Improvements in and connected with Aluminium Casks.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 9th July, 1896.
Complete Specification Left, 21st Dec., 1896-Accepted, 6th Feb.. 1897
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and connected with Aluminium Casks.
I, WILLIAM ROWLAND TAYLOR, of No. 2 Star Hill Villas, Rochester, in the
County of Kent, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
My invention relates to improvements in and connected with aluminium
casks.
According to one part of my invention, the cask is made in two halves, the line
of junction being circular and through the bung hole or thickest part. The
separate parts are produced by any convenient process, such as spinning, stamping
or casting.
The fitting to receive the tap consists of a socket and flange of aluminium on
the outside of the cask head and an aluminium washer for the opposite side.
These are held to the head, with a washer of asbestos or equivalent material
between them, by rivetting and subsequent soldering to ensure tightness of
joint.
The fitting to receive the bung is likewise of aluminium. It is held, preferably,
to the same half of the cask, and by substantially the same means as is the tap
fitting above described. Both are, preferably, castings. That for the bung is
saddle shaped, and thicker at the back than in the front, to provide for the cask
being filled quite full. It is screw threaded with a coarse thread, to receive the
bung, likewise of cast aluminium. This bung has a flat head and is fitted with a
washer of rubber or equivalent material. A special key is provided to fasten it in
its casting and to remove it therefrom. It engages with the bung by fitting in a
cavity in the head thereof. Both key and cavity are specially shaped, so that the
bung cannot be removed without the key. The invention contemplates the key
being retained by the individual who sells the liquor in the cask, so that the
purchaser shall not be able to get at the contents of it. The vent hole is through
the bung from the bottom of the aforesaid cavity. When the cask is sent out,
there is a small cork in this vent capable of being pushed into the cavity by a wood
peg. Any other suitable vent or spile peg may be adopted. The two half casks
are spun aud electrically welded or rivetted together. The joint is then soldered.
The cask is next cased with wood, pulp, or similar material, in staves or otherwise,
as may be convenient. This casing extends beyond the cask heads so as to protect
the latter. Hoops of the same kind and for the same purpose as heretofore may be
employed. The stave or portion of the casing in which the bung hole occurs is
extra thick, and cross bars are fixed across each head, one across the tap hole
which is continued through it. I prefer to introduce an elastic packing between
the above mentioned extra thick portion of the casing and the tap hole cross bar
and the cask around the bung hole and tap hole to prevent liquid creeping between
the cask and casing.
With reference to both tap hole and bung hole, I propose to safeguard either or
both from injury from hammer or mallet blows by a flanged socket, of which the
fange shall rest closely upon the above mentioned cross bar or upon the extra thick
portion, as the case may be, the socket being continued towards the aluminium cask
head or cask side, and made fast, liquid tight, thereto.
According to another part of the invention, the cask may be cast in one piece
throughout, and cased as above described.

page_text: aluminium.
The present invention further includes lining an ordinary wood cask with
This may be effected in any convenient way either before or after
the staves and head are put together. For instance, each stave may be covered
separately, the metal being turned down over the sides and ends, either or both, of
the staves, and the heads being covered in the same way.
Dated this 9th day of July 1896.
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
Agents for the Applicant.
Improvements in and connected with Aluminium Casks.
1, WILLIAM ROWLAND TAYLOR of No. 2 Star Hill Villas, Rochester, in the
County of Kent, Engineer, 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 :-
My invention relates to improvements in and connected with the aluminium
casks described in the Specification of Letters Patent No. 228431892 granted to me,
and to drums, barrels, hogsheads, barrel and other churns, as well as to hollow
enclosed vessels generally, hereinafter referred to as casks.
Referring to the accompanying figures which are to be taken as part of this
specification and read therewith.
Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of an aluminium cask enclosed in a wooden
casing, both made according to the present invention. It is taken along the
line 1-1 of Figure 2.
Figure 2 is an elevation looking at Figure 1 from the left.
Figure 3 is a sectional elevation taken along the line 3-3 of Figure 1, looking
at it from the right.
Figure 4 is a plan of Figure 1.
Figure 5 is an elevation looking at Figure 1 from the right.
Figure 6 is a longitudinal section of an aluminium cask enclosed in a modified
form of wood casing, both made according to the present invention. It is taken
along the line 6-6 of Figure 7.
Figure 7 is an elevation looking at Figure 6 from the left.
Figure 8 is an elevation looking at Figure 6 from the right.
