AN IM- PROVED METHOD OF SEPARATING OR EXTRACTING THE MOLASSES OR TREACLE FROM AND OUT OF MUSCOVADO, BROWN, OR RAW SUGAR
Year: 1817

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JOHN WALKER, residing at No. 12, in Great Charles Street, Blackfriars
Road, in the Parish of Christ Church, in the County of Surrey, Mill-
wright, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, on or about the Thirteenth day of May, in the
fifty-seventh year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the said
John Walker, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John
Walker, my executors, administrators, and assigns, during the term of
fourteen years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend the Invention therein mentioned, to wit, "AN IM-
PROVED METHOD OF SEPARATING OR EXTRACTING THE MOLASSES OR TREACLE
FROM AND OUT OF MUSCOVADO, BROWN, OR RAW SUGAR," within that
part
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England,
the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick upon Tweed, and also
in all His said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, in such
manner as to me, the said John Walker, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or any of them, should seem meet; to have, hold, exercise,
and enjoy the said licence, powers, privileges, and advantages therein

page_text: granted or mentioned to be granted unto me, the said John Walker,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, for and during and unto the
full end and term of fourteen years from the date of the said Letters
Patent, next and immediately ensuing, and fully to be compleat and
ended, according to the Statute in such case made and provided; in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, the
said John Walker, should not particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and
cause the same to be inrolled in the High Court of Chancery within
four calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and
advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine,
and become void, as in and by the said recited Letters Patent, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said John Walker, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed,
as follows, that is to say:
I separate or extract and take out the molasses or treacle from and out
of muscovado, brown, or raw sugar, by means of an air pump or other
machine so constructed as to be capable of producing a vacuum, or by
compressing the air to such a degree.as will produce the desired effect.
In using the word vacuum I mean such a degree of exhaustion as can
be obtained by the means commonly employed for producing that effect.
Any degree of rarefaction of the air will operate, but the nearer it
approaches to a perfect vacuum, the more complete and speedy will bo
its operation. In this application and use of the air pump or other
means of condensation and rarefaction of the air for the purpose of
separating or extracting the molasses or treacle from and out of mus-
covado, brown, or raw sugar, my Invention consists. The method
which I have found the most effectual in the application and use of
this my Invention is by taking any given quantity of muscovado,
brown, or raw sugar, and mixing it well with water, lime water, or a
saturated solution of the sugar in its brown or raw state until it becomes
about the consistency of thick honey, and let it remain in that state

page_text: two or three hours, or a little more or less at discretion. I then put the
mixture in an open or close topped vessel made of iron, copper, or other
air tight substance. I have given the preference to to the form or
shape of the frustrum of an inverted cone, having a false or loose bottom
in it over the fixed or real one, and leaving a portion of the space, say
about one fourth the capacity of the whole vessel, between the falsc
and real or fixed bottom as a receptacle for the molasses or treacle.
The false or loose bottom may be constructed of perforated plates of
copper, iron, or other fit substance, wire-cloth, or other grating; but I
have most generally used a bottom of basket or wicker work, supported
by iron or other bearers, over which grating or wicker work I spread a
flannel or other filtering substance sufficiently open to admit a passage
for molasses or treacle, but not so open as to admit chrystals of sugar
to pass through it. On this flannel or other filtering cover I lay the
sugar, mixed as above described, to the thickness of about twelvo
inches, more or less, close under the false or loose bottom. I insert a
pipe with its inner end or mouth turned downwards, or otherwise
constructed to prevent the molasses or treacle from falling into it as it
comes through the false bottom and filtre. In the fixed or real bottom
of the vessel I insert a cock or other air-tight outlet to discharge the
molasses or treacle at pleasure. This pipe communicates with an air
pump or other machine by which a vacuum is produced under the
false bottom of the vessel, leaving the surface of the sugar exposed
to the weight of the atmosphere, by the pressure of which the molasses
or treacle is forced through the false or loose bottom and filtre into
the space between that and the real bottom. The vacuum must be
maintained till the sugar above the false or loose bottom is sufficiently
drained, after which, if necessary, a small, quantity of lime water or
a saturated solution of sugar may be spread on the surface of the sugar,
still maintaining the vacuum until it is sufficiently purified. This
operation may be varied as circumstances may require, and by which
the same effect may be produced. In using a vessel close at the top
process is the same as before described, with this difference only,
that instead of a vacuum being maintained below the false or loose
bottom, the air must be compressed on the surface of the sugar by
means of a condensing air pump or other machine by which air can be
the

page_text: compressed to the density necessary to force the molasses or treacle
out of the sugar. I have also exposed the sugar, mixed as before
mentioned, to a vacuum both above it and below it. But I have
invariably found that by maintaining a vacuum under it, leaving the
surface exposed to the atmosphere, the most desirable effects have been
produced. In the British West India colonies, when the sugar is
originally made from the canes, the molasses or treacle may be extracted
from it by letting it remain in the cooler, after being cooled, till it
has christalized to the necessary consistency, and then exposing it to
the pressure of the atmosphere over or by means of a vacuum produced
by an air pump, or other adequate means for producing that effect;
the pressure of the condensed air obtained by the air pump or any of
the above-mentioned processes being continued until it is sufficiently
dry for shipping or use.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this
Twenty-eighth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventeen.
JOHN (L.s.) WALKER.
Signed, sealed, and delivered (being first
duly stamped) in the presence of
THO JAS DENT,
AMBROSE WESTON,
31, Fenchurch Str.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-eighth day
of August, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid John Walker s
came before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged
the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Twenty-ninth day of August, in the year above