therewith, for Purifying Sugar-liquor.
Year: 1886

page_text: therewith, for Purifying Sugar-liquor.
I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London do hereby declare the nature of my invention and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to apparatus for employment in connection with con-
tinuous filters for purifying sugar liquor by the process of upward filtration through
bone-black.
In such filters the bone-black at the bottom of the filtering chamber requires to
be gradually removed, as it becomes charged with impurities and loses its decolorizing
power.
The invention consists in the provision, at the bottom of the filtering chamber,
of a grate with adjustable rocking bars or slats which, when held at a prescribed
angle of inclination, support the superincumbent bone-block; but when moved to
a different angle permit the bone-black to fall by its own gravity through the
spaces between the bars or slats into a receiving chamber, from which it is removed
by suitable means without interrupting the continued upward flow of the sugar
Jiquor through the filtering chamber.
In the accompanying drawing
Figure 1 is a central vertical section of a continuous filter provided with
improvements according to this invention.
Figure 2 is a horizontal section on the line ww, Figure 1, showing a top view of
a portion of the grate and of the crank-shaft for imparting reciprocating motion to
the grate.
Figure 3 is a horizontal section taken on the same line as Figure 2, but drawa
to an enlarged scale.

page_text: Figure 4 is a vertical section on the line x, x, Figure 3, showing the grate bars
or slats in such inclined positions that the discharge of the superincumbent bone-
black is prevented.
Figure 5 is a vertical section on the line y y, Figure 3, showing the grate bars
or slats rocked into less inclined positions, for effecting the discharge of bone-black
from the bottom of the filtering chamber.
Figure 6 is a side elevation of a portion of one of the grate bars or slats showing
one of its trunnions in elevation, and showing the trunnion bearing and adjoining
parts of the structure in vertical section.
The filtering chamber A, containing a column of bone black B, surmounts the
receiving chamber C which receives the exhausted bone-black and collected im-
purities discharged from the bottom of the filtering chamber.
The column of bone-black in the filtering chamber is supported upon the
horizontal grate D composed of the equi-distant parallel rocking slats d, d. The
slats d are each pivotally attached to the connecting rods E, e. Each end of each
slat is provided with a flange and a trunnion d². The trunnions are provided
with bearings in suitable boxes, which may be fastened to the side walls or to the
top of the receiving chamber C.
The trunnions of each slat or bar are in alignment with each other, and with
the centre of a slot d³, extending longitudinally through the slat from one of its
end flanges to the other. The larger portion of each slat is below its axis of
oscillation. The lower edge of the slat is preferably formed into a curve d', the
concave side of which is upward.
It is not absolutely essential that the slats or grate-bars shall be provided with
the slots d³, but when they are so provided all the superincumbent bone-black
rests upon portions of the slats which are comparatively distant from their
respective axes, and hence, during oscillation, have a range of movement which
makes them especially effective in causing the dislodgement and discharge of the
bone-black.
Motion to rock the grate bars or slats may be communicated to the connecting
rods E, e, respectively, by means of the links E¹, e¹, pivoted to the inner ends of
the horizontal sliding rods E2, e², provided with suitably packed bearings Es, es,
extending through the upper part of the side wall of the receiving chamber; the
outer ends of the sliding rods being, respectively, connected by the links E*, e¹ to
the cranks F, f, of the operating shaft G.
The operating shaft G may be either continuously or intermittently rotated, or
it may be provided with the operating crank G², by the application of power to
which the shaft may have imparted to it a variable range of rocking motion,
according to the range of rocking motion which it may be found useful to give to
the grate bars or slats.
It will be understood that varying either the rapidity or the range of motion of
the grate-bars will have the effect of varying the rate of discharge of the exhausted
bone-black from the bottom of the filtering chamber; and that the proper motions
for the grate-bars will depend partly upon the sizes of the grains of bone-black
employed, and partly upon the proportion of impurities contained in the sugar
liquor which is being filtered and the consequent degree of rapidity with which
the bottom stratum of bone-black becomes exhausted and requires removal.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to
me by my Foreign Correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
First. In apparatus for purifying sugar liquor by the process of upward filtration
through a body of bone-black, the combination of a filtering chamber surmounting
a receiving chamber, with a discharger at the bottom of said filtering chamber in
the form of a grate provided with rocking slats or grate-bars, and means for rocking

page_text: said slats or grate bars from positions in which they support and hold up the bone-
black in said filtering chamber to positions in which they permit the bone-black to
be discharged from the said filtering chamber through the spaces between the slats
or grate-bars into said receiving chamber, substantially as set forth.
Second. In a bone black discharger, substantially such as described, the rocking
slats or grate-bars d, d, provided respectively with the longitudinal slots d³, d³, as
set forth.