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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 
 
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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
1 
 
 Evaporation 
 
 IN THE 
 
 WOOD PULP INDUSTRY. 
 

THE 
 
 LILLIE MULTIPLE EFFECT 
 
 EVAPORATORS 
 
 (S. Morris Lillie, Patentee,) 
 IN THE 
 
 Wood Pulp Industry. 
 
 
 ISSUED BY 
 
 The Sugar Apparatus Mfg. Co., 
 
 328 Chestnut Street, 
 
 philadelphia. 
 
 Makers of The Lillie Apparatus. 
 
 (V 
 
 ¥»<rtyy 
 
V 50 
 
 Q-1 1 a 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The Lillie Multiple Effect Evaporating Apparatus, 
 whose use in the Wood Pulp Industry is the occasion 
 of this pamphlet, is a new aspirant for public favor. 
 
 But two Multiple Effects of this type have been 
 constructed, although a number are now in hand, one 
 for concentrating the soda liquors of the now defunct 
 American Wood Paper Company, and the other for 
 thickening the "sweet waters" of the Mollenhauer 
 Sugar Refinery in Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 These two apparatuses, to operate on two very 
 different solutions, were built after much costly experi- 
 menting, with the expectation that they would estab- 
 lish not only the practicability of the type, but also its 
 superiority over all others. In the estimation of those 
 competent to judge, both objects have been attained. 
 (See pp. 15 et seq.) 
 
 The record of the Multiple Effect built for the 
 American Wood Paper Co. is quite fully given in the 
 following pages, and that of the other Multiple Effect 
 is incidentally alluded to. 
 
 JutY 15th, 1893. 
 
THE LILLIH APPARATUS 
 
 IN THE 
 WOOD PULP INDUSTRY. 
 
 TN the spring of 1891, a Lillie Evaporator of 
 * fair size was erected in the recovery depart- 
 ment of the American Wood Paper Company, 
 Manayunk Pa., to demonstrate its ability to 
 properly handle their soda liquors. It re- 
 mained in constant use for some six months, 
 and was worked under varying conditions with- 
 out trouble and with uniform success from the 
 day it started to the day its use was discon- 
 tinued by the closing of the mill preparatory to 
 alterations. During these six months the 
 apparatus was run by the employes of the 
 American Wood Paper Co. , and its performance 
 was carefully noted by the officers of the com- 
 pany, by its superintendent, and by outside 
 experts. At the same time the works of other 
 
pulp makers were visited, and all possible in- 
 formation was obtained regarding the only- 
 other Evaporating Apparatus then in the mar- 
 ket for the concentration of black liquors. 
 In spite of the most strenuous competition 
 and opposition by the makers of the other 
 apparatus, an order was placed for a Quad- 
 ruple Effect Lillie Evaporator to handle black 
 liquors for 60,000 pounds of pulp in twenty- 
 four hours. It was the judgment of officers, 
 superintendent and experts that the Lillie was 
 the better apparatus for the purpose. 
 
 At the end of the six months' use the 
 tubes of the apparatus were apparently in the 
 condition in which they were at the beginning 
 of the six months : they were not corroded, so 
 far as could be seen, and they were absolutely 
 free of scale. The conditions under which 
 the apparatus worked were in some respects 
 most unfavorable. The black liquors were 
 not strained or filtered at all after leaving the 
 washing vats, and in consequence contained 
 more or less pulp, which was carried into the 
 evaporator, and, at times, when the liquor vats 
 were low, in such quantities as to nearly fill its 
 
evaporating spaces. Whenever this occurred, 
 the door of the evaporating chamber was 
 opened and the pulp removed without difficulty 
 and with but a short detention. This possi- 
 bility of quick cleaning is one of the features 
 of the Lillie Apparatus, and it was this ability 
 to quickly clean the Lillie that enabled the 
 American Wood Paper Co. to keep its pulp 
 mill running, and was the cause of the Quad- 
 ruple Effect making the great record herein- 
 after pointed out. 
 
