Improvements in or connected with Mash-tuns and Conversion Vessels for Brewers' and Distillers' Use.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Dec., 1896-Accepted, 16th Jan., 1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or connected with Mash-tuns and Conversion
Vessels for Brewers' and Distillers' Use.
We, RICHARD DOUGLAS BAILEY, F.C.S., of the City Brewery, Gloucester,
in the County of Gloucester, Consulting Brewer and Analytical Chemist, and
LEWIS PETER FORD, of 72 Bishopsgate Street Within, in the City of London,
formerly Her Majesty's Attorney-General in the Transvaal, 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 :-
Hitherto brewers and distillers have erected various forms of mash-tuus and
unmalted grain conversion vessels. Such vessels have in many cases been con-
structed either entirely of, or with a certain amount of metal, such as gun-metal,
iron, copper or steel. Now as these vessels have to contain infusions of malt, rice,
maize or other cereal or cereals, which always naturally contain certain percentages
of acidity, and as in many cases acids such as sulphuric or hydrochloric are mixed
with the infusions for the purpose of bringing about the conversion of the materials
under treatment, it will be understood that the infusions are at all times more or
less of an acid character. Again when such cereals are infused, either with water
alone or with water and acid, large amounts of albuminous or nitrogenous bodies are
extracted, and the so-called infused wort is therefore heavily charged with soluble
and insoluble albuminous or nitrogenous matter. When raising the temperature of
an albuminous, nitrogenous or acid infusion contained in an iron, gun-metal, copper,
or steel vessel, or vessel containing any pipes, rakes or other portions, of these
metals, re-actions take place between the metals and the albuminous or nitrogenous
constituents of the infusion. These re-actions are due chiefly to the action of
acids on metals, producing gallates and malates, and are due to the formation of
metallic hydroxides and rust by which the albuminous and nitrogenous substances
are transformed.
We have found that silver is not subject to the above mentioned re-actions, and.
that, if the mash-tun or conversion vessel is constructed of metal and internally
coated with silver, albuminous, nitrogenous and acid worts may be raised to any
required temperature within them without the albuminous or nitrogenous bodies
undergoing any deleterious alteration such as the objectionable transformations
above described, or without the interior of the vessels being liable to rust when
not in use.
Mash-tuns and conversion vessels have also in some cases been made of wood and
in such cases the wood is liable to become foul and thereby injuriously affect the
infusion under treatment.
Our invention therefore consists in the internal coating with silver of mash-tuns
and conversion vessels together with the internal or external silver plating of any
pipes, such as heating, cooling, or circulating pipes or apparatus, and the internal
rake machinery and false bottoms, which all constitute parts of the mashing
plant, whether intended for the purpose of conducting manipulatious with either
malted or unmalted grain.
We therefore propose to coat with silver all the interior portions of a brewer's
or distiller's existing mash-tun or conversion vessel, or to construct vessels the
interior of which shall be coated with silver, in such a manner that the infused

page_text: grain or wort may come into contact with no other metal or surface than silver,
this necessitating the coating with silver also of all pipes and rake machinery.
This coating with silver may be effected by depositing the silver electrically
upon the surfaces to be coated or by coatings of silver otherwise applied to the
surfaces coming into contact with the infusion.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :-
The internal coating with silver of mash-tuns and conversion vessels, and the
coating with silver of wort circulating and other pipes, rake machinery and false
bottoms, which such vessels contain, for brewer's and distiller's use, as herein
described and set forth.
1000
HARRIS & MILLS,
23 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents.
HARRIS & MILLS,
23 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents.