1851 Great Exhibition: Official Catalogue: Class VI.: Henry Bessemer
400. BESSEMER, HENRY, Baxter House, Old St. Pancras Road — Patentee and Manufacturer.
A model of a slate table for holding plate-glass during the grinding and polishing process: this is effected by atmospheric pressure acting on the upper side of the plate, while a partial vacuum is formed below it by an air-pump or steam jet; for this purpose the two pieces of slate forming the table have a series of grooves formed between them, which communicate with the holes upon the surface, so that whenever a plate of glass is laid upon the table, a cock is opened communicating with an exhausted vessel, when the plate will be firmly held thereon, but which may be instantly removed by again admitting the air. The plan in general use for holding down sheets of glass is to imbed them in plaster of Paris, which operation has to be performed four times for each plate, and which, in some establishments, consumes 40 tons of plaster per week. Patented and manufactured by the exhibitor.
An improvement on the centrifugal machine for separating molasses from crystals of sugar. The peculiarity of this machine consists in the mode of driving it by a pair of emissive arms on the same axis as the centrifugal drum, thereby dispensing with the upper driving gear, and also in making the centrifugal drum to lift on and off the machines, so that the operator removes the charge of finished sugar from one drum, and recharges it with matter to be operated upon while the other drum is in use upon the machine; by which arrangement one man with this machine can operate upon as much material as two men and two of the original machines were capable of doing. Patented by the exhibitor.
Proprietors, Messrs. Rotch, Fingell and Co., 2 Furnival's Inn, London.