Improvements in Intermediate Steaming or Macerating Carriers for Sugar-cane Machinery.
Year: 1893

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Intermediate Steaming or Macerating Carriers for
Sugar-cane Machinery.
A communication from HECTOR KIDD, 14, Toxteth Road, Lee Point, Sydney,
New South Wales, Civil and Mechanical Engineer.
I, WILLIAM SMITH, of the Firm of A. & W. Smith & Co., of Eglinton Engine
Works, Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineers, do hereby
declare the nature of this 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:
-
This invention relates to sugar-cane machinery of the kind comprising two or
more roller mills through which the sugar cane passed successively, and its
object is to provide apparatus for carrying or conveying the canes from one mill
to the next and for at the same time steaming or macerating them in order to
render more complete the extraction of the juice.
Apparatus constructed according to the invention is represented on an accom--
panying sheet of explanatory drawings,
Figure, 1, thereof being a plan, Figure, 2, a side elevation, Figure, 3, an.
enlarged transverse vertical section and Figure, 4, an enlarged plan of certain
details.
In these drawings the same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like
parts wherever they are repeated.
The crushed canes which have passed the first mill, 5, are transferred to the
second mill, 6, which may be either a three-roller mill as shown, or one with two-
or more rollers, through an intermediate steaming carrier, being delivered from the
first mill, 5, down an inclined shoot, 7, and being subjected to a spray of hot water
or to jets of steam from a pipe, 8, for maceration. The steaming carrier is a casing
or trough having a horizontal part, 9, at the entering end, and an inclined part, 10,
extending thence upwards so as to deliver the crushed canes to the second mill, 6,
and there passes through the trough in the lower part of its course an endless.
conveyer fixed to two endless side chains, 11; passing round end pulleys or sprocket
wheels, 12, 13, those at the upper end being the drivers, and under guide pulleys, 14,
at the angle of the horizontal and inclined parts. To the links of the endless.
chains 11, are fixed plates, 15, which are for the purpose of keeping the crushed
canes depressed beneath the hot water occupying the bottom of the horizontal
part, 9, of the trough; and at intervals along the chains there are fixed to them
cross bars, to which are fixed rake prongs, 16, for moving the crushed cane along
the trough. The trough, 9, 10, is covered closely except at the extreme ends, and
at the ends only as much opening is allowed as is required for the entrance and
exit of the endless conveyer and the crushed cane; and hinged baffle plates,.
indicated by dotted lines, 17, in Figure, 2, which rest on the conveyer plates, 15,
serve to check the circulation of steam through the trough.
As the crushed canes are moved up the inclined part, 10, of the trough they
rise out of the water which drains from them, and they are at the same time heated
by means of steam admitted to a casing, 18, constructed along the under side of the
inclined part, 10, of the trough. When the crushed canes are thus fed to the
second mill, 6, in a macerated or moistened and heated condition, they much more
completely yield the residue of their saccharine matter in passing through the
second mill. The casing, 18, is provided with a safety valve, 19, and is supplied
with steam by a branch pipe, 20. Water due to condensation in the casing, 18,
can pass by a pipe, 21, into the horizontal part, 9, of the trough; and a branch.

page_text: "
steam pipe, 22, provided with a safety valve, 23, is provided for injecting steam into
and heating the water in the trough part, 9.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
In sugar-cane machinery the combination with two mills of an intermediate
steaming or macerating carrier constructed, arranged and operating, substantially
as and for the purposes herein before described.
T
1
1 A mount 1002
EDMUND HUNT,
Applicant's Agent.