IMPROVEMENTS IN MALTING, AND IN APPARATUS FOR THE PURPOSE.
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Ernest de Pass at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 13th February 1883. Communicated to
him from abroad by Charles Golay, of Boulevard de Belleville, Paris, France
ERNEST DE PASS, of the Office for British and Foreign Patents, 68 Fleet Street,
in the City of London, Fellow of the Institute of Patent Agents, IMPROVEMENTS
IN MALTING, AND IN APPARATUS FOR THE PURPOSE. Communicated to me from
abroad by Charles Golay of Boulevard de Belleville, Paris France
This invention relates to improvements in malting and in apparatus for the
purpose and it has for its object to maintain the grain at the most convenient
degree of temperature and dampness suitable for its germination in either thick or
thin couches. The processes at present employed consist in causing air (which has
been made cold and damp by being passed through a tower filled with watered
coke) to pass through the grain which is kept in vats or tanks with perforated
false bottoms; or the air is damped and cooled by being passed through wet
cloths fixed in frames over false bottomed vats or tanks containing the grain; like
results are also obtained by causing the air to pass over the surface of a large
stratum of water or through a shower of water produced by any convenient
means,
Now this invention offers several important advantages which are not found in
the processes hitherto in use, and above alluded to, its special object being to
provide the couch of germinating grain with water in a finely divided state
resembling mist or spray (fed from a diffuser, or diffusers, of special construction
hereinafter described) when the said grain requires to be damped or wetted, and
at the same time to introduce air, if necessary, at a greatly reduced temperature.
In order to obtain these results the apparatus is composed of the following
combination of elements, viz: an air compressor for the compression of the air up
to 3 atmospheres or more; a refrigerator for cooling the air, said refrigerator
containing a coiled pipe which is immersed in water at the ordinary temperature,
for the purpose of opposing the heating action produced by compressing the air;
a compressed air reservoir fitted with a valve and pressure gauge, and a spray
diffuser placed either over each of the vats or tanks containing the grain, or over
the malt-house, and so arranged that the jets of water are strongly impelled, at a
D071

page_text: convenient angle, by means of a jet of air, at a high pressure, which causes the
water to fall in a spray and lower the temperature by the expansion in the
atmosphere of the compressed air.
In one arrangement the improved spray diffuser, for the purpose above mentioned,
consists of two cylindrical chambers placed one over the other, one of which
contains the compressed air from the reservoir above mentioned, and the other
contains water; the said chambers are provided with nozzles having holes or slits
so arranged as to cause the jets of air to cross the jets of water.
In another arrangement, the spray diffuser consists of three tubes or pipes, one of
which contains the compressed air, and the other two the water; these tubes are
pierced with holes or slits which are also furnished with nozzles. The openings
holes or slits may be placed parallel, or in a convergent direction, or around the
chambers in order to obtain a uniform distribution, within a limited space, of the
cold air saturated by the spray.
In another arrangement the spray diffuser consists of a tube or pipe through
which the compressed air passes, and such pipe contains a central pipe through
which the water passes.
In another arrangement the spray diffuser consists of a chamber within which is
fixed an internal chamber, the space between the two chambers being in communi- -
cation with the compressed air of the reservoir; the internal chamber receives the
water. A suitable number of nozzles is fixed to the outer chamber and through
each nozzle passes a pipe which projects slightly outwards and communicates at its
inner end with the water chamber. This apparatus is fixed to the ceiling of the
malt-house.
=
A suction fan or blower is so arranged as to draw the air through pipes, from
under the false bottomed vats or tanks containing the grain. The pipes are provided
with dampers or the like, for the purpose of regulating the suction of the air from
the vats or tanks.
These spray diffusers may be used with any system of malting even when the
germination is effected on the ground. In the latter case the spray diffuser is
placed inside an air pipe through which air is forced by means of a blower, and
which air will be charged with finely divided spray which will be diffused
throughout the malt-house.