Im- PROVEMENTS IN DISTILLING AND RECTIFYING, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREFOR.
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Evariste Vignier, of Great Tower Street, in
the City of London, Brandy. Merchant, for the Invention of "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN DISTILLING AND RECTIFYING, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED
THEREFOR.
"
Sealed the 29th November 1870, and dated the 28th July 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Evariste Vignier at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 28th July 1870.
I, EVARISTE VIGNIER, of Great Tower-Street, in the City of London,
Brandy Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DISTILLING AND RECTIFYING, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED
THEREFOR," to be as follows:-
66
This Invention relates to certain improvements on what is commonly
known as Coffey's still," and has for its object a more perfect and
complete separation of the alcoholic vapours from the wash and of the
ethers and essential oils from such alcoholic vapours. The wash dis-
tilling column is divided into a number of perfectly distinct and separate
compartments by metallic sheets. Above the top compartment there

page_text: is formed a reservoir for the reception of the wash, which arrives there
at a temperature approaching the boiling point, it having been heated
on its way from a cistern on the top of the column by flowing or
being pumped through pipes, which pass zig-zag fashion through two
vapour collecting chambers situated underneath the wash cistern, but
above the compartments of the column, such chambers serving to collect
the vapours from the several compartments as herein-after explained.
This heated wash flows down from one compartment to anotlier through
syphons, or through the usual overflow pipes, which are also employed
in case any of the syphons should get out of order. By the time the
wash arrives at the lowest compartment it is exhausted or very nearly
so, and the overflow from this last compartment is conveyed to per-
forated sheets for the purpose of analysing any alcoholic vapours that
may be still existing in the said wash. The analysing column is some-
what similar to that employed in the Coffey still, with the exception,
however, that the two upper frames are kept as a reservoir of the low
wines condensed in the rectifying column. A syphon is placed in this
chamber and carries the overflow of these weak low wines into a hot
feint receiver, from which it is pumped up with the wash to the top
of the distilling column. I propose also to use this analysing column
as the body of the rectifying column, and to employ in that case the
apparatus without the distilling column only as a rectifying apparatus;
for this purpose coils of pipes would be placed when needed at the
bottom of the analyser through which steam would be sent to heat the
spirit there placed to be rectified. The wash in each compartment is
heated not only by the admission of steam from a steam generator into
each compartment separately through perforated steam pipes, but also
by the use of coils of pipe which pass through the several compartments,
through which the heated vapours from the spent wash pass up to be
received in one of the two vapour collecting chambers before referred
to situate on the top of the column. The vapours which ascend through
separate pipes from each of the compartments receiving the wash are
directed by means of a three-way cock into one or the other of the two
vapour collecting chambers containing the low wines according to the
quality of such vapours, those of an inferior quality are conducted into
a separate chamber. The quality and strength of the low wines from
each of the two collecting chambers is ascertained by the usual sample
apparatus. The better quality of low wines collected in one of the
vapour chambers are directed into the bottom compartment of the

page_text: rectifying column, these vapours ascending through the several com-
partments of such column as herein-after explained. The ethery and
oily low wines of inferior quality as well as the vapours from the spent
wash will be condensed in a separate and distinct condenser and run
into a feints vessel to be separately rectified at the completion of the
operation of dist the last wash. The vapours which ascend from
the better quality of low wines first pass through a filtering medium
composed of perforated purified slabs of baked or burnt pipeclay,
which material is placed in the bottom of the rectifying column and
absorbs a considerable portion of the oily impurities. The lower com-
partments of the rectifying column contain water for the purpose of
washing the vapours or separating therefrom any oily impurity which
may have passed through the filtering medium. The series of com-
partments above the water washers are separated by metal sheets
provided with bonnets, and the upper series of the same are separated
by perforated plates and valves, all the separating diaphragms being
provided with overflow pipes connecting one compartment with another.
A tubular surface condenser is placed about the middle of the
rectifying column, and another similar condenser is placed at the
top of the column. Below this upper condenser there are two un-
perforated sheets or diaphragms forming spirit sheets, from either of
which the spirit may be drawn off for entering the refrigerator or to
be returned into any of the upper chambers above the water washers
compartment.
After what has been above enumerated regarding the wash distilling
column it will be easily perceived that the low wines made from this column
are of a very much higher quality than those obtained by Coffey's analyser,
inasmuch as those produced by my distilling column being fractioned
there cannot be any admixture of the heavy essential oils in the low
wines, and each compartment of that column acting as a small ordinary
still with the different chambers of it distilling the same wash before
entering the anylising column as often as there are chambers into which
it passes through. One can therefore fully understand that the 1st
chamber will give the ethers, while the last ones will give a portion of
the essential oils of the wash, this being established on the following
principle that certain oils and ethers are more volatile than spirit, while
also the heaviest portion of the essential oils are heavier than spirit and
water, hence by my process two qualities of low wines are produced.

