A CERTAIN METHOD OR METHODS OF PURIFYING AND REFINING SUGAB
Year: 1815

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
TAYLOR, of Stratford, in the County of Essex, Manufacturing Chemist, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-second day of
June, in the fifty-fifth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
John Taylor, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Taylor, my exors, admors,
and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also within all His Majesty's Colonies
and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "A CERTAIN METHOD OR METHODS
OF PURIFYING AND REFINING SUGAB;" in which said Letters Patent there
is contained a proviso that if I, the said John Taylor, shall not particu-
larly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties
and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine,
and become void, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had) will
more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Taylor, do hereby déclare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained in the following description (that is to say):-
I, the said John Taylor, do hereby declare, that in describing my said
Invention, I shall remark that it is applicable to the purification and improve-
ment of raw sugars, if employed in their original manufacture in the West
Indies, or that the said raw sugars, as now commonly imported into this
country, may thereby be improved in quality here, so as to render the sub-
sequent operations of refining less complex and expensive than when raw
sugar not so purified is employed.
The nature of my Invention is as follows:-I have found that the molasses
and other soluble impurities contained in raw sugar may be seperated there-
from by mechanical means without the use of heat, and that by abstracting
these from the raw sugars, the injury caused by their mixture with the refined
sugar in crystalizing is avoided. For purifying raw sugar according to my
Invention, it must first be brought to a moist state, and if the process be
employed in the original manufacture in the West Indies, the degree of
moisture at which the sugar will be upon draining a short time after it is
taken from the coolers in which it is crystalized will be sufficient. But if
my said Invention be practised in this country on sugars as dry as they usually
are imported, they will require to be mixed with a certain proportion of cold
water or lime water; this proportion may be varied according to the opinion
of the operator and the quality of the sugar, and will readily be determined by
trial, as no exact rule can be laid down for each case; in general, the proportion
of water may be from one eighth to one tenth of the weight of the sugar. The
'sugar and water are to be well mixed in any proper vessel, and the whole is
then to be subjected to pressure, curried to such a degree as to express all the
fluid part therefrom, which will be found to contain the melasses and the
'soluble impurities and a certain quantity of sugar in solution, and the sugar,
if the pressure be sufficient, will be rendered dry, and much improved in color
and appearance.
And I hereby declare that the above description of my Invention contains
the whole of the principle on which I ground my claim, and is sufficient to
enable any practicable man to produce the effect which I have mentioned.
And I do further declare that I do not claim any exclusive right to any
apparatus or machinery by which the said mixture and pressure may be made,
but that I do claim an exclusive right to all processes by which raw sugars
may be purified for the purposes of use, or for further refining, whereby the

page_text: molasses and other soluble impurities are seperated by the operation of
mechanical pressure, however applied. I further declare that though my
Invention may be carried into effect in a variety of ways, by using presses of
various constructions, and by exposing the sugar to pressure in a variety of
modes, all of which it is impossible to describe, yet that the following operation
is the one which by preference I adopt :-
After the
sugar has been mixed with water, or otherwise moistened, I
enclose it in strong linen or woollen cloths, each of which is cut about 80
inches square, and being laid over a wooden box 12 inches square and two
inches deep, some of the moistened sugar may be pressed in and the cloth
folded round it, so as to form a square cake; a press is to be constructed
with a platform capable of containing at least four piles of these cakes, which
may be arranged so as to stand to a certain height, and may then receive a
degree of pressure which will cause the fluid part to flow out, and which is to
be received in a copper pan fixed upon the platform of the press, and
furnished with a spout to convey the expressed syrup into a receiving vessel.
While these cakes are pressing, another set are to be got ready, and the first
having been hardened with pressure, may be adjusted so as to keep the piles
upright, and the fresh cakes set up upon them, and so exposed to pressure.
In this way a considerable quantity of sugar may be got into a press, and
after having been moderately hardened, the whole should be taken down and
again set up and exposed to a higher degree of pressure, which will render
the whole dry and of uniform good color and appearance.
I further declare that any machine or apparatus capable of applying
pressure to sugar either vertically or horizontally, and whether the sugar be
enclosed in cloths, as I have described, or in bags or in cases, or frames of
wood, metal, or other materials may be used for the purpose of my Invention,
but that I prefer the mode I have herein pointed out, and that I have found
the hydrostactick presses, and commonly known by the names of Bramah's
presses, most convenient for the purpose. And I further declare that the
sugar prepared and purified in the way I have described is much improved,
and may be refined into lump sugar by any of the processes proper for that
purpose, and with less expence and trouble, and in less time than is required
for raw sugar not so purified. And further, that if my said Invention be
applied to the original manufacture of sugar in the West Indies, the sugar so
prepared will be fit for immediate shipment, as all the time required for
draining and drying will be saved, and all danger of fermentation prevented.
And I do further declare that the sugar contained in the expressed syrups
may be obtained therefrom by the usual processes of evaporation, and, from

page_text: its not being injured by the usual application of heat, is capable of being
made into an inferior sort of refined sugar.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Taylor, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Seventh day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifteen.