AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF REFINING SUGAR
Year: 1825

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
FREUND, of Bell Lane, Spital Fields, in the County of Middlesex, Sugar
Refiner, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Fourth, by His Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of July now last
past, did give and grant unto me, the said Charles Freund, His especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Charles
Freund, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others as I, the
said Charles Freund, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
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, my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
PROCESS OF REFINING SUGAR;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained
a proviso obliging me, the said Charles Freund, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to
cause the same to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery

page_text: within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Freund, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and ascer-
tained by the Drawings or Figures hereunto annexed, and as follows, that is
to say :-
The difficulties and inconveniences that have been experienced from tho
necessity of using the blood of animals and other abuminous articles for the
purpose of clarifying raw sugar from its impurities in that department of the
manufacture of refined or lump sugar technically called clearing the pans,
have been productive of many speculative attempts to substitute other mate-
rials or substances that would effect the clarification more economically and
with greater certainty. The materials or substances I make use of to effect
the clarification of the syrup in that department of the process of refining
called clearing the pan, and the mode of combining and using them to the
greatest advantage, will now be described. When the day's refine or boiling
is completed, the pan being empty, but still hot, I put into it eighty-four
gallons of water and fifteen pounds of American pearl or pot ash, and mix.
them well together, and when the pearl or pot ash is thoroughly dissolved I
put into the liquid or compound so formed eighteen hundredweight of raw
or Muscovado sugar, which should be carefully broken, so as to prevent any
large lumps or masses from entering the pan. The whole mass should be
well roused or stirred to mix it thoroughly, and it may then be permitted to
stand at rest for a time, varying from two to four hours, as may be most con-
venient. I then take from twenty to thirty pounds of the lightest coloured
-fullers-earth, previously made perfectly dry; to this I add as much water as
will dissolve it, and bring it to the consistence of cream. I then put the
whole of this to the other ingredients in- the-pan, and mix them all well
together, after which the contents of the pan are left at rest until the next
morning, or the fire may be applied and the pan cleared without further loss
of time; but my usual practise is to charge the pan in the evening, and leave
the ingredients at rest during the night, and then I proceed to clear the pan
on the following morning. When the pan is to be cleared, the fire being
lighted, about sixty-five or seventy gallons more water must be added to the
contents in the pan, which will reduce the syrup to a proper consistence for
clearing the scum from it; but as sugars vary very much when compared with
each other, the precise quantity of water cannot be well laid down by any

page_text: given or definite measure, but the best way is to use a sacharometer, and then
the consistence of the syrup will be ascertained by its specific gravity. To the
experienced refiner these observations may appear superfluous. When the
syrup has attained a sufficient degree of heat, a frothy scum will be thrown
up to the surface of the fluid, which being sufficiently accumulated must be
skimmed off, tho fire being slackened for that purpose, and when the scum is
removed, if the heat be again raised, a second scum will rise, which must
also be taken off. This part of the process is exactly similar to the usual
method adopted in clearing the scum from a pan of syrup in the old process
of refining with blood. When the first froth is taken off, the specific gravity
of the syrup should be examined by using the sacharometer, and if it requires
more water it should then be added, and after the heat is applied again, and
the second scum taken off, the syrup is ready to be skipped off into the settling
cistern. The settling cistern, which will be hereafter described, has three
cocks in it; the highest is about twelve or fourteen inches from the bottom,
the middle one is about eight or ten inches above the bottom, and the lowest
ono is from four to six inches from the bottom; but these may be varied,
according to the capacity of the cistern, or the number of pans of syrup it is
filled with. The settling cistern being filled from the pan is permitted to stand
at rest until the last thing at night, and then the syrup is so far cleared in the
upper part that the upper cock may be turned, and the clear syrup be per-
mitted to run into the clarifying cistern placed below the settling cistern, from
whence it is pumped up into the pan, to undergo the process of boiling to
produce the necessary evaporation as usual. By drawing off at night that
part of the syrup that is sufficiently clarified, the remaining part being relieved
from the pressure of that which is drawn off, permits the impurities to settle
much lower and more compactly, and in the morning the middle cock may
be turned, and when the clear syrup has all been drawn from it that can be
got then the lowest one must be tried, and if it appears clear from that also
it should be permitted to run, and when it slackeus then the cistern must be
tilted by the screw fixed in the frame for that purpose, which will be hereafter
described. If when it is nearly all drawn off some of the syrup should be
found of a darker colour, this must be collected in any convenient vessel, and
thrown into the pan, and the dirt collected at the bottom is let out at an
aperture or short pipe fixed to the bottom of the cistern, which is secured by
a screw cap (herein-after described) while the cistern is filled. When the dirt
is all taken out, the cistern is well rinsed with a pail full of water, and it is
then ready to be charged again when the pan is cleared. When the pain is
skipped off, and the settling cistern filled, the scums that aro collected are put

page_text: into the pan, and about forty or fifty gallons of water are added, which being
boiled, or nearly so, the whole is well roused or stirred up, and it is then put
into a reservoir along with the dirt from the settling cistern, and so much
more water added as will enable the refiner to draw off enough to charge the
pan with, which may be about eighty or eighty-five gallons. After a sufficient
quantity is drawn off to charge the pan with, more water is again mixed with
the scum and sediment sufficient to yield about fifty or sixty gallons, which is
drawn off in the morning, and is then used to dilute or reduce the syrup in the
pan to a proper consistence for raising the scum. I have in the foregoing
directions stated that the ingredients are put into the pan, or, in other words,
that the pan is charged while it is hot; but this is not absolutely necessary,
for they may be added when the pan is cold, and the same or nearly the same
beneficial effects will be produced. And although I have directed that the
scum or froth should be put into the pan, and heated or boiled with water
to dissolve or extract any sweet it may contain, yet that will not be necessary
in the summer time, as cold water will then be sufficient for the purpose, and
indeed it will be more proper, as the whole, when mixed, will have less ten-
dency to fall into the acetous fermentation. In large lamp boiling the froths
or scums are treated in the same manner precisely as described above, but the
sediment from the settling cistern should be reserved for the process of what
is well known amongst sugar refiners as bastard boiling. The application of
fullers' earth is also capable of making a great improvement in the process of
boiling bastards, and for this purpose I proceed as follows:-The sediment
obtained from the settling cistern in large lump boiling is put into the seum
reservoir, and a sufficient quanty of water is mixed therewith, which when
sufficiently settled is to be drawn off, and used to boil the bastards with. I
shall here observe that the sediment so obtained in large lump boiling should
be divided according to the number of days that are to be employed in boiling
bastards, by which arrangement an equal quantity will be appropriated to
each day's boiling. As every experienced refiner will be well aware by the
quantity of syrup in his pan how many bastards the same will produce when
it is boiled, the quantity of fullers' earth to be added to the syrup in the pan
should be as follows:-To a sufficient quantity of syrup to form a bastard,
when boiled, I add about one pound or one pound and an half of fullers' carth,
prepared as before described, and when a sufficient heat is applied to produce
a single froth or scum, that must be removed, and mixed with the settlings, and
submitted to the same process as the settlings from the settling cistern. The
syrup for bastards being thus cleared must be skipped off into the settling
eistern, from which it is to be drawn off into the clarifying cistern, as before

page_text: described; but it will not be necessary to clear out the sediment every time the
settling cistern is emptied, but when all the bastards have been cleared then
the sediment may be taken out, and the cistern cleansed and made ready for
the common process of refining or clearing. The proportions herein given are
what I most generally adopt, but they may be considerably varied according
to the kind of raw sugar that is to be refined; but the degree of variation
must be left to the judgment of the experienced refiner.
Drawing Fig. 1, A, represents a side clevation of the settling cistern placed
upon the wooden frame B. This frame rests upon the axletree a, which is sup-
ported at each end in the bearings C, C. Only one of these can be seen in
this Figure. D is an adjusting screw, upon which the frame rests at one end.
By turning this screw in a proper direction the cistern may be gently tilted
without disturbing the sediment it may contain. b, c, d, are the three cocks,
the use use of which have been before described. e is the screw cap, that
screws on the end of a short pipe or tube, fixed close to the bottom of the
cistern. This forms a passage for the dirt and sediment after the clear syrup
has been drawn off. f is an iron band, rivetted to the copper cistern. This
serves to strengthen the vessel, and prevent it from changing its figure. The
clarifying cistern generally used should be placed immediately under this
settling cistern; and the open space formed in the frame at E, in Figure 2, will
be sufficient to permit a workman to pass down to clean out the lower or
clarifying cistern.
Figure 2 represents a plan of the settling cistern, frame, and screw. All the
parts correspond with those in Figure 1. This kind of vessel and its
appendages will form the best kind of reservoir to receive the sediment col-
lected in the settling cistern, from which the water is to be drawn to charge
the pan, as before described. And I hereby declare that, although either of
the kinds of vegetable alkali herein named will answer the purpose and effect
a considerable improvement in the process of refining raw sugar, yet I
prefer that kind commonly called American pearl ash, as it has been found by
me to be more efficient in separating the dirt and other impurities from raw
sugar than potash or any other vegetable alkali, especially when combined
or compounded with fullers' earth, in the manner and way I have before
described.
And I further declare that my said Invention consists, not in the form or
construction of any of the different cisterns or vessels I use, but entirely in
the application of any suitable vegetable alkali, combined with fullers' earth,
in proper proportions, by the use of which, in the manner and way I have
described, a considerable improvement will be produced in the quality of sugar

page_text: so refined, and a great saving will also be effected, when compared with the
usual method of refining with blood or other albuminous articles.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Freund, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-six.
W. WINGFIELD.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-fifth day of
January, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Charles Freund came
before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Speci-
fication aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
Inrolled the same Twenty-fifth day of January, in the year above
written.