IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING ANIMAL CHARCOAL USED IN REFINING SUGAR
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edwin Demas Elliot, General Manager of the British
and Irish Sugar Refining Comp, Limited, Plymouth, for the Inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING ANIMAL CHARCOAL USED IN REFINING
SUGAR."
Sealed the 18th September 1866, and dated the 21st March 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edwin Demas Elliot at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st March 1866.
I, EDWIN DEMAS ELLIOT, General Manager of the British and Irish Sugar
Refining Comp, Limited, Plymouth, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING ANIMAL CHARCOAL USED
REFINING SUGAR," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in treating animal charcoal
used in refining sugar.
In refining sugar the liquor or syrups are filtered through animal charcoal,
which after a time requires to be washed with hot water and to be reburut.
In washing the animal charcoal much water and offensive matter is retained,
and the animal charcoal has to be dried before reburning.
Now my Invention consists in exhausting the bottom or lower parts of the
cisterns or vessels containing the animal charcoal by means of air pumps or
other exhausting apparatus; by this means streams of atmospheric air are
caused to pass through and amongst the grains of animal charcoal, and thus

page_text: the removal of the moisture and offensive matter is facilitated, and the animal
charcoal partially dried. In addition to which the following advantages are
obtained by this process, viz. :-
1stly, the animal charcoal is much better cleansed of its impurities and a
large quantity of offensive slimy substance is drawn off, which effectually
prevents any portion of the same being burnt into the char, otherwise the
quality of the animal charcoal is much injured, and its power of decoloration
greatly impaired.
2ndly, the saving in coals, machinery, and time is considerable in re-
burning.
3rdly, the animal charcoal being nearly dry the retorts or cylinders are
not so liable to break, and as there is little steam or vapour to throw off the
offensive smell, which is generally considered by the inhabitants of the
surrounding neighbourhood to be a great nuisance and very prejudicial to
their health is got rid of.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edwin Demas Elliot in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
20th September 1866.
EDWIN
TO..ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME,
DENAS ELLIOT, General Manager of the British and Irish Sugar Refining
Company, Limited, Plymouth, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Edwin Demas Elliot, Her special licence that I, the said Edwin Demas
Elliot, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Edwin Demas Elliot, 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN TREATING ANIMAL CHARCOAL USED IN REFINING SUGAR," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Edwin Demas Elliot, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of.
their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature,

page_text: 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.
:
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edwin Demas Elliot, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to bo
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the fol-
lowing statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in treating animal charcoal
used in refining sugar.
In refining sugar the liquor or syrups are filtered through animal charcoal,
which after a time. requires to be washed with hot water and to be reburnt.
In washing the animal charcoal much water and offensive matter is retained,
and the animal charcoal has to be dried before reburning.
Now my Invention consists in exhausting the bottom or lower parts of the
cisterns or vessels containing the animal charcoal by means of air pumps or
other exhausting apparatus, by this means streams of atmospheric air aro
caused to pass through and amongst the grains of animal charcoal, and thus
the removal of the moisture and offensive matter is facilitated, and the animal
charcoal partially dried. In addition to which the following advantages are
obtained by this process, viz:-
1st, the animal charcoal is much better cleansed of its impurities and a
large quantity of offensive slimy substance is drawn off, which effectually
prevents any portion of the same being burnt into the charcoal, otherwise the
quality of the animal charcoal is much injured, and its power of decoloration
greatly impaired.
2ndly, the saving in coals, machinery, and time is considerable in re-
burning.
Srdly, the animal charcoal being nearly dry the pipes, retorts, or cylinders
are not so liable to break, and as there is little steam or vapour to throw off
the offensive smell, which is generally considered by the inhabitants of the
surrounding neighbourhood to be a great nuisance and very prejudicial to
their health, is got rid of.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, I will proceed more fully to
describe the manner of performing the same.
The animal charcoal having been washed by the use of water in the filters
as heretofore, in place of removing the animal charcoal charged with water
immediately from the filters, or after the same has been allowed a certain time
to drain, and then drying and reburning the animal charcoal as has heretofore

page_text: been the practice, I connect an air pump or other exhausting apparatus to
the lower part of the filter, and below the false bottom of the same, and for
about an hour (more or less, as may seem desirable) continue to draw air
through the charcoal till by the passage of streams of air through the charcoal
the moisture is removed, together with a large portion of the slimy and other
impurities previously taken up from the sugar.
In the case of sugar houses, where operations are carried on largely, and a
number of filters are used, it will be found more convenient to connect the
bottoms of the filters by means of pipes with a small cistern or vessel, and
from thence by a main pipe of larger dimensions to the air pump or other
exhausting apparatus.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edwin Demas Elliot, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
EDWIN DEMAS ELLIOT. (L.S.)