A METHOD OR PROCESS FOR BLEACHING AND CLARIFYING, AND FOR IMPROVING THE QUALITY AND COLOUR OF SUGARS, KNOWN BY THE NAME OF BASTARD AND PIECE SUGARS
Year: 1825

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
BARLOW, of the New Road, in the Parish of Saint George Middlesex, in the
County of Middlesex, Sugar Refiner, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fifteenth day of March, 1825, in the sixth year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Joseph Barlow, His especial licence that I, the said Joseph Barlow,
my exors, adññiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph Barlow,
my exors, admors, and assigns, should at any time agree 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 His said Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "A METHOD OR PROCESS
FOR BLEACHING AND CLARIFYING, AND FOR IMPROVING THE QUALITY AND COLOUR
OF SUGARS, KNOWN BY THE NAME OF BASTARD AND PIECE SUGARS;" in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Joseph
Barlow, 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
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and

page_text: immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and
by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that, in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Joseph Barlow, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained in and by the the following description thereof (that is to say):-
sugar
My new-invented Method or Process for Bleaching and Clarifying and
Improving the Quality and Colour of Sugars known by the Name of Bastard
and Piece Sugars consists in the employment of that material commonly called
or known by the name of West Indian molasses, which, after being poured
upon the surface of the bastard sugar in the mould, filters through the
and carries with it the dark colouring matter. This will be best understood
by first describing the modo of preparing and clarifying sugar as commonly
practised. The process of making sugar from the West Indian molasses is by
boiling the molasses in pans or coppers until the aqueous parts are in a great
measure evaporated. The liquor is then removed from the pans by means of
ladles, and poured into earthen vessels of a conical figure, when as it cools the
sugar crystallizes, and the fluid part or molasses descends to the bottom of
the mould. After remaining for the space of a day or two, the lower end or
apex of the conical vessel is opened, and the molasses is allowed to run out,
leaving only the crytallized sugar in the mould, which in that state is called
bastard sugar. In order to remove from this bastard sugar the dark colour,
and render it equal in appearance to the Muscovado sugars, the usual practise
is to lay upon the top of the sugar in the mould a thick coat of clay, moistened
with water to a semi-fluid state, when, as the water descends from the clay
through the sugar (a process that generally occupies about a week), it takes the
colouring matter with it and passes off at bottom in the state of a thick brown
syrup, leaving the sugar above considerably whitened. In this process,
however, a part of the sugar itself becomes dissolved, and runs away in the
form of syrup, which reduces the quantity of sugar in the mould, and the
syrup thus drained from the sugar being sold at a small price, very considerablo
loss is thereby experienced. To obviate this objection, and prevent sugar
from running away in syrup, I propose, instead of the wet clay, to pour upon
the top of the sugar in the mould a quantity of the ordinary West Indian molasses,
which after a few hours will have filtered through the sugar in the mould, and
ultimately run off at bottom, carrying the colouring matter with it. I do not
think it necessary to state what particular quantity of the molasses should be
employed to each mould, as that will depend upon the size of the mould, tho

page_text: state of clarification of the bastard sugar in that mould, and the quality of the
molasses itself, which last, if of too thick a consistency, may be diluted with
water. Neither do I think it necessary to state any particulars as to the
mode of preparing or producing the molasses in the West Indies, as molasses is
an article well known in common. It is sometimes the case that the syrup
which runs from sugar boiled to produce lumps is mixed with inferior molasses
in order to assist its crystallization; and sometimes broken lumps, or what is
called piece sugar, is mixed with the molasses, and boiled to produce bastard
sugar. In whatever manner, therefore, the bastards are made, my improved
mode of treatment for the purposes of clarification will apply. And,
Lastly, I wish it to be understood that my claim of Invention is simply the
employment of molasses, in the manner above described, to the clarification of
bastard sugars, instead of clays or other contrivances which have been here-
tofore employed for that purpose.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Barlow, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of September, in the year of our
T
JOSEPH (L.B.) BARLOW.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirteenth day of September,
in the year of our Lord 1825, the aforesaid Joseph Barlow came before
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Fourteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-five.