AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE PROCESS OF CON- CENTRATING AND CRYSTALLIZING SUGAR
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE PROCESS OF CON-
CENTRATING AND CRYSTALLIZING SUGAR."-A communication from abroad
by Horatio N. Fryatt, of Belleville, in the County of Essex, State of
New Jersey, United States of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
25th July 1860.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE PROCESS OF CON-
CENTRATING AND CRYSTALLIZING SUGAR," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the use of a fluid to render the contents of the
evaporating or vacuum pan mixable without the presence of a considerable
amount of water, which has hitherto been deemed necessary in the crystallizing
process, thus permitting of a closer concentration of sugar than it is now
found expedient to effect, and ensuring a greater yield than could be obtain:

page_text: by the ordinary practice, at the same time such a condition of the mass is
obtained as will secure its ready flow from the pan, and more perfect or easy
separation of the fluid from the crystals, or purging from the mould, than can
be obtained from any known method. To this end, when concentrating and
crystallizing sugar, alcohol is applied to the concentrated solution of sugar
after it has parted with a large amount of its water. The presence of the
alcohol will not only render the mass mixable, and thus permit its easy exit
from the pan or evaporating vessel, but also allow the crystals to arrange
themselves and part with the coloring matter and fluid portions with facility,
the result of which action will be a larger per-centage of crystals than by the
methods heretofore employed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 23rd January 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special license that I, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE PROCESS OF CONCENTRATING AND
CRYSTALLIZING SUGAR," being a communication from abroad upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement (that is to say):
Various methods are at present pursued on sugar estates and in sugar
refineries for the defecation of sugar and the juices of sugar-producing plants,
and, among others, is a plan for defecating and clarifying sugar and the juices
of sugar-producing plants by the use of a mixture of alcohol and water, for
which I obtained Letters Patent, bearing date 11th October 1859. When
by these or other methods a clear solution is obtained free from the usual
impurities, it is usual to concentrate this fluid to a syrup of such a strength
as will permit it to crystallize; and when water is present, as it must be in
all of these methods after the crystallization of a certain portion of the sugar,
a large portion is still held in solution in the remaining water, and the crystals
part with this syrup with difficulty, a portion remaining on the crystals which
have been formed, and a very large portion of sugar passes out of the mould
or other purging vessel in the form of a viscous syrup requiring to be boiled
for reconcentration, and producing a sugar of inferior quality.
If the sugar could be removed from the vacuum pan after concentration, it
would be desirable to evaporate all the water, so as to get the entire weight
of sugar at once in a merchantable form, but this is impracticable because
such a state of fluidity is required as will permit the contents of the pan to
run out, and this fluid state is also required to permit the movement of the
particles, which necessarily takes place in crystallizing, and hence the necessity
for the formation of large amounts of syrup. The object to be obtained is
twofold, viz., to leave the mass as fluid as possible, to give freedom of motion
that crystallization may take place without serious restraint, and that the mass
may be freely discharged from the vacuum pan, and also to obtain a bigh
degree of concentration, that the greatest practical proportion of the saccharine
matter may be crystallized at the first operation, but these two requirements
are in antagonism in all processes heretofore practised, because by evaporating
to obtain a high degree of concentration the syrup is rendered so viscous as
to impede the movements of the particles necessary to crystallization, and if
carried too far, the mass cannot be discharged from the vacuum pan, and if
evaporation is stopped short, to retain the required fluidity, then the required
concentration for crystallization is not obtained. In consequence of this, the
practice has been to make a compromise between the two extremes, which
results in waste. Now, the improved method of procedure does not call for
the presence of any cousiderable amount of water, and therefore the contents

page_text: of the pan are not made up in part of a syrup of sugar. Instead of stopping
the boiling when the amount crystallized is from forty to' sixty per cent., the
ebullition may be continued to a much greater extent, and then, while stirring
the mass, by admitting high-proof commercial alcohol into the vacuum pan, a
fluid will be furnished capable of holding the crystals in division without
dissolving them, thus securing the required fluidity for free crystallization and
discharge froni the vacuum pan after having parted with nearly all the water.
When the matter is in any purging vessel, the alcohol can be permitted to
run off, leaving the crystals in a pure state. The fluid so parted with is
alcohol, containing only so much sugar as the accidental presence of water
from the impurity of the alcohol, or from the incomplete evaporation from the
sugar, will supply, and thus the yield of sugar as a first return is very much
larger than with the aqueous system.
The alcohol when separated contains a very small portion of sugar, and
this alcohol, by a proper distilling apparatus, may be separated and saved,
and the sugar passed back to the vacuum pan for further evaporation and
eventual recovery, as in the manipulation of the original charge. If desired,
a condensing apparatus may intervene between the vacuuin pan and the air
pump, or between the air pump and the final exit of the vapor, by which all
the alcohol may be saved, and thus the vacuum pan itself take the place of
the still before referred to, and the sugar, after leaving the vacuum pan, may
be purged in moulds, cisterns, or other apparatus, assisted, if necessary, by
vacuum beneath the sugar, so as to render the pressure of the atmosphere on
its surface available for driving down the fluid; or, when placed in an inclosed
vessel, the atmosphere may be forced upon its upper surface, so as to cause
the downward flow or travel of the fluid; or, if left in a state of rest, the
alcohol may be parted with from its own gravity, passing down between tho
crystals, and finding its exit at the bottom of the vessel. Or, if it is desirable
to separate the alcoholic portion with greater rapidity, it may be received
in an ordinary centrifugal machine, such as is commonly used for the
separation of fluids from more solid substances, by the operation of which the
alcohol will be forced out and separated, leaving the sugar in a merchantable
form.
The following are the advantages of the process, viz. :-The use of a fluid
which renders the contents of the evaporating or vacuum pan mixible without
the presence of so considerable amount of water as has hitherto been deemed
necessary in the crystallizing process, permits of a closer concentration of
sugar than it is now found expedient to effect, and ensures a greater yield
than could be obtained the ordinary practice, at the same time such a

page_text: condition of the mass is obtained as will secure its ready flow from the pan,
and the more perfect or easy separation of the fluid from the crystals or
purging from the mould than can be obtained from any known method.
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention of "An Improvement
in the Process of Concentrating and Crystallizing Sugar," as communicated
to me from abroad, I wish it to be understood that I do not claim the use
of alcohol for the defecation or clarification of sugar or sugar juices, as
that process is known; but what I claim, under the above in part recited
Letters Patent is, the process substantially as specified for concentrating and
crystallizing sugar by the use of alcohol applied to a concentrated solution
of sugar after it has parted with a large amount of its water, so as to
render the mass mixible, and thus permit its easy exit from the pan or
evaporating vessel, and also to be capable of arranging its crystals, and
parting with its coloring matter and fluid portions, whereby a larger per-
centage of crystals may be obtained than by the methods heretofore
employed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)