CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING FLUIDS PROM SOLIDS, OR FOR SEPA- RATING THE MORE FLUID PARTICLES FROM THE MORE SOLID OF VARIOUS BODIES
Year: 1856

page_text: (This Invention received Provisional Protection, but notice to proceed with the
application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescribed
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Fennell Allman and Donald
Bethune at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 31st May 1856.
We, FENNELL ALLMAN, of Cambridge Terrace, Hyde Park, County of
Middlesex, Consulting Engineer, and DONALD BETHUNE, of the same Place,
Esquire, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING FLUIDS PROM SOLIDS, OR FOR SEPA-
RATING THE MORE FLUID PARTICLES FROM THE MORE SOLID OF VARIOUS BODIES," to
be as follows:
The Invention may be generally described as being the employment of cen-
trifugal force, exhibited in vacuo or in a partial vacuum, by means of suitable
mechanism actuated by water, wind, steam, or other power, and the forcing of
hot air into the cliamber or vessel in which the vacuum or partial vacuum is
formod, by means of an air force-pump. A chamber being made of suitable
material (and sufficiently strong to resist the external pressure of the atmo-
sphere and the internal pressure of the force pump) is put in communication
with an air-pump or an exhausted receiver, so producing a vacuum or partial
vacuum therein. In this chamber we place an inner box or receiver, capable
of holding the materials which are to be separated; this chamber is at the
same time so mounted as to be capable of revolving on a spindle or axis,

page_text: passing through its centre of symmetry and gravity, or as near as possible to
those points; the outer edge, or circumference of this inner receiver, is formed
of wire-gauze, perforated zinc, or other suitable material, the holes or inter-
stices in which are of such a size as to retain the solid matter within the
receiver, and at the same time allow the more fluid particles to pass through.
On the axis or spindle of this chamber or receiver is placed a small pulley or
rigger, which obtains a rotatory motion from any suitable source of power,
which motion it communicates to the receiver and produces a speed of from
500 to 1200 revolutions per minute, more or less; this speed must vary with
the nature of the matter to be separated, and the closeness of the porous sub-
stance on the edge of the receiver. The apparatus is worked in the following
manner :-The outer chamber is opened by an air-tight man-hole or lid; and the
material to be acted upon is placed in the inner receiver (which revolves on
its own axis) through a door or trap; the matter to be acted upon may be
adinitted into the receiver by passing it through the axis or spindle on which
it revolves (the said axis being made hollow) and without opening the outer
chamber; on the inner chamber being so charged, a vacuuni is produced in the
outer chamber, and on motion being given to the inner receiver all the smaller
and more fluid particles are projected with great force into the vacuum through
the porous circumference of the inner chamber, and are from thence rapidly
carried off by the action of the exhaust pipe. The air-pump cock is then
closed, and heated air is forced into the chamber through a pipe by a force
pump or otherwise, being continuously removed by the action of the exhaust
pipe. It is not necessary to observe any particular form or size in the con-
struction of the said chambers, provided the apparatus be of such a form as
to readily admit of being filled with the materials to be acted upon and to
freely remove the same. As the shaft on which the inner chamber revolves
must necessarily pass through the outer chamber at one or both ends of the
spindle, it is necessary to provide an air-tight gland, cup-leather, or stuffing box,
to admit of such without injuring the vacuum; the longer the radius of the
inner chamber, the less the speed necessary; it is here supposed the inner box
to be about three feet diameter. We sometimes employ heat to the apparatus
to render the matter to be acted upon more readily capable of being dried,
filtered, or separated, such as in drying cotton, wool, silk, yarns, and in drying
cotton, woollen, mohair, and silk fabrics or other materials, or in the filtration
of oils, tallow, sugar, and such like matter; we likewise, with a similar view,
reduce the temperatures by artificial cold, in separating volatile or such similar
bodies. Motion may be given to the apparatus in various
ways, and from any
of the known sources of power, and we prefer pillowing up the brasses and

page_text: joints of the apparatus with vulcanized indian rubber, leather, or some such
suitable elastic packing to prevent the injurious shaking from the high speed.
The vacuum may be produced by any of the well known methods, or by the
use of the steam jet, and now well known and understood.