Instrument to expedite evaporation using an airpump
Date
15 July 1685
Creator
Unknown, Artist
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p251
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 367mm
width (page): 232mm
width (page): 232mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Design of an instrument (on a paper slip 290 x 105 mm, glued on the page) to hasten the process of evaporation and distillation using the airpump by Denis Papin. Papin suggested that this could benefit the making of salt, copperas and other wares made by evaporation, and save expense for the fire usually used for this process.
AA is a large vessel to receive and condense the vapours; it holds DD, another vessel containing the liquor to be evaporated. CC is a large pipe, open at the top but closed at the bottom to hold the fire. BB is the lid for AA, which has a hole connected to pipe EE, through which the pneumatic engine exhausts the air from AA. FF is a funnel with a stop-cock, which supplies additional liquor into DD without letting in any air. HH is a pipe above thirty-three feet high whereby the condensed matter is drained from AA. GG is a pipe also above thirty-three feet high with a stop-cock at the bottom, whereby the liquor can be drawn from the vessel DD when it is much evaporated.
AA is a large vessel to receive and condense the vapours; it holds DD, another vessel containing the liquor to be evaporated. CC is a large pipe, open at the top but closed at the bottom to hold the fire. BB is the lid for AA, which has a hole connected to pipe EE, through which the pneumatic engine exhausts the air from AA. FF is a funnel with a stop-cock, which supplies additional liquor into DD without letting in any air. HH is a pipe above thirty-three feet high whereby the condensed matter is drained from AA. GG is a pipe also above thirty-three feet high with a stop-cock at the bottom, whereby the liquor can be drawn from the vessel DD when it is much evaporated.
Object history
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 15 July 1685, ‘Dr. Papin shewed the dissolution of sugar, which had been four days crystallizing in vacuo. It was not like sugar-candy, but like a piece of a sugar-loaf. He likewise brought a large and more compleat draught of the vessels designed for the hastening evaporations and distillations by means of vacuum, the apparatus being conceived to be of use in the making of salt, copperas, and other things made by evaporation’ (Birch 4:418). The image is printed in Birch 4:427.
Related fellows
Denis Papin (1647, French) , Natural philosopher
Associated place