IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DISTILLING
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Wallace at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 28th April 18,73.
I, JOSEPH WALLACE, of Belfast, Ireland, Gentleman, do hereby.
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR DISTILLING," to be as follows:-
-
The object of my Invention of improvements in apparatus for distilling
is to remove from alcohol or prevent the admixture therewith of the
fusel oil and other impurities which are distilled over with the spirit.
On the 10th March 1870 I obtained a Patent (No. 717) for an
Invention having this object in view, but I have found by experience
that the process and apparatus described in the Specification of that
Patent but very imperfectly effect the intended purpose.

page_text: My former Invention was based upon the notion that if alcoholic
vapour as it arises from the wash in the still be allowed or obliged to
pass several times through water, the fusel oil will be kept back by the
water, and the alcohol will pass in a pure state to the refrigerator.
Experience however has demonstrated the fact that fusel oil is held in
mechanical combination with the alcoholic vapour, and therefore no
amount of washing (within reason) is capable of removing all the fusel
oil. Such a mode of purifying the alcohol I therefore found was
practically useless; I found moreover that alcohol when distilled in the
ordinary manner also contained a certain per-centage of acetic acid as an
impurity which gave the spirit (even when freed from fusel oil and
its allied impurities) a peculiar taste and smell which could only be
removed by "ageing." It is necessary therefore to remove the acetic
acid as well as the fusel oil, otherwise the alcohol cannot be used to
produce a drinkable spirit of good quality. This object has been here-
tofore imperfectly obtained by repeated by repeated dilutions with water,
and frequent rectification or redistillation, of course at considerable
expense for firing and losses by evaporation, as well as being obliged to
allow a per-centage of alcohol to pass off in the spent wash.
By means of my improved distilling apparatus I am enabled to
produce a spirit of very superior quality at a single operation. I have
found that if a spirituous vapour containing fusel oil (even when freed
from acetic acid previously) be allowed or obliged to pass in a circuitous
manner through the apparatus, and in so doing be brought in contact
with an extensive metallic surface, the fusel oil will be condensed
thereon, and can be readily conducted out of the apparatus, while the
pure spirit will pass over to the refrigerator, thus proving that fusel oil is
held merely in mechanical suspension in hot alcohol.
In my improved distilling apparatus I employ a number of surface
plates in a series of compartments in the still, so that any deposit or
liquid that may be condensed thereon will run therefrom into separate
independent channels or gutters, from whence (when thus separated
from the alcohol) it may be conducted out of the apparatus. In order
also to remove the acetic acid from the spirit some of these surface
condensers are dish-shaped, and their edges are serrated and made to dip
into a solution of bicarbonate of soda or other suitable alkali with
which the acetic acid will combine. By these means I am enabled to
remove the various impurities from the alcohol, and to produce a

page_text: finished spirit equal to that which has been kept several years in wood.
This purifying operation is carried on from the very beginning of the
process until within a small fraction of the last, when it is not judicious
or worth while to continue the apparatus at full work, or to claborate
the last drop of alcohol in a perfectly finished state seeing the small
modicum of faints can be perfectly utilized at the next operation.
In order to render the distilling operation single and continuous, I'
preserve the same arrangement of lowest boiler as in my Patent,
No. 717, above mentioned, but I add two more wash boilers above that
just mentioned, and I cause the cold wash to pass slowly through an
ascending coil immersed in the boiling spent wash; by these means I
collect and retain the heat in a great measure and return it back again.
The wash then runs hot into the third boiler in a continuous stream as
the overflow spent wash runs out of the lowest boiler through a syphon .
tube in like manner.
The boiling is effected either by a fire placed immediately under the
still, or by steam issuing directly into the wash as in Coffey's still, or
by high pressure steam surrounding the bottom of still or passing
through a coil of pipes immersed in the lowest wash boiler. The
alcoholic vapours as they ascend in the apparatus pass under the serrated
edge of the inverted dish-shaped plates and cause the wash to boil in
the next boiler, and so on through the still column. To prevent any
spent wash from passing out when not thoroughly exhausted of its
alcohol I attach a thermometric and electric arrangement which allows
the wash to run into the third boiler continuously so long as the wash
that passes out of the lowest boiler shews thorough exhaustion, by indi-
cating a temperature of 212° Fah., as soon however as the boiling
temperature sinks in the slightest degree it will indicate that there is a
shade of alcohol in the wash, and as the mercury in the thermometer
will fall electrical contact will be broken and the wash valve closed
until the thorough exhaustion of the wash is accomplished, when
the temperature will then rise and the valve will open. In this way the
wash exhaustion arrangement will be perfectly automatic and inde-
pendent of skilled labour.
After the alcoholic vapour leaves the third wash, boiler it passes
upwards and is made to bubble through a stratum of a solution of bi-
carbonate of soda or other alkali, and afterwards it deposits a portion of
its fusel oil on one of the surface condensers, and then into the next

