AN INSTRUMENT OR APPARATus. For REMOVING AIR FROM THE INTERIORS OF CASKS OR OTHER VESSELS AND FILLING THEM UP WITH BEER OR OTHER LIQUID
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Joseph West, of the Firm of Siebe and
West, of Mason Street, Lambeth, in the County of Surrey,
Engineer, for the Invention of "AN INSTRUMENT OR APPARATus. For
REMOVING AIR FROM THE INTERIORS OF CASKS OR OTHER VESSELS AND FILLING
THEM UP WITH BEER OR OTHER LIQUID."-A communication from abroad
by Mr. H. Whymper. of Murree, India, Brewer.
:
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Joseph West
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 19th June 1873.
I, HENRY JOSEPH WEST, of the Firm of Siebe and West, of Mason
Street, Lambeth, in the County of Surrey, Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "AN INSTRUMENT OR APPARAtus for
"REMOVING AIR FROM THE INTERIORS OF CASKS OR OTHER VESSELS AND FILLING THEM
UP WITH BEER OR OTHER LIQUID," (a communication to me from abroad by
Mr. H. Whymper, of Murree, India, Brewer), to be as follows:-
Liquors, such as beers, wines, &c., when stored in casks suffer from
"dryage" or "ullage" necessitating frequent filling up of the casks

page_text: with liquor and withdrawal of air to prevent shrinking of the staves and
consequent loss of liquor.
Where casks are stacked one over another, as is frequently done, the
operation of filling up is rendered very difficult owing to the impossibility
of getting at the bungs of the casks in some of the upper rows without
taking down the casks themselves, which involves much labour in
unstacking and restacking the casks, besides disturbing their contents.
Now this Invention has for its object to obviate these difficulties, and
to enable the air. to be removed and the casks or other vessels to be
readily filled up as required, even when in the upper tiers of a stack,
and this without withdrawing the bungs or damaging the contents of the
casks, either by exposure to the external atmosphere or disturbing the
sediment in the casks. For this purpose a suitable tap or body fitting
into a hole in the head or lateral part of the cask or vessel to be filled
up is provided with a feeding pipe, tube, or conduit extending some-
what above the highest part of the cask or vessel for feeding liquor to it,
and with an escape pipe, tube, or conduit terminating at one end
within the cask or vessel at its highest internal part, for conducting
therefrom the air displaced by the filling up of the cask or vessel with
liquor.
The feeding pipe may be furnished with a funnel, and may be con-
nected to the tap or body by a union joint or joints, a suitable cock or
cocks being provided for opening and closing the passage or way as
required; and the end of the air escape pipe, tube, or conduit, within
the cask or vessel may be provided with a perforated cap or terminal, to
prevent choking of the pipe by any hops or other matters in the cask,
the cap or terminal being made capable of removal when necessary for
cleaning.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry Joseph West in the Great Seal Patent 3
Office on the 19th December 1873.
:
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
JOSEPH WEST, of the Firm of Siebe and West, of Mason Street,
Lambeth, in the County of Surrey, Engineer, send greeting.

page_text: 1
.
1
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent bearing date the Nineteenth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-sixth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Henry Joseph West, Her special license
that I, the said Henry Joseph West, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry Joseph West, 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 "AN
INSTRUMENT OR APPARATUS FOR REMOVING AIR FROM THE INTERIORS OF CASKS OR
OTHER VESSELS, AND FILLING THEM UP WITH BEER OR OTHER LIQUID," a' com-
munication to me from abroad by Mr. H. Whymper, of Murree, India,
Brewer, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry
Joseph West, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to
be filed in the Great Scal Patent Office within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
.
'
1
".
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Joseph West, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, and the Drawings therein referred to,
(that is to say) :-
1
. Casks or other vessels containing beer, wines, spirits, oils, or other
liquids, if stored, have to be filled up from time to time with similar
liquor to that they contain to prevent deterioration, absorption by. the
casks or vessels, or evaporation, which will take place if they are not so
filled up. All casks are subject to "dryage," that is to say, if they are
left in store for any length of time it will be found eventually that they
do not contain the same bulk of liquor that they originally did. The
space rendered vacant is seldom, if ever, a vacuum, but is occupied by
perhaps gas, but more probably by atmospheric air, which has found its
way into the cask."
'

page_text: t
a shrinking of the wood or staves ensues, the seams open, and the liquor
in the cask thus becomes exposed to the influence of the outer air, and
consequent deterioration or loss by evaporation ensues.
•
Now the process of filling up to prevent or remedy these evils is at
times a difficult and costly one, and in some cases is impracticable by
existing methods.
In many stores there is but limited space, and casks are placed in
tiers, or in other words, are piled one upon another. To fill up the casks
it is necessary to get at their highest internal parts, in fact it is requisite
to draw the bungs or shives, and many of these being under other casks
the upper casks have to be removed to enable those beneath to be filled
up. In any case the labor and expense of this removal are great, and
at times owing to the crowded state of cellars or stores it cannot be
effected. Even where it can be carried on, the disturbance of the casks
frequently injures the liquor they contain, and in any case the with-
drawal of the bung or shive exposes the liquor in the cask to the action
of the outer atmosphere, which is often prejudicial.
Now this Invention is designed to obviate these difficulties or evils,
and to enable the spaces rendered vacant by dryage, absorption, &c., in
casks or other vessels to be filled up with liquor by force or otherwise,
and the air occupying such spaces to be removed during the process of
filling up with liquor, without displacing or disturbing any of the casks
or other vessels, and without exposing their contents of liquor to the
external atmosphere. For this purpose a suitable tap or body fitting
into a hole in the head or lateral part of the cask or vessel to be filled
up is provided with a feeding pipe, tube, or conduit, extending some-
what above the highest part of the cask or vessel for feeding liquor to
'it, and with an escape pipe, tube, or conduit terminating at one end
within the cask or vessel at its highest internal part for conducting
therefrom the air displaced by the filling up of the cask or vessel with
liquor.
The feeding pipe may be furnished with a funnel, and may be con-

