Improve- MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR EVAPORATING AND INCINERATING ALKALINE LYES OR SOLUTIONS ORDINARILY USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER, AND IN THE TREATMENT OF SUCH SOLUTIONS WHEN SPENT, FOR THE PURPOSE OF RECOVERING THEREFROM VALUABLE CHEMICAL PRODUCTS
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Burgess, of Mountroy, in the City of
Wells, in the County of Somerset, for the Invention of "Improve-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR EVAPORATING AND INCINERATING ALKALINE LYES
OR SOLUTIONS ORDINARILY USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER, AND IN THE
TREATMENT OF SUCH SOLUTIONS WHEN SPENT, FOR THE PURPOSE OF RECOVERING
THEREFROM VALUABLE CHEMICAL PRODUCTS."
Sealed the 30th July 1872, and dated the 3rd February 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Burgess at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd February 1872.
I, EDWARD BURGESS, of Montroy, in the City of Wells, in the County
of Somerset, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR EVAPORATING AND INCINERATING ALKALINE
LYES OR SOLUTIONS ORDINARILY USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER, AND IN THE
TREATMENT OF SUCH SOLUTIONS WHEN SPENT, FOR THE PURPOSE OF RECOVERING
THEREFROM VALUABLE CHEMICAL PRODUCTS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to improved apparatus constructed for the

page_text: purpose of evaporating and incinerating alkaline lyes or solutions which
have been used in or obtained by the treatment of esparto grass, straw,
or other vegetable fibrous material suitable for the manufacture of paper,
and to an improved method of treating such solutions by the aid of the
said apparatus in order to recover the alkali or other valuable chemical
products in such lyes.
In carrying into practical operation the improvements the subject of
my Invention, the spent alkaline lyes which contain resinous and other
matter are for the purpose of evaporation either pumped or otherwise
introduced into one or more receivers, tanks, or pans, within which
heating pipes are conveniently arranged to suit the shapes of the receivers,
tanks, or pans. These pipes are supplied with steam under pressure from
a steam boiler containing pure water without the admixture of spent lyes.
The pipes in the receivers are not closed at the ends, but are so arranged
that the steam or condensed water proceeding from the same is led back
into a cistern, from which the boiler is fed with water. By these means
the bulk of the water contained in the lyes is evaporated, leaving a
residue in a thickened yet so far liquid state as to be capable of
gradually flowing down a slightly inclined trough, pipe, or gutter,
whereby it is conveyed to the furnace and subjected to the incinerating
process in the manner herein-after described.
For supplying the steam required for the above mentioned heating
pipes, I employ a boiler (preferably one of considerable length, say forty
feet) which is set directly over the furnaces in which the incineration is
to be effected.
The bottom or lower part of such boiler is made to form the roof of
such furnaces, whereby the heat of such furnaces is utilized for raising
the steam required for the evaporating process. The boiler is heated in
the first instance to the desired pressure by coal in the fire-places or
grates, and afterwards kept heated in a large degree by the burning in
the furnaces of the thickened or partially evaporated liquor previously
obtained from the evaporating receivers, as herein-after described.
The steam boiler is of ordinary construction fitted with all necessary
water gauges, safety valves, and other appliances, and with properly
connected steam pipes for conveying the steam into the pipes in the
receivers.