page_text: Grain or malt wash or wine can be distilled by this column and produce plain
spirit free from ethers and oils, and also the finest whiskies or brandies
with all their flavor "sui generis" by passing or distilling the low wines
thus obtained through a rectifying column adapted for either of the
spirits above named. The advantage also of this distilling column over
Coffey's apparatus is its being so adapted as to stop the working of the
distillation at any moment or during any period of the operation that
may be required without any loss of the spirit. The distilling column
being supplied by a force pump for the wash can, made in the same
proportion, distill the same quantity of spirit per hour.
The rectifying column of my apparatus is established on the known
gravity of alcohol compared with that of water. The good low wines
arriving at the bottom of the rectifying column in the shape of vapour
will have to be forced with a a certain amount of pressure, which will be
regulated in their passing through perforated slabs of prepared pipeclay.
The size of the holes on these slabs will be made in accordance with
the spirit for which the still may be applied at the time. After the
vapours have been forced through a certain number of these filters the
spirit enters into water and the lighter spirit rising from it passes
through different plates with bonnets and perforated sheets with valves.
In the middle of this column there is a tubular surface condenser which
with the different filters forms the principal object and improvements
of my Invention.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Evariste Vignier in the Great Seal' Patent Office 2
on the 28th January 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EVARISTE
VIGNIER, of Great Tower Street, in the City of London, Brandy
Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her 3
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of July, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Evariste Vignier, Her special license
that I, the said Evariste Vignier, my executors, administrators, and 3

page_text: assigns, or such others as I, the said Evariste Vignier, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed; should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN -
DISTILLING AND RECTIFYING, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREFOR," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I; the said Evariste Vignier, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, and cause the same be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE; that I, the said Evariste Vignier, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed; to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to
say):
My said Invention relates to certain improvements on what is
commonly known as " Coffey's still," and has for its object a more
perfect and complete separation of the alcoholic vapours from the
wash and of the ethers and essential oils from such alcoholic vapours.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood, I
shall now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that
purpose shall refer to the several Figures on the annexed Sheet of
Drawings, the same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts
in all the Figureș.
Figure 1 of my Drawings is a vertical section of my improved distilling
column taken along the line 1-2 in Figure 2; Figure 2 is a horizontal
section of the column taken along the line 3-4 in Figure 1, and
Figure 3 is a vertical section of the rectifying column drawn to a larger
scale.
A is the wash distilling column, which is divided into any convenient
number of perfectly distinct and separate compartments by metallic sheets
These compartments, of which ten are shewn in my Drawings,
are indicated by the numbers 1 to 10 inclusive in Figure 1. Above.
a, a.

