16S 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[JUNB, 



Ihpinselvps, compospd of a niimhpr of very Hplicafe cliistpreri shafts; 

 and the rpsfmblanrp is incrpns°d bv those which siipporl th? chancel 

 arches being carripd up liigher tlinn tlie c;ipitids of tlie pillars, and 

 the springing of iIip arches, on the sides. — Thoogli onlv a p.irt of ;in 

 interior. No. 1220, " Monnment and Obituary Window," E. B. Lamb, 

 as a design has great merit, — of excellent character, yet perfectly 

 simple; il therefore deserved to be placed somewhat lower, so that 

 the design of the pain'ed window could be made out, as well as its 

 character perceived. The propriety of using windows for monu- 

 mental purposes is however far from being obvious. The same very 

 clever arrhitect — than whom no one better understands the genius and 

 true sentiment of the mediaeval style, — gives us in No. 1259, 

 " A Design for a Chapel proposed to be erected at Holloway," some- 

 thing greatly superior to the buildings of that class around the metro- 

 pohs, as wouhi perhaps have been rendered more strikingly apparent 

 had the design actuallv chosen been exhibited also: as it is not, we 

 must wait until the building itself shall be erected before we can judge 

 what sort of taste the committee showed in preferring it to the one 

 here at the Academy.— There are again this year some drawings of 

 the designs for the Nunbead Cemeterv Chapel, viz., 117S and 1193, 

 by W. H. Brakspear, and 1289, by T. Little, the successful competi- 

 tor, who now exhibits "a section of the Antechjpel, showing the pro- 

 posed arrangement of monumental tablets and inscripticms ;" — all of 

 them tasteful drawings, but only in sepia, and otherwise of too modest 

 a character to attract nolice in an exhibition room, where most of the 

 paintings are studiously coloured up, and some of them almost flagi- 

 tiously so, making a parade of fierce scarlet and lobstercomplexioned 

 bricks, — of skies more intense than heavenly blue, — and of figures and 

 other ad captandum fillings-up, to make amends for or conceal their 

 deficiency in architectural interest.— No. 1207 "Restoration of the 

 Church of the Legislation and of the parish of St. Margaret," VV. 

 Bardwell (the author of "Ancient and Modern Temples''; is, we sup- 

 pose, merely a volunteer idea for rebuilding — at least in regard to its 

 exterior — that structure ; and certainly were it to he so refashioned 

 it would be as handsome as from the mutilations which it has suffered 

 it is now unsightly, yet we question if its entire removal would not be 

 a greater improvement. The "Legislation" woidd not miss it. 



REGISTER OF NEW PATENTS. 



(Und»r this hpad we propose Riving abstracts of tlie speciBcations of all the most I 

 portant patents as they are enrolled. If any additional information be required as to a 

 patfr.t, the same may be obtained by apulying to )Mr. L.'iXTON at the Office of 

 JOURNAL.) 



this 



IMPROVEMENTS IN THE !«[ANUFACTURE OF SUGAR. 



Henrv Oliver Robinson, Old Jewry, City, and of Mill Wall Iron 

 Works, Poplar, engineer, for "certain improvements in steam machinery and 

 apparatus Jor the manufuclure and refining of sugar." — Granted October 10, 

 )8i4; Enrolled Ajril 10, 1845. 



The improvements are very important, and consist of four parts. The first 

 relates to the machinery for obtaining the juice of the sugar cane, commonly 

 called a steam engine and sugar mill. Upon the usual mode of constructing 

 these, the steam engine, the drixing gear, or connecting whee's, and the mill, 

 ate each adapted to be supported upon three separate foundations of timber 

 or masonry, of difffrent heights from the ground, or levels respectively, 

 that is to say, the motor, the machinery communicating million or power, 

 and !he operating machine are connected to each other by their moving 

 parts only. Upon the new mode of constructing the same, the three divi- 

 sions of the machinery are shaped and adapted in si ch manner that the lower 

 extremities of the fixed parts are in the same plane willi each other, and rest 

 upon and fi\ed to a base plate or base frame of iron ; thus ttiey are connected 

 by their fixed parts, as well as by their moving parts, and form one self-de- 

 pendent machine, termed by the inventor a "steam cane m 11."' 



The second improvement relates a'so to the machinery for obtaining the 

 juice of the su.^ar-cane, commonly called the sugar-mill, considered apart 

 from its connection with ihe motor, that is to say, to the operating macliine only. 

 In the common horizontal mill the rolls or pressing cylinders are three in 

 number, and are placed with one above acting upon or against two below. In 

 this new horizontal s>ugar-canc mill the rolls are four in number, and placed 

 in pairs, two above and two belo.v, each upper roll acting upon or against a 

 lower one, the canes passing ciinlinuously between ihetuo pairs of rolls. 