page_text: chamber containing a solution of bicarbonate, and so on alternately
until it arrives ultimately into the refrigerator, where at the lowest part
of which it is finally condensed into finished spirit.
In order to make the alcohol of any given uniform degree of strength
I surround the capital of the still with water or a solution of bi-carbonate
of soda in water, and I immerse in it a large hydrometer which is
weighted to the required degree, and is attached to the long arm of a
lever which acts on a delicate valve in the refrigerator. This hydrometer
sinks in the water or solution surrounding the head of the still on the
least augmentation of a certain and determined degree of heat, and will
allow just sufficient of the colder fluid to come in as will raise or float
the bulb and thereby close the valve again. By this means the finished
alcohol will flow over with the greatest uniformity of strength; 165°
to 170° I find to be the best heats for surrounding the capital of the
still in order to produce alcohol of 55° to 66° overproof.
The heated alkaline solution is allowed to overflow into the top com-
partment of the still where it is carried slowly round an annular ring or
channel into which the serrated edges of an inverted saucer-shaped dish
dips; it flows to the opposite side and then passes downwards through a
dipping tube into the next chamber, and so on until it reaches the
wash boilers and finally passes off with the spent wash. Thus all
alcohols can be finished as aged or matured spirit from the first of the
run to the last, yet retaining their bouquet "grip" or relish to the fullest
extent.
It will be seen from the foregoing that for rectification this still is
infinitely superior to all others, the whole of the alcohol used being
utilized into finished gin of the next superior quality and not as at
present, a harsh, coarse, crude, raw spirit, of which quality even only 75
per cent. is at all fit for consumption as a beverage.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 30
filed by the said Joseph Wallace in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 28th October 1873.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Wallace, Her special licence
that I, the said Joseph Wallace, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph Wallace, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thercafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR DISTILLING," upon the condition (amongst others) that Į,
the said Joseph Wallace, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
5 ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause
the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joseph Wallace, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, and to the letters and Figures marked thereon (that is to
say) :-
The object of my Invention of "Improvements in Apparatus for
Distilling" is to remove from alcohol or prevent the admixture therewith
of the fusel oil and other impurities which are distilled over with the
spirit.
On the Tenth March, One thousand eight hundred and seventy,
I obtained a Patent (No. 717) for an Invention having this object in
view, but I have found by experience that the process and apparatus
described in the Specification of that Patent but very imperfectly effect
the intended purpose.
My former Invention was based upon the notion that if alcoholic
vapour (as it arises from the wash in the still) be allowed or obliged to

page_text: pass several times through water the fusel oil will be kept back by the
water, and the alcohol will pass in a pure state to the refrigerator.
Experience however has demonstrated the fact that fuscl oil is held in
mechanical combination with the alcoholic vapour, and therefore no
amount of washing (within reason) is capable of removing all the fusel
oil. Such a mode of purifying the alcohol I therefore found was
practically useless. I found morcover that alcohol when distilled in the
ordinary manner also contained a certain per-centage of acetic acid, as
an impurity, which gave the spirit (even when freed from fusel oil and
its allied impurities) a peculiar taste and smell, which could only be :
removed by "ageing." It is necessary therefore to remove the acetic
acid as well as the fusel oil, otherwise the alcohol cannot be used to
produce a drinkable spirit of good quality. This object has been here-
tofore imperfectly obtained by repeated dilutions with water and frequent
rectification or redistillations, of course at considerable expense for firing
and losses by evaporation, as well as being obliged to allow a per-centage
of alcohol to pass off in the spent wash.
By means of my improved distilling apparatus I am enabled to
produce a spirit of very superior quality at a single operation. I have
found that if a spirituous vapour containing fusel oil (even when freed
from acetic acid previously) be allowed or obliged to pass in a circuitous
manner through the apparatus, and in so doing be brought in contact
with an extensive metallic surface, the fusel oil will be condensed on
such surface and can be readily conducted out of the apparatus, while
the pure spirit will pass over to the refrigerator, thus proving that fusel
oil is held merely in mechanical suspension in hot alcohol.
My improved distilling apparatus is shewn in the accompanying
Drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a sectional elevation of the apparatus
complete. In this apparatus I employ a number of surface plates a, a,
consisting of inverted concave dishes arranged in a series of com-
partments b, b, in the still, so that any deposit or liquid that may be
condensed on the under surface thereof will run therefrom into separate
independent channels or gutters c, c, which communicate with those
immediately below by means of drop tubes c¹, c¹, so that the impure
liquid will flow from one channel to another until it reaches the lower-
most channel c**, from whence (when thus separated from the alcohol)
the impure liquid may be conducted out of the apparatus by means of a
suitable pine c*.

