whilst the latter
can be made of any required size, and the flatter corners above referred to, which
obtain in the spheroidal form of pan, disappear altogether. In the piece or
part of the top sides which forms the division or the dividing plate between
each pan and the adjoining one, a portion of it is made removeable to facilitate
the removing of the scum by sabreing it over from one pan to the other, and
when skimmed, to enclose and separate the skimmer or cleaned liquor in any
pan from the adjoining one. When it is wished to adhere to a spheroidal
form of bottom the new detached straight top sides are applied in like manner
as to the new shape of pan by making the upper part or mouth of the
spheroidal bottom terminate in a rectangular shape, not by bringing out the
corners as in the old mode, but by cutting off four segments of a hemi-spheroid
of greater diameter so as to bring it to, or nearly to, a rectangular shape, thus
doing away with the corners or reducing them to such small dimensions that
they no longer present flattened surfaces upon which the concentrated syrup
lodges. When it is desired to make sugar pans of wrought iron the new pan
or bottom formed of two semi-cylinders or semi-ellipses above described is
employed in like manner and affords far greater facility in the construction, and
is much less expensive than the spheroidal form.
The second part of this Invention consists in substituting a pump of any
simple and suitable kind, between each pair of the pans, for transferring the
juice or liquor instead of ladling it by hand ladles, as is usually practised.
The kind of pump preferred is that known as the centrifugal pump, in which
no valves are required. These pumps are to be placed inside the
pans below

page_text: the level of the liquor or outside at one side of the pans, and communicating
with pipes entering the side of each pan, in either of which positions they do
not interfere with the operation of skimming or sabring away the scum. These
pumps or transferring machines may be worked by gearing of the ordinary
kind from the steam engine which drives the mill, or by hand; as the lift and
the power required to drive them are both small.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood, I shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I shall
refer to the several Figures on the Drawing hereunto annexed.
Figure A represents a longitudinal section, Figure B a plan, and Figure C
a cross section of a cast-iron sugar pan, with its top sides formed and con-
structed according to the first part of this Invention, in which its connection
with the adjoining pan of the series at each side is shewn. The bottom or
pan terminates at a, a, a, a, in all the Figures; D, D, are the top sides; E, E,
the dividing plates; F, F, shew the moveable portion of the dividing plates;
the dotted lines b, b, b, in the plans, Figures B and I, shew the semi-elliptical
intersections.
Figure G is a longitudinal section; Figure I a plan; and Figure H a cross
section of the new form of pan made in wrought iron, the bottom pieces of
boiler plate, being rivetted together at the semi-elliptical intersections b, b, b, b,
in Figure I. The top sides, and dividing or division plates being similar to
those for the cast-iron pans.
The pumps of a centrifugal construction are shewn in plan and horizontal
section in the plans K, K, in Figure B; in elevation in Figure D; and in
vertical cross section in Figure C.
Figures Land M shew in section and plan the adaptation of a spheroidal pan
to receive the new top sides; the pan being circular the section is the same
both ways; the top sides for this form of pan are exactly the same as for the
other form of pan above described.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I may observe in conclusion, that I lay no claim to constructing a
train of pans with circular rims or mouths fitted into circular openings in a
large shallow vessel common to the whole series or fitted with separate tops of
cast iron in one piece having circular openings therein to receive the circular
mouth of the pan or bottom; but what I consider to be novel and original,
and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part
recited Letters Patent, is as follows, videlicet:-
First, the pan or bottom formed of a rectangular intersection of two semi-

page_text: cylinders or semi-ellipses with rectangular mouths or top edges adapted to
receive upper works or top sides and dividing pieces formed of straight pieces,
and whether made of cast iron or wrought iron.
Secondly, the modification of a spheroidal pan or bottom of cast iron
partially flattened by cutting off four segments and adapted to receive upper
works or top sides, and dividing pieces formed of straight pieces.
Thirdly, the said upper works or top sides and dividing plates formed of
pieces straight lengthways, adapted to connect with square-mouthed pans of
any form, and to connect at their ends with the ends of similar pieces belonging
to adjoining pans, and whether made of cast iron or wrought iron.
Fourthly, the moveable piece or door in the dividing plate between the pans.
Fifthly, the employment of a pump or machine to transfer or raise the juice
or syrup from one sugar pan to another of a series.
All as herein-before described and illustrated by my Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Oliver Robinson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal this Twenty-ninth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
HENRY OLIVER ROBINSON. (L.S.)