AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE PROCESSES OF MAKING AND REPINING SUGAR
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDMUND
PONTIFEX, of Shoe Lane, in the City of London, Coppersmith, 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 Fifth day of May, in the sixth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Edmund Pontifex, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and autho-
rity, that I, the said Edmund Pontifex, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Edmund Pontifex, my exors, adñiors, or 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 all His said Majesty's Colonies and Planta-
tions abroad, the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE PROCESSES OF MAKING
AND REPINING SUGAR," communicated to me by a certain foreigner residing
abroad; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said
Edmund Pontifex, shall cause a particular description of the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chaucery within six calendar
months next and 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.

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to
the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say:-
2
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
A represents the vacuo pan made in the usual way; B, a condenser (which
may be made of various other forms); C, a receiver of the water condensed
in B; D, an air pump; E, a cistern containing the liquor or juice to be
evaporated; F, a small vessel so constructed as to distribute the juice equally
over every part of the condenser, and supplied from E by a cock a; G, a
receiver for the juice that passes over the condenser, and is thence conveyed
into cistern H-H a cistern to contain any molasses that may be wished to
convert into sugar; these cisterns communicate by pipes and a cock to the
measure I, attached to the pan into which the syrup is drawn up at pleasure
by the power of the vacuo in the pan; c is the cock connected to the steam
main and to the pipes and jacket of vacuo pan; d, a cock to let the steam into
the pan; f, a cock to discharge cylinder C-g, to connect measure to pan; h, a
valve to shut off the communication from pan to evaporator; i, a cock to
admit air into or to let vapour escape from the pan.
1
The manner of carrying my intention into effect is as follows:-The cistern
E being filled with the saccharine or other liquid matter to be evaporated and
one of the cisterns II being partly so filled, the cocks d and e are so opened
and steam is admitted into the vacuo pan through the cock d till the pan,
condenser, and cylinder C are all filled with steam; the air is thus expelled;
the cocks d and e are then shut, and opening the cock a some of the liquid
contained in E passes over the condenser B, condenses the steam that is
therein, and thus creates the vacuo. The cock 6 is then opened and the
measure I being connected with the vacuo pan by a small pipe and cock f
the liquor will be drawn into the measure, and from thence into the pan
through the cock g. The valve or cock c is then opened and the steam
admitted into the worm and case of the vacuo ban by which the boiling and
evaporation of the liquid are caused. The vapour passes into the condenser B,
where it is rapidly condensed by the passing of the liquid from E, over its
surface, and thus the vacuum is continued. But in the event of any trifling
laeakge or of the generation of carbonic acid gas in the boiling of sugar a
small air pump is attached to the cylinder C, and may be occasionally worked.

page_text: There is a valve h, to shut off the communication from the vacuo pan to the
condenser when the former is to be discharged so as not to admit air into the
latter, and the vacuo is again obtained in the pan as before described, except
that instead of opening the cock e, the cock i is to be opened.
I will now describe another mode of carrying the said Invention into
effect: The pan and evaporator are the same as before described, but a third
vessel K is introduced to further economize the fuel. Into this vessel the syrup
which has passed over the evaporator B, is conveyed by a pipe (1) and the
steam from the generator or boiler enters the worm (2) and boils the liquid
which surrounds it. This vessel may be either nearly filled with the liquor to be
evaporated or it may be so constructed as to have a continuous current run-
ning through in an opposite direction and meeting the vapour while passing
through the worm. The vapour generated by the boiling of the juice or liquid
in K is conveyed into the worm of the vacuo pan through the pipe (3) and
valve c, and boils the sugar therein instead of steam from the generator or
boiler, while the liquor which has been partially evaporated by passing through
the vessel K is conveyed by the pipe (4) into the cistern H, and drawn into
the vacuo pan as before described. Thus three evaporations are produced by
one portion of steam:-First, by passing over the evaporator B; secondly,
in the vessel K; and thirdly, in the vacuo pan, and thereby an extraordinary
economy in fuel is effected. The vessel K and the evaporator B may also be
used together without the vacuo pan, either when that pan is out of order or
from considerations of economy in the first cost (although the advantage is not
so great) by closing the valve h, and by having a cock or valve (5) to com-
municate with the evaporator B, and thus a double process be effected without
working in vacuo.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, I would remark that I
am aware that sugar has been made and refined by means of condensing the
vapours arising from the closed pan in which the saccharine liquid or juice is
contained, and hence producing a vacuum or partial vacuum in the closed pan,
I do not therefore claim such means generally, but only when saccharine
liquor or juice is the medium for condensing the vapours, whereby much fuel
and labour will be saved; for the saccharine liquor or juice, taking up the
beat given off in the act of condensing, prepared by heating the saccharino
liquid or juice, and it becomes in some degree concentrated and ready for the
vacuo pan, and thus the heat formerly given off to the condensing water, and
consequently lost, is now used in preparing the saccharine juice or liquor; and
I claim the application of a pump for removing any gas or air from the con-
denser of such vacuo pan as are worked by external condensation by saccharine

page_text: juice or water, but I do not claim the use of such process when the condensa-
tion is performed by the cooling fluid being brought in contact with the
vapours to be condensed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edmund Pontifex, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.
Inrolled the Fifth day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.