AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR REFINING AND AGEING LIQUORS
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Robert Lake, of the Firm of Haseltine,.
Lake, & Co., Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London,
for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR
REFINING AND AGEING LIQUORS." -A communication from abroad by
TT
£ Calveston Haxes United States of America.
Sealed the 10th March 1871, and dated the 19th January 1871:
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said William Robert Lake at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 19th January 1871, pursuant to the 9th Section
of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "AN Improved
METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR REFINING AND AGEING LIQUORS," and have

page_text: Figure 1 is a vertical central section through an apparatus which I
employ in conducting the said process; Figure 2 is a section through
Figure 1 taken in the horizontal plane indicated by dotted line x, x;
Figure 3 is an elevation of the refiner and ager with still and rectifying
attachment. Similar letters indicate corresponding parts in all of the
Figures.
The most perfect uniformity in heating and cooling the entire body-of
spirits under treatment being indispensable, I obtain that result by
immersing the vessel C containing them in a water bath, and then by
filling the vessel with vertical diaphragms of thin sheet copper, one in
about every inch of its diameter; these diaphragms are all attached to
the sides and bottom of the vessel with solder in order that the tem- ·
perature of the sides of the vessel may be conducted at once to the
central parts of the body of the spirits which are in this manner heated
uniformly with the outside; this cannot be done in a plain vessel where
the liquid is heated next to the sides of the vessel first, and forced up
into the cooler portion which takes its place, hence it is important in
order to accomplish one of the objects of my Invention that the liquor
while being heated should have as little circulation as possible, as will
appear herein-after. The heat conducting power of the copper diaphragms
keeps them at the same temperature nearly as that of the sides of the
vessel to which they are attached, and to insure a perfect mixture
during any circulation that may occur in heating the spirits, I arrange
the diaphragms horizontally at about the centre of their height in two
sections, and turn the upper and lower sections at a right angle, so that
the ascending current from each space between the diaphragms of the
lower section will enter every space above it.
The vessel C which contains the spirits under treatment and in which
the diaphragms are placed is preferably made of sheet copper of sufficient
strength to bear a working pressure of thirty pounds per square inch,
and may be of any form or size that the amount of business to be done
may require. It may be cylindrical with both heads of a hemispherical
form, the upper end being provided with a funnel-shaped pipe D with a
stop cock d for filling the vessel, and with a thermometer F and pressure

page_text: gauge E, and the lower end with a discharging pipe and cock G. The
vessel thus described containing the spirits is to be placed in another
vessel B, which may be made of iron, and of a diameter that will leave an
annular space of about two inches between the outside of the inner
vessel and the inner side of the outer vessel and a space of about six
inches between the bottoms of the two vessels. The sides of the said
outer vessel must be about six inches higher than the top of the inner
one so that it will be entirely immersed when the outer one is nearly
filled with water. The outer vessel may have a loose fitting cover and
an overflow pipe near its top to allow the vapors of the hot water "to
escape. This vessel may be set in a brick or partial iron furnace A, and
be heated by fire direct, or its water may be heated by a coil of steam
pipes in its bottom leading to a steam boiler. The inner and immersed
vessel C being charged with spirits through the funnel pipe at its top,
heat is applied to the outer vessel which is full of water, the charging
cock d is left open until as much of the atmospheric air and aldehyde
is expelled, as will escape at the temperature of 170° or near the boiling
point of the spirits when it must be closed. This is an important feature
to be noticed, because if the atmospheric air is left in the spirits the
heat will incite the saccharine principle to take up its oxygen and
thus form an acid in the liquor instead of fermenting the saccharine
principle into alcohol, which is one of the important objects of this
Invention. Care must be taken not to fill the vessel C with spirits to
its full capacity, but to leave about five per cent. of its capacity for the
attenuation of the spirits. The heat must be applied to the outer vessel
until its water boils and the spirit thermometer indicates a temperature
of 210° or 212°, and the pressure gauge a pressure of twelve to thirty
pounds per square inch, according to the proof of the spirits under
treatment, then the heat must be abated by leaving the fire to die out, or
shutting off the steam, and the whole apparatus allowed to cool down to
nearly atmospheric temperature, when the spirits may be withdrawn and
the operation repeated with another charge. The spirits after this
treatment will be from one to three degrees higher in proof, and the
volume of spirits coming out of the apparatus will be from one to three
per cent. larger than when it was put in. This results from the fer-
mentation of the saccharine principle in the spirits, which increasing the
alcohol attenuates the liquor, raises its hydrometrical proof, and enlarges
its volume. To perfect the fermentation it is indispensable that the body

page_text: of liquor should be heated and cooled in all its parts so uniformly equal
that the usual circulation incident to heating liquids will not occur;
but the entire body of liquor during the operation will have no motion
whatever.
Fousel oil when in alcoholic solutions crystalizes at a temperature
of 204° provided that there is no circulation but that the entire body"
of liquor remains perfectly dormant during the heating and cooling
process. Herbaceous and vegetable matter in the flocculent and trans-
parent state in which it exists in distilled spirits is carbonized at a
temperature of about 200°, provided also, as before stated, that the entire
body of liquor is heated and cooled without any circulation. The same
dormant state in heating is also indispensable to effect the chemically
equivalent combination above referred to. Hence the importance of
the heat conducting diaphragms which obviate the necessity of circu-
lating the liquor in order to heat all parts of it and of their arrange-
ment to promote mixture, which also impedes circulation, then
when cooled to 60° has a specific gravity of 95.40, while proof spirit
has but 93.35 and lets the fusel or fousel oil fall when cooled to
about 90°.
The delicate herbaceous matter in spirits altogether precipitates when
the liquor is cooled to 90°. All drinks that contain alcohol are simply
solutions of alcohol, water, and flavoring and coloring ingredients either
mixed or combined. In natural wines the alcohol is combined with the
water and other ingredients and requires a heat of 202° to separate it
from them, while in distilled liquors, which are all made palatable by the
addition of water and flavors, and in wines that are "fortified," the
alcohol is only mixed and does not combine, as is proved by the fact that
a heat of 101° will separate it from the mixture, while 202° is required
to separate it from the combination. That my process as herein-before
described combines all alcoholic mixtures that are treated by it is
proved by the tests above named, as well as by testimony of
habitually drinking them.
'
persons
When the spirits are taken out of my apparatus they will have a
dark and feculent appearance due to the crystalized fusel oil, and
carbonized and acidified herbaceous matter, all of which will preci-
pitate after a few hours of exposure when the clear liquor should be
drawn off.

page_text: heated above their boiling point for the purpose and in the manner
above described.
In witness whercof, I, the said William Robert Lake, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of January,
in the year of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and
seventy-one.
Witness,
E. C. JACKSON.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE.
(L.S.)