IMPROVEMENTS IN APPLYING HEAT TO BRINE OR OTHER MATTERS CONTAINED IN VESSELS
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
SYLVESTER, of Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Thirteenth day of December, in the seventh year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Sylvester, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said John Sylvester, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said John Sylvester, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term
of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPLYING HEAT TO BRINE OR OTHER MATTERS
CONTAINED IN VESSELS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
that I, the said John Sylvester, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled in Her said 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 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
John Sylvester, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
It is well known that in the manufacture of salt from brine, and also when
carrying on many other processes of heating matters contained in vessels, that
the same require an uniform temperature to be maintained considerably greater
than boiling water, and many other attempts have been made to obtain
regulated temperatures above two hundred and twelve degrees of Fahrenheit,
by various preparations of fluids. In the manufacture of the finer qualities of
salt from brine a regular temperature of upwards of two hundred and thirty
degrees of Fahrenheit is required, and if the naked heat of a fire be applied
in evaporating brine, not only can no regular degree of temperature be main-
tained to the whole of the brine, but those parts over and near the fire become
too much heated, and very injurious effects are produced, the vessels being
injured, and the salt falling to the bottom is also injured, and this is the case,
as is well known, in other manufactures. Now the object of my Invention is
to obtain regulated and constantly uniform temperatures above two hundred
and twelve degrees of Fahrenheit, by employing a column of fluid, and by pre-
ference water, in connection with and acting upon fluid submitted to be heated,
whereby, according to the height of such column, so will be the temperature
maintainable in such fluid, the temperature whereof may be varied from time
time by encreasing or diminishing the height of the column; and for this pur-
pose I have a pipe (which is only necessary to be of small diameter) of greater
length than is necessary for obtaining and maintaining the highest temperature
required for the process to be carried on in the vessel which contains the
brine or other matter, and I apply a cock at the lower end of such pipe, so
that I can readily draw off any quantity of the fluid when necessary to reduce
the temperature; and, having obtained the desired temperature, it will be
evident that by the means herein set forth that temperature may be maintained
for any length of time, and then, by increasing or diminishing the height of
the column of fluid, I can augment or diminish the temperature, and again
maintain such new regulated temperature for any length of time; hence it will
be seen that processes requiring one constant and uniform temperature above two
hundred and twelve degrees of Fahrenheit during the whole time of process,
may readily, when the desired temperature has been adjusted by the proper
height of column, have that temperature maintained, whilst other processes
requiring different temperatures maintained for a given time at different periods
of the process may, with great facility, have such temperatures obtained and
maintained for any desired length of time. The vessel containing the brine or
other matter is to be placed within another vessel, both being of sufficient

page_text: strength to resist the pressure of the column of fluid necessary for main-
taining the required temperatures of the processes carried on in such vessel,
and there should be a space between the inner and outer vessels of about two
or three inches for containing the fluid employed, on which the column of fluid
exerts the required pressure, and under the outer vessel is placed a suitable
furnace or fire-place for heating the fluid between the vessels, with a damper
to regulate the same, so as at all times to be enabled to maintain such brine
or other matters at the highest temperature which the column of fluid in the
pipe, in connection with the fluid contained between the inner and outer
vessels, is capable of maintaining. I have not thought it necessary to
enter into a description of the nature of various vessels in which processes are
carried on requiring higher degrees of heat than two hundred and twelve
degrees of Fahrenheit, they being well known, and form no part of my Inven-
sion; and persons accustomed to such work will readily apply outer vessels to
contain such inner vessels, leaving spaces between them for the fluid, as above
explained. A column of water of thirty-two to thirty-four feet high will allow
of a temperature of about two hundred and fifty degrees of Fahrenheit being
maintained; hence the pipe in connection with the space between the outer and
the inner vessels should be of that length in a perpendicular direction. For
processes requiring a temperature approaching or below that temperature, and
when greater temperatures are desired to be maintained, a higher column is to
be used; and it may be remarked that a suitable force pump should be applied
to the column pipe, so as, by forcing water into it, to encrease the column of
fluid therein, and thus, when desired, afford the means of maintaining a higher
temperature.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the best means I
am acquainted with for performing the same, I would have it understood that
I am aware that fluids have been before used in a space between two vessels
for evaporating brine and other fluids; I do not therefore claim the same when
not combined with an elevated column of fluid to encrease the temperature of
the brine or other matter under process, and maintain the same at a regulated
heat due to a given column. And I would also remark that I am aware that
it is a well-known fact that fluids will boil at a higher or lower temperature,
and be capable of indicating thermometrically a higher or lower temperature,
depending on the degree of pressure to which such fluids are subjected at a
particular time. I do not therefore claim to have discovered this law of fluids,
and separately it forms no part of my Invention; nor do I confine myself to the
precise details herein described, so long as the peculiar character of the
Invention be retained. And I would have it understood that what I claim is,

page_text: the mode of heating brine and other matters in vessels by applying a column
of fluid, so that it may act by its pressure on the fluid medium with which it
is connected, and to which heat is to be applied, in combination with other
apparatus, as herein described, in such manner as to obtain and maintain
desired temperatures above two hundred and twelve degrees of Fahrenheit,
without subjecting the vessels employed to greater pressure than is due to the
column of fluid.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Sylvester, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eleventh day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-four.