Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd Nov., 1886.
Complete Left, 16th Aug., 1887
Complete Accepted, 4th Oct., 1887.
I JOHN CLAYTON MEWBURN, of 169 Fleet Street, in the City of London, Fellow
of the Institute of Patent Agents do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
Acting on the scientific datum or basis that the oxidation of alcoholic produces as
regards their ageing and rectification the same effects as cooling, chemists have for a
long time endeavored to age these liquids by oxygenating them. As it has likewise
been considered that ozone is after all only superoxidized oxygen they have employed
it with the view of economizing time and expense, its action being evidently more
energetic than that of the gas from which it is derived. Some have forced oxygen
into the liquid, an operation which causes such a loss of strength that the improve-
ment of the matter treated is not a sufficient compensation; others have ozonified
atmospheric air which they have forced into the liquid and which has taken with it
the nitrogen and carbonic acid which it contained to the serious detriment to the
liquid others have directly electrized the liquid, adding to it metals injurious to
health. None of them have taken account of what should be the first consideration,
viz. the production of pure ozone.
:
Now we learn from works on chemistry that
ozone is nothing but electrized oxygen reduced or condensed to 3rd of its volume
and that its presence is indicated by a strong odor of fish and the decomposition into
blue of the dye of guaiac mixed with spirit of turpentine.
Now the main feature of this invention is the manufacture of pure ozone by the
electrization of pure oxygen under pressure.
On the other hand it is recognized that it is to the presence of essential oils that
ordinary alcohols owe their acrid taste and disagreeable flavor. These oils vary in
quality and quantity the variation being due either to more or less inferior distillation
[Prine &d1

page_text: "
The
or to the nature of the material from which the alcohol has been obtained. The two
principal types of these oils are amylic alcohol and butyric acid. These are the most
tenacious, those which the most energetically resist ordinary distillation. But they
will not resist the powerful and repeated action of ozone provided the ozone be
absolutely pure,
in other words it must possess its maximum disinfecting power.
The communicator of the present invention has treated these oils directly by ozone
and cooling. He has obtained the separation of the solid principle "stearoptene
and the liquid principle "aleoptene," more especially called spirit or essence.
elimination of the first is only a mechanical decanting operation; that of the second
is simple as the vapors of the amylic and butyric acids both ignite at 60° Centigrade
the former giving a white flame and the latter a blue flame. Now super-saturated
ozone produces precisely the effect of the elevation of temperature to 60°. It
eliminates the aleoptene of the essential oils and destroys them. When the communi-
cator of the present invention by heating his acids to 60° Cetnigrade after energetic
cooling, was certain that he possessed the two acids he effected the separation of the
principles by cold and, without troubling about the stearoptene or resin produced,
which as already stated can be eliminated by simple decanting, he immediately acted
on the alcoptene with an energetic current of ozone in an ordinary apparatus. In a
short time he had in the receiver only the solid body which is an infinitesimal portion
of the general body of the acids acted upon. Starting from this datum ho has
produced ozone with cooled oxygen and his experiments have proved that he could
produce alcohol chemically neutral. Oxygen has not sufficient energy but super-
saturated ozone has.
The supersaturation of ozone according to this invention is effected as follows:
Reckoning that it is necessary to pass into the alcoholic liquids in order to obtain a
tangible result at least 8 times their cubic volume of ozone and that 3 cubic metres of
oxygen are necessary to obtain one cubic metre of ozone it follows that at least
24 cubic metres of pure oxygen are required to treat one cubic metre of liquid; this
is a considerable expenditure no matter what method is adopted to produce the gas.
But if the oxygen is electrized it undergoes only an action of compression or con-
densation which makes it produce other effects but does not change its nature or
decompose it. Thus if pure oxygen be taken and electrized by tubes such as those of
Houzeau or Berthelot, pure ozone more or less concentrated is obtained. If it be
passed successively into the alcohol vessels the test by guaiac dye will show an
intensity of color about 20% less than that which the ozone gave at the immediate
outlet of the ozonizing tube. After passing into two alcohol vessels the diminution
of the decomposing power is much more sensible and the loss increases on leaving
each successive vessel. After the tenth the odor has disappeared the oxygen is
reconstituted; the bubbling or boiling action has however lost none of its energy.
