AN IMPROVED MODE OF INTRODUCING AIR INTO FLUIDS FOR THE PURPOSE OF EVAPORATION
Year: 1830

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, JOSEPHI
BUDWORTH SHARP, of Hampstead, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire, and
WILLIAM FAWCETT, of Liverpool, in the County Palatine of Lancaster, Civil
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster the Twentieth day of October, in the first year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Joseph Budworth Sharp and William Fawcett, His especial licence that we,
the said Joseph Budworth Sharp and William Fawcett, our exors, admors,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Joseph Budworth Sharp and
William Fawcett, our exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agreo
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, and
also in all His said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, our Invention
of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF INTRODUCING AIR INTO FLUIDS FOR THE PURPOSE OF
EVAPORATION," in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging us,
or one of us, the said Joseph Budworth Sharp and William Fawcett, by an
instrument in writing under our or one of our hands and seals, particularly
to describe and ascertain the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled

page_text: in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, referenco being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
прреаг.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Joseph Budworth Sharp and William Fawcett, do hereby declare the nature
of our said Invention, to consist in causing air to enter into the liquid intended
to be evaporated by the action or motion of the air pipes which are under
the surface of the liquid, and which motion causes a vacuum or partial vacuum
at that end of the pipe which is in the liquid, while the other end being open
to the atmospheric air, that air rushes in to fill up the vacuum, and is thus
introduced into the liquid; and in further complianco with the said proviso,
we, the said Joseph Budworth Sharp and William Fawcett, do hereby describe
the manner in which our said Invention is to be performed, by the following
description thereof, reference being had to the Drawing annexed, and to the
figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1, A is a section of the vessel (in these Drawings supposed to be
a copper pan for boiling sugar) containing the liquor to be evaporated; B, B,
two iron pillars fixed on each side of the masonry or brickwork enclosing the
vessel A and intended to support the cross frames of iron C and Cx, which
rost on these two pillars in that part of the frame C which is over the centro
of the vessel; A is an aperture in which are fixed what are mechanically
termod brasses, through which brasses is passed the vertical hollow iron
shaft or cylinder D; E is a hollow brass bulb, which is attached to the bottom
of the shaft D. To this bulb are fixed the small radiating pipes a, a, in a
direction nearly horizontal but with the extremities generally somewhat
depressed, and which extremities should reach within a short distance of the
sides or bottom of the vessel. The number of these pipes is not limited, but
it is found that two pipes placed at opposite sides of the bulb E answer the
purpose very well; and it may be here stated that whether the end of these
pipes bo merely cut square off' or afterwards bored with holes underneath, or
furnished with a slit underneath in their whole length, they will act equally
well. Fis a loose pinion wheel, resting upon the cross piece C, and passing
round but not attached to the shaft D; G is a horizontal shaft of wood or
metal (but wood is to be preferred), connected by a crank movement to a
toothed quadrant which works into the pinion F, and is better seen in the

page_text: next Figure. To this horizontal shaft a reciprocating motion is given by a crank
or any other known machinery usually applied to such purposes and placed in
any convenient situation, according to local circumstances. The crank or
other machinery applied to communicate this motion to the shaft should be of
such dimensions that each alternating motion of the quadrant connected with
it should be equal to at least one entire revolution of the pinion wheel F, but
as this pinion wheel is loose upon the vertical shaft D, the reciprocating
motion given to it is not thereby necessarily communicated to the vertical
shaft D, but when desired, this is accomplished by means of a coupling box H.
Upon the inner circumference of this coupling box H, and immediately in
contact with the shaft D, is a rib or tongue of metal, and in the outer circum-
ference of the shaft D is formed a groove, corresponding with the tongue
above-mentioned which fits into the groove. (Neither this groove nor the
tongue can however be shewn in this Figure.) It follows, therefore, that when
the coupling H is locked to the pinion F, which is commonly called being in
gear, the motion given to the pinion F by the quadrant connected with the
horizontal shaft G is communicated to the vertical shaft D, and necessarily
to the small pipes a, a, within the liquid, all of which partake of the recipro-
cating action of the horizontal shaft G. This rapid motion of the radiating
pipes a, a, through the liquid creates a vacuum at the end of each pipe, and
the atmsopheric air rushing down the hollow shaft D (through certain
apertures in it at and near its upper extremity, as herein-after described,)
discharges itself copiously beneath the surface of the liquid, and this is found to
cause a most rapid evaporation to take place at a very low temperature which
is of great advantage in many kinds of manufacture. Whilst this incessant
action and reaction of the pipes a, a, and subsequent disturbance of the
liquid keeps the whole mass in a state of motion highly favorable to the object
in view, by preventing any portion of it from remaining in contact with tho
metallic or other vessel exposed to the heat so as to carbonize or become
otherwise injuriously affected by such contact, at the same time that it more
equally distributes the air through every part of the liquid, which operation
is materially aided by such an irregular state of motion. In order to
connect and disconnect the coupling H, a lever I is applied, working upon a
fulcrum fixed upon the cross piece C, to the short end of which lever is
attached a fork or other usual contrivance for lifting the coupling H
clear of its corresponding part attached to the pinion F, which is easily
effected by means of the bar J, fixed to the long end of the lever, which
bar is within the convenient reach of the person in attendance to conduct