Figure 9 is a longitudinal section of an aluminium cask and its wood casing
according to a modification of the said invention. It is taken along the line 9-9
of Figure 10.
Figure 10 is a sectional elevation taken along the line 10-10 of Figure 9,
looking at it from the right.
a is the aluminium cask. It is made either by spinning, stamping, casting, or
otherwise, as may be preferred or found convenient, according to the circumstances
of the particular case. It may be made either in one or two pieces. If it is to be
made in two pieces, I prefer that the suture or line of junction should be in a plane
equidistant between the two ends of the cask, i.e., in the position indicated by the
dotted line a' in Figure 1. The junction is made by soldering, rivetting and
soldering with or without an intermediate packing, or by any other equivalent
process.
Special provision is made to allow the cask to expand and contract under
changes of temperature. This provision is shewn in Figures 1 and 6, as consisting
of two corrugations, a, a, one on each side of the plane a' above mentioned. The
invention does not limit me to either the number or the position of these
corrugations. At the same time, I prefer the central position illustrated, and

page_text: consider that the number stated, especially when taken in conjunction with the
proportionate size illustrated, suffices.
The cask head a3 and bottom a', (or front and rear ends) are not in the same
plane as the respective edge of the cask side, but stand nearer each other than
that by a short distance. A section of the actual junction of either end with the
side, is V shaped, such junction being concave to the inside of the cask.
The function of the casing of the aluminium cask is to strengthen it and to
shield it against rough usage from the outside. The material may be any
possessing the necessary qualities. The figures illustrate wood applied stave-wise
with head and bottom (or front and rear ends) of pieces dowelled together. The
staves b, bare of the well known conformation. They fit close to the outside of
the aluminium cask a, and are held in position there by hoops c, c in the same
way as are those of ordinary wood easks. These hoops are of any suitable
material.
Special provision is made for ensuring that the staves h, b shall have the correct
contour in both directions, so that every portion of the inner face of each stave
shall be equally in touch with the corresponding portion of the outer surface of
the cask side. It consists of a block, preferably of iron, of the same size exactly
as the aluminium cask a and having a smooth surface. The staves are laid upon
and around this block and fitted and pressed thereto, until they fit to it and to
each other exactly.
The head and the bottom el are likewise of wood, as heretofore. They stand
either a short distance within the side of the wood easing, which side is constituted
by the staves b, b, or flush with the ends of such casing; and are held to the latter
by any suitable means. Both, however, fit closely up to the respective head as
and bottom a', of the cask a. The head 6 and bottom c' of the casing may be
replaced, if preferred, by parallel bars b, c, standing otherwise in the same
respective positions and one of them always centrally across the, respective
cask end.
d is the tap hole. It is formed by a flanged socket d' of aluminium having its
flange d' recessed in and held to the head , or to the middle bar &, from the
front, by aluminium screws d'. The inner end of the socket is screw-threaded,
passed through a hole just large enough to admit the socket d', and screwed into
an aluminium boss d previously bored and screw threaded and then rivetted with
aluminium and soldered with the same metal to the cask head a³ to receive it. A
special recess d' is provided between the head a³ on the one side and the head b¹
or the bar 63, as the case may be, on the other side, to make room for the boss, d',
and if preferred, that portion of it in the head a' may be continued round the
latter, producing an annular recess in it, into which the opposite back faces of
the head, or bars &, are extended, excepting, of course, into that portion of it
occupied by the boss d'.
Like the tap hole d, the bung hole occupies the usual position. It receives
special attention from the present invention. e is an internally screw threaded
ring socket of aluminium rivetted with aluminium rivets and soldered with the
same metal down upon the side of the cask a about the bung hole. The bung is
a flanged aluminium plug e screw-threaded to engage in the ring socket e. There
is a sufficiently large hole e' in the respective stave 6 to allow of the plug e being
screwed down into the ring socket e till it stands below the outer face of the said
stave. To ensure a perfect joint a small rubber washer is placed between the
faces of the plug and the ring socket e. e is an angular recess in the outer
face of the plug. "Its function is to receive a key or wrench by which the plug can
be screwed out of the socket e or screwed back into it. It may be here pointed
out that the combination of the special contour of the recess e and its key or
wrench, with an arrangement by which the said key or wrench shall never be in
the hands of the retailer, but only in those of the maker of the liquid contents
of the cask a, will prevent the bung hole being opened for the adulteration of such
contents. is the usual spile peg hole. It is used as heretofore.

