CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE OBTAINING AND PREPARING OF EXTRACTS FROM CERTAIN VEGETABLE MATTERS, AND IN THE APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH; WHICH APPARATUS IS ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER SIMILARPURPOSES
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
DIRCKS, of Nicholas Lane, in the
the City of London, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Eighteenth day of November, in the ninth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Henry Dircks, Her special license, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Henry Dircks, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, and such others as I, the said Henry Dircks, my executors, adñiors,
or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all Her Majesty's Colonies"
and Plantations abroad, and in the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney,
Sark, and Man, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE OBTAINING
AND PREPARING OF EXTRACTS FROM CERTAIN VEGETABLE MATTERS, AND IN THE
APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH; WHICH APPARATUS IS ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER
SIMILAR PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said Henry Dirks, by an instrument in writing under my hand and

page_text: seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to
be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Dirks, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to
the Drawings hereto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon,
which represent and refer to the same parts in all the Drawings (that is to
say):
The objects of my improvements are, first, in manufacturing a concentrated
extract of malt, combined with an extract of unmalted grain or farinaceous
matters, and with or without the addition of hops or other vegetable matters;
second, in certain apparatus of a novel construction to be employed for
evaporating extracts of all such vegetable matters; third, in the application
of the said apparatus to other similar purposes, as the evaporation of water,
brine, and other liquids, however viscid. And in order to afford the best
information for carrying my improvements and my Invention into. effect, I
give the following description of the process and the means I employ :-
Having obtained an infusion of malt, with or without unmalted grain, by
the usual process of mashing, I proceed in the next place to infuse it with or
without farina, hops, or other vegetable matters. I continue the infusion at a
temperature varying from 160° to 190° Fahrenheit, taking care to avoid
discoloring the extract. The same observations will apply to all other vegetable
infusions to be submitted to concentration, as I do not claim for any particular
method of obtaining such infusions. The extracts intended for brewing from
I recommend to be made with wort prepared from the finest pale malt along
with the best hops. When intended for home-made wines or beer I use the
finest pale malt only. The extracts intended for colouring matter, and which
have to be evaporated at a temperature of 200° and upwards, until sufficiently
carbonized, I prepare by adding a portion of unmalted grain or farinaceous.
matter, generally in the proportion of one third of the former to two thirds of
the latter, or thereabouts, keeping the infusion heated at a temperature
ranging up to about 167° Fahrenheit, until saccharized, after which evapora-
tion may be conducted at from 212° to 300°, or any desired temperature.
The extracts when prepared to have medicinal properties may be concentrated

page_text: infusions of one quarter of malt combined with about ten or twelve pounds of
ginger, or one quarter of malt combined with about four pounds of spruce and
four pounds of hops, or one quarter of malt combined with one bushel of
seurvy grass and six pounds of hops, or about these proportions for each, and
may be brewed from to make beer of excellent quality. Other descriptions of
extracts may be combinations of an extract of malt or malt and hops with
honey, or the same extracts may be flavored with liquorice root or like
medicinal vegetable matters. When using evaporating pans I sometimes
insert in them a false bottom or steam shield, with one or more appropriate
steam pipes, the object being to collect and bring off the steam formed at the
bottom of the pan or boiler through the central portion only of the contained
liquor. In the accompanying Drawings are several arrangements of apparatus
which I employ for evaporating extracts and solutions.
Fig. 1 represents in longitudinal section one arrangement of evaporating
apparatus, in which A, A, A, is a large copper or boiler. B, B, a false
bottom or steam shield, provided at its centre with an upright pipe C, C,
which is surrounded by a tube D, D, of a larger diameter, and open at both
ends. This tube D is supported by arms from the pipe C, and is intended to
detain and convey back to the pan, copper, or boiler whatever liquid may be
carried up the pipe C, C, along with the steam. The steam shield B, B, is
placed a short distance from the bottom of the pan or other boiler, and may
have a rim turned down round the edge, and be slightly convex towards the
steam pipe, to collect and direct the steam to the escape tube C, C.
Fig. 2 is a plan view of the shield. Fig. 3 is a section of the shield, with
short tubes d, d, d, d, for favoring the circulation of the liquid, which tubes
being of small diameter will permit little or no steam to escape by them. They
require to be no longer than the depth of the outer rim e, e. Fig. 4 is a plan
view of the same.
Fig. 5 is another mode of applying the same Invention for domestic or other
purposes. A, A, is a common pan; B the double bottom or steam shield;
C the steam pipe; and D the hood or conductor for detaining and returning to
the contents of the pan whatever liquid would otherwise have boiled over.
Fig. 6 is a plan view of the same.
Figs. 7 & 8 shew a mode of exhausting the steam by mechanical means..
A is the pan or boiler. B the steam shield. C the steam escape pipe, sur-
rounded with a casing or pipe D. A series of such pans or.boilers may have
their steam collecting pipes connected with a main pipe E by downcast pipes
F, and so be made to communicate with a fan G, or with a pump or other

page_text: mechanical means of exhausting the air and vapour. H the driving strap and
pulley. The concentration of any of the described extracts may be carried
sufficiently far to render them solid, and capable of being conveniently packed
by simply covering cakes or rolls of them with tin foil. This inspissation may
be conveniently performed by the process of stoving the concentrated extract
in a hot-air chamber, the extract being therein exposed in shallow dishes or
other suitable vessels till sufficiently consistent. I do not claim as my Invention
the merely making of an extract of malt and hops; but I do specially claim for
all the other vegetable extracts herein enumerated, and for the preparations of
the same; also for my Invention of a novel mode of promoting evaporation,
without coufining myself to the particular number, dimensions, or situation of
the several parts described, which may be varied as circumstances may
require.
Having now described the various processes for obtaining and preparing
certain vegetable extracts, and the several parts of the apparatus which con-
stitute my improvements, I proceed to define and explain the extent of my
claims, and that in numerical order, believing every one of them to be inde-
pendent of each other, and respectively new and useful.
Firstly, I claim the preparation of a concentrated saccharine extract from
the peculiar combination of malt and unmalted grain, or other farinaceous
matters, with or without hops.
Secondly, the several combinations of the foregoing extracts, and also those
of malt alone, or malt and hops, with ginger, spruce, scurvy grass, honey,
liquorice, or horseradish.
Thirdly, the steam shield apparatus for collecting the large body of steam s
formed under the liquid surface or close to the bottom of the pans and other
boilers, and conducting its discharge through a small portion of the contained
liquid, whether used singly or combined with any mechanical mode of
exhausting the steam.
Fourthly, the application of the steam shield apparatus in my third claim
to other like purposes, for preventing boiling over during violent ebullition
in evaporating water, brine, and any other liquids, however viscid they
may be.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Dircks, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-six.
HENRY (L.s.) DIRCKS.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Eighteenth day of May,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Henry Dircks came before our Lady
the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also
the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute
in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Eighteenth day of May, in the year above written.