IMPROVEMENTS IN DECANTING OR DRAWING OFF WINES, BEER, SPIRITS, AND OTHER LIQUIDS, AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
29th March 1867.-A communication from abroad by Jean Gaudin, of
Paris, in the Empire of France.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN DECANTING OR DRAWING OFF WINES, BEER, SPIRITS, AND OTHER
LIQUIDS, AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," a communication to me
from abroad by Jean Gaudin, of Paris, in the Empire of France, to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved mode of and apparatus for decanting
or drawing off wines, beer, spirits, and other liquids, whereby the loss of liquid
by spilling and evaporation and its deterioration by exposure to the atmosphere
is entirely obviated.
According to this Invention it is proposed to decant or draw off the liquid
from a full or partly full cask, barrel; or other closed vessel or receptacle, and
to introduce it into an empty or partly empty closed vessel or receptacle by
forcing or compressing air into the receptacle to be emptied, or by exhausting

page_text: the air from the vessel to be filled by the aid of a peculiar or other air pump;
the two vessels or receptacles being in communication with each other by
means of a pipe passing through their respective bung holes, hence the use of
the ordinary drawing-off taps and tap holes in the barrels or other receptacles
is obviated. The air pump which I prefer to employ consists of a main
cylinder having two passages cast therein and provided with suitably disposed
clack valves at the top and bottom thereof. Between the two clacks in each
passage there is formed a screwed nozzle, through one of which the air is
drawn into the pump barrel by the action of the piston, and through the other
nozzle the same air is expelled. By attaching the inlet nozzle to a pipe
leading to the empty cask a vacuum will be formed therein, and if this cask
be connected by a pipe with the full cask it is obvious that the liquid will be
caused to flow from the full to the empty cask, the filling of the latter being
thus effected by vacuum and pressure combined. If on the other hand the
exit nozzle be connected by a pipe with the full cask air will be forced or
compressed therein, and the liquid will be expelled by pressure alone along a
pipe communicating with the cask to be filled. The packing of the piston of
the air pump is capable of being tightened as required by the aid of two central
cones, one of which is forced inwards so as to expand and tighten the packing
by means of a nut and screw. The piston is worked from a crank shaft by
a connecting rod, and a hand wheel serves to rotate the shaft, the whole of the
parts of the pump being self-contained and readily carried by handles for the
purpose from place to place.
.
When adopting the compressed air system of emptying and filling two
casks respectively a short and tapered tube is screwed tightly into the
bung hole of the full cask, which tube is connected by a lateral branch
and flexible pipe with the exit nozzle of the air pump so as to admit of
air being forced through the bung hole into the full cask. Through the
interior of the short tube above referred to there is, inserted an inner tube of
sufficiently smaller diameter to leave an annular space all round it between
the inner and outer tubes, through which annular space the air is forced into
the cask. The inner tube is long. enough, to. reach to the bottom of the cask,
but in order to keep its lower extremity just above the sediment or refuse
deposit which the cask may contain it is provided with adjustable feet which
rest upon the bottom of the cask. The upper end of this tube passes through
a. stuffing box in, the top of the outer short tube, and, is connected directly w
with
the empty cask by means of a flexible pipe..which. passes, through the bung
hole thereof, a stop-cock being provided for shutting off the communication.

page_text: when requisite. On starting the air pump air will be forced through the
short pipe before referred to into the full cask, and the pressure thus
obtained therein will force out the liquid up the inner tube and along the
flexible pipe to the empty cask without exposing it to the atmos] here during
its transit.