page_text: My invention provides in the following way for my encased casks that have
been exported full of liquid and emptied at their destination, acquiring there a
special value instead of sinking to the level of mere empties. This value is
acquired by reason of the encased cask being adapted to have packed in it, solid
goods for carriage to the country from which the same cask full of liquid, was
exported. Such adaptation consists in a man-hole in the bottom a', and which is
continued through the bottom c¹. When the casing ends consist of parallel
bars b, c, the central bar c2 is too narrow to be cut. It must be detached from
the casing side to give access to the manhole.
fis an internally screw threaded ring socket of aluminium rivetted with
aluminium rivets and soldered with the same metal to the cask bottom a' about the
hole therein. 2 is a flanged aluminium plug screw threaded to engage in the
ring socket. There is supplied any suitable device for holding the plug fin
the ring socket f against the contents of the cask being tampered with while
allowing of such plug being removed from its socket f at either end of the casks
journey for the purpose of respectively packing the empty cask and unpacking it,
e.g., keys or wrenches adapted to engage in the recess which so far resembles
that described in connection with the bung e².
Either or both the rings e, f, with the respective plugs e, may stand flush
with the outside of the casing or below the same. In the latter case, the plug
may be covered with a sunk and flanged steel plate g which fits into and over the
hole in the casing and to which it is made fast but removeably so. 1ts surface may
be advantageously used for advertising purposes.
The tightness of each of the rivetted and soldered joints described above may be
further assured by the presence of a washer of asbestos or equivalent material, and
which is inserted between the two metal surfaces in question, prior to the rivetting
and soldering.
It must be pointed out that the bearings of the flange d' of the tap socket, upon
the casing head b, prevents hammer or mallet blows upon either such flange or
socket, reaching the junction of the said socket with the cask head a³. Both the
ring sockets f and e above described may be fitted with similar flanges adapted to
bear upon the casing for a like purpose.
The stave-wise construction of the casing side and the multiple piece and dowel
construction of the casing head a3 and bottom a', permits of the aluminium cask
being combined piece-meal with the different staves and pieces of the casing,
according to the method illustrated in Figures 9 and 10. This method is particularly
applicable to the combination of an aluminium cask with a wood cask already in
existence and made for itself as such, apart from any possible subsequent com-
bination of it, as a casing, with an aluminium cask. It consists in covering the
inner face and both side edges of each staveb and each piece of both head band
bottom e', with a sheet of aluminium a'. The ends of the pieces may be covered
with the respective aluminium sheets if desired. The flanges, both side and end,
of each sheet a', are wide enough to stand flush with the external surface of the
casing. The several sheets a may be soldered together either along the inner
surface of the cask or along the outer edges of their flanges. In fact, such soldering
may precede the aggregation of the staves b and the pieces, in which case each
such stave and piece will find an aluminium pocket ready to receive it.
It is probable that casks made according to the present invention will leak a
little at the bung holes, or at the manholes, or that some of the liquid will be
spilled in the act of filling them. In either of such cases, the liquid will settle
upon the staves or pieces around and near the said holes and be absorbed by the
material of the said staves or pieces. The latter are, therefore, coated with hot
paraffin wax or other suitable and equivalent substance for the purpose, over as
much of their surfaces as the risk of leakage or spilling above referred to, may
render advisable.
The soldered joints at the same holes are coated in the same way.
Where the above mentioned holes occur in the wood casing I place indiarubber

page_text: washers or other suitable material between the inside of the casing and the cask a,
about the respective boles so as to make a perfectly tight joint, with the object of
preventing liquid escaping between the said casing and cask.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The combination of aluminium cask, casing, tap socket, bung hole and bung,
as set forth.
2. The combination of aluminium cask, casing, tap socket, bung hole, bung and
device for preventing access to the contents of the cask through the bung hole, as
set forth.
3. The combination of aluminium cask, casing, tap socket, bung hole and bung
and manhole and plug in the bottom, as set forth.
4. The combination of an aluminium cask, and casing having head and bottom
consisting of parallel bars, as set forth.
5. The combination of aluminium cask, casing having head and bottom consisting
of parallel bars, tap socket, bung hole and bung, as set forth.
6. The combination of aluminium cask, casing having head and bottom con-
sisting of parallel bars, tap socket, bung hole and bung and manhole and plug in
the bottom, as set forth.
7. The piecemeal combination of aluminium cask with the several staves and
pieces of the casing, as set forth.
Dated this 21st day of December 1896.
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
No. 22 Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.