The precipitates of the ozone are no longer produced. The oxygen draws alcoholic
vapors with it but they are not those which prevent the action of the ozone as a
reactive, since if the last vessel contains pure water which entirely absorbs the
alcoholic vapor the same negative phenomenon is produced. I therefore take this
deozonified gas at its exit; it has never, as I have said, lost its volume. I submit it
again to the electric influence and it is immediately retransformed into ozone.
problem of the reozonification of oxygen is thus found.
The
Having established the fact that in the ozonisation of oxygen there is a simple
change of state without decomposition it follows that the degree of electrization can
be increased or decreased at will. By increasing the volume of the ozonifying
apparatus only a minimum result is obtained. With an ordinary electric apparatus,
batteries and Ruhmkorff coils an insufficient maximum is obtained. But by having
several ordinary tubes and actuating each tube by a Ruhmkorff coil supplied by a
separate and distinct battery the action of the ozone is more energetic in the second
tube than in the first; in the third there is the maximum of power, complete super-
saturation, and by multiplying the tubes no better effect is obtained.
In constructing an apparatus for carrying out the invention I therefore employ
sets of ozonizing tubes, 3 in each set; they can conveniently be placed horizontally

page_text: and be connected together by bends or elbow pieces. In each tube are arranged
2 strips of aluminium wound in a helix and connected by binding screws to the two
poles of a Ruhmkorff coil provided with a battery. Each ozonizing tube has its own
separate coil. The oxygen to be ozonized or reozonized passes successively through
the 3 tubes of the set; on entering the ozonizing apparatus it is compressed to about
3 atmospheres and after having passed through the 3 ozonizing tubes it leaves the
apparatus condensed into ozone and of a much higher pressure. The power of the
electric current which supplies each tube is 5 volts and 6 amperes, and regulators of
electricity are employed to maintain this strength of current seeing that an excess of
electrization decomposes the ozone. Instead of obtaining the electric currents from
Ruhmkorff coils they can be obtained from a magneto or dynamo electric machine of
constant intensity such for instance as that known as Siemens'. It is important to
note that it is not the multiplication of the surfaces of the ozonizing apparatus which
leads to the supersaturation of the ozone but the interruption of the electric influence,
that is to say: the alternating action of the electricity.
The ozonizing apparatus is lodged in a chamber where it is maintained at a
temperature of between 0 and 15 Centigrade either by a circulation of cooling
liquid in a jacket or by other means.
It will at once be understood that the following results are obtained by the
process:
1. By supersaturating the ozone I give it its maximum useful effect.
2. By reozonifying the oxygen I diminish its cost to such a point that this cost
practically ceases to be a factor.
In employing the ozone for the purification, for example, of alcoholic liquids such
as alcoholic phlegms, brandies, rums, tafias, absinthe, vermouth, various bitters,
chartreuses and the like I obtain an instantaneous decomposition of all the toxic
principles; an immediate and complete ageing, a fixing of the non-toxic coloring
matters and decomposition of those arising from a toxic acid, and purification of the
essences used for perfuming the liquor.
I will now proceed to describe an installation suitable for the purification of
alcoholic liquids in accordance with the process already described.