 The story of the Lillie Quadruple Effect 
 in the works of the American Wood Paper Co. 
 is not in every respect a pleasing one, from our 
 point of view. On starting the apparatus 
 much difficulty was had, which was the more 
 irritating because it was wholy unnecessary 
 and its cause inexcusable. It was not due to 
 anything in the nature of the apparatus, or to 
 faults in its design, but was wholly on account 
 of culpable carelessness on the part of me- 
 chanics who were in the employ of the con- 
 tractors to whom its construction and erection 
 had been intrusted. The results of this care- 
 lessness were not discovered until the attempt 
 
8 
 
 was made to work the apparatus. Some of 
 them were rectified, but others could not be 
 without a stoppage of several weeks' duration, 
 and were therefore endured, though at all times 
 a handicap upon the Quadruple Effect during 
 the period of its use. A trouble, more un- 
 pleasant than serious, was met with in the 
 leaking of some of the large joints of the 
 effects, due to red lead having been used in 
 making the joints. None of the difficulties 
 experienced were inherent in the apparatus. 
 They were none of them met with in the 
 first apparatus erected in. the American Wood 
 Paper Co.'s mill, and they will not be ex- 
 perienced with any future apparatus, nor again 
 in this Quadruple Effect, which has, since 
 the shutting down of the mill, been taken 
 apart and put together again in proper man- 
 ner. Aside from the unpleasant features above 
 referred to, and in spite of the defects in 
 the erection, by which it was hampered, the 
 Lillie Quadruple Effect vindicated the theory 
 of its construction, and justified the confidence 
 that had been placed in it. It kept the re- 
 covery department running without the loss of 
 
a day under conditions which would have 
 compelled, had any other apparatus been em- 
 ployed, a stoppage of one week out of every 
 four, it may be safely asserted. 
 
 In the first place, the black liquors were 
 very inadequately filtered, the filtering beds 
 having had not more than one-sixth the effi- 
 ciency of those of a neighboring pulp mill in 
 which the other make of multiple effect evapo- 
 rator is used. As a consequence of this de- 
 ficient filtration, some pulp was at all times 
 passing into the quadruple effect with the 
 black liquor, and at times to such an extent as 
 to quite solidly fill many of the spaces between 
 the evaporating tubes. This difficulty could 
 have been remedied by providing proper 
 filter beds, and undoubtedly would have been 
 but for the fact that the Little was able, not- 
 withstanding the pulp, to concentrate all the 
 black liquor the remainder of the recovery de- 
 partment could handle. However, the pres- 
 ence of pulp in the black liquors is not our 
 reason for thinking that, had the evaporators 
 used in other pulp mills been in use instead of 
 the Little in the pulp mill of the American 
 
IO 
 
 Wood Paper Co., the latter would have been 
 shut down one week out of every four. 
 The principal reason for our opinion was the 
 condition of the black liquor itself. Owing, 
 apparently, to methods adopted for recovering 
 the waste lime, and to the use of the lime thus 
 recovered, the black liquors of the establish- 
 ment became charged with silicates in such 
 condition that they were deposited copiously 
 upon the tubes of the Quadruple Effect in the 
 form of a hard silicious scale, which was more 
 or less mixed with pulp, and which made it 
 necessary to frequently clean the tubes. It is 
 owing to the fact that the construction of the 
 Lillie Apparatus permits of quick and easy 
 cleaning that the American Wood Paper Co. 
 was able to keep its recovery department run- 
 ning after its stock of soda had gotten into this 
 abnormal condition. Nearly every Sunday, 
 for a long period, two or more of the effects were 
 opened and scale removed from the tubes, 
 ranging from 1-16 to 1-4 inch in thickness. 
 A quadruple effect of another make in the 
 neighboring pulp mill, before referred to, is 
 shut down, and the entire mill also, for one 
 