page_text: the operation. By drawing down the long arm of the lever the short arm
lifts the coupling II when the shaft D ceases to revolve, notwithstanding
tho motion of the. shaft G and the pinion F may be continued; on lifting up
the long arm of the lever the coupling II is again depressed, reconnects itself
with the corresponding part, and the shaft D will immediately resume its
corresponding motion. K is a collar of iron or other metal sliding over the
shaft D, and by means of a few pointed and hardened screws which pass
through this collar, and the points of which penetrate the shaft D, this
pipe may be adjusted to any particular elevation, so that the small pipes a, a,
may be brought to any beight within the vessel containing the liquid under
process that may be thought desireable. M is a sling or swivel, to which the
upper part of the shaft D is suspended by the usual means, the parts fitting
so easily that no impediment is offered by them to the free rotary action of
the shaft D; the use of this swivel is to facilitate the lifting up of the
shaft D and its appendages out of the vessel containing the liquid, which is
done by means of a rope or chain of sufficient strength attached to the
swivel M, thence passing over the two pullies N, N, to the balance weight O,
which last is of somewhat less weight than the shaft D, and the other parts
attached to it, so as to require somo power in addition to raise the apparatus
out of the vessel, which may be done until the flange that connects the bulb E
with the bottom of the shaft D shall be brought close under the cross frame C
so as to leave the vessel free of any impediment to the skipping or emptying of
the liquid. In lifting the shaft D out of the vessel, it will be desireable first of
to disconnect the coupling II, thus stopping the rotary motion, the continuance
which motion, when tho pipes a, a, are clevated above the liquid, would be found
very inconvenient. The body of liquid in the vessel being removed and a fresh
quantity introduced, tlic shaft D may be lowered into its place, the coupling H
again connected, and the whole brought instantly into full action. At P there
are a certain number of holes in the shaft D, the form, number, and size of
which are not important, provided they are equivalent at least in their aggro-
gate area to that of the shaft itself; the air required to feed the vacuum caused
in the liquor by the motion of the pipes a, a, rushes through these holes or
apertures. It is necessary to observe that so much of the weight of the shaft
D and its dependent parts as is not counterbalanced by the weight O, and
which necessarily causes some friction, is sustained by friction plates placed
between what in mechanics are termed bosses, which are two bodies of metal
turned very accurately and slightly convex, between which bosses a thin plate,
generally of a different material, is introduced (suppose a brass plate working

