A NEW OR IMPROVED VARNISH OR COMPOSITION FOR COATING VESSELS FOR HOLDING AND STORING BEER, WINE, VINEGAR, SUCROSE, GLUCOSE, AND SUCH LIKE LIQUIDS OR SUBSTANCES
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Edward Goolden and Angus Mackay, of Hackney,
in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED
VARNISH OR COMPOSITION FOR COATING VESSELS FOR HOLDING AND STORING
BEER, WINE, VINEGAR, SUCROSE, GLUCOSE, AND SUCH LIKE LIQUIDS OR
SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 21st November 1879, and dated the 20th June 1879.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Richard Edward Goolden and
Angus Mackay at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 20th
June 1879.
RICHARD EDWARD GOOLDEN and ANGUS MACKAY, of Hackney, in the County
of Middlesex. "A NEW OR IMPROVED VARNISH OR COMPOSITION FOR COATING
VESSELS FOR HOLDING AND STORING BEER, WINE, VINEGAR, SUCROSE, GLUCOSE,
AND SUCH LIKE LIQUIDS OR SUBSTANCES."
I. In making varnishes or compounds for coating the inside of casks, vats, and
other vessels composed of wood, metal, slate, stone, brick, plaster, paper, or such
like materials, and for mashing and fermenting tuns, yeast tubs, and for holding
beer, wine, vinegar, sucrose, glucose, and such like liquids or substances, we have
discovered that by combining sulphur with varnishes and coating the inside of
vessels such as are mentioned above, for the purposes or uses also herein above
mentioned, such application made with the sulphurised varnish, or varnishes either
in a cold or heated state, that the pores of the wood or other material are thereby
hermetically sealed against the germs of fungus or acidity.
II. The varnish thus made and applied forms a completely hard but flexible
enamel on the vessel therewith treated, and one that does not blister or peel off
when the vessel is cleansed by boiling water or by steam. The varnish or com-
position is moreover perfectly free from taste or smell, and will not therefore
deteriorate from or injure the flavour of the most delicate ale or wine, while it
cannot itself be effected by the generation of acidity or alcohol in stock or keeping
beera.
III. In applying the varnish or composition to the various vessels, which for that
purpose must be thoroughly dry, it is preferred to have them first alightly heated,
so as to drive out or expel from the pores of the material of which they are com-
posed any moisture that may thereby be held.
IV. With casks perfectly free from blisters and splinters, and thoroughly dried
by heated dry air, the composition can be poured in by the bung hole and well

page_text: rinsed around the inside of the cask. After this the surplus can be run out and
the cask laid aside to dry.
V. Or a pipe conveying hot dry air can be introduced into the tap hole, the bung
hole being open, so as to drive off the spirit contained in the varnish or composition,
and at the same time to force the varnish or composition into the pores of the wood
or other material, thus assisting materially in maintaining the condition of the
beer, wine, or other liquid.
VI. For "stinkers or musty casks it is preferred that the head of the cask
should be taken out and the interior of the cask examined to see if there are any
blisters, and should such be found they must be cut out before the varnish or com-
position is applied to the cask. When the cask is thoroughly clean the composition
is then quickly applied with a painter's brush; a light is next applied to the com-
position or varnish with which the interior of the cask is thus coated, by which
the inside of the cask is covered with flame, giving off a large volume of sulphurous
gas, which at once penetrates the pores of the wood and destroys the fungus
previously found in such pores. It is preferred to give two coats in this way, and
a third to be applied immediately thereafter and allowed to dry of itself without
heat or other hastening operation. Or instead thereof the cask may be headed up
after examination, and the composition or varnish applied as in the manner herein
above first stated.
VII. For large open vats or tuns the varnish or composition can be applied
either in the cold state or heated. If the latter, a few square feet can be covered
with the composition or varnish and flamed off, and this mode of procedure con-
tinued until the whole of the surface to be coated is finished.
VIII. For casks new from the cooper one or two coats will be found perfectly
effective without the usual seasoning, and the casks are thus at once rendered fit to
receive the most delicately flavoured ales, wines, or other liquids.
IX. The composition it is preferred to use is made of the following ingredients:-
In or about the proportions named, that is to say, of shellac five pounds avor-
dupoise; of a vegetable oil, by preference castor oil, two gills; of fine sulphur, one
pound; and of alcohol or methylated spirits, one gallon. For this latter ingredient,
the alcohol or methylated spirits, may be substituted any liquids or combination
that will act as a solvent for the other ingredients.
✗. For some purposes the ingredients may be used together, with the exception
of the oil, the object of the introduction of which is to render the composition more
flexible and tough.
XI. Or we may apply the sulphur in combination with any other spirit varnish,
but we do not confine ourselves to any particular kind or proportions of materials
or colours of pigments employed therein; but what we claim and desire to secure
by Letters Patent is, firstly, the combination of sulphur with varnishes, either
pure varnishes or varnishes containing carbon, and with or without pigments of
any kind whatever, and to be applied either in a heated or cold state in the manner
or manners and for the purpose or purposes hereinbefore stated; and, secondly, the
particular compound or varnish as set forth in the Section IX. in this Specification.
In witness whereof, we, the said Richard Edward Goolden and Angus Mackay,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Nineteenth day of June, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy nine.