AN IMPROVED REFRIGERATOR FOR COOLING WORTS FOR BREWING OR OTHER LIQUIDS REQUIRING COOLING, AND FOR IMPROVING BREWERS' REFRIGERATORS NOW IN USE
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Blake, of Newport, Monmouthshire, Brewer,
for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED REFRIGERATOR FOR COOLING WORTS FOR
BREWING OR OTHER LIQUIDS REQUIRING COOLING, AND FOR IMPROVING BREWERS'
REFRIGERATORS NOW IN USE."
Sealed the 22nd April 1864, and dated the 26th October 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Blake at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 26th
October 1863.
I, ALFRED BLAKE, of Newport, Monmouthshire, Brewer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED REFRIGERATOR FOR COOLING
WORTS FOR BREWING OR OTHER LIQUIDS REQUIRING COOLING, AND FOR IMPROVING
BREWERS' REFRIGERATORS NOW IN USE," to be as follows:-
This improved refrigerator consists of open metal tubes in which the wort
or liquid to be cooled runs, same being kept at a certain height in the tubes
by any of the usual methods, said tubes are partially immersed in running
water, so that the coldest water meets the coldest wort, and the warmest the
warmest wort, as in ordinary refrigerators. The aforesaid tubes may be of
any depth, but should narrow towards the bottom, and at certain distances
inside them are placed metal stops which are only open in the lowest part of
the tube on one side, thus allowing only the lowest strata of wort to pass, and
the next stop is placed so as to form a small chamber in the tube, but that
is closed at the bottom while the refrigerator is in operation, and the height
of the second stop is adjusted to the depth required to be kept in the tubes,
so that the wort flows over it, thus ensuring the passage of the lowest and
coldest strata of wort from one division to the other. These said tubes may

page_text: be turned and placed in a back in which the water may run, following the
course of the tubes, the back being divided with channels as in the ordinary
pipe refrigerators; or the tubes may be straight and contained in an open shoot
in which the water may run, the stop chambers being disposed at regular
intervals therein. Where it is preferred to run the water employed for
cooling through closed pipes or tubes, that it may be used for other purposes,
the tubes may be placed inside a square closed pipe and flanged or soldered
thereto or to an oak shoot, and the pipes may be either straight or bent, and
if flanged together may be taken apart at long intervals in order that the
corrosion which water forms in time on metal surfaces may be removed. I
would bere remark that in using closed pipes or tubes for the water they
should be divided and the water only allowed to flow into the next division,
either through a stop chamber, as before stated, or through pipes conducting
same from the top part of one division to the bottom of the next (the reverse
of the wort).
Another feature in this Invention consists in applying mechanical stirrers
or agitators to the wort whilst running through the open tubes aforesaid, said
stirrers may have a rotatory, horizontal, or perpendicular motion given thereto
by any of the ordinary mechanical means, the object being to accelerate the
cooling process by agitating or keeping up some kind of stirring in the wort
or liquid that is being cooled, and which can easily and advantageously be done
in this kind of refrigerator. The stop chamber plan, above described, may be
adopted with advantage in the ordinary pipe and divided back refrigerators,
now in use, by making a small wooden or metal stop chamber, as before
described, for each separate division of the back, and instead of joining the
layers of pipe by regular bends of the same size and parallel, as at present
practised, they may be joined by smaller pipes so bent that they clear the
upper part of the stops and allow the main pipes to lay in their usual place.
I would here remark that instead of making the divisions in closed shoots or
pipes, as above stated, the same effect may be produced by connecting the
divisions with the pipes leading from the top of one division to the bottom of
the next division as well as, of chambers, the intention of this Invention being
carry out the cooling principle in its entirety of subjecting the coldest
contents of one division and that only to the next coolest, and this applies
also to the water only drawing from the top or hottest part of it in order
that that only which has drawn the heat from the wort, shall be passed on to
the next hottest.
to

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Blake in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 26th
April 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
BLAKE, of Newport, Monmouthshire, Brewer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Alfred Blake, Her special licence that I, the said Alfred
Blake, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Alfred Blake, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"AN I PROVED REFRIGERATOR FOR COOLING WORTS FOR BREWING OR OTHER LIQUIDS
REQUIRING COOLING, AND FOR IMPROVING BREWERS' REFRIGERATORS NOW IN US,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alfred Blake, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,
and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Blake, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment, that is to say :-
"
This improved refrigerator consists of open metal tubes in which the wort
or liquid to be cooled runs, same being kept at a certain height in the tubes
by any of the usual methods, said tubes are partially immersed in. ruuning
water, so that the coldest water meets the coldest wort, and the warmest the
warmest wort, as in ordinary refrigerators. The aforesaid tubes may be of any
depth, but should narrow towards the bottom, and at certain distances inside
them are placed metal stops which are only open in the lowest part of the
tube on one side, thus allowing only the lowest strata of wort to-pass, and
the next stop is placed so as to form a small chamber in the tube, but that is
closed at the bottom while the refrigerator is in operation, and the height of

