IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- FACTURE OF SUGAR AND IN APPARATUS TO BE USED THEREFOR
Year: 1872

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alfred Vincent Newton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
31st May 1872.-A communication from abroad by Santiago Dod,
of Havana, in the Island of Cuba..
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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF SUGAR AND IN APPARATUS TO BE USED THEREFOR," to be as follows:-
:-
One part of this Invention which relates to the manufacture of sugar
from either the sugar cane or beetroot, consists in the generation of the
steam used in sugar works including the supply of the clarifiers, also the
working of the pump or pumps, and if desired the driving of the engine
or engines employed by or from the juice itself as a substitute for water
in or during the earliest stages of concentrating the juice by boiling the
latter under pressure in a close vessel or vessels exposed to the direct
application of heat, whereby fuel is largely economized as also labor,
and the removal of impurities from the juice cheapened by reason of the
high degree of heat which is obtained to effect coagulation and remove
impurities without resorting, or, of necessity, to repeated successive
stages of concentration, or to bone black or chemical substitutes
therefor.

page_text: The Invention also consists in a vacuum pan provided with a number
of separate hollow beating sections, which may be of any desired shape,
size, and arrangement, and either plain or corrugated, the same being
immersed in the sugar liquid and being heated internally by steam,
whereby an effective evaporating surface is obtained and great facility
afforded for putting together or taking apart the interior portions of the
pan.
The Invention likewise comprises a novel construction of the body or
shell of the vacuum pan, whereby its diameter or area is abruptly
increased from the level of the top of the heating surface in the pan,
thereby increasing the evaporating surface of the liquid relatively to
the area of the body or portion of the latter exposed to the heater and
reducing the depth of the whole volume of liquid as maintained by
successive charges to the pan, so that a lower temperature suffices.
The Invention also consists in the use of a perforated plate or strainer-
like surface on top of the vacuum pan, together with a pipe projecting
up from the latter into a dome or chamber with which a condenser is
connected, and to which the perforated plate forms a bottom; by this
combination the foam from the liquid in the pan is broken by the per-
forated plate and that which passes up the pipe, which latter acts as a
safety column, is broken at the upper edge of the latter and is returned
as liquid through the perforated plate back to the pan, thus preventing
the passage of the liquid from the pan to the condenser.
The Invention likewise embraces a novel construction of the joints in
or connected with the pan by means of a bevel edged surfaces seated:
within bevelled recesses, whereby among other advantages construction
is cheapened, bolts at the joints are avoided, and a closer or tighter joint
is obtained.
The Invention also consists in a swinging or swiveling attachment of
the trough to the bottom of the pan for running off the concentrated
liquid or syrup, and whereby increased facility is obtained for discharging
it at different points or in varied directions as circumstances or convenience
may suggest.
Among other features of the Invention are also the following:-The
water of condensation is drawn off from the condenser by means of a
pump, and the condenser used in the combination, known as the dry air
process, is arranged in close relation with the vacuum pan, and at such

page_text: altitude relatively to said pan that the water used to effect condensation
will be raised to the condenser by the pressure of the atmosphere without
the aid of a pump. Said condenser is composed of a series of divisions
arranged one below the other and extending horizontally more or less.
across it, such divisions either being formed of reversely arranged side
plates or of side rings and insulated intermediato plates, whereby a very
simple and effiecient condenser is obtained. The columns or legs which
support the vacuum pan and condenser are made hollow, and all utilized
as pipes or ducts in the manufacture of the sugar; thus one of the columns
serves to convey the steam to the heater in the vacuum pan, another to
convey the liquid to be boiled or evaporated, another to carry off the
water of condensation from the vacuum pan, and another to pass off the
water from the condenser. The air pump or pumps are greatly simplified
by making the cylinder or cylinders move, and employing fixed plungers
while the valves of said pumps, or certain of them, are arranged to present
flat outer surfaces by supporting them at their backs by dovetails or
tongues within recesses, whereby the ends of the cylinders and faces of
the pistons may be fitted to work close to each other, thus avoiding lost
space for the accumulation of air and allowing of said valves to be fitted
to their places and of being detached when required, with great facility.