page_text: alkaline lyes to be evaporated, but a medium pressure of 30 to 50 lbs. to
the square inch is found suitable and does not put an undue strain upon
a boiler of good quality and construction. The shape of the boiler may
be varied without specially affecting the general result; provided the
flues and settings are arranged to absorb all the heat created by the
process of combustion in the furnaces.
With a view of carrying on as hereinafter described the processes of
evaporation and incineration continuously, and working them more
efficiently and economically than by the means hitherto employed, I
proceed in the following manner :—
In the erection of the boiler and construction of the furnaces, I build
at right angles with the boiler three fire brick masonry supports for the
boiler to rest on, viz., one at each end and one in the middle. The
supports at each end of the boiler serve to form the outer walls of the
fire-place or grate for each of the furnaces, and the middle support in the
centre of the boiler forms a dead wall or division, by which two distinct
and wholly separate furnace beds are provided under one boiler. I also
place at right angles with the three diagonal supports longitudinal brick
walls between the spaces on either side, forming thereby both right angle
and longitudinal supports or settings, or bearings for the said boiler.
The said walls on which the boiler rests are built on foundations of their
own, wholly independent of the furnace beds, so that when the bottom
of the furnace beds requires repair or renewing it may be done without
disturbing or endangering the boiler foundations. Through these side
walls openings are formed at intervals, through which the material (or
thickened or partially evaporated liquor) intended to be incinerated is to
be fed on or supplied to the furnace bed, and the burnt or incinerated
material be raked away. The said walls are also built so as to prevent
top pressure and expansion, and are also arranged so as to secure a width
of furnace bed about equal to the full diameter of the boiler, instead of
building upright supports, which would unnecessarily contract the
furnace bed and would require frequent renewal. The furnaces work
independently of each other and have distinct flues.
At each side of the right angle dead wall, under the middle of the

page_text: with the side flues around the boiler, by means of which the gases or
products of combustion and the waste heat arising from the bottom flue
can be caused to enter the said side flues of the boiler at either side of
the right angle middle divisional wall or support of the said boiler, and
in that way the heat is so economised that in the exit to the chimney
stack little heat is carried away.
I now proceed to describe the mode of feeding the furnaces and of
carrying on continuously the incinerating operations. After the larger
portion of the water contained in the alkaline lyes in the evaporating
pans has been evaporated by the steam (from the steam boiler) conveyed
through the pipes in the receivers to a thickened yet partially liquid
state as herein-before described, it is conveyed from the receivers either
by allowing it to flow down by a suitable arrangement of pipes, troughs,
or gutters, or by otherwise introducing it in any suitable manner into the
furnaces through the side openings, and distributed on the beds of the
furnaces below the steam boiler when it is ignited by the ordinary coal
fireage.
In order to secure a continuous and equalized range of heat for the
boiler, the burning or incinerating process should be conducted in such
manner as to have one of the furnaces under the said boiler in a state of
active combustion, while the other is being raked out, re-fed, and re-fired.
For instance, when one furnace has burned or incinerated the thickened
or partially evaporated liquor to a fit state to be raked out for use, the
other furnace should have attained a state of combustion, and by the
time the combustible gases are axhausted, and this is fit to be raked out
for use, the other should have been re-fed and re-fired. In this
way the
evaporating and incinerating operations are continuously carried on with
great efficiency and economy, as the consumption of coal or fuel is
comparatively small, and the durability of the apparatus, owing to the
peculiar construction, renders the charges for wear and tear trifling.
The material in the furnaces when burnt to an ash is raked out from
the furnace, and is again fitted when duly treated, to act upon fresh
quantities of vegetable fibre.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edward Burgess in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 2nd August 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
BURGESS, of Mountroy, in the City of Wells, in the County of Somerset,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Third day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Edward Burgess, Her special license
that I, the said Edward Burgess, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Edward Burgess, 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, au Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APparatus
FOR EVAPORATING AND INCINERATING ALKALINE LYES OR SOLUTIONS, ORDINARILY
USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER, AND IN THE TREATMENT OF SUCH SOLUTIONS
WHEN SPENT, FOR THE PURPOSE OF RECOVERING THEREPROM VALUABLE CHEMICAL
PRODUCTS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Edward
Burgess, 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 Edward Burgess, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say :—
This Invention relates to improved apparatus constructed for the
purpose of evaporating and incinerating alkaline lyes or solutions which
have been used in or obtained by the treatment of esparto grass or other

