IMPROVE- MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CONDUCTING THE FERMENTATION OF WORT AND OTHER. FERMENTABLE 'LIQUIDS
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Watts at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th October
1864.
I, JOSEPH WATTS, of Coventry, in the County of Warwick, Accountant
Clerk, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CONDUCTING THE FERMENTATION OF WORT AND OTHER.
FERMENTABLE 'LIQUIDS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of the apparatus, herein-after explained, whereby
the yeast given off during the fermentation is removed from the liquid under-
going fermentation, and a fresh quantity of clear liquid supplied, and the
fermentation regulated by the attemperating influence of cold or warm
water.
The said apparatus consists of a vessel made to float on the surface of a
portion of the wort or other liquid to be fermented, the said portion being
contained in a separate vessel situated upon or at a higher level than the cask
or vessel containing the main bulk of the liquid.
For convenience of description I will call the vessel containing the main
bulk of the liquid the cask, the vessel containing the smaller portion of the
liquid the small vessel, and the apparatus constituting my Invention I will
call the float. The said float .consists of a vessel, by preference, either conical
or hemispherical, and containing four separate compartments. The first
upper compartment contains air to give the requisite buoyancy to the float;
the second compartment is filled with water, and is connected with ingress
and egress flexible tubes by which a current of water is maintained through

page_text: it; these flexible tubes pass through the sides of the small vessel. The third
compartment of the float contains a portion of the liquid undergoing fermen-
tation, being connected at its under side by a flexible ingress tube with the
top of the cask, the said ingress tube passing through the side of the small
vessel. The said third compartment has an egress pipe on its upper side
through which egress pipe the yeast passing from the cask through the said
third compartment and egress pipe falls on the surface of the liquid in the
small vessel. The two compartments, last described, containing water and
yeast respectively are situated at the base of the float, and extend over nearly
the whole area of the said base, the water compartment being above the
other.
In the centre of the base of the float is a fourth compartment, which
consists of a small circular box, the depth of which is equal to the combined
depths of the water-and-yeast compartments. The said fourth compartment
is perforated on its under side to, allow of the ingress of the clear liquid in the
small vessel, which clear liquid is conveyed from the fourth compartment by a
flexible tube, which passing through the side of the small vessel opens into
the lower part of the cask.
By the use of this apparatus the yeast produced by fermentation in the
cask rises through the flexible tube at the top of the cask, passing into the
third compartment of the float, passing out of the egress pipe of the said.com-
partment, and falling on the surface of the liquid in the small vessel. An.
equal quantity of clear liquid from the small vessel passes at the same time
through the fourth compartment, and by its flexible pipe to the lower part of
the cask. The yeast and liquid passing with it.are subjected while passing
through the third compartment to the attemperating influence of the stratum
of cold water contained in the second compartment. The action of the fourth
compartment of the float keeps the cask always full, and renders unnecessary
the filling up by hand usually resorted to.
One float may be made to answer for several casks by making the necessary
connections between them, and increasing the size of the pipes and also
enlarging the vessel in which it floats. Instead of connecting the cask con-
taining the main bulk of the wort or liquid to be fermented with the small
vessel which receives the yeast as it is formed, and keeps the cask full in
which fermentation is going on in the way described, that is, by means of a
float, the same effect may be produced in the following manner :-The small
vessel and the cask are connected by means of a pipe either flexible or rigid,
the small vessel being-situated upon or at a higher level than the cask. The
pipe which connects the said small vessel and the cask is connected at its

page_text: lower end with the cask, the said lower end of the pipe opening into the cask
at or near its top. The upper end of the said pipe opens into the small vessel,
by preference at or near the bottom of the said vessel, but always below the
level of the wort or liquid in the said vessel. Around a portion of the said
pipe a jacket or case is fixed, through which jacket or case cold or warm
water may be made to circulate so as to cool or warm the wort or other liquid,
as may be required according to the season at which the fermentation is being
conducted. In order to expose a greater surface of the wort or liquid to the
cooling or heating influence of the water in the said case or jacket, the pipe
may be divided into two or more smaller pipes at that part where it passes
through the said case or jacket.
In using this form of my Invention the cask is filled with the wort or
liquid to be fermented, and the small vessel is also provided with sufficient
liquid to supply the loss of liquid in the cask during fermentation. As the
fermentation proceeds the yeast formed in the cask rises through the con-
necting pipe and is delivered into the upper small vessel, where it rises to and
floats on the surface. As the yeast rises through the connecting pipe an
equal quantity of wort or liquid passes down the connecting pipe to the cask,
thus keeping the cask always full. As the yeast in the small vessel dis-
charges a portion of its gaseous matter it sinks, but in doing so it falls to the
bottom of the small vessel, and does not return by the connecting pipe to the
cask.
1.
Cold or warm water may be passed through the case or jacket, if required,
to produce the temperature most favourable to the fermentation. Several
casks may be connected with the pipe of the supplementary vessel which I
have herein called the small vessel, and one of the said vessels may be thus
made to supply wort to and receive the yeast from the said several casks; in
this case the said small vessel must have a size proportionate to the number of
casks it is connected with.