We give opposite illustrations of Schreiber's apparatus for revivifying
bone-black or animal charcoal. The object of revivification is to render
the black fit to be used again after it has lost its decolorizing
properties through service--that is to say, to free its pores from the
absorbed salts and insoluble compounds that have formed therein
during the operation of sugar refining. There are two methods
employed--fermentation and washing. At present the tendency is to
abandon the former in order to proceed with as small a stock of black as
possible, and to adopt the method of washing with water and acid in a
rotary washer.
Figs. 1 and 2 represent a plan and elevation of a bone-black room,
containing light filters, A, arranged in a circle around wells, B. These
latter have the form of a prism with trapezoidal base, whose small sides
end at the same point, d, and the large ones at the filter. The funnel,
E, of the washer, F, is placed in the space left by the small ends of
the wells, so that the black may be taken from these latter and thrown
directly into the washer. The washer is arranged so that the black may
flow out near the steam fitter, G, beneath the floor. The discharge of
this filter is toward the side of the elevator, H, which takes in the
wet black below, and carries it up and pours it into the drier situated
at the upper part of the furnace. This elevator, Figs. 3 and 4, is
formed of two vertical wooden uprights, A, ten centimeters in thickness,
to which are fixed two round-iron bars the same as guides. The lift,
properly so-called, consists of an iron frame, C, provided at the four
angles with rollers, D, and supporting a swinging bucket, E, which, on
its arrival at the upper part of the furnace, allows the black to fall
to an inclined plane that leads it to the upper part of the drier. The
left is raised and lowered by means of a pitch-chain, F, fixed to the
middle of the frame, C, and passing over two pulleys, G, at the upper
part of the frame and descending to the mechanism that actuates it.
This latter comprises a nut, I, acting directly on the chain; a toothed
wheel, K, and a pinion, J, gearing with the latter and keyed upon the
shaft of the pulleys, L and M. The diameter of the toothed wheel, K, is
0.295 of a meter, and it makes 53.4 revolutions per minute. The diameter
of the pinion is 0.197 of a meter, and it makes 80 revolutions per
minute. The pulleys, M and L, are 0.31 of a meter in diameter, and
make 80 revolutions per minute. Motion is transmitted to them by other
pulleys, N, keyed upon a shaft placed at the lower part, which receives
its motion from the engine of the establishment through the intermedium
of the pulley, O. The diameter of the latter is 0.385 of a meter, and
that of N is 0.58. They each make 43 revolutions per minute.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--ELEVATION OF BONE-BLACK REVIVIFYING PLANT
(SCHREIBER'S SYSTEM.)