 Each upper roll is placed a litile in advance of the louer roll against which 

 il arts, so that the canes when undergoing the pressure of each pair of rolls 

 are in an inclined upward position, ami the juice pressed out of ihem or libe- 

 lated does not pass through with the canes, but falls down in front of each 



lower roll into the mill-bed or receiver. Each pair of rolls has its own tie- 

 bolts placed in the exact direction of the strain, so that all the severing force 

 of the action of pres.sing or crushing the canes is borne by the said tie-bolts 

 and the cast iion side-frames have merely to perform tlie office of siipporls' 

 In conncciion with the above descrdied arrangement of the pressing cylinder^ 

 of a sugar-cane mill ihe inventor introduces bis Cane-feeding Apparatus, pa- 

 tented by him in 1840, in such a manner ihat the end of ilie moving platform 

 thereof comes under the upper one ot ibe^first pair of rolls of the mill, and 

 delivers the canes properly to the action of the mill : the said upper roll thus 

 taling the place of the small upper roll of the feeding apparatus. 



The third part of the improvemenis relates to the conversion of manufac- 

 ture of the juice ot the cane into sugar, and the refining of sugar. The pre- 

 sent process, termed clarific ition or clarifying, lo which cane juice is first 

 subjected is not materially changed or altered. When the cane juice is clari- 

 fied and collected into a reservoir, it is injected or pumped into a close iron 

 vessel, called a C/ose £yrt/Jorfl/(jr; in this vessel the juice is subjected to the 

 heat of an orilinary fire placed in a fire-grate underneath, and evaporated or 

 boiled till about one-half of the aqueous constituent is driven off. The va- 

 pour IS not permitted ic flow out till a certain pressure above that of the at- 

 mosphere isoliiained. This vapour or steam is disposed of as hereinafler point- 

 ed out. The juice thus boileil is then permuted to flow from the close eva- 

 porator through a pipe leading from near the bottom to the lop of a metallic 

 vessel called a Surface FiUrator ; this vessel is also made close or sieam-tight, 

 and may be ot anv s'rong and convenient shape. The cover is made to re- 

 move; within tne vessel are placed in alternate layers textile fabric or fil- 

 tering cloth and wicker or pierced merallic plates ; through these the juice is 

 gently urged or forced by mear.5 of the pressure of steam in the close evapo- 

 rator, at such a rate as may be found U st, the rate being perfectly controlled 

 by a cock placed in the exit pipe. The juice is noiv deprived of its feculen- 

 cies, but is not yet chemically purified. In order to accomplish this latter 

 object the exit-pipe of the surface filirator is made to communicate with a 

 vessel similar to it in its external form, which is called a Charcoal Filirator; 

 this vessel has a false bottom-plate pierced with holes, and contains animal 

 or bone charcoal, of the usual description of the sugar refineries. Through 

 this medium the juice is in like manner urged, and escapes through a pipe 

 and regulating cock into an open vessel, called a. Filtered Syrup Reservoir. 



Another arrangement of the process is the following : — the liyuor or syrup 

 instead of being evaporated to the degree stateil in the close evaporator by 

 fire heat, is allowed at an earlier stage to flow into a second close evaporator, 

 similar in its construction to the vacuum evaporator, described hereinafter, 

 and heated by the steam emanating from the juice in the first close evapora- 

 tor, until the degree of density named is attained.it is then permitted to flow 

 into the filtrating vessels as described. At this point it is no longer deemed 

 proper to submit the syrup to the action of the high temperature of fire heat, 

 and in order to evaporate the remainder of the aqueous cunstituent and con- 

 vert the syrup into sugar syrup, it is evaporated in vacuo, by the action of 

 steam heat in a metallic vessel, called a /acuiim £iia/!orafor; this vessel is 

 made of a cylindrical form, placed horizontally ; at each end is a space or 

 compartment formed by a plate or plates of metal ; between these compart- 

 ments, and commutucating with them, are placed straight tubes, the ends 

 of which are let into and fixed to the plates forming the compartments. The 

 1 quor or syrup to be evaporated is placed in the body of the vebsel through 

 tt iiich these tubes pass, and the steam le: in to the two end compartments and 

 within the tubes, gives off' to the syrup its heat and evaporaies it to there- 

 quired degree of specific gravity. The vacuum or partial vacuum over the 

 surface of ttie syrup within the vacuum evaporator, is produced by the com- 

 mon mode of a condenser and air pump. When the syrup is thus finished, 

 it is discharged from the vacuum evaporator and crystallized in the usual 

 way. 



The steam produced from the juice in the close evaporator aboved referred 

 to, is employed to supply the vacuum evaporator and :he clarifying pans, or 

 a steam engine ; thus one fire may suffice for all the processes of the manu- 

 facture of the cane juice into sugar; and wa'ercan be dispensed with. 



In the refining of sugar the same kinds of filtrating vessels, or a series 

 thereof arc employed, e^ch being steam-tight or close, and communicating 

 with each other from bottom to too; but in this case as there is no close 

 evaporator Irom which steam is produced, the flow ot the syrup is actuated 

 by a small supply of steam Irom a steam boiler to keep a pressure on the sur- 

 face of the syrup, within the vessel or reservoir containing the syrup to be 

 operated upon. 



The fourth improvement is the making of the vacuum pan used in the 

 manufacture of sugar, or in the refining of sugar, of cast iron, and in the 

 manner described above. 



COPPER ORES. 



William Henry Ritchie, of Lincolu's Inn, in the county of Middlesex, 



gentleman, for '^ improvements in obtaining copper from ores.'' (Beingacom- 



raunicalion.J— Granted October 10. 1844; Enrolled April 10, 1845. Reported 



in the London Journal, 