II 
 
 week each year to cut out and replace the 
 tubes of the first effect, and some tubes 
 in the other effects, on account of a silicious 
 scale no worse than that removed from the 
 tubes of the American Wood Paper Co.'s 
 Lillie Quadruple Effect, nearly every Sunday. 
 We have ourselves seen the said quadruple 
 effect in the neighboring mill when shut down, 
 and have been shown by the superintendent of 
 the mill the tubes which had been cut out, and 
 so can say of our own knowledge that the 
 scale on them was no more serious than the 
 scale which on many a Sunday was removed 
 from the tubes of the Lillie Quadruple Effect, 
 and we believe we are justified in saying that 
 had the Quadruple Effect in the works of the 
 American Wood Paper Co. been of this other 
 make, the works would have been shut down 
 one week out of every four after their stock 
 of soda had gotten into the abnormal condi- 
 tion referred to ; whereas with the Lillie they 
 were not shut down a single day on account of 
 the scale, or on any other account after the 
 original difficulties had been remedied, or, 
 rather, partially remedied. 
 
12 
 
 That the liquors were in an abnormal 
 condition is shown by the fact that the Lillie 
 Evaporator, first erected in the works of the 
 American Wood Paper Co., showed no scale 
 whatever on its tubes after some six months' 
 continuous use, and, further, by the fact that 
 no scale appeared on the tubes of the last 
 apparatus up to the time the new method of 
 treating their soda liquors was adopted. 
 
 So, apart from the considerable trouble at 
 first had with the Quadruple Effect, due to the 
 poor work done by certain mechanics, which 
 was not discovered until after it had been 
 started, and apart from the leakage of joints, 
 due to the use of red lead in making them, 
 it may be said that the record of the Lillie 
 Quadruple Effect was a remarkable one. We 
 wish again to state that none of the troubles 
 experienced when the Quadruple Effect was 
 first started were inherent in the Lillie Appa- 
 ratus, and that none of them were met with in 
 the first Lillie Apparatus set up in the works 
 of the American Wood Paper Co. The 
 present Quadruple Effect has, since the shut- 
 down of the works, been taken apart and re- 
 
13 
 
 erected with its joints made, and all other 
 work done in a proper manner, and when put 
 to work again on black liquors will, we are 
 sure, show in all respects the superiority 
 which was expected of it by those who wit- 
 nessed and studied the workings of the first 
 apparatus. 
 
 The advantages which we claim the Lillie 
 Multiple Effect Evaporator possesses for use 
 in the wood-pulp industry are : 
 
 i st. That all its parts are accessible 
 for easy and quick cleaning, a desirable 
 feature in which it excels all other evap- 
 orators, and which means, when it is 
 employed on black liquors, that when the 
 evaporating tubes do become coated with 
 the silicious scale that is sure to come 
 sooner or later, we are informed, the scale 
 may be cleaned from the tubes without 
 inconvenience or delay, and without the 
 removal of a single tube. 
 
 2d. That it will send the concen- 
 trated liquor away at a greater density 
 
H 
 
 and higher temperature than the evapo- 
 rator commonly used for black liquors 
 and therefore in better condition for 
 incineration. 
 
 3d. That it will do its work more 
 economically. This is due to the manner 
 in which the steam and water of conden- 
 sation are used in the effects ; to methods 
 of handling the liquors possible only in 
 the Lillie Apparatus, and to the fact that 
 a greater number of effects may be em- 
 ployed than is the case with other 
 apparatus. 
 
 4th. That — and this is pertinent to 
 its use in all industries — it is an Apparatus 
 which in its essence and mode of operation, 
 as well as in its construction, is a distinct 
 and really great advance upon all preced- 
 ing evaporating apparatus. It is as much 
 so as a Corliss or automatic cut-off steam 
 engine is an advance upon the old throt- 
 tling engine. 
 
 We have just stated that the Lillie Evap- 
 orating Apparatus is not only a great departure 
 from all preceding apparatus as regards con- 
 
