CERTAIN ADDITIONS TO AND IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPARATUS USED IN DISTILLING, AND ALSO IN THE PROCESS OF DISTILLING AND RECTIFYING
Year: 1830

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, DANIEL TOWERS
'SHEARS, of Bankside, in the Borough of Southwark, in the County of Surrey,
Coppersmith, send greeting.
WHEREAS His late most Excellent Majesty, King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Thirty-first day of March, in the eleventh year of His
reign, did for Himself, His heirs, and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Daniel Towers Shears, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Daniel Towers
Shears, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Daniel
Towers Shears, my exors, admors, and assigns should at any time agree with,
and no others, should and lawfully might, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term of fourteen years, make, use, exercise; and vend
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in
all His said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of
"CERTAIN ADDITIONS TO AND IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPARATUS USED IN DISTILLING,
AND ALSO IN THE PROCESS OF DISTILLING AND RECTIFYING;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Daniel Towers
Shears, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to

page_text: 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 inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next, and
immediately after the date of the said 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
Daniel Towers Shears do hereby declare, that the nature of my said Invention
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in and by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and
the following description thereof (that is to say):-
My said certain additions to, and. improvements in the apparatus used in
distilling, and also in the process of distilling and rectifying, apply to the
apparatus used in distilling and rectifying, for which a Patent was granted to
one Joseph Corty, dated the Twentieth day of January, One thousand eight
hundred and eighteen. And in order that my said additions to, and improve-
ments thereon, may be better understood in Fig. 1 of the annexed Drawing, I
have represented a still, A, the head of which, B, is made very capacious to
guard against the overboiling of the still by mismanagement of the fire. On
the top of the still head is formed the first rectifying apparatus, or condensing
box, D. The vapour from the body of the still, filling the head, meets with
the first check from the first or lower convex metal plate C, which is mounted
and supported in a proper manner inside the still head; and escaping over and
around the edge of the said plate, and between the side of the box, it meets
with a second check underneath the top of the box D, which, containing
water upon its upper surface a few degrees colder than the vapour, condenses
a portion of the aqueous particles contained in it, which flow back again into
the body of the still; the vapour in its passage through the other boxes, D, D,
again meets with similar checks, and the water upon the upper surface of each
box being necessarily colder than on the box below it, a considerable part of the
aqueous particles in the vapour thus fall back into the body of the still and
the spirituous parts of it escape into the worm, rectified to a very high degree.
Now in order to increase the condensing and rectifying effects of the said
apparatus, in addition to the water which as aforesaid covers the tops of the
boxes D, D, D, I have introduced water into the insides of the said boxes in
the following manner :-
In Fig. 2, E, E, E, represent metal bottoms affixed to the three metal
plates C, C, C, and whereby I convert them into so many vessels, each
capable of holding water. This water circulates through the three upright

page_text: pipes or tubes F, F, F, and through the two bent tubes G, G, so as to
cover the tops of the boxes D, D, D, as before, and also to fill the vessels
E, E, E, from the lowermost of which vessels it flows through the pipe G, H,
and which said pipe is coiled around the bottom of the wash heater I,
as shown in Figures 2 and 3. I likewise still farther increase the con-
densing and rectifying effects of this apparatus by affixing a rim or border,
J, J, J, Fig. 2, around and underneath the bottoms of the vessels E, E, E,
and whereby I am enabled to retain the vapour from the body of the
still in the concavities thus formed in contact with the bottoms of the said
vessels, and consequently to compel them to undergo the refrigerating action
of the water contained in the said vessels for a longer period than could be
effected without the employment of the said descending rims or borders,
and thus, as aforesaid, to encrease the condensing and rectifying effects of the
said vessels. In Figures 1 and 2, K is a metal pipe furnished with a cock,
through which the water flows from a cistern or other reservoir into the
condensing and rectifying apparatus; and in order to be able to wash or
cleanse the said apparatus when required, I can place a conical valve L, (one
of which is shewn in Figure 2,) in the bottom of each of the vessels E, E, E,
the stem of which valve passes up the upright. tubes F, F, F, and reaches
above their tops, and by this means the valves can be raised or lowered and
be retained at any situation, the stems of the. valves having screws formed
upon them which act in screwed holes made to receive them in the bridges or
guides of the stems. And as shewn on a larger scale in Figure 4, another of
my said improvements consists in causing the water, after becoming considerably
heated by circulating through this improved condensing and rectifying apparatus
in the manner above described, to communicate that heat to the wash contained
in the wash heater I, Figures 2 and 3, and thereby to employ that heat in an
effective manner, instead of letting the heated water run to waste. The tube or
pipe H, Figures 2 and 3, after making several turns around the bottom of the
wash heater I, passes out at M, where it is furnished with a curved part, N,
Figure 2, reaching high enough to keep the coils of the pipe H in the wash
heater I, full of water, but which water may occasionally be suffered to flow
away by opening the cock O, or, instead of making it to pass-through a
coiled pipe or tube, I can cause the pipe H to conduct it into a cavity or
space P, R, formed in the lower part of a wooden wash heater Q, Figure 5,
by introducing a convex metal plate R, above the wooden bottom S of the.
said wash heater,, (or a metal vessel similar to those shewn at C, E, in
Figure 2, may be used instead thereof,) and thus to communicate the heat