page_text: vegetable brous material suitable for the manufacture of paper, anu
to an improved method of treating such solutions by the aid of the said
apparatus in order to recover the alkali or other valuable chemical
products in such lyes.
In carrying into practical operations the improvements the subject
of the Invention, the spent alkaline lyes which may contain resinous
and other matter are for the purpose of co-operation either pumped
or otherwise introduced into one or more receivers, tanks or pans, within
which heating pipes are conveniently arranged to suit the shapes of
the receivers, tanks or pans. These pipes are supplied with steam,
under pressure from a steam boiler containing pure water, without the
admixture of spent lyes. The pipes in the receivers are not closed
at the ends, but are so arranged that the steam or condensed water
proceeding from the same is led back into a cistern from which the
bailer is fed with water. By these means a sufficient quantity of the
water contained in the lyes is evaporated so as to leave a residue
in a thickened yet so far liquid state as to be capable of being conveyed
by pipes or troughs to the furnace and subjected to the incinerating
process in the manner herein-after described:-I find that it is advan-
tageous to run the residue into the furnace in such a state rather than
in a more condensed state, and this especially in order to avoid incrus-
tation on the steam pipes in the evaporating pan, whereby a large
proportion of the evaporating power would be lost.
r
For supplying the steam required for the above-mentioned heating
pipes I employ one or more boilers, and according to the number must
the length and size be regulated, and this arrangement will be
dependent on the means available for the convenient arrangement
of furnaces or ovens. The boiler or boilers is or are set directly over
the furnaces in which the incineration is to be effected, though there
may, as is herein-after explained, be other incinerating furnaces or ovens
added in case the evaporating apparatus is sufficient to supply the
requisite quantity of thickened residue.
The bottom or lower part of the boiler is made to form the roof of the
furnace, whereby the heat of the furnace is utilized for raising the steam
required for the evaporating process. The boiler is heated in the first
instance to the desired pressure by coal in the fire-places or grates, and
afterwards kept heated in some degree by the burning in the furnaces

page_text: of the thickened or partially evaporated liquor previously obtained from
the evaporating receivers as herein-after described.
I use a steam boiler of ordinary construction, fitted with all necessary
water gauges, safety valves, and other appliances, and with properly
connected steam pipes for conveying the steam into the pipes in
the receivers. The pressure of the steam in the steam boiler may be
governed by circumstances, such as the quality of the boiler and
the quantity of alkaline lyes to be evaporated, but a medium pressure of
30 to 50 lbs to the square inch is found suitable and does not put an undue
strain upon a boiler of good quality and construction. The shape or
construction of the boiler may be varied without specially affecting the
general result, provided the flues and settings are arranged to absorb all
or nearly all the heat created by the process of combustion in the
furnaces..
With a view of carrying on as herein-after described the process of
evaporation and incineration continuously, and working them more.
efficiently and economically than by the means hitherto employed, I
proceed in the following manner in the erection of the boiler and
construction of the furnaces. I build at right angles with the
boiler three fire brick masonry supports for the boiler to rest on,
videlicet, one at each end and one in the middle.
The supports
at each end of the boiler serve to form the outer walls of the fire-
place or grate for each of the furnaces, and the middle support in
the centre of the boiler forms a dead wall or division, by which two distinct
and wholly separate furnace beds are provided under one boiler. I also
place at right angles with the three diagonal supports longitudinal brick
walls between the spaces on either side, forming thereby both transverse
and longitudinal supports or settings, or bearings for the said boiler.
The said walls on which the boiler rests are built on foundations of their
own, wholly independent of the furnace beds, so that when the bottom
of the furnace beds require repair or renewing it may be done without
disturbing or endangering the boiler foundations. Through these side
walls openings are formed at intervals through which the materials (or
thickened or partially evaporated liquor) intended to be incinerated is to
be fed on or supplied to the furnace bed, and the burnt or incinerated
material be raked away. The said walls are also built so as to prevent
expansion from the pressure of the top weight, and are also arranged
so as to secure a width of furnace bed about equal to the full diameter