page_text: the top compartment 1 there is formed a reservoir B for the reception
of the wash, which arrives there at a temperature approaching the
boiling point, it having been heated on its way from a cistern C on the
top of the column by flowing or being pumped through the pipes D, D,
which pass zig-zag fashion through two vapour collecting chambers E
and F situated underneath the wash cistern C but above the compart-
ments 1 to 10 of the column, such chambers E and F serving to collect
the vapours from the several compartments 1 to 10 as herein-after
explained. C' is the pipe which supplies the wash to the closed cistern
C, and D¹ is the overflow pipe which regulates by means of the cock ď
the quantity of wash which the still can operate upon effectually. In
order to distil the wash in the different compartments a steam pipe G
conducts steam from a generator into any or all of the compartments
through the open branch pipes b, b, and stop-cocks c, c, as shewn clearly
in Figure 1, but these open steam pipes G and b. may be dispensed with
when distilling whiskies or brandies, and closed steam pipes substituted
so as to preserve the natural flavor of the wash or wine operated upon.
This heated wash flows down from one compartment to another through
syphons d, d, or through the usual overflow pipes e, e, which are also
employed in case any of the syphons should cease to act. The tops of
the overflow pipes e are a little above the bends of the syphons (say
about one inch) as shewn, and each syphon has a small hole made in
the highest part of the bend to allow the syphon to operate and establish
the level of the wash. By the time the wash arrives at the lowest
compartment 10-it has become exhausted or very nearly so, and the over-
flow from this last compartment is conveyed by the overflow pipe h¹ and
syphon on to perforated sheets H, H, in the analysing column for the
purpose of analysing any alcoholic
that
vapours may be still existing in
the said wash. The analysing column is somewhat similar to that
employed in the "Coffey still "and is heated in a similar manner by
the steam pipe I leading from a steam generator, and is provided with
the same kind of continuous discharge tube as used in that class of still.
A reservoir K of the low wines condensed in the rectifying column is
provided in the top of the analysing column, and a syphon f is placed
in this chamber, which carries the overflow of these weak low wines
into a hot feint receiver, from which it may be pumped up with the
wash to the top of the distilling column. I prefer, however, to allow
the weak low wines to flow direct from the reservoir K through an
overflow pipe or a syphon, or both, or by pipes and cocks outside on to

page_text: the perforated sheets H, H, of the analysing column. By employing
syphons I am enabled to take off the bottom or weaker part of the
spirit or wash as the case may be. I propose also to use this analysing
column as the body or base of the rectifying column, and to employ
in that case the apparatus without the distilling column only as a
rectifying apparatus; for this purpose coils of non-perforated pipes
would be placed when needed at the bottom of the analyser, through
which steam would be sent to heat the spirit there placed to be rectified.
The wash in each compartment of the distilling column is heated not
only by the admission of steam from a steam generator into each com-
partment separately through the open pipe G and branches b, b, but
also by the use of closed coils of pipe M, M, which traverse the several
compartments through which the heated vapours from the spent wash
or weak low wines pass up to be received in the upper one E of the
two vapour collecting chambers E and F before referred to situate on
the top of the distilling column. The vapours which ascend through
separate pipes i, i, from the compartments 1, 2, 9, and 10 receiving the
_wash are directed by means of two way cocks at k into one or the other
of the two vapour collecting chambers E, F, containing the low wines
according to the quality of such vapours, those of an inferior quality
being conducted into the chamber E. The vapours from the chambers
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 pass into the lower vapour collecting chamber F
through the pipes i, , two only of which can be seen in Figure 1.
By this means each compartment in reality acts as a separate and
distinct still. The quality and strength of the low wines from each of
the two collecting chambers is ascertained by the usual and well known
sample apparatus. The better quality of low wines collected in the
lower vapour chamber F are directed by the pipe N, shewn dotted in
Figure 1, into the bottom compartment O of the rectifying column,
shewn on a rather larger scale at Figure 3. A cock, which. com-
municates with the pipe N and the bottom of the chamber F, serves to
carry off the condensed low wines into the pipe N and compartment O
of the rectifier (Figure 3). The vapours from the bottom compart-
ment of the rectifier ascend through the several compartments of the
rectifying column as herein-after explained. The ethery and oily low
wines of inferior quality obtained from the collecting chamber E by a
pipe for that purpose (not shewn in my Drawings) as well as the
vapours from the spent wash will be condensed in a separate and
distinct condenser and run into a feints vessel to be separately rectified

