A METHOD OF CLEANSING, PURIFYING, AND SWEETENING CASKS, VATS, AND OTHER VESSELS
Year: 1843

page_text: DAVISON AND SYMINGTON'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ROBERT
DAVISON, of Brick Lane, Spitalfields, in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, and WILLIAM SYMINGTON, of East Smithfield, in the County of
Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Second day of November, in the seventh year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Robert Davison and William Symington, our exors, adñiors, and assigns, Her
especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the said
Robert Davison and William Symington, our exors, adñors, and assigns, and
such others as we, the said Robert Davison and William Symington, our exors,
adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times thereafter, during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of
Her Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England,
Her Dominion of Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention
of "A METHOD OF CLEANSING, PURIFYING, AND SWEETENING CASKS, VATS, AND OTHER
VESSELS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that we, the said
Robert Davison and William Symington, shall cause a particular description of
the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,

page_text: under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, to be
inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery, within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.
.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Robert Davison and William Symington, do hereby declare that the nature of
the said Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully
set forth and described in and by the following Specification thereof, reference
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
The nature of our said Invention consists, firstly, in freeing the wood of casks
and other like vessels, while they are in the course of being manufactured and
in an unfinished state, from any injurious coloring or flavoring matters with
which it may be impregnated, by exposing it to the action of rapid currents of
hot air; secondly, in freeing casks and other like vessels, after they have been
finished and in use, from any mould, must, fungi, or other like matters, which
may collect on the inner surfaces thereof, partly by means of a machinery or
apparatus, which can be applied inside without removing the heads, partly by
rinsing, and partly by causing rapid currents of hot air to pass through them;
and the manner in which these two branches of our Invention are to be
performed, or carried into effect, is as follows:-
First, as regards the casks and other like vessels, while they are in the course
of being manufactured or in an unfinished state.-Instead of making them, as
usual, of wood which has been dried or seasoned by long exposure to the atmo-
sphere, and is, in that condition difficult to bend without blistering, we make use
of wood in its new or green state, in which state it is formed into staves of the
desired curvature and free from blister, with great facility. We then form, or
"block off," as it is called, the casks or other like vessels, by putting the staves and
heads together and binding them by temporary fastenings, making due allowance
for the shrinkage which afterwards take place. We next subject these unfinished
casks, vats, or other vessels to the action of a continuous and rapid current of heated
air, until the wood has exhaled every particle (or nearly so) of its natural sap, or
other aqueous particles with which it may have become impregnated; and this
done, the casks are finally hooped and finished off in the usual way.
The construction of the apparatus, by which we produce the rapid current of
heated air, is represented in Figures 1, 2, and 3, of the Drawings hereunto an-
nexed. Figure 1 being a sectional elevation, Figure 2 a plan, and Figure 3
a transverse section of the same.
A is the furnace; a, a, a, are horizontal pipes, which extend along the

page_text: sides of the furnace; and b, b, b, pipes of a horse-shoe form, which rise
vertically from the horizontal pipes and communicate therewith; c is a pas-
sage, for the inlet to the horizontal pipes of atmospheric air, from a fan-
blower or other impelling apparatus; d, a passage for the outlet of the
heated air from the pipes, which is furnished with a sluice cock D, to prevent
the steam, when used, from passing into the hot-air pipes; b, b, b, and e, e, e,
nozzles, through which the heated air rushes into the casks or other like vessels.
The arrows indicate the course which the air takes in passing to the nozzles.
Second, as to the cleaning of casks and other like vessels which have been in
use, we proceed as follows:-We first clear them from all extraneous matters of
a solid nature which may have collected on the inside, as mould, must, or
fungi, by means of the machine represented in Figures 4, 5, and 6, of the
Drawings hereunto annexed; Figure 4 being an elevation, Figures 5 and 6
plans of the same.
a, a, a, are the standard supports of the machine; b, b, b, a frame,
which has its bearings and revolves within the standard supports a; c, c, a
rigger which gives motion to the frame b; d, a driving pulley, fixed on a hori-
zontal shaft, which gives motion to the rigger c, through the medium of a
chain e; f, g, an inner frame or cradle, which rests in and turns on bearings
h, h, h, in the outer frame b, and on which the cask to be cleansed is placed ;
i, i, i, a ratchet and spring lever, fixed on the spindle of the cradle f, g; k, k,
springs or palls; 1, 1, 1, lever and chain, which secure the casks on the cradle;
m, a catch to hold the lever; n, n, an inclined plane for causing the lever to
act on the ratchets; o, o, clutch handle, for throwing the machine in or out of
gear; p, a plug, shown on an enlarged scale at Figure 11, which fits into the
bung-hole, and from which is suspended inside of the cask a series of cleansing
chains, separately represented in Figures 7, 8, 9, and 10, and immediately
afterwards described. First, there is attached to the plug, by means of a staple
or eye, a few inches of common chain q, with a swivel r in some part of its
length. To this chain there is attached, by means of a ring, three pieces of
large chain s, s, s, of about three feet each in length, front and side views of
which are given in Figures 7 and 8; and to each of these lengths of large chain
are attached, by a ring, three pieces t, t, t, of smaller chains, each of about
twelve inches long, front and side views of which are given in Figures 9 and 10,
the length and size of the chains being always proportionate to the size of the cask
or other vessel. The action of the machine is as follows:-The cask or other
vessel having been secured in the cradle f, g, motion is given by the horizontal
shaft or driving pulley d to the rigger c, which causes the frame band cradle f, g,
to revolve. As soon as the ratchet and lever i, i, affixed to the spindle of the

page_text: cradle, reach the bottom part of the machine, the lever comes in contact with
the inclined plane and causes it to act on the ratchet, and thereby the cradle
to move sidewards to the extent of one tooth of the ratchet, and so on, for every
revolution; the outer frame makes the cradle or inner frame moves sideways
and completes an additional tooth in the ratchet. The chains, meanwhile, by
the numerous angular points which they present to the inner surface of the
cask, detach whatever foreign substances may be adhering thereto. After this
cleansing has been effected, the chains are easily withdrawn from the cask by
means of the plug to which they are attached. In some cases we find it
advantageous to use shingle, sand, or other granulated substance, in combination
with the chain; or these substances may be used separately. We next rinse
them well, preferring to use, in the case of beer barrels, a small quantity of
beer of the same sort as that with which it is intended to fill them subsequently;
in the case of spirit casks this process may be dispensed with, as the wood of
the casks may have imbibed various noxious matters, which the mechanical
operation of the chains could not remove. We next, in order to get rid of
such matters also, and thus sweeten the casks thoroughly, expose them to the
action of a rapid current of hot air, by placing them with their bung-holes over
the nozzles e, e, of the hot-air apparatus before described, taking care first to
remove the corks from the tap-holes, so that a free passage may be left for the
aqueous and other vapours generated by the action of the stream of hot air
When a very high temperature is found necessary to purify the casks from
every perceptible taint, or must, or charr, or other bad odour, it may be found
useful to introduce, along with or in addition to the hot air, a small quantity of
steam, and for this purpose there is a boiler (f, Figures 1 and 3,) placed over
the heating pipes, having a pipe (8) furnished with a sluice-cock (9), through
which the requisite supply of steam may be conveyed into the hot-air exit pipe.
The Drawings, Figures 4, 5, and 6, represent only two casks as mounted on
the machine; but any number of frames and casks may be made to revolve at
one and the same time by the application, in any of various well-known
methods, of driving pulleys or wheels set in motion by any adequate power.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we declare, that though we have spoken
of atmospheric air as that which is heated and driven in rapid currents into
contact with the casks, vats, and other vessels to be cleansed, purified, and
sweetened, we do not limit ourselves to the use of such air alone, but claim a
right to the use of any other sort of air which, being heated and driven in rapid
currents as aforesaid, will produce the like effects. And we declare that what
we claim is,-

page_text: First, the employment, in manner aforesaid, of rapid currents of hot air to
effect the cleaning, purifying, and sweetening of casks, vats, and other vessels.
Second, the employment, in manner aforesaid, of rapid currents of hot air
in combination with currents of steam.
And, third, the machine herein-before described for cleansing the insides of
casks and other like vessels without removing the heads, and all mere modi-
fications thereof, by which the same peculiar results are produced.
In witness whereof, we, the said Robert Davison and William Symington,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Second day of May, One
thousand eight hundred and forty-four.
DELI (1.5.)
WILLIAM (L.s.) SYMINGTON.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Second day of May, in the
year of our Lord 1844, the aforesaid Robert Davison and William Symington,
came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Second day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and forty-four.