AN IMPROVED MODE OF TREATING IN THE HUMID WAY SEA-WRACK, SEAWEED, AND LIKE PLANTS, AND APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN 99
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Amédée Collet, Paul de Lavillasse, and Félix
Alexandre Testud de Beauregard, of Rue Lafayette, 162, at Paris,
for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF TREATING IN THE HUMID
WAY SEA-WRACK, SEAWEED, AND LIKE PLANTS, AND APPARATUS EMPLOYED
THEREIN
99°
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Amédée Collet, Paul
de Lavillasse, and Félix Alexandre Testud de Beauregard at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the
18th December 1873.
We, AMÉDÉE. COLLET, PAUL DE LAVILLASSE, and FELIX ALEXANDRE
TESTUD DE BEAUREGARD, of Rue Lafayette, 162, at Paris, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MODE OF
TREATING IN THE HUMID WAY SEA-WRACK, SEAWEED, AND LIKE PLANTS, AND
APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows :-
The chief advantages of our improved mode consist, -1stly, in a
general and rational treatment of sea-wrack, seaweed, and other such

page_text: plants thrown up from the sea; and 2ndly, in the separation of a larger
quantity of the salts contained therein than has hitherto been
accomplished.
The process and apparatus we have invented in their most simple
form are as follows:-Into a receiver capable of resisting the pressure of
five atmosheres are introduced,-1st, a quantity of seaweed or similar
plants as they are taken from the sea; 2nd, a certain weight of distilled
water, a weight proportioned to the quantity of soluble salts, which
covers the seaweed or wrack. A minute quantity of steam at from 600°
to 700° centigrade is charged to carry the liquid of which we have just
spoken to the boiling point, and up to the temperature of 145° centigrade,
which answers to the effective pressure of 4 atmospheres. The admission
of steam being suspended the mixture is allowed to remain there during
a certain time, the length of which is determined by experiments. At
this moment an aspirator of peculiar construction is caused to act upon
the mass, producing an escape or lowering of the atmospheric pressure
to about 50 centimetres of mercury, shown by an empty barometric
column, which is held during a given time alternately under the pressure
of the steam or the escape. The liquid circulates in the apparatus with
all the force of expansion, which is communicated to it, acting in this
case by mechanically breaking the woody vegetable and producing the
effect of an apparatus for displacing a peculiar and very special power;
and lastly, the operator, who is the judge of the necessary time, and
disposes the heat, the escape, and the pressure according to his judg-
ment slackens and terminates the operation.
The juice obtained, it is collected into an appropriate receiver, and
promptly evaporated under the escape by the aid of a special apparatus.
It is quickly brought in this manner to the weight and condition desired
to effect the complete separation of the salts by the chemical treatment
of refining.
The preliminary work, which has led us to this mode of operation, and
the chemical analysis with which it has been tested have proved to us a
yield of iodine, such that it becomes when compared with the productions
from the soda, resulting from incineration an incontestible proof of the
utility and novelty of the treatment which we have just described.
This method of purification possesses above everything the advantage
of a remarkable economy of time, which may be easily explained by

page_text: noticing that the first operation entirely dispenses with the desiccation
and incineration of the old process, in a word, with the whole succession
of labour, which transforms the seaweed into salts of soda. In this kind
of operation we intend to effect carbonization, either upon very hot
3 metallic plates, or as we prefer, in closed vases by the aid of steam,
superheated to 700° centigrade, as a means of freeing the salts in great
quantities from a sugary matter enclosed in the seaweed as well as from
organic matters.
nrst operation entirely dispenses with the
desiccan
noticing that the
and incineration of the old process, in a word, with the whole succession
of labour, which transforms the seaweed into salts of soda. In this kind
of operation we intend to effect carbonization, either upon very hot
metallic plates, or as we prefer, in closed vases by the aid of steam,
superheated to 700° centigrade, as a means of freeing the salts in great
quantities from a sugary matter enclosed in the seaweed as well as from
organic matters.
These sugary matters can be isolated or transformed into alcohol by
fermentation.
The working of the apparatus is as follows:-Penetrating into the
ground and passing through the floor are placed in convenient places the
baskets for the first operation of filling, care being taken to place
transverse tringles so as to keep them in position. By the aid of these
chains fixed to the covers of two cylinders these baskets are lifted and
placed in the decomposing apparatus by means of cranes or other lifting
mechanism; the covers are then put on and the apparatus is ready to
act. Two cocks for the conduit of steam are opened; the operator
allows the steam which passes to condense in order to obtain a column
of liquid, which should not reach quite half way up the cylinders; the
admission of steam into the two cylinders is then suspended; the
operator opens the cock of the aspirator and then another cock; the
suction of the escape is then instantaneously produced in the capacity
which remains empty; the cooling of the liquid follows, and the level
is changed. After a certain time, regulated by experience, the operator
gently opens a cock provided for the purpose, so that there remains a
pressure in one cylinder whilst there is the reverse in the other, at the
same time taking care that the liquid does not rise above a level a little
below the top of the cylinder. After a certain time the length of which
the operator will learn by experiment he makes the contrary manœuvre,
and thus compels the liquid to pass roughly and rapidly through and
amongst the seaweed. The liquid in its alternate motion breaks up the
vegetable matter, destroys the organic cellular matters, and by affinity
takes up the salts which it is desired to separate.
If to this new apparatus, possessing such a displacing force, is added
the effect produced by an interior heat, which may be as high as 145°
centigrade, corresponding to a pressure of 4 atmospheres, one will gain

page_text: an idea of the promptitude with which the effects are produced, and of
the interesting and productive part which the new apparatus ought to
fulfil in the industrial arts.
Lastly, the decomposing operation terminated the liquid is withdrawn
by a pipe leading from the bottom of the apparatus, to which is adapted t
an aspirator, which may act concurrently with the pressure of steam in
order to hasten the discharge, and above all to produce a more complete
drainage of the broken seaweed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Amédée Collet, Paul de Lavillasse, and Félix
Alexandre Testud de Beauregard in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 18th June 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, AMEDÉE
COLLET, PAUL DE LAVILLASSE, and FELIX ALEXANDRE TESTUD DE
BEAUREGARD, of Rue Lafayette, 162, at Paris, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of December, in the a
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said Amedée Collet, Paul de
Lavillasse, and Felix Alexandre Testud de Beauregard, Her special
licence that we, the said Amedée Collet, Paul de Lavillasse, and Félix
Alexandre Testud de Beauregard, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Amedée Collet, Paul de Lavillasse,
and Felix Alexandre Testud de Beauregard, our 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 "AN IMPROVED MODE OF TREATING IN

page_text: .
THE HUMID WAY SEA-WRACK, SEAWEED, AND LIKE PLANTS, AND APPARATUS
EMPLOYED THEREIN," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the
said Amedée Collet, Paul de Lavillasse, and Felix Alexandre Testud de
Beauregard, or one of us, our executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under our, or one of our, 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 we, the said Amedée Collet, Paul de Lavillasse,
and Felix Alexandre Testud de Beauregard, do hereby declare the nature
of our 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, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
that is to say :-
The chief advantages of our mode consist firstly in a general and
rational treatment of sea-wrack, seaweed, and other such plants thrown
up from the sea; and secondly, in the separation of a larger quantity of
the salts contained therein than has hitherto been accomplished.
The treatment hitherto employed, in addition to great waste of very
valuable materials added, the great fault of an irregular and intermittent
operation. The soda of commerce might be said to be produced during
the summer,
to be abandoned during the autumn, and to be manu-
factured during the winter, and this state of things from a practical:
point of view presents an important waste of time and material to be.
obviated. It is then with this object that we address ourselves to the
matter, and we claim to have first invented a method of treating sea-
wrack and seaweed by a humid process capable of being put in opera-.
tion at all seasons of the year, and therefore possessing the advantage.
of a continuous manufacture.
Examined from an industrial point of view the marine plants from
which soda is extracted have two distinct phases of existence, the first
or vital phase during which they assimilate the soluble matters contained
in the sea water, and the second phase, when the attachment being'
broken, the plant dies, and becoming gradually decomposed incessantly.
loses the precious matters which it contains. This simple fact explains

page_text: the enormous waste which takes place in the ordinary treatment by fire
(the dry method), which consists in drying the plant under the sun by
spreading it over large surfaces, and then burning it in large masses in
order to attain the extreme temperature necessary to produce that semi-
fusion of the salts which is called incineration. In consequence of this
excess of heat volatile products of a most valuable description in the
arts are exhaled and lost.
Our first experiments were made with water and heat, that is to say
that the seaweed was treated in vessels with a washing by a large
quantity of water carried to the boiling point during a given time, and
this means having indicated the course that we should follow for the
future, our studies were henceforth directed to contrive apparatus by
which the best results could be obtained.
:
Since it was necessary to act powerfully upon the woody matters when
breaking the cells of the vegetable organism the first means which
suggested themselves to us were the mechanical expedients employed in
the manufacture of sugar for the extraction of the juice from the cane,
but these expedients were expensive since motive machines, cutting
machines, squeezers, and hydraulic presses, and other such heavy articles
would be required. Experience proved to us that all this machinery
could be replaced by utilizing directly the active and expansive power of
steam at a high temperature.
The process and apparatus we have invented in their most simple form
are as follows:-Into a receiver capable of resisting the pressure of five
atmospheres are introduced, 1st, a quantity of seaweed or marine plants
as they are taken from the sea; 2nd, a certain weight of distilled water
(proportioned to the quantity of soluble salts) which covers the seaweed.
A minute quantity of steam at from 600° to 700° centigrade is charged
to carry the liquid of which we have just spoken to the boiling point
and up to the temperature of 143° centigrade, which answers to the
effective pressure of 4 atmospheres. The admission of steam being
suspended the mixture is allowed to remain during a certain time, the
length of which is determined by experience. At this moment an
aspirator of peculiar construction is caused to act upon the mass, pro-
ducing an escape or lowering of the atmospheric pressure to about 50
centimetres of mercury, shown by an empty barometric column,. which
is held during a given time alternately under the pressure of the steam.