page_text: between two bosses of iron). It is difficult to shew these in a Drawing, but
one of them is between the under side of the pinion F and the upper side of
the cross frame C, and the other is between the under side of the collar K and
the upper side of the other cross frame Cx. This last mentioned set of
bosses and plate relieve the friction caused by the difference of weight between
the shaft D with its appendages and the balance weight O, all which is borne
by the cross frame Cx; the other bosses and plate relieve the friction of
the pinion wheel F, whilst the friction of the shaft G is also relieved by its
sliding upon a flat brass fixed on the top of the cross frame C. At each end
of the cross frames C and Cx are two holes, which may be of about one
inch in diameter, with raised rims or beads cast round them to strengthen the
frames in those parts; these holes are intended to assist in bracing the
machines together, when two or more of them are placed in a row to work
the same number of pans; the braces to be used for this purpose may be
round bars or rods of wrought iron, about six or eight inches longer than may
be sufficient to reach from the cross frames of one machine to those of the
next; upon both ends of these rods a good thread or screw should be worked,
of six to nine inches in length, and four corresponding nuts provided for each
rod; one nut being run down the screw at each end of the rod, it may be intro-
duced into the corresponding holes of the two machines intended to be braced
together, and the machines being so accurately adjusted that the vertical
cylinder or shaft D may work perpendicularly, the two nuts are to be brought
up the screws close to the frames, and the other two nuts being then run on
the two ends of the rod, the four nuts may be screwed well home to the raised
rims or beads above spoken of on both sides of the cross frames of the two
machines. If there be a third, or à fourth, or more machines, pursue the
same course from one to the other, for which purpose it is that two holes aro
provided at each end of the cross frames C and Cx, about three or four
inches apart, so as to admit of turning the nuts freely upon each rod. The
number of braces to be employed from one machine to another will depend
upon the degree of stiffening or strengthening that may be found requisite in
working, but provision is made for four in each machine. The necessity for
using these braces at all, results from the continual action and re-action of the
horizontal shaft G, and consequent reciprocating motion of the several
cylinders D causing a good deal of vibration of the machines, if standing
singly and unsupported, but by bracing them well together, which may be
done, if found requisite, in four places with each machine, (that is, at each end
of both the cross frames C and CX,) and then by carrying two other braces

page_text: from the machine at either or both ends of the row to the walls or other
strong parts of the building in which they are erected, the whole of them
become as compact as one pieco of machinery, and the friction of the cylinders
Dand the brasses in which they work, which would result from the vibratory
or unsteady action of the machines without such security by bracing, will be
mainly if not entirely avoided.
Figure 2 is a plan of Figure 1, and shows the position and action of the
quadrant before mentioned. This quadrant turns on a centre at Q, and has a
straight lever arm projecting from it at R, which arm is provided with a row
of upright pins, whilo on the shaft G is another row of corresponding pins;
these rows of pins are coupled together by the rod S; this rod has an eye
at each end made to slip on to the pins, and it will be seen by this arrange-
ment that when the shaft G is put in motion by means of the crank T, a
reciprocating motion will be given to the quadrant, and so to the pinion Fand
shaft D, while the relative positions of the coupling rod S on the pins will
determine the relative speeds of the various shafts D when the apparatus is
used to a set of pans in a row as shown at Figure 3.
Figuro 3 represents the plan of a row of sugar pans set up or arranged on
the principle of our said Invention, and with some parts removed to make the
Figure more clear, and as similar letters refer to similar parts in all the Figures,
it will not be necessary further to explain this Figure than by referring to the
letters and comparing them with similar letters on the other Figures before
explained.
Figure 4 is a side elevation of our said Invention, by which will be seen
that the centre or pivot on which the quadrant turns is supported between the
upper and lower cross frames C and C x; and it may be as well here to
observe that where the operation does not require that the bottom of the
vessel holding the liquid should be clear (as it does in sugar boiling), the
vertical shaft D may rest on a step at the bottom of the vessel, which would
greatly lessen the friction.
Now whereas we claim as our Invention the introduction of air into fluids
for the purposes of evaporation in manner aforesaid, that is to say, by giving
motion to the air pipes under the surface of the fluid to be evaporated in such
manner as to cause a vacuum in the fluid, to fill which the air rushes through
the pipes into tho fluid, which thus becomes more generally and effectually
introduced into the fluid than by any method now in use for that purpose, and
such our Invention being to the best of our knowledge and belief intirely
new and never before used within that part of His said Majesty's United

page_text: Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His Dominion of
Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, nor in any of His said Majesty's
Colonies or Plantations abroad, we do hereby declare this to be our Speci-
fication of the same, and that we do verily believe that this our Specification
doth comply in all respects with the proviso in the said herein-before in part
recited Letters Patent contained, wherefore we hereby claim to maintain the
exclusive right and privilege to our said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Budworth Sharp, havo hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of April, One thousand eight
hundred and thirty-one.