page_text: renewal. The furnaces work independently of each other and have
distinct flues.
At each side of the right angle dead wall under the middle of the
boiler there is a flue formed to connect the bottom flue of each furnace
with the side flues around the boiler, by means of which the gases or
products of combustion and the waste heat arising from the bottom flue
can be caused to enter the said side flues of the boiler at either side of
the right angle middle divisional wall or support of the said boiler, and
in that way the heat is so economized that in the exit to the chimney
stack little heat is carried away. In the furnace used by me there is a
slight descent from the end of the bed where the liquor is let in, to the
other end next to the fire-place, of about two to three inches on the
length of the furnace bed of about fourteen feet. . In some cases a greater
descent, say four to six inches on the length of fourteen feet, may be
found advantageous, owing to the fact that the material ignites much
sooner at the fire end than at the other end of the furnace, and when
that part next to the fire is ready to be drawn it may happen with a
level bottom that the more distant is not burnt sufficiently. By giving.
the bed an inclination towards the fire, as the liquor is burnt near the
fire, other liquor flows down towards the fire-place from the extreme
end, and ignition extends over the whole of the furnace instead of over
that part of it next to the fire as at present.
I now proceed to describe the mode employed by me for feeding the
furnaces, and carrying on continuously (save. occasional where found
necessary stoppage for cleansing the heating pipes herein-after
mentioned) the incinerating operations. After, the required proportion.
of the water contained in the alkaline lyes in the evaporating pans has
been evaporated by the steam (from the steam boiler) conveyed through
the pipes in the receivers to the thickened yet partially liquid state as
herein-before described, it is directly conveyed from the receivers either
by allowing it to flow down by a suitable arrangement of pipes, troughs,.
or gutters, or by otherwise introducing it in any suitable manner into
the furnaces through the side openings, and distributes itself on the beds
of the furnaces below the steam boiler, when the materials are further
subjected to evaporation, and then ignited by the ordinary coal fireage.....

page_text: In order to secure a continuous and equalized range of heat for the
boiler, I conduct the burning or incinerating process in such manner as
generally to have one of the furnaces under the said boiler in a state of
active or partially active combustion, while the other is being raked out,
refilled and prepared for continuing the further evaporating process and
combustion of the materials. For instance when one furnace has
burned or incinerated the thickened or partially evaporated liquor to a
fit state to be raked out for use, the other furnace should have attained
a state of combustion, and by the time the combustible gases are
exhausted, and this is fit to be raked out, the other should have been
refilled and recharged. In this way the evaporating and incinerating
operations are continuously carried on with great efficiency and economy,
as the consumption of coal or fuel is comparatively small, and the
durability of the apparatus, owing to the peculiar construction, renders
the charges for wear and tear trifling. It should however be observed
that in practice it may not be found possible or necessary so to work as
to have always one of the furnaces in a state of active combustion. The
time occupied after the liquor is in the furnace in evaporation prior to
combustion is longer than that occupied in combustion, so that
frequently neither of the furnaces are in a state of active combustion,
but in both furnaces the liquor is being evaporated by the coal fire at
the same time. When however the combustion in one of the furnaces
does take place the evaporation is being effected in the other furnace by
means of the coal fire. The material in the furnaces when burnt to an
ash is raked out from the furnace and is then fitted to act upon fresh
quantities of vegetable fibre..
In some cases, according to the quantity of spent lyes to be operated
on, it may be found practicable and sufficient to erect the boiler or
boilers over one or more furnace or furnaces constructed as above
described, and after the evaporation has been conducted as above
described, to run a part of the thickened liquor into furnaces of ordinary
construction, save that in all cases I should recommend the furnace bed
to be constructed with a sloping bed as above described.
Having now described my Invention, and the manner of performing
it, I claim,

page_text: than has hitherto been practicable the processes evaporation and
incineration as above described.
Second. The use of the processes of evaporating and incinerating
alkaline lyes or similar solutions employed in the manner and for the
purpose above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Burgess, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.