The oxygen compressed to 3 atmospheres is conducted by a supply tube to a
washing vessel from which it passes into a drying tube supplied with caustic potash
and thence to the first set of ozonizing tubes. After having been transformed into
saturated ozone by 3 successive electrizations it passes through a tube which conducts
it to the lower part of the first vessel containing alcohol to be purified. There is a
safety device in the conducting tube to prevent passage of the contents of the vessel
into the ozonizing tubes in the event of diminution of pressure. After having passed
conducted
through the alcohol in the first vessel from bottom to top the ozone
successively to a second and a third vessel. On leaving the third vessel the oxygen
now almost deozonized is conducted to a second set of ozonizing tubes which are
preceded by a washing vessel and a drying tube and it becomes reozonized. The
ozone is then conducted successively through 3 more alcoliol vessels, thence through a
washer and drying tube to a third set of ozonizing tubes which supply the ozone to
3 more successive alcohol vessels. The deozonized oxygen from the last of these
vessels is conducted to a gas holder in which the condensation of the alcohol drawn
by the gas takes place. The oxygen thns separated from the alcohol can be exhausted
from the gas-holder by a pump and forced into the washing apparatus preceding the
first set of ozonizing tubes which reozonize it once more so that it may serve for the
treatment of a fresh quantity of alcoholic liquid. The pump will be put in action as
soon as the gas-holder is full of oxygen. The operation is then continued until the
gas is all exhausted which will be indicated by the level of the bell of the gas-holder.
Simple decantation suffices to separate the purified alcohol of good flavor from the
resinous products formed by the treatment of the supersaturated ozone.
Dond low at Navamber 1886

page_text: Improvements in and Apparatus for the Manufacture of Ozone
and its Application to the Purification or Treatment of Alcoholic
Liquids and other similar Purposes.
I JOHN CLAYTON MEWBURN, of 169 Fleet Street, in the City of London, Fellow of
the Institute of Patent Agents, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement
Acting on the scientific datum or basis that the oxidation of alcoholic liquids
produces as regards their ageing and rectification the same effects as cooling,
chemists have for a long time endeavored to age these liquids by oxygenating them.
As it has likewise been considered that ozone is after all only superoxidized oxygen
they have employed it with the view of economizing time and expense, its action
being evidently more energetic than that of the gas from which it is derived. Some
have forced oxygen into the liquid, an operation which causes such a loss of strength
that the improvement of the matter treated is not a sufficient compensation; others
have ozonified atmospheric air which they have forced into the liquid and which has
taken with it the nitrogen and carbonic acid which it contained to the serious
detriment to the liquid, others have directly electrized the liquid, adding to it metals
injurious to health. None of them have taken account of what should be the
first consideration, viz: the production of pure ozone. Now we learn from works
on chemistry that ozone is nothing but electrized oxygen reduced or condensed to
one-third of its volume and that its presence is indicated by a strong odor of fish and
the decomposition into blue of the dye of guaiac mixed with spirit of turpentine.
Now the main feature of this invention is the manufacture of pure ozone by the
electrization of pure oxygen under pressure.
On the other hand it is recognised that it is to the presence of essential oils that
ordinary alcohols owe their acrid taste and disagreeable flavor. These oils vary in
quality and quantity the variation being due either to more or less inferior distillation
or to the nature of the material from which the alcohol has been obtained. The two
principal types of these oils are amylic alcohol and butyric acid. These are the most
tenacious, those which the most energetically resist ordinary distillation. But they
will not resist the powerful and repeated action of ozone provided the ozone be
absolutely pure; in other words it must possess its maximum disinfecting power.

page_text: "
The
The communicator of the present invention has treated these oils directly by ozone
and cooling. He has obtained the separation of the solid principle "stearoptene
and the liquid principle "eleoptene," more especially called spirit or essence.
elimination of the first is only a mechanical decanting operation; that of the second
is simple as the vapors of the amylic and butyric acids both ignite at 60° Centigrade,
the former giving
a white flame and the latter a blue flame. Now supersaturated
ozone produces precisely the effect of the elevation of temperature to 60°. It elimi-
nates the eleoptene of the essential oils and destroys them. When the communicator
of the present invention, by heating his acids to 60° Centigrade after energetic
cooling, was certain that he possessed the two acids he effected the separation of the
principles by cold and, without troubling about the stearoptene or resin produced,
which as already stated can be eliminated by simple decanting, he immediately acted
on the eleoptene with an energetic current of ozone in an ordinary apparatus. In a
short time he had in the receiver only the solid body which is an infinitesimal portion of
the general body of the acids acted upon. Starting from this datum he has produced
ozone with cooled oxygen and his experiments have proved that he could produce alcohol
chemically neutral. Oxygen has not sufficient energy but supersaturated ozone has.