page_text: contained in the water to the wash contained in the said wooden wash
heater. A metal pipe M bent upwards at N to prevent the hot water from
flowing off until the space P, R, is filled, and a cock O is likewise provided,
T in Figures 1, 2, and 6, is the swan neck, which terminating in the pipe or
tube U, U, &c., Figures 2 and 3, and circulating around the wash heater I,
communicates the heat contained in the distilled vapour to the wash in that
vessel, and from whence it passes to the worm V, Figure 2, contained in tho
worm tub W; by the water contained in which said worm tub it is finally
condensed and passes out through the safety tube X into the funnel Y, which
conveys it into the receiving vessel Z, the lower end of the safety tube X
dipping into water contained in a proper vessel to allow the escape of any
gaseous matters. Any spirit which may be separated from the wash contained
in the wash heater I, Figure 2, is conveyed through the metal head a and
pipe b to the worm c in the worm tub W, where, being condensed, it passes out
at the end of the worm d; e, in Figures 2 and 5, is a pipe furnished with a
cock to allow the heated wash to flow into the body of the still; and f, in
Figures 2 and 6, is another pipe, also furnished with a cock to draw off the
spent wash from the body of the still. Instead of conveying the spirituous
vapours which arise from the heated wash into the worm in the worm tub, as
shewn in Figure 2, I pass them into the still head B, as shewn in Figure 6,
through the pipe a, which is provided with a bent part at 9, which, being filled
with the condensed spirit or vapour, presents a resistance to the passage of
the vapour from the body of the still A, previously to its passing through the
condensing and rectifying apparatus D, D, D. This wash heater I is furnished
with coiled metal pipes, similar to those shewn in Figure 2, and likewise with
a pipe M curved at N, and a cock O.
I do not mean or intend hereby to claim as my Invention any of the various
parts herein shewn or described which may be already known or in use; but
I do hereby claim the converting of the convex metal plates C, C, C, into
vessels furnished with hoods, by affixing the metal bottoms E, E, E, and the
rims J, J, J, thereto, and the mode of causing the water to circulate in the
manner above described, and also the modes of employing the said water so as
to cause it to give out the heat it has thereby acquired in raising the tem-
perature of the wash contained in the wash heater; and although I have
shewn three boxes D, D, D, as constituting my said improved condensing and
rectifying apparatus, yet I do not mean or intend hereby to limit myself to
the employment of that number only, but to use more or fewer thereof as
circumstances or the size of the utensils may require; I can likewise cither

page_text: cause the water to circulate through the whole condensing and rectifying
pparatus in the manner herein shewn and described, or make a partial
upply thereof to each box, if circumstances should demand it. I likewise
ereby claim the employment of any fit and proper material or materials in
he construction of my said distilling, or distilling and rectifying apparatus.
In witness whereof, I, the said Daniel Towers Shears, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of September, in the first
year of the reign of His present most gracious Majesty King William
the Fourth, by the grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, and in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty.