CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN DISTILLATION AND BREWING, AND CERTAIN APPLICATIONS OF THE MATERIALS USED IN OR SUITABLE THEREFOR TO OTHER MANUFACTURING PURPOSES
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
CLINTON ROBERTSON, of Fleet Street, in the City of London, Civil Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twentieth day of
February, One thousand cight hundred and forty-seven, in the tenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Joseph Clinton Robertson, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, Her
especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Joseph Clinton Robertson, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Joseph Clinton Robertson, my exors, adiñiors, 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 expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and
Man, and also in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, the
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN DISTILLATION AND BREWING, AND
CERTAIN APPLICATIONS OF THE MATERIALS USED IN OR SUITABLE THEREFOR TO
OTHER MANUFACTURING PURPOSES," being a communication from abroad; in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Joseph
Clinton Robertson, should cause a particular description of the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an

page_text: instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her said
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
Joseph Clinton Robertson, hereby declare that the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully described in
and by the present Specification thereof, reference being had to the Drawings
'hereunto annexed, that is to say:-
The said Invention consists, firstly, in the employment in distillation and
'brewing of cane juice or beetroot juice in a liquid or concentrated or concrete
state, or molasses in a concrete state, and also in the application of the said
materials to other manufacturing purposes where sugar or molasses is used.
When any of these materials are used for brewing or distilling purposes, it is
found to be advantageous to purify them as little as possible, so that as much
as may be of all the natural component parts of the cane or root should be
left therein, whereby the process of fermentation will be greatly promoted;
but when any of the above materials are to be employed for any manu-
facturing purposes other than brewing and distilling, it is recommended that
they should be purified to the fullest extent before concentrating or concreting
the same, so as to avoid fermentation. The modes of employing these
materials are the same as those ordinarily adopted where sugar or molasses
are used for any of the aforesaid objects, and no claim is made as regards
these modes.
Secondly, the Invention consists in the employment of vessels made of
wood instead of copper for distilling purposes. The heating medium for
operating with such wooden vessels may be either steam or hot water, or any
other that may be found suitable for the purpose. The heating medium,
whatever it may be, can be made to circulate through metal pipes arranged in
the wooden vessel, and which pipes may be of any convenient form or
dimensions. The advantages attending the employment of such wooden
vessels consist in their being slow conductors of heat than copper, in their
costing less, and in the materials required for their construction being to be
had in nearly all places and under all circumstances.
Thirdly, the Invention consists in an improved method or process of pro-
moting the formation of alcohol from saccharine juice, whether that saccharine
juice be derived from the sugar cane, malt, fruit, or any other source.
Figure 1 of the annexed Drawings is a sectional elevation of a fermenting

page_text: vat, and Figure 2 a plan of it. A, A, is the vat. B, a pipe through which
atmospheric air is impelled by a forcing pump into the liquor in the vat.
The pipe B terminates in a number of smaller radial pipes C, C, C, which
are perforated with numerous small holes, so that the air as it escapes into
the fluid is diffused amongst it in numerous small streams. The wort and its
requisite quantity of yeast are introduced into the vat at a temperature of
about 45° or 50° Fahrenheit. Atmospheric air is then to be forced through
the pipe B by means of the force pump, until the conversion of the gluten
has been effected, as also the transformation of the saccharine matter into
alcohol. Great care must be taken not to allow the temperature of the liquor
to exceed 50° Fahrenheit, because at a higher temperature a portion of the
alcohol produced by the decomposition of the saccharine matter will be
converted into acetic acid, while if kept below 50° little or no formation of
acetic acid will take place, and yet both the transformation of the sugar into
alcohol and the transformation of the yeast will be effected. During cold
weather the temperature of the fermenting fluid may be easily kept within
the proper range of temperature, by heating the air previous to its introduction
amongst the liquor, but in warm weather the temperature of the liquor may
require to be kept by artificial means from rising above the proper degree.
The means directed to be adopted are the cooling the air forced into the vat
by making the pipe B pass through cold water, or by having the outside of the
vat itself covered with some textile fabric kept constantly wet by water being
allowed to flow upon it in numerous small streams or drops issuing from a
perforated pipe E, E, which surrounds the vat near to its upper edge. The
evaporation of the water, as it is more or less facilitated by a draught of air
through the apartment, will more or less affect the temperature of the vat and
its contents.
Fourthly, the Invention consists in a modification of the method or process
last herein-before described, whereby it is rendered applicable to the manu-
facture of vinegar, and which modification consists in allowing the temperature
to rise to about 70°.
Fifthly, the said Invention consists in the employment of the method or
process last herein-before described, for the purpose of speedily converting
new ale or beer or wine into the condition of old ale, beer, or wine. The vat
A is in this case used as a storing vat, and the temperature of the liquor kept
at about from 45° to 50°, care being taken not to allow it to get above 50°,
but rather keeping it under that point, and at the same time supplying oxygen
by means of the forcing pump. Atmospheric air will in most cases answer
the purpose, but pure oxygen gas might in some others be preferably employed.

page_text: The great supply of oxygen thus introduced at this low temperature speedily
converts any saccharine juice which may still be in the liquor after if has
been taken from the cleansing vats into alcohol, without endangering the
alcohol being converted into acetic acid or its other compounds with oxygen.
And having now described the several improvements which constitute the
Invention communicated to me as aforesaid, I declare that what is claimed is
as follows:-
First, the employment of cane juice or beet root juice, either in a liquid, a
concentrated, or a concrete state, and of molasses in a concrete state, in dis-
tillation and brewing, and the application of the said materials to all other
manufacturing purposes where sugar or molasses is used.
Second, the employment of wooden vessels for distilling purposes.
Third, the method or process of promoting the formation of alcohol from
saccharine juice at a low temperature, as before described, whether the
same is effected by the apparatus before described or by any other suitable
apparatus.
Fourth, the modified application of the said last-mentioned method or
process to the manufacture of vinegar, as before described.
And fifth, the application of the method or process last described, irrespective
also of the apparatus employed to the conversion new ale, beer, or wines into
the condition of old beer, ale, or wine.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Clinton Robertson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.