THE EMPLOYMENT OF CERTAIN SUBSTANCES NOT HITHERTO MADE USE OF FOR THE PRODUCTION OF ALCOHOLIC SPIRITS, AND FOR THE MANUFACTURING OF THE SAME, THE REFUSE MATERIAL BEING APPLICABLE AS A FOOD FOR CATTLE
Year: 1856

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Frederick Henley at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th October 1856.
I, THOMAS FREDERICK HENLEY, of Bromley, in the County of Middlesex,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention of "THE EMPLOYMENT OF
CERTAIN SUBSTANCES NOT HITHERTO MADE USE OF FOR THE PRODUCTION OF ALCOHOLIC
SPIRITS, AND FOR THE MANUFACTURING OF THE SAME, THE REFUSE MATERIAL BEING
APPLICABLE AS A FOOD FOR CATTLE," to be as follows:-
་
The substances which I employ for the production of alcoholic spirits are
the various descriptions of algae fuci, or weeds of the sea coasts, commonly
called sea wrack, kelp weed, Irish moss, and other plants of these descriptions,
and which have not hitherto been employed for the production of spirits, but
which I now propose to convert to that use, as also to the feeding of stock with
the boiled refuse.
f....
My process or processes are modified accordingly as the said sea wracks
may be in a dry state or in the recent state as collected on the sea shores, as
also by the descriptions of weed which may be the subject of manufacture.
In all cases the first operation consists in carefully washing the materials to be
operated on in fresh water, so as to remove as much as possible all adherent
saline matter, sand, &c., after which they are to be heated as follows:-In the

page_text: event of employing the recent weed of the descriptions called fucus visiculosus,
or kelp weed, I cause the said material to be passed through rollers in the
manner of a sugar-cane mill, so as to express as much as possible of the
mucilaginous matter, on which only in this case I operate for the production of
spirits. In the event of employing dry-weed I proceed as follows:-The same
being carefully washed, as before stated, is now to be placed in wooden vats,
so arranged as to admit of drawing off the liquor when required into the vats
so charged with the weed. I now cause steam to be blown through the whole
mass of said weeds, over which I cause to be poured about 240 gallons of a
dilute mineral acid (preferring the sulphuric) to the ton of dry weed; this
steaming operation being continued for about one hour, the cover may be
removed from the tubs or tuns, and the boiled weed lifted therefrom is allowed
to drain; or, with some varieties of the more coriaceous descriptions of weeds,
the fibrous remains of the plants may be passed through squeezing rollers, so
as to obtain as much as possible of the mucilaginous liquor therefrom. In the
case of employing the Irish mosses, or chrondrous, this squeezing process is not
so necessary, inasmuch as nearly the whole plant dissolves in the steaming
process.
The residual fibrous matters of sea weed, after this washing and cooking
process, are so modified in their properties, that, after being neutralized with
soda ash, or other alkali, they are eagerly devoured by animals, for which they
now form a suitable and healthy object of nourishment.
The liquor of the said weeds containing the mucilaginous portions being
obtained by evaporation, or by directing the process of manufacture so as to
obtain a liquor of the specific gravity of about 1090, or thereabouts, is now to
be let into a vessel capable of supporting a steam pressure of about 70 lbs. per
square inch, at which degree I prefer to operate the conversion of this extract
into a wort or material suitable for undergoing alcoholic fermentation. In
this vessel I employ a solution of sulphuric, or hydrochloric, or other acid,
preferring to employ about half a hundredweight of such acid to each ton of
the sea weed being operated on, the same being estimated as if in the ordinary
dry state; in this steaming vessel the said solutions of weed and acid are
submitted to the action of heat during a space of time, which I prefer being
of six hours' duration, the pressure.as aforesaid or other pressure being main-
tained at same time. After this process, the liquor is now let down into an
under back or receiver, in which the acid employed is to be neutralized by
means of carbonate of lime or alkali. Being neutralized, the liquor may be
drawn through a filter, or at once thrown on coolers, or through refrigerating

page_text: pipes, in the ordinary manner of grain distillers, and when reduced to a proper
fermenting temperature may be let down into fermenting tuns, and yeast
added in the usual manner, so as to excite fermentation; which process being
completed, the wrack is now to be distilled in the ordinary and well-known
processes employed in the distillation of grain or other materials.