CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON AND ADDITIONS TO STILLS, OR THE APPARATUS USED FOR DISTILLING, AND ALSO IN THE PROCESS OF DISTILLING AND RECTIFYING
Year: 1818

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
CORTY, of Harley Street, Cavendish Square, in the County of Middlesex,
Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twentieth day of January, in the
fifty-eighth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Corty,
my exors, admiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said Joseph Corty, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns,
should and lawfully might, during the term of years herein expressed, make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad,
the Invention communicated to me by a certain Foreigner residing abroad, of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON AND ADDITIONS TO STILLS, OR THE APPARATUS USED
FOR DISTILLING, AND ALSO IN THE PROCESS OF DISTILLING AND RECTIFYING;" in
which said Letters Patent there is a proviso that if I, the said Joseph
Corty, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in
His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said
Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted,
shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same,
relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Joseph Corty, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of the said
improvements, and the manner in which the same are to be performed, by the
following description thereof, reference being had to the Drawings annexed
(that is to say):
That the said improvements do consist in connecting two stills by such tube
or tubes, hollow cylinder or cylinders, pipe or pipes, or other channel or channels,
passage or passages, of wood, metal, or such other substance or combination of
substances as may be deemed most expedient by the manufacturer (but I
prefer a pipe of copper, as described in the Drawings annexed), and also that
the vapours, or a portion thereof, which rise into the head of the first still, may
flow through the said tube or tubes, hollow cylinder or cylinders, pipe or pipes,
or other channel or channels, passage or passages, into the second still, there
mingling with the wash or liquor contained in the second still, and under-
going a second evaporation. And, moreover, the said improvements do
consist in allowing the vapors which rise into the head of the second still so
to pass from the head of the second still as to enter the condensing apparatus
from underneath (instead of above or at the side of it, as is the usual mode),
by which means the said vapors, after leaving the second still, rise upwards
through the condensing apparatus. And, morcover, the said improvements do
consist in placing the boxes of the condensing apparatus through which the
vapours have to ascend horizontally, or nearly so, as may be most convenient,
and at a distance from one another, with a stream of water flowing in a
particular manner, as described in the Drawing, over the top of the first or
upper box, thence passing a side passage or passages over the top of the
second or next box below it, and thence by similar passages from the second
box over the top of the third or under box, whence it is carried off by a
waste pipe, and by which means the two processes of condensing and
rectifying are carried on at the same time in the said apparatus. The said
apparatus may consist of any number of boxes, but I prefer three, as described
in the Drawing. And, moreover, the said improvements do consist in a
peculiarly-shaped passage, thro' which the spirit passes on leaving the worm
into the spirit cask, and by which shape the atmospheric air is prevented from
entering the worm at the said passage. The shaped passage I prefer is that
represented in the Drawing, but any shape will answer, provided some part of
the said passage be depressed considerably below the level of the worm, while
some subsequent part of the said passages rises nearly to a level with it, by
which means a part of the said passage is continually filled with spirit during
the process of distillation. And, moreover, the said improvements do consist

page_text: in a certain tube or tubes, pipe or pipes, or other channel or channels, passage
or passages, made of wood, glass, metal, or such other substance or combina-
tion of substances as may be deemed most expedient by the manufacturer,
attached or affixed to the passage by which the spirrit leaves the worm in
manner following; (that is to say,) first rising above the level of the said
passage by which the spirit leaves the worm, and then descending into a
vessel of water, by which means the carbonic acid gas which is continually
evolved during the process of distillation is suffered to escape, while the
atmospheric air is prevented from ascending into the worm.
The herein-before mentioned improvements having been tried and found to
succeed, and being, to the best of my knowledge and belief, and entirely new
communication, and never before used or practised in these His present
Majesty's Kingdoms and Colonies, I am desirous to maintain this my exclusive
right and privilege to the same. For further elucidation I have attached
Drawings, of which the above-described Inventions form a part, and to which
the following references relate.
Fig. 1.-A, B, represent two stills partly filled with wash; 9, 9, the con-
necting tube, described above, to lead from the head of the still A to the top
part of the still B, which it enters at P, immersing two or three inches of its
extremity into the wash contained in the still B; D, a pipe of communication
for the purpose of drawing the wash from still B into still A; C, a common or
other stopcock; R represents the passage by which the vapours described
above to pass from the head of the second still are conveyed into the con-
densing apparatus from underneath. It will be observed that this passage is
so constructed that the portion of the said vapours which are condensed are
suffered to return by the small passager into the wash contained in the still B.
The passage R enters the condensing apparatus at o. G, G, G, are the three
boxes above described, to be placed at a distance from one another.
H, H, H, are three plates of copper, with a convex side placed uppermost,
about one inch in diameter less than the boxes, and placed about midway
between the top and bottom of the said boxes, and at the same time equi-
distant from the sides of the boxes by means of small pins or legs protruding
from the sides or edges of the plates, as represented by the red lines in the
Drawing. The course which the vapours will be compelled to take through
this apparatus will be sufficiently evident, and having passed thro' it they
escape from it and enter the worm at Q. f is a pipe and a cock from which
a stream of water is suffered to flow over the top of the upper box, and thence
over the tops of the other boxes, as above described, passing from one to the
other by the passages K, K, and at last entering the waste pipe m.
t, a small

page_text: pipe fitted with a cock, and leading from the head of still A for the purpose of
occasionally drawing off the vapours that rise into it, and proving the same,
bat which forms no part of the sd Invention.
Fig. 2. A represents the peculiarly-shaped passage thro' which the spirrit
is described above to pass after leaving the worm, and which is open to
the atmospheric air at a. B represents the passage thro' which the carbonic
acid gas is described as above to escape; 6, the end of the worm; c, a vessel
of water. The other parts of the herein-before described apparatus, being
incident to other stills, may be made in any way best suited to local
conveniences.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Corty, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Fifth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighteen.
Inrolled the Eighth day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and eighteen.