15 
 
 struction and mode of operation, but that it is 
 a really great advance upon them, It may be 
 pertinently asked whether this opinion is con- 
 fined to ourselves, or whether we share it with 
 others qualified to judge of such matters ? To 
 such a question we are able to reply, that we 
 are supported in our opinion by people who 
 are probably as well informed regarding the 
 various types of evaporating apparatus as any 
 in the country, and who have backed their 
 opinion by investing a good many thousand 
 dollars in Lillie Multiple Effects. We refer, 
 among others, to the American Sugar Refining 
 Co. , commonly known as ' ' The Sugar Trust. ' ' 
 This Company has various types of multiple 
 effect evaporating apparatus in use in its 
 several refineries — vertical and horizontal 
 Rillieux, some Yaryans, a Gaunt, and maybe 
 others, — and they are quite familiar with every 
 apparatus that is used for evaporating solu- 
 tions. In January last, the new Mollenhauer 
 Sugar Refinery commenced work with a Lillie 
 Triple Effect Evaporator to concentrate its 
 solutions. The American Sugar Refining Co. 
 were invited to send its representatives to 
 
i6 
 
 examine the Lillie, and for a month or more 
 it received repeated visits from them and was 
 tested by them in various manners. As a 
 result of their examinations, they gave the 
 apparatus their unqualified approval and have 
 since placed orders with us for triple effects 
 Costing more than $50,000, asking of us no 
 guarantees whatever as to their performance ; 
 there are no contingencies as to payments to 
 be made for the apparatus other than that the 
 workmanship shall be good. To other con- 
 cerns, including other industries, we have, since 
 the starting of the Mollenhauer Apparatus, 
 sold an even greater amount of evaporators, 
 measured by their money value, and in these 
 cases also without having given any guarantees 
 with respect to the efficiency or working of 
 the apparatus we should furnish them. 
 
 In every one of these cases, these experts 
 and investors have been thoroughly satis- 
 fied with the superiority of the Lillie 
 Multiple Effects over every other appa- 
 ratus in the market, and they have been 
 willing to back their opinions with the 
 amounts of money specified. 
 
17 
 
 A material aid to us in making these sales 
 was the record of the Lillie Quadruple Effect 
 in the pulp mill of the American Wood Paper 
 Co. as a scale defying apparatus. It was con- 
 sidered remarkable that an apparatus should 
 be capable of being so readily cleaned of a 
 scale of the kind it had to contend with. 
 
 No individual or concern that has seen 
 the Lillie Triple Effect in the Mollenhauer 
 Sugar Refinery, which has now been in use 
 nearly six months, has purchased any other 
 evaporator than the Lillie, and to such in- 
 dividuals and concerns we have within the last 
 four months sold Lillie Multiple Effects aggre- 
 gating in value upwards of $100,000, exclu- 
 sive of condensers and vacuum pumps. These 
 sales were made in the face of competition 
 offered by the Rillieux, Yaryan and Swenson 
 evaporators. 
 
 A similar report, we doubt not, we should 
 now be able to make regarding the Lillie 
 Quadruple Effect used by the American Wood 
 Paper Co. and those who visited it, but for the 
 unfortunate circumstances, above dwelt upon, 
 which attended it. These circumstances, 
 
i8 
 
 coupled with the efforts of our competitors, 
 have prevented the Lillie having a triumphal 
 sweep of the soda pulp industry such as it 
 is having in other industries; but whatever 
 our regrets for the past may be, we have 
 unlimited faith in the future, and we have 
 implicit confidence in the superiority of the 
 Lillie for concentrating the soda liquors of 
 pulp works. 
 
 Respectfully, 
 
 The Sugar Apparatus Mfg. Co., 
 
 328 Chestnut Street, 
 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 July 15, 1893. 
 
Some Examples 
 
 OF 
 
 LILLIE MULTIPLE EFFECTS. 
 
THE LILLIE MULTIPLE 
 EFFECT. 
 
 It realizes the ideal mode of evaporation, 
 i. e., evaporation in films. 
 
 It has a most perfect film circulation 
 maintained over its evaporating tubes by 
 means of centrifugal circulating pumps, one 
 for each effect, which are arranged in line on 
 a common shaft underneath the effects. 
 
 It is automatic. The flow of the liquor 
 into the apparatus, and from effect to effect, is 
 automatically controlled, and demands no care 
 on the part of the attendant. 
 
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 ISSUED BY 
 
 The Sugar Apparatus Mfg. Co., 
 
 328 Chestnut Street, 
 
 philadelphia. 
 
 Makers of The I/Iijje Apparatus. 
 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 018 370 902 1