page_text: at the completion of the operation of distilling the last wash. The
vapours in the bottom compartment O of the rectifier, which ascend
from the better quality of low wines obtained from the collecting
chamber F, first pass through a filtering medium P composed of
perforated purified slabs of baked or burned pipe-clay or other suitable
absorbent material, which material is placed on perforated plates 1, 1,
in the bottom of the rectifying column and absorbs a considerable
portion of the oily impurities. These filtering slabs may or may not
be used according to the degree of purity required. The lower three
compartments m, n, o, of the rectifying column- contain on the
diaphragms p, p, a certain quantity of water for the purpose of washing
the vapours or separating therefrom any oily impurity which may have
passed through or escaped from the filtering medium P; such vapours
passing under the edges of the well known bonnets t, t, used' in the
ordinary rectifying apparatus and rising up through the water on the
diaphragms p, p. This water is obtained either from a special cistern
through a cock at q¹ or from the overflow of the two condensers Q and
R (hereinafter referred to) in the rectifying column by the bent pipe q
or other convenient means. The outlet pipe r serves to convey the weak
Iow wines and water employed in washing the alcoholic vapour from the
chamber m of the rectifying column to the reservoir K above the
analysing column shewn in Figure 1. The piper¹ conveys the condensed
low wines from the bottom of the compartment O of the rectifier to the
reservoir K of the analysing column. The vapours from this reservoir
K pass of by the pipe S to the compartment O of the rectifier. The
series of compartments above the water washers m, n, o, in the rectifying
column are separated by metal sheets s, s, provided with the ordinary and
well known bonnets t, t, and are further separated by perforated plates
u, u, and valves v, all the separating diaphragms being provided with over-
flow pipes w, w, connecting one compartment with another, a tubular
surface condenser Q is placed about the middle of the rectifying column,
and another similar condenser R is placed at the top of the column.
Below this upper condenser there are by preference two unperforated
sheets or diaphragms forming spirit sheets (not shewn in my Drawings),
and from either of the said two condensers the spirit may be drawn off
for entering the refrigerator or to be returned into any of the upper
chambers above the water washing compartments m, n, o, already referred
to. After what has been above stated regarding the wash distilling
column it will be easily perceived that the low wines made from this

page_text: column will be of a much higher quality than those obtained by Coffey's
analyser, inasmuch as those produced by my distilling column are
separated from the ethers and the heavy essential oils in the low wines.
Each compartment 1 to 10 of the distilling column acts as a small
ordinary still in itself, the several compartments distilling the wash as
many times before entering the analysing column as there are chambers
into which it passes. The two first or upper chambers will give the
ethers, while the last ones will give a portion of the essential oils of the
wash, this being established on the following principle that certain oils
and ethers are more volatile than spirit, whilst also the heaviest portion
of the essential oils are heavier than spirit and water. By my process
two qualities of low wines are consequently produced. Grain or malt
wash or wine can be distilled by this column and produce plain spirit
free from ethers and oils, and also the finest whiskies or brandies with all:
their flavor “sui generis" by passing or distilling the low wines thus
obtained through a rectifying column adapted for either of the spirits
above named. The advantage also of this distilling column over Coffey's
apparatus is that the distillatory process can be readily arrested at any
stage or during any period of the operation that may be required without
any loss of the spirit.
The still and rectifier shewn in my Drawings may be used either as a
combined distilling and rectifying apparatus or as a rectifier only, in
which latter case it will be necessary to reduce the spirit to be rectified
to the same strength as the wash which would usually be submitted to
the same apparatus when used as a still (or say of a strength equal to
about ten per cent. of proof spirit). The advantage thereby obtained is
that a much larger quantity of spirit can be rectified in a given time
with a smaller apparatus than would be required with the ordinary
rectifier.
When used as a rectifier only the heat may be obtained either solely
from the heating coils or used in combination with the steam pipe G and
branches b, b, as found most desirable.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
said Invention and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to
be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me
by the berein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
First. The so constructing the distilling column of a distillatory

page_text: apparatus as that each compartment or chamber thereof shall act as
a separate and distinct still, substantially as herein-before described.
Second. The application and use of syphons having a perforation at
the top of the bend for regulating the level of the liquid in each compart-
ment of the distilling column, as herein-before described.
Third. The application and use to and in a rectifying column of
perforated filtering slabs of baked or burnt pipe-clay or other equivalent
substance, substantially as and for the purpose herein-before described.
Fourth. The application and use of the ordinary bonnets of a rectifying
column made to dip into water for the purpose of washing the alcoholic
vapours, as herein-before described.
Fifth. The placing of one or more condensers in the column of the
rectifier, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Evariste Vignier, have to this my
Specification set my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of
January, One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.
EVARISTE VIGNIER. (L.S.)