JAMES COLLIER, of Upper Thornhaugh-street, in the county of Middlesex, Engineer; for a machine for combing wool, hemp, flax, waste silk, cotton, hair, or any other substance or material capable of being reduced to a sliver by combing. Dated August 4, 1814.

JAMES THOMPSON, of Yarmouth, in the county of Norfolk, Master Mariner; for a method of assisting to render a ship, vessel, or craft, governable in all the cases of her motions, Dated August 4, 1814.

EDWARD CHARLES HOWARD, of Nottingham-place, in the parish of St. Mary-le-bone, in the county of Middlesex, Esquire; for certain means of separating insoluble substances from fluids in which the same are suspended. Dated August 4, 1814.

TOBIAS MICHELL, of Upper Thames-street, in the city of London, Gentleman; for a machine for raising water with less power than has hitherto been experienced, for the impelling of machinery, and for other purposes. Dated August 4, 1814.

JEAN SAMUEL PAULY, of Little Charlotte-street, in the parish of St. George Hanover-square, in the county of Middlesex, Engineer; for improvements in the construction and use of fire-arms. Dated August 4, 1814.

GEORGE COURTAULD, of Braintree, in the county of Essex, Silk-throwster; for a spindle for the manufacture of silk-thread. Dated August 4, 1814.

SEBASTIAN ERARD, of Great Marlborough-street, Oxford-street, in the county of Middlesex, Musical Instrument-maker; for improvements in musical instruments. Dated August 4, 1814.

Specification of the Patent granted to EDWARD CHARLES HOWARD, of Westbourn Green, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire; for certain Improvements in the Processes described in the Patent granted to him the 31st of October 1812*, and certain Apparatus for carrying the same into effect. Dated November 20, 1813.

With a Plate.

To all to whom these presents shall come, &c. NOW KNOW YE, that I the said Edward Charles Howard, in compliance with the last-mentioned proviso, dohere by declare that the nature of my said last-mentioned invention, and the manner of performing the same, are particularly described as follows; that is to say: Firstly, instead of proceeding to refine the net or good sugar obtained by the first part of my process in the said Specification* or any other sugar by solution with water, and the subsequent application of my finings, as is therein directed to be performed, I do in preference, and

* Published in Vol. XXIII. of this Work.

VOL. XXV.-SECOND SERIES.

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as

as one of my said improvements, proceed to refine the same by the action of steam and finings, which I find can be conveniently performed by placing the said sugar, with the due proportion of my finings intermixed therewith, in any suitable vessel, having within a perforated stage to support the sugar, and a ramification of steam pipes underneath the stage, from which steam is allowed to issue through small holes, by means whereof the sugar is heated and dissolved by the action of steam, as employed in many well-known chemical and manufacturing processes. And when the whole of the sugar becomes fully dissolved, and has acquired the heat of about two hundred degrees, according to the scale of Fahrenheit, I proceed in the refinement either by filtration or by precipitation; and, in the event of my proceeding by filtration, I allow the solution to pass (by pressure of a superincumbent column of the fluid, or of some other wellknown force) through a filtre; and the filtre I commonly use is composed of an extensive surface of linen cloth, called Russia Duck; in which filtre it is desirable that the temperature, so acquired as aforesaid, should be kept up, or as much as possible retained. But if, instead of proceeding by filtration, I proceed in the operation of clarification by repose or precipitation, (as directed in the said Specification,) and if the solution should be stronger than is suitable to this operation, that is to say, if it should be considerably more than one-fifth heavier than an equal bulk of water, then I do dilute it with water until it is only one-fifth, or thereabouts, heavier than an equal bulk of water. But, I do hereby declaré, that the invention for which this Patent is obtained by me, in so far as regards this first improvement upon my said former invention, does consist in the application of steam to the sugar at the same time that it is exposed to the action of

the

the finings, and in thereafter causing the impurities to separate by filtration or by repose.

And, secondly, I do declare that it is advantageous, and is one of my said improvements, that the finings first mentioned in my said Specification, if intended to be used with filtration, should be prepared by a due saturation of the alum and lime, without leaving any change of colour on the turmeric test-paper, as therein directed, or that the change which it may be convenient to produce in arriving at the point of saturation, by too great a proportion of the lime curds, should be removed by the subsequent addition of alum, not more than sufficient to leave the colour of the said test-paper unchanged when immersed therein. And that I find it also adviseable to add about ́ three ounces of whiting to my said finings for every two and a half pounds of alum employed in making the same. And that the finings, when thus prepared, will, in the operation with filtering, answer the purpose of those directed in my said Specification to be used for the superior degrees of refinement in sugars; and that in case the said filtration be not used, it will be preferable that the alum should be dissolved in a larger quantity of water, namely, in about twenty-four instead of sixteen times its weight; and also in preference, that the limecurds should be diffused in so much water as that each gallon of the mixture should contain about six hundred grains of the lime. And I do further declare, that the finings therewith made, and which can produce no change on the said test-paper, will in the operation, without filtering, form an excellent substitute for the finings directed in my said Specification to be used for the superior degrees of refinement. And further, that in performing the operation without filtering it is for the most part advantageous; and one of my said improveL12 ments,

ments, that two parcels of finings, each of the same quantity, in proportion to that of the sugar, as was directed in my former Specification, should be used: that the first thereof should be employed with steam, as aforesaid, and allowed to separate in part only by precipitation, and that the dregs, dirt, and thickest of the liquor, should be thrown on any common filtre, instead of the dirt and insoluble impurities alone being separated, as directed in my said Specification; and that the second parcel of such finings should be then diffused in the liquor so obtained by help of the first parcel, in or by the same manner of proceeding as if the dirt and insoluble impurities had by themselves been separated, as was in my said Specification in that case directed to be performed. Which said second parcel of finings may well be employed in the next succeeding operation as a first parcel, either after their separation by a filtre or otherwise, or by pouring them as retained in the purified liquor in thick suspension upon the sugar, supported by the stage. herein before directed; but in the preparation of double loaf from sugars previously refined, clarified, and evaporated, I find one parcel with the action of steam sufficient; and even that one parcel afterwards capable of acting with steam upon inferior sugars as a first parcel, But I hereby declare that my invention, for which this present Patent is obtained, in so far as regards this second improvement upon my former process, does consist in the application of the finings, completely neutralised, when the procees of filtration is to be employed; and that when filtration is not employed, it does consist in exposing the unrefined sugar successively to the action of two parcels of finings, the first whereof, in conjunction with steam, aş herein before described, removes part of the impurities chiefly by chemical agency; and the

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