page_text: cask or vessel may be provided with a perforated cap or terminal to
prevent choking of the pipe by any hops or other matters in the cask,
the cap or terminal being made capable of removal when necessary for
cleaning..
Fig. 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a view, partly in longitudinal
vertical section, and partly in elevation, of a portion of a cask having
this Invention applied to it, the parts being in position for feeding liquor
to fill up the cask and force out the air..
Fig. 2 shews in plan part of the tap or body of the apparatus.
Fig. 3 is an end view of the tap or body; and Fig. 4 is a view partly
in longitudinal vertical section, and partly in elevation, shewing the
position of the parts, which obtains before or after the cask has been
filled up, the air escape pipe, tube, or conduit, being drawn outwards,
and the plug of the tap or body closed to prevent the escape of liquor
from the cask.
Into a hole in the head or lateral part a of the cask. or vessel to be
filled up, is forced or driven in the ordinary manner a tap or body b,
accurately. fitted with a plug c, having through it a passage or way d.
This tap or body is provided with a feeding pipe, tube, or conduite,
terminating at its upper end above the highest part of the cask or
vessel to be filled. This feeding pipe, tube, or conduit may terminate
in the form of a funnel, as shewn at f, or it may extend, as shewn in
dotted lines, to or be connected with a cask or other reservoir of liquor,
like that contained in the cask or vessel to be filled up, always taking
care that the level of the liquor in such reservoir shall be higher than
the highest internal part of the cask or vessel to be filled up. At its
lower end the feeding pipe, tube, or conduit e is connected by a union
joint or coupling 9 to a small cock h, which is screwed, as shewn at i,
into the tap or body b. Within the tap or body b, and suitably packed
by a gland at k, is arranged an escape pipe, tube, or conduit 7, curved in
the form of an arc of a circle, of such radius that assuming the tap or
body b to be in position in the end a of the cask or vessel, on forcing the
pipe, tube, or conduit inwards its inner end shall extend to the highest
internal portion of the cask or vessel to be filled up, leaving only
sufficient space between the substance of the cask or vessel and such
inner end of the pipe, tube, or conduit to admit of the entrance into the

page_text: latter of the air required to be withdrawn from the interior of the cask
or other vessel. The interior of the tap or body b is made sufficiently
large to leave a space 6¹ around the air escape pipe, tube, or conduit 1,
and the inner end of the tap or body 6 is perforated at 6' to admit liquor
from the space b¹ into the cask or vessel.
I have shewn the apparatus as made of brass for filling up beer
casks, &c., but the material may obviously be varied according to the
nature of the liquor to be dealt with.
The modus operandi of this instrument or apparatus is as follows:-
The parts being in the positions relative to each other, shown in Fig. 4,
the tap or body b is driven by means of a mallett or otherwise, as well
understood, into the hole in the end a of the cask or vessel to be filled
up, and the plug c and small cock / being opened the air escape pipe,
tube, or conduit 1, forced inwards to the position shewn in Fig. 1, and
liquor like that in the cask or vessel to be filled up poured into the
funnel f; or the feeding pipe, tube, or conduit e, otherwise charged
with such liquor, its pressure displaces the air in the upper part a¹ of
the cask or vessel, thereby forcing such air out by the pipe, tube, or
conduit 1, and filling up the space a¹ with liquor. The pipe, tube, or
conduit 1, may be then drawn outward and the plug c and cock / closed,
as shewn in Fig. 4.
Having described the said Invention of "An Instrument or Apparatus
for Removing Air from the Interiors of Casks or other Vessels, and
Filling them up with Beer or other Liquid," as communicated to me as
aforesaid, and having explained the manner of carrying the same into
practical effect, I hereby declare that I do not claim as being new, or
the exclusive use of the several parts herein-before described or referred
to, except when the same are used in and for the purposes of the said
Invention, but what I consider to be novel and original and therefore
claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part
recited Letters Patent is, the instrument or apparatus constructed,
arranged, and operating, as herein-before described, for removing air
from the interiors of casks or other vessels, and filling them up with
beer or other liquid, I claim particularly the combination of a tap or
body 6, and a liquor feeding pipe, tube, or conduit e, extending above
the highest part of the cask or vessel to be filled, with an air escape pipe,
tube, or conduit 7, terminating at one end within the cask or vessel ät

page_text: its highest internal part for conducting therefrom the air displaced by
the filling up of the cask or vessel with liquor.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Joseph West, have hereunto
set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
HENRY JOSEPH WEST. (L.S.)