The supersaturation of ozone according to this invention is effected as follows:-
Reckoning that it is necessary to pass into the alcoholic liquids in order to obtain a
tangible result at least 8 times their cubic volume of ozone and that 3 cubic metres of
oxygen are necessary to obtain one cubic metre of ozone, it follows that at least
24 cubic metres of pure oxygen are required to treat one cubic metre of liquid ;
this is
a considerable expenditure no matter what method is adopted to produce the gas. But
if the oxygen is electrized it undergoes only an action of compression or condensation
which makes it produce other effects but does not change its nature or decompose it.
Thus if pure oxygen be taken and electrized by tubes such as those of Houzeau
or Berthelot, pure ozone more or less concentrated is obtained. If it be passed
successively into the alcohol vessels the test by guaiac dye will show an intensity of
color about 20 per cent less than that which the ozone gave at the immediate outlet
of the ozonizing tube. After passing into two alcohol vesssel the diminution of the
decomposing power is much more sensible and the loss increases on leaving each
successive vessel. After the tenth the odor has disappeared, the oxygen is recon-
stituted; the bubbling or boiling action has however lost none of its energy. The
precipitates of ozone are no longer produced. The oxygen draws alcoholic vapors
with it but they are not those which prevent the action of the ozone as a reactive,
since if the last vessel contains pure water which entirely absorbs the alcoholic vapor
the same negative phenomenon is produced. I therefore take this deozonified gas at
its exit; it has never, as I have said, lost its volume. I submit it again to the
electric influence and it is immediately retransformed into ozone. The problem of the
reozonification of oxygen is thus found.
Having established the fact that in the ozonisation of oxygen there is a simple
change of state without decomposition it follows that the degree of electrization can
be increased or decreased at will. By increasing the volume of the ozonifying
apparatus only a minimum result is obtained. With an ordinary electric apparatus,
batteries and Ruhmkorff coils an insufficient maximum is obtained. But by having
several ordinary tubes and actuating each tube by a Ruhmkorff coil supplied by a
separate and distinct battery the action of the ozone is more energetic in the second
tube than in the first; in the third there is the maximum of power, complete super-
satuartion, and by multiplying the tubes no better effect is obtained.
In constructing an apparatus for carrying out the invention I therefore employ sets
of ozonizing tubes, three in each set (see a, a, a in Figures 1 and 2, which are herein-
after more fully described); they can conveniently be placed horizontally and be
connected together by bends or elbow pieces. In each tube are arranged two strips
of aluminium wound in a helix and connected by binding screws b, b to the two poles
of a Ruhmkorff coil f provided with a battery g. Each ozonizing tube has its own
separate coil. The oxygen to be ozonized or reozonized passes successively through
the three tubes of the set; on entering the ozonizing apparatus it is compressed to

page_text: about 3 atmospheres and after having passed through the 3 ozonizing tubes it
leaves the apparatus condensed into ozone and of a much higher pressure. The power
of the electric current which supplies each tube is 3 volts and 6 amperes and
regulators of electricity are employed to maintain this strength of current seeing that
an excess of electrization decomposes the ozone. Instead of obtaining the electric
currents from Ruhmkorff coils they can be obtained from a magneto or dynamo
electric machine of constant intensity such for instance as that known as Siemens'.
It is important to note that it is not the multiplication of the surfaces of the ozonizing
apparatus which leads to the supersaturation of the ozone but the interruption of the
electric influence, that is to say: the alternating action of the electricity.
The ozonizing apparatus is lodged in a chamber c where it is maintained at a tem-
perature of between 0° and 15° Centigrade either by a circulation of cooling liquid
in a jacket or by other means.
It will at once be understood that the following results are obtained by the
process =
1. By supersaturating the ozone I give it its maximum useful effect.
2. By reozonifying the oxygen I diminish its cost to such a point that this cost
practically ceases to be a factor.
In employing the ozone for the purification, for example, of alcoholic liquids such
as alcoholic residues, brandies, rums, tafias, absinthe, vermouth, various bitters,
chartreuses, and the like, I obtain an instantaneous decomposition of all the toxic
principles, an immediate and complete ageing, a fixing of the non-toxic coloring
matters, and decomposition of those arising from a toxic acid, and purification of the
essences used for perfuming the liquor.
I will now proceed to describe an installation suitable for the purification of
alcoholic liquids in accordance with the process already described. This installation
is represented in Sheets 1 and 2 of the annexed drawings Figure 1 being an elevation
and Figure 2 a plan; for convenience the left hand portion of each figure has been
drawn on Sheet 1 and the right hand portion on Sheet 2.
The oxygen compressed to 3 atmospheres is conducted by a supply tube t to a
washing vessel o the cock u being open and the cock u¹ closed. From the vessel o it
passes into a drying tube 7 supplied with caustic potash and thence to the first set A
of ozonizing tubes a, u, u. After having been transformed into saturated ozone by
3 successive electrizations it passes through a tube B which conducts it to the lower
part of the first vessel C containing alcohol to be purified. There is a safety device D
in the tube B to prevent passage of the contents of the vessel into the ozonizing tubes
in the event of diminution of pressure. After having passed through the alcohol in the
first vessel C from bottom to top the ozone is conducted successively by tubes B¹
and B2 to a second and a third vessel C and C² respectively. On leaving the third
vessel (the oxygen now almost deozonized is conducted by a tube E to a second
set A' of ozonizing tubes a, a, a which are preceded by a washing vessel o and a
drying tube and it becomes reozonized. The ozone is then conducted successively
through 3 more alcohol vessels F, F1, F2, by means of the tubes H, H1, H2, thence
through a tube G and through a washer and drying tube to a third set A2 of
ozonizing tubes which supply the ozone to 3 more successive alcohol vessels I, I', I',
by means of the tubes J, J1, J2. The deozonized oxygen from the last of these
vessels is conducted by a tube K to a gas holder L in which the condensation of the
alcohol drawn by the gas takes place. The oxygen thus separated from the alcohol
can be exhausted from the gas holder by a pump m and forced through the tube n
into the washing apparatus o preceding the first set A of ozonizing tubes which
reozonize it once more so that it may serve for the treatment of a fresh quantity of
alcoholic liquid. The pump m will be put in action as soon as the gas holder is full
of oxygen, the cock u being first closed and the cock u¹ opened. The operation is
then continued until the gas is all exhausted which will be indicated by the level of
the bell of the gas holder. Simple decantation suffices to separate the purified
alcohol of good favor from the resinous products formed by the treatment of the
supersaturated ozone.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me, I declare
that what I claim is :-
:―
1. The manufacture or preparation of pure supersaturated ozone by triple electri-
zations of oxygen under pressure, substantially as set forth.
2. An apparatus for the manufacture of ozone consisting of a number of ozonizing
tubes connected together in sets of three, each set being provided with a Ruhmkorff
coil or analogous device, and the apparatus being maintained at a temperature of
from 0° to 15° Centigrade by a circulation of cooling liquid or otherwise, substantially
as set forth.
3. The application as set forth of pure supersaturated ozone to the purification or
treatment of alcoholic liquids and other similar purposes.
4. The apparatus arranged and acting substantially as and for the purpose herein-
before described with reference to Figures 1 and 2, the characteristic features of this
apparatus being the provision before each ozonizing apparatus of a washing device
and a caustic potash drying device, the provision of a safety device between each
ozonizing apparatus and the first alcohol vessel supplied by this apparatus, the
reozonification of the oxygen every time it has passed through a given number of
vessels, and the condensation in the gas holder of the alcohol drawn with the oxygen
from the last vessel, the oxygen which accumulates in the gas holder being pumped
back to the first ozonizing apparatus to be utilized for the treatment of a fresh
quantity of alcohol, all substantially as set forth.