IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR BOILING SUGAB
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Davies at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 7th May
1861. A communication from abroad by Hector Lavignac, of Paris,
France.
I, GEORGE DAVIES, of No. 1, Serle Street, Lincoln's Inn, in the County of
Middlesex, and No. 28, St. Enoch Square, in the City of Glasgow, Civil
Engineer and Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR BOILING SUGAB," (a communication to me from
abroad by Hector Lavignac, of Paris, France), to be as follows:-
This apparatus (similarly to those usually employed in the colonies) is
composed of from 5 to 8 boilers made of cast iron or copper, or both, placed
in a row and heated by the same furnace; but the principal feature of novelty
which distinguishes it from the latter is that the fire passes through the boilers
instead of passing below the same, as is the case with the apparatus ordinarily
employed in the Mauritius, and elsewhere.
"
or
In the second place, it also comprises an apparatus called a "simoon
hot blast, placed either in front of or behind the boilers, or partly in front and
partly behind, which is for the purpose of drying the "bagasse" or " canc
trash," and feeding the furnace therewith.
Each boiler comprises within it a second boiler called a "multi-boiler," the
use of which is to serve as a conduit of the fire to the apparatus, and to oppose
inclined planes to the ashes, which continually throw them out of the appa-
ratus into closed ash-pits placed under each of the boilers. The liquid to be
evaporated is contained between the two boilers, and is heated by the interior

page_text: wall of the, multi-boiler," which for that purpose terminates at a lower eleva
tion than that of the exterior boiler, in order that the greater part of the liquid
may be placed above it. The top of the "multi-boilers" is corrugated or
undulated in order to increase the heating surface against which the flame
acts. Above the furnace, and over the flue leading from the furnace to the
boilers, is a perforated arch or vault, over which the "bagasse" or "cane
trash" passes, the arch being either inclined forward towards the furnace, or
the "cane trash" moved along by an endless chain. The "cane trash" in
passing over this perforated arch becomes dried, and falls through a trap door
at the end into the furnace; the vapor given off from the "cane trash" being
condensed by means of a conical cover (cooled by water), and carried off by
gutters or spouts.
The first two or three boilers are furnished with level tubes outside, and
have a cover at the top provided with a pipe, which passes through two or
more of the succeeding boilers, and thence into smaller pipes, and through the
receptacle containing the cold cane juice direct from the mill, which it heats.
These pipes then pass through a vessel containing cold water into a receiver,
where the vapor is condensed, producing a sufficient vacuum in the covered
vessels.
Below the two last boilers which, are employed as clarifiers, are dampers,
consisting of shallow vessels of water covered with trellis or perforated metal,
and moving on friction rollers or wheels.
The flue which leads from the boilers to the chimney is surrounded by an
air chamber, the heated air from which is withdrawn by a fan or otherwise,
and fed into the furnace.