SCHREIBER'S APPARATUS FOR REVIVIFYING BONE-BLACK.


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