page_text: In order to remove the acetic acid from the spirit another set of these
surface condensers which are dish shaped have their edges a*, a*,
provided with serrated edges, which are made to dip into a solution of
bicarbonate of soda or other suitable alkali contained in the channels or
compartments d, d. This part of the apparatus is shewn detached in
section and.drawn upon an enlarged scale at Fig. 2. By this means the
acetic acid will be made to combine with the alkaline carbonate, and as
the alcoholic vapour rises in the still and is made to pass through the
alkaline solution in a series of these channels or compartments I am
enabled to remove the various impurities from the alcohol and to
produce a finished spirit equal to that which has been kept several years
in wood. This purifying operation is carried on from the very beginning
of the process until nearly the end. It is not judicious or worth while
to continue the apparatus at full work or to elaborate the last drop of
alcohol in a perfectly finished state, inasmuch as the small modicum of
"faints" remaining in the liquid can be perfectly removed by mixing
the impure liquid in the next operation.
In order to render the distilling operation single and continuous I
preserve the same arrangement of lowest boiler d' as in my Patent
No. 717, above mentioned, but I add two more wash boilers d²,d²
above that just mentioned, and I cause the cold wash to pass from the
reservoir g above slowly through an ascending coil e immersed in the
boiling spent wash, which is discharged from the still through a pipe f¹,
into a vesself outside. By these means I collect, retain, and utilize in
a great measure the heat carried off by the spent wash, and return it
back again to the wash in the vessel f; the wash in the coil e then runs
hot into the third boiler d² in a continuous stream, as, the overflow spent
wash runs out of the lowest boiler d¹ through a syphon tube d³ in like
manner into the vessel f.
The boiling of the wash is effected either by means of a fire placed
immediately under the still, or by means of steam issuing directly into
the wash as in Coffey's still, or by high pressure steam surrounding the
bottom of still, or by passing steam through a coil of pipes immersed in
the lowest wash boiler d'. The hot alcoholic vapours as they ascend in
the apparatus from the first boiler &, pass under the serrated edge of the
inverted dish-shaped plates a*, a*, and cause the wash to boil in the next
boiler d², and so on through the still column. To prevent any spent

page_text: greatest uniformity of strength. I find one hundred and sixty-five
degrees to one hundred and seventy degrees to be the best heats for
surrounding the capital of the still in order to produce alcohol of fifty-
five degrees to sixty-six degrees over proof.
The heated alkaline solution is allowed to overflow from the still
head through a syphon pipe o into the top compartment of the still,
where it is carried slowly round an annular ring or channel, into which
the serrated edges of one of the inverted saucer shaped dishes a* dips.
It flows all round the compartment and then passes downwards through
a dripping tube p into the next chamber, and so on until it reaches the
wash boilers, and finally passes off with the spent wash. Thus all
alcohols can be finished as aged or matured spirit from the first of the
run to the last, yet retaining their bouquet "grip" or relish to the
fullest extent.
It will be seen from the foregoing that for rectification this still is
superior to all others inasmuch as the whole of the alcohol used can be
utilized for finished gin or other cordial of the most superior quality,
and will not as at present consist of a harsh, coarse, crude, raw spirit, of
which quality even only seventy-five per cent. is at all fit for con-
sumption as a beverage.
. Having now described my Invention of "Improvements in Apparatus
for Distilling," and having explained the manner of carrying the same
into effect, I claim as the Invention secured to me by Letters Patent as
aforesaid the apparatus above shewn and described, or any mere modifi-
cation thereof, in which the alcoholic vapours may be made to pass
through an aqueous solution of bicarbonate of soda or other equivalent
alkali, as herein set forth for the purpose of neutralizing the acetic acid
contained therein by causing it to combine with the alkali.
I also claim the arrangement of apparatus herein shewn and described,
or any mere modification thereof whereby the waste heat from the spent
washes and impure liquors which are discharged from the still may be
recovered and utilized.
I further claim the combination of the inverted dishes or condensing
surfaces a, a, with the channels or gutters c, c, and their accessories,
whereby the fusel oil is made to condense on the surface of such
inverted dishes, which will conduct it to separate gutters or channels, so

page_text: that it may be kept separate from the rectified alcohol, and conducted
out of the apparatus, as herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Wallace, have hereunto
set my hand and scal, the Twenty-eighth day of October,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy- 5
three.