IMPROVEMENTS IN AND IN APPARATUS FOR EVAPORATING OR RECOVERING LEES
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Swan, of Kircaldy, in the County of Fife,
Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND IN APPARATUS
FOR EVAPORATING OR RECOVERING LEES."
'PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Swan at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th
October 1866.
I, ALEXANDER SWAN, of Kircaldy, in the County of Fife, Manufacturer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND
IN APPARATUS FOR EVAPORATING OR RECOVERING LEES," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in the employment of close rotating vessels supplied
with steam, by preference waste steam, for the purpose of evaporating lees,
and in the arrangement of pipes for supplying the steam to the close vessels,
as hereafter described. In bearings in the sides of a tank or cistern containing
the lees to be evaporated I mount the axes of a series of close vessels of
cylindrical or other desired shape. These vessels are caused to rotate by any
convenient means, but for this purpose I prefer to make the periphery of the
vessels when cylindrical in the form of toothed gearing, each vessel gearing
into that or those next adjoining, and I impart rotary motion to one of the
vessels by gearing.connected therewith, so that all the vessels are caused to
rotate in the lees in-the-tank. The axes of the rotating vessels are hollow,

page_text: and the vessels are supplied with steam as follows:-Along one side of the
tank 1 carry a main pipe from which a branch pipe leads to each vessel and
passes through or into the hollow axis at one end of the vessel. The steam
thus enters the vessels, circulates therein, and heats them, and the heat
evaporates the lees in which the vessels revolve. The waste or spent steam
issues from the vessels by pipes inserted into or through the other hollow axis
of each vessel. Sometimes instead of employing vessels having a rotating
motion I submerge or partly submerge in a tank containing the lees one or
more fixed close vessels or boilers supplied with steam from a high-pressure
boiler or otherwise.
My Invention further consists in mounting or fixing on an ordinary steam
boiler an open evaporating pan for lees, which pan may be carried or extend
to any desired distance down the sides of the boiler, say, to about the centre
thereof. The shell of the boiler forms the bottom of the pan, and the heat
given off from the boiler evaporates the lees.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the. Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander Swan in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
16th April 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
SWAN, of Kircaldy, in the County of Fife, Manufacturer, send greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the thirtieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Alexander Swan, Her special licence that I, the said Alexander Swan, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alexander
Swan, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND IN APPARATUS
FOR EVAPORATING OR RECOVERING LESS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Alexander Swan, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed

page_text: in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE,. that I, the said Alexandar Swan, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the fol-
lowing statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say:-
My Invention consists in the employment of close rotating vessels supplied
with steam; by preference waste steam, for the purpose of evaporating lees,
and in the arrangement of pipes for supplying the steam to the close vessels,
as hereafter described. In bearings in the sides of a tank or cistern con-
taining the lees to be evaporated I mount the axes of a series of close vessels
of cylindrical or other desired shape. These vessels are caused to rotate by
any convenient means, but for this purpose I prefer to make the periphery of
the vessels when cylindrical in the form of toothed gearing, each vessel gearing
into that or those next adjoining, and I impart rotary motion to one of the
vessels by gearing connected therewith, so that all the vessels are caused to
rotate in the lees in the tank. The axes of the rotating vessels are hollow,
and the vessels are supplied with steam as follows:-Along one side of the
tank I carry a main pipe from which a branch pipe leads to each vessel and
passes through or into the hollow axles at one end of the vessel. The steam
thus enters the. vessels, circulates therein, and heats them, and the heat
evaporates the lees in which the vessels revolve. The waste or spent steam
issues from the vessels by pipes inserted into or through the other hollow axle
of each vessel.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a horizontal section, and
Figure 2 a side elevation of an apparatus constructed and arranged as herein-
before described.
a is a tank or cistern supplied with the lees to be evaporated; b, b, are a
series of close vessels, the axes of which are hollow and revolve in bearings c, c,
in the sides of the tank. The peripheries of these vessels are in the form of
toothed gearing, as shewn, each vessel gearing into that or those next adjoin-
ing. Rotary motion is imparted to the first and consequently to all of these
vessels by-a-toothed wheel d on the shaft of this first vessel in gear with
another wheel e on the shaft of a driving pulley f. I do not, however, limit
myself to this arrangement for imparting rotary motion to the vessels. g is a
main steam-pipe.supplied from any convenient-source, and carried along.one
side of the tank from this-pipo-g-a-branch-pipe-h-leads to each vessel b
and passes into the bollow axle at one end of the vessel. The steam thus

page_text: enters all the vessels b, circulates therein, and heats thein, and the heat
evaporates the lees in the tank a in which the vessels revolve. The spent
steam issues from the vessels by pipes i inserted into the hollow axle. at the
end opposite that at which the steam enters. Sometimes instead of employing
vessels having a rotating motion I submerge or partly submerge in a tank
containing the lees one or more fixed close vessels or boilers supplied with
steam from a high-pressure boiler or otherwise. Figure 3 is a longitudinal;
section, and Figure 4 a cross section showing a tank a for lees with close
tubes b, b, b, submerged therein. These tubes are supplied with steam by an
inlet pipe c communicating with a box or vessel d'into which the tubes.lead;
is an outlet for the water resulting from condensation. Figures, 5 and 6,
show a boiler bentirely submerged in a tank a containing lees, so that the
whole surface of the boiler serves for evaporating; c is the boiler flue;
d, d, are stays, and e, e, are rests or supports for the boiler; f is a man-hole. :
My Invention further consists in evaporating lees by mounting or fixing on
an ordinary steam boiler an open evaporating pan to which the lees are
supplied, which pan may be carried or extend to any desired distance down
the sides of the boiler, say, to about the centre thereof. The shell of the
boiler forms the bottom of the pan, and the heat given off from the boiler
evaporates the lees. Figure 7 is a transverse section of a steam boiler with
an evaporating pan mounted thereon. a is the boiler, and ban open evaporating
pan carried down the sides of the boiler to about the centre thereof; c is the
boiler flue. The shell of the boiler, as before stated, forms the bottom of the
pan, and the heat given off from the boiler evaporates the lees supplied to
the pan.
The modes and apparatus herein-before described may also be applied for
rendering alkali caustic; the lees after being made solid by burning are again
dissolved, and impurities are allowed to separate by sinking to the bottom of
the vessel; the lees thus made pure are mixed with lime and boiled as usual,
and as is well understood, and then concentrated by evaporating according to
any of the modes and by any of the apparatus herein-before described..
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim as my "Improve-
ments in and in Apparatus for Evaporating or Recovering Lees,"
First, the mode of evaporating or recovering lees by means of close vessels
supplied with steam and caused to rotate in a tank or vessel in which the lees
are contained, substantially as herein-before described.
Second, the mode of evaporating or recovering lees by means of fixed close
vessels, tubes, or boilers supplied with steam and submerged or partly sub-

page_text: merged in a tank or vessel in which the lees are contained, substantially as
herein-before described.
Third, the mode of evaporating or recovering lees by means of an open
evaporating pan mounted or fixed on an ordinary steam boiler, the shell
of the boiler forming the bottom of the pan, substantially as herein-before
described.
Fourth, the construction of apparatus, substantially as herein-before described
and represented in the accompanying Drawings, for effecting the evaporation
or recovery of lees according to the several modes described, all or any one or
more of them.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Swan, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of April, One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-seven.