page_text: and the escape. The liquid circulates in the apparatus with all the force
of the expansion communicated to it, acting in this case mechanically
by breaking the woody vegetable and producing the effect of an apparatus
for displacing a peculiar and very special power. And lastly, the
operator, who is the judge of the necessary time, and disposes the heat,
the escape, and the pressure according to his discretion, slackens and
terminates the operation.
The juice obtained is collected into an appropriate receiver and
promptly evaporated by the aid of a special apparatus. It is quickly
brought in this manner to the weight and condition required to effect
the complete separation of the salts by the chemical treatment of
refining.
The preliminary work which has led us to this mode of operation, and
the chemical analyses with which it has been tested, have proved to us
a yield of iodine such that it becomes when compared with the produc-
tions from the soda resulting from incineration an incontestable proof of
the utility and novelty of the treatment which we have just described.
This method of purification possesses above everything the advantage
of a remarkable economy of time, which may be easily explained by.
noticing that the first operation entirely dispenses with the desiccation
and incineration of the old process, in a word with the whole succession
of labour which transforms the seaweed into salts of soda.
In this kind of operation we intend (with all reservation, since we
desire to utilize all the materials which will be mentioned presently) to
effect carbonization either upon very hot metallic plates or as we prefer
in closed vases by the aid of steam superheated to 700° centigrade as a.
means of freeing the salts in great quantities from a sugary matter
enclosed in the seaweed, as well as from organic matters.
These sugary matters can be isolated or transformed into alcohol by
fermentation.
t
.
Figure 1 of the acccompanying Drawings shows the apparatus we
prefer in elevation; Figure 2 is a transverse section through the line x, y,
of Figure 1; and Figure 3 is a separate view of the cover and armature
of the cylinders A and A¹. A is a cylinder receiver calculated to support
alternately as required a pressure equal to 4 atmospheres or one very
much less; A' is another cylinder or receiver; B is a movable metallic

page_text: basket intended to facilitate the treatment of marine plants by charging
and discharging. Transverse bars (tringles) are used to prevent the
massing of the matters to be treated; C, C¹, are glass tubes or level
indicators for showing the progress of the work; D is the pipe for the
distribution of the steam; E, E, are the pipes for the production of the
vacuum by the aid of the aspiring apparatus; F is the pipe connecting
the two cylinders; F¹ is the tube for the escape of the juice drawn by
the aspiring apparatus, and F" is the exit cock.
.
The working of the apparatus is as follows:-Penetrating into the
ground and passing through the floor are placed conveniently the
baskets B for the first operation of filling, care being taken to place
transverse tringles (bars) so as to prevent massing of the matter.
By the aid of three chains a fixed to the covers 6 of two cylinders A, A¹,
these baskets are lifted and placed in the decomposing apparatus by
means of cranes or other lifting mechanism; the covers are then put on
and the apparatus is ready to act. The two cocks c, c¹, on the branches.
of the steam pipe D are opened; the operator allows the steam which
passes to condense in order to obtain a column of liquid which should
reach beyond the arrow d in Figure 1. The admission of steam into the
two cylinders is then suspended. The operator opens the cock of the
aspirator and then the one marked f, the suction of the escape is then
instantaneously produced in the capacity A, which remains empty,
the cooling of the liquid follows and the level is changed. After a
certain time regulated by experience the operator gently opens the
cock C¹ provided for the purpose, so that there remains a pressure in one
cylinder A', whilst there is a corresponding depression in the other A, at
the same time taking care to so manage the cock that the liquid does
not rise above the place indicated by the arrow G on the level indicator C.
After a certain time the length of which the operator will learn by
experiment he makes the contrary manoeuvre, and thus compels the
liquid to pass roughly and rapidly through and amongst the seaweed.
The liquid in its alternate motion breaks up the vegetable matter,
destroys the organic cellular matters, and by affinity takes up the salts
which it is desired to separate.
If to this new apparatus possessing such a displacing force is added
the effect produced by an interior heat, which may be as high as 145°
centigrade, corresponding to a pressure of 4 atmospheres, one will gain
an idea of the promptitude with which the effects are produced, and of

page_text: the interesting and productive part which the new apparatus is destined
to fulfil in the industrial arts.
Lastly, the decomposing operation terminated, the liquid obtained is
withdrawn by a pipe T¹ leading from the bottom of the apparatus, to
which is adapted an aspirator, which may act concurrently with the
pressure of steam in order to hasten the discharge, and chiefly to produce
a more complete drainage of the broken seaweed.
Lastly, the baskets B are removed to be filled anew.
By the aid of two complete apparatus the operation can be made
continuous and incessant..
And having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that we claim, -1
Firstly. The improved mode as herein-before described of treating
sea-wrack, seaweed, and marine plants for the purposes set forth.
Secondly. The apparatus as herein-before described and as shown in
the accompanying Drawings for treating sea-wrack, seaweed, and marine
plants in the mode and for the purposes described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Amedée Collet, Paul de Lavillasse,
and Felix Alexander Testud de Beauregard, have hereunto set
our hands and seals, this Thirteenth day of May One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-four..
AMODÉCOLLET