Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Mar., 1886.
Complete Left, 23rd Dec., 1886.
Complete Accepted, 25th Jan., 1887.
1, WILLIAM WHITSON CRAWFORD, of 6 Steven Street, Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Clerk do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows, that is to say :-
My said Invention has for its object to effect the maturing of alcoholic liquids in
casks more speedily and completely than is done in the ordinary treatment of such
liquids.
Believing that when whisky or other alcoholic liquid is stored in wooden casks the
maturing action which takes place is due to the absorption of obnoxious ethers, essences
or ingredients by the wood of the casks, I carry out my Invention by providing
increased absorbing material to act on the liquid. According to one modification I
place in each cask one or more, and by preference, several pieces of wood, which by
presenting a large extent of absorbing surface greatly hasten the maturing action.
When a number of pieces of wood are employed in this way I prefer to have them
framed or connected together or otherwise held so as to be distributed throughout the
cask and not crowded together. The pieces of wood can be placed in position before
one of the ends of the casks is finally fixed in its place.
According to another modification which may be used by itself or along with the
first modification, I fix in the part of the cask which is uppermost when in store, a
piece of apparatus of metal or other suitable material, made somewhat like a filling
funnel, that is, with a tube to pass down through a hole into the cask, and with an
enlarged upper part which may be in form like a short cylinder. In the upper part I
fix a bung or disk made of a suitable wood with the grain and pores by preference at
right angles to the surface. To this disk there is fixed a stick of wood extending down
into the liquid in the cask but not quite filling the tube. The underside of the wood
disk is not in close contact with the bottom of the cylindrical part of the apparatus, and
the ethers or essences rising from the liquid have access through the tube to the under-
side of the wood disk, and gradually pass through the disk and escape.
The wood used in carrying out this Invention may, if required, be prepared like the
wood of the cask, or in any other suitable manner.
EDMUND HUNT,
Applicant's Agent.

page_text: Improvements in Maturing Alcoholic Liquids.
I, WILLIAM WHITSON CRAWFORD, lately of 6 Steven Street, but now of 26 Carnarvon
Street, Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Clerk, 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, that is to
say:
My said Invention has for its object to effect the maturing of alcoholic liquids in
casks of any size more speedily and completely than is done in the ordinary treatment
of such liquids.
Believing that when whisky or other alcoholic liquid is stored in wooden casks the
maturing action which takes places is due to the absorption of obnoxious ethers, essences,
or ingredients, by the wood of the casks, I carry out my Invention by providing
increased absorbing material to act on the liquid. According to one modification I
place in each cask one or more, and by preference, several pieces of wood, which by
presenting a large extent of absorbing surface greatly hasten the maturing action.
When a number of pieces of wood are employed in this way I prefer to have them
framed or connected together or otherwise held so as to be distributed throughout
the cask and not crowded together. The pieces of wood can be placed in position
before one of the ends of the cask is finally fixed in its place.
According to another modification, which may be used by itself or along with the
first modification, I fix in the part of the cask which is uppermost when in store, a
piece of apparatus of metal or other suitable material which may be made somewhat
like a filling funnel, that is, with a tube to pass down through a hole into the cask, and
with an enlarged upper part which may be in form like a short or shallow cylinder, or
of any other suitable shape. In the upper part I fix a bung or disk made of a suitable
wood with the grain and pores by preference at right angles to the surface; or the
disk may be made of any other suitable somewhat permeable material, as for example
a number of plies of fibrous cloth or felt, or compressed asbestos or other fibrous
material, or plies of fine wire gauze alone or combined with fibrous materials. To the
disk there is fixed a stick of wood, extending down into the liquid in the cask, but not
quite filling the tube. The stick may be of any suitable material on which the liquid
will ascend by capillary action. The underside of the disk is not in close contact with
the bottom of the part of the apparatus in which it is fixed, and the ethers or essences
rising from the liquid have access through the tube to the underside of the disk, and
gradually pass through the disk and escape.
When the cask is of a size usually stored on its side the apparatus containing the
permeable disk may be applied at the ordinary bunghole and it may be curved so
as to have its outer surface parallel to the barrel shape of the cask, in order to
interfere as little as possible with the moving of the cask from place to place
by rolling it. In the case of large casks or tuns which generally stand on end
the apparatus with the permeable disk is applied to the upper end, and there
may be several repetitions of the apparatus on one large cask or tun; or the upper

page_text: end of the cask or tun may be made entirely, or for a considerable portion of extent,
to consist of cross-cut wood or other sufficiently permeable material. In such cases
the disks or other pieces of permeable material will have their undersides exposed to
the interior of the cask or tun, and if the cask or tun is kept properly filled up to about
one inch from the ends, the sticks herein before described as dipping down into the
liquid may be dispensed with.
The wood used in carrying out this Invention may, if required, be prepared like the
wood of the cask, or in any other suitable manner. Thus the action is increased and
accelerated if the wood is prepared by any suitable treatment having the effect of
extracting more or less of its sap; and the preparatory treatment may also extract any
coloring matter which it is not wished to communicate to the alcoholic liquid.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I claim is :-
1. The maturing of alcoholic liquids when placed in casks with the aid of pieces of
wood suitably prepared when required, substantially as hereinbefore described.
2. The application to casks in which alcoholic liquids are being matured, of permeable
disks or pieces of wood or other suitable material or combination of materials, such
disks or pieces being arranged so that ethers or essences rising from the alcoholic
liquids may have access to their under or inner sides and be able to escape from their
outer sides substantially as herein before described.
EUMUND HUNT,
Applicant's Agent.