IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR WASHING CASKS AND OTHER VESSELS
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Pontifex, Frederick Pontifex, and Anthony
Sherwood, trading under the Firm of Henry Pontifex and Sons,
Coppersmiths and Engineers, of Albion Works, Kings Cross, in the
County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR WASHING CASKS AND OTHER VESSELS."
Scaled the 13th October 1871, and dated the 24th April 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Pontifex,
Frederick Pontifex, and Anthony Sherwood at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 24th April
1871.
We, CHARLES PONTIFEX, FREDERICK PONTIFEX, and ANTHONY
SHERWOOD, trading under the Firm of Henry. Pontifex and Sons,
Coppersmiths and Engineers, of Albion Works, Kings Cross, in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR WASHING CASKS AND OTHER VESSELS," to
be as follows

page_text: effectually, speedily, and with less labour than hitherto, and whereby a
given quantity of water can be delivered into the casks or other vessels,
the steam being applied in such manner as to deliver the said water at a
'pressure. The apparatus may be made either wholly or in part self-
acting. For this purpose in carrying out our improvements we employ
a chamber or vessel of suitable proportions and strength, fitted with a
supply pipe for hot or cold water, and another for steam with a delivery
pipe, each opening being fitted with a valve, these valves being all
actuated by suitable mechanism producing an alternate opening and
shutting of the supply and delivery valves, so as first to charge the
chamber with hot or cold water and then to admit steam, and to open
the delivery valve, by which the water is discharged at a pressure, and
then followed by steam being discharged through an ordinary conical
perforated nozzle or pipe into the cask or other vessel to be cleaned.
The mechanism for working the valves may be moved by hand, or by a
lever or other suitable arrangement in connection with a frame or cradle
carrying the cask or other vessel in process of cleansing, the weight of
the cask putting the apparatus in operation, which stops on completion
of the process, either by removal of the cask, or in any given time by
means of a weight running down, or by other well-known self-acting
mechanism. Either the whole or a portion of the apparatus herein
described may be used for the purposes before mentioned, and may be
put in operation either by hand or by the weight of cask or other vessel
in process of cleansing.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 2
filed by the said Charles Pontifex, Frederick Pontifex, and Anthony
Sherwood in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 24th October
1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, CHARLES
PONTIFEX, FREDERICK PONTIFEX, and ANTHONY SHERWOOD, trading 3
under the Firm of Henry Pontifex and Sons, Coppersmiths and En-
gineers, of Albion Works, Kings Cross, in the County of Middlesex,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of April, in the year
3

page_text: of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said Charles Pontifex, Frederick Pontifex, and
Anthony Sherwood, Her special licence that we, the said Charles
Pontifex, Frederick Pontifex, and Anthony Sherwood, our executors, ad-
ministrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Charles Pontifex,
Frederick Pontifex, and Anthony Sherwood, our 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 APPARATUS FOR
WASHING CASKS AND OTHER VESSELS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said Charles Pontifex, Frederick Pontifex, and Anthony
Sherwood, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of
us or them, 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 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 Charles Pontifex, on behalf of myself
and the said Frederick Pontifex, and Anthony Sherwood, do hereby
declare the nature of our 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, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object the arrangement and construction of
apparatus by means of which casks or other vessels are cleansed more
effectually, speedily, and with less labour than hitherto, and whereby a
given quantity of water can be delivered into the casks or other vessels,
the steam being applied in such manner as to deliver the said water at
a pressure. The apparatus may be made either wholly or in part self-
acting. For this purpose in carrying out our improvements we employ
a chamber or vessel of suitable proportions and strength fitted with a
supply pipe for hot or cold water, and another for steam with a delivery
pipe, each opening being fitted with a valve, these valves being all
actuated by suitable mechanism producing an alternate opening and
shutting of the supply and delivery valves, so as first to charge the

page_text: chamber with hot or cold water, and then to admit steam and to open
the delivery valve by which the water is discharged at a pressure, and
then followed by steam being discharged through an ordinary conical
perforated nozzle or pipe into the cask or other vessel to be cleaned.
The mechanism for working the valves may be moved by hand, or by a
lever, or other suitable arrangement in connection with a frame or cradle
carrying the cask or other vessel in process of cleansing, the weight of
the cask pulling the apparatus in operation, which stops on completion
of the process either by removal of the cask or in any given time by
means of a weight running down or by other well-known self-acting
mechanism. Either the whole or a portion of the apparatus herein
described may be used for the purpose before mentioned, and may be
put in operation either by hand or by the weight of cask or other vessel,
in process of cleansing.

page_text: admitting water to the chamber a to remain open, and the valve c for
admitting steam to close, at the same time keeping the discharge valve d
closed, and as the water flows into the chamber a the air is allowed to
escape from the chamber through the vent 9, which is constructed in
the following manner, as shewn in section full size at Figure 4 of the
Drawings:-g is a tube connected to the upper part of the feed box or
chamber a and g' is a plug of cork, india-rubber, or other suitable
material of less specific gravity than water, and fitted so as to slide
loosely up and down inside, the tube g being guided therein by studs,
ribs, or projections. When water is first admitted to the chamber a,
the plug g¹ rests at the bottom of the tube'g, thus allowing the air to
pass around it, and out at the vent hole g², and when the chamber a is
full of water, the plug g' floats and acts as a valve to close the vent
hole g. The same action takes place when a pressure of steam is
admitted to the chamber a. When the cask is placed with the bung-
hole over the nozzle d², the weight of the cask acting upon the lever f
causes the rod e to be raised, by which means the water valve b is closed
and the steam and discharge valves c and d are opened, the pressure of
the steam acting upon the water in the chamber a, so as to discharge
it with corresponding force through the pipe and nozzle d² into the
cask. After the water is discharged from the chamber a into the cask
or other vessel the steam follows and completes the cleaning process,
and on removing the cask from the nozzle &, the rod e descends and
the valve again opens to admit water to refill the chamber a ready
to repeat the process.
In place of employing the self-acting counterbalance lever ƒ as
previously described, the apparatus may be worked by a hand lever f*,
for raising or lowering the valve rod e, as shewn at Figure 5, the
opening and closing of the valves being thus under the control of the
attendant.
By thus arranging apparatus for washing casks or other vessels a
regulated quantity of water can be used and delivered under steam
pressure into each cask, the water and steam being alternately supplied
and discharged by the placing or removal of the cask or vessel, or by
actuating the apparatus by hand.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention we would have it
understood that we do not confine ourselves to the exact details herein
described so long as the novel character of our Invention is retained,

page_text: 'but what we claim is the improved arrangement and combination of
apparatus for washing casks or other vessels, acting substantially in
the manner and for the purposes herein described and shown in the
Drawings hereunto annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Pontifex, have hereunto set 5
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.
CHARLES PONTIFEX. (L.S.)
Witness,
EDWARD BLAKE,
Clerk to Messrs. Tongue & Birkbeck,
34, Southampton Buildings,
Chancery Lane.
EP. BLAKE.