USRE6378E - Improvement in refining sugars - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

FRANZ 0. MATTHIESSEN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN REFINING.SUGARS.

Specification forming part of Letters PatentNo. 160,928, dated March 16, 1875 re'ssue N 0. 6,378, dated April 13, 1875; application filed April 8, 1875.

To all whom it may concern: V

Be it known that I, FRANZ 0. MATTHIES- SEN, -of New York, N. Y., have invented an Improved Process of Refining Sugar, of which the following is a specification:

- In the ordinary process of refining sugar the raw sugar or concrete, as it is sometimes called, is clarified, and the resulting sugarliquor is repeatedly boiled in mono, and after each boiling the crystallized sugar is mechanically separated from the sii'up. The reheating of the sirup in the vacuum-pan exposes it to continued carbonization, and the respective products of the successive boilings are accordingly of increasingly dark colors and lower grades.v After the last hoilin g and separation there still remains a portion of fluid which has .to be barreled and marketed as sirup.

My improved process includes -the boiling of the clarified-sugar liquor in the vacuumpan until the usual crystallization has taken place, but instead of mechanically separating the crystals and rehoiling the sirup I discharge the entire contents ot'the vacuum-pan directly 'into a vacuum-chamber, where the hot sirup containing the crystallized portion of the sugar is divided into small masses, or

spread over a large surface, and subjected to a gentle heat, and consequent prolongation of the processes of evaporation and crystallization/ This treatment is prolonged until the material operated upon has lost its fluid character and acquired the condition of agranular mass, substantially like what is known as "cofl'ee-sugar, the slight portion of sirup present being adherent to the sugar-crystals. The heat of the sirupitself as it comes from the vacuum-pan is adequate to efl'ect the required degree of evaporation in the-vacuumchamber if the material operated upon be divided into sufliciently-small masses-as, for example, if it be injected into a suitably high vacuum-chamber in the form of spray. A

moderate application of heat will be required when the sirup, &c., is deposited in-pans or trays in the vacuum-chamber; butthe tem perature must not be allowed to rise above 212 Fahrenheit, audit is preferable not to allow the temperature in the vacuum-chamber to rise above 120 Fahrenheit.

It will be seen that the distinctive characteristic of. my invention is the subjection of the entire product of the boiling in the vacuum-pan to prolonged evaporation in vacuo, and hence there is a continuity of operation in respect to the avoidance of repeated boilin g andre-exposurebf the sugar to carbonization.

My improved process maybe applied to the sirup, &;c., produced by the first boiling of the sugar-liquor, or to the product of either of the subsequent boilings, the result in all cases being the production from the material operated upon by my process of one uniform grade of sugar, and the utilization of all the sugar present, so that there is no'fluid remainder, and no loss by reason of having to market a portion of the sugar in the form of sirup.

I claim as my invention The improved process of refining sugar F. o. MATTnInssEN. Witnesses:

ISAAC ROMAINE, F. M. QUIMBY.