page_text: the second stop is adjusted to the depth required to be kept in the tubes, so
that the wort flows over it, thus ensuring the passage of the lowest and coldest
strata of wort from one division to the other. These said tubes may be
turned and placed in a back in which the water may run following the course
of the tubes, the back being divided with channels as in the ordinary pipe
refrigerators; or the tubes may be straight and contained in an open shoot in
which the water may run, the stop chambers being disposed at regular intervals
therein. Where it is preferred to run the water employed for cooling through
closed pipes or tubes that it may be used for other purposes, the tubes may be
placed inside a square closed pipe and flanged or soldered thereto or to an oak-
shoot, and the pipes may be either straight or bent, and if flanged together may
be taken apart at long intervals in order that the corrosion which water forms in
time on metal surfaces may be removed. I would here remark that in using
closed pipes or tubes for the water they should be divided and the water only
allowed to flow into the next division, either through a stop chamber, as before
stated, or through pipes conducting same from the top part of one division to
the bottom of the next (the reverse of the wort).
Another feature in this Invention consists in applying mechanical stirrers
or agitators to the wort whilst running through the open tubes aforesaid, said
stirrers may have a rotary, horizontal, or perpendicular motion given thereto
by any of the ordinary mechanical means, the object being to accelerate the
cooling process by agitating or keeping up some kind of stirring in the wort
or liquid that is being cooled, and which can easily and advantageously be
done in this kind of refrigerator. The stop chamber plan above described
may be adopted with advantage in the ordinary pipe and divided back
refrigerators now in use by making a small wooden or metal stop chamber, as
before described, for each separate division of the back, and instead of joining
the layers of pipes by regular bends of the same size and parallel, as at
present practised, they may be joined by smaller pipes so bent that they clear
the upper part of the stops and allow the main pipes to lay in their usual
place. I would here remark that instead of making the divisions in closed
shoots or pipes, as above stated, the same effect may be produced by con-
necting the divisions with the pipes leading from the top of one division to
the bottom of the next division as well as of chambers, the intention of this
Invention being to carry out the cooling principle in its entirety of subjecting
the coldest contents of one division and that only to the next coolest, and
this applies also to the water only drawing from the top or hottest part of
it in order that that only which has drawn the heat from the wort shall be
nassed on to the next hottest.

page_text: And in order to explain my said Invention as completely as possible I now
proceed to describe the best means I am acquainted with for carrying the
same into practical effect, reference being had to the illustrative Drawing
accompanying these Presents and to the numeral figures and letters of
reference marked thereon respectively, as follows:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a top plan view of a refrigerator constructed according to my
said Invention; Figure 2 a transverse section thereof.
A, A, mark the sides of the back; B, B, wooden tubes or shoots; C, C,
copper tubes or shoots at Figure 2; D marks space for the passage of cold
water; E, E, wooden V shaped agitators at Figure 1; G, G, are stops or
pieces for causing overflow of the hot wort as it passes along the several tubes
to be cooled; a is an opening for the passage of the wort.
And I would
here remark that whereas in the Provisional Specification above recited I
have set forth the stop chamber principle as applying both to the wort to be
cooled and the water employed to cool same, both in the back. and trough
refrigerators, and also set forth the advantage of mechanical agitation in the
tubes or divisions in which the wort flows, but did not particularly describe
the kind of agitator I recommended to be employed, I would now remark
that for a refrigerator where the water employed runs to waste I recommend
V shaped metal tubes for the wort with one metal stop open at the bottom near
the overflow end, so that the overflow of the wort into the next tube may
complete the action of my patented plan, and that a stop be also placed in
each shoot or trough (where the water runs outside of the metal V tube) close
to the water entrance, in order that the water employed in cooling may be
conveyed successively to the lower part of each shoot, the space between the
shoot and the tube being small, say from inch to 14 inch or more according
to the size of the refrigerator, in order that the water strata may be thin.
And the kind of agitator I recommend consists of a long piece of wood placed
in each tube, weighted, if necessary, to keep it down, same being either smooth
or with jagged sides, and made of nearly the same shape as the tube, and of
such size as to admit a thin strata of wort to pass between it and each side of
the tube. Agitation may be communicated by means of a water wheel
turned by the surplus water giving a horizontal movement
short crank to a horizontal bar working in a groove to which all these pieces
of wood employed as agitators are braced, and even where mechanical motion
is not deemed desirable or possible the use of this wooden float inside the tube
is of importance as being the means of filling up a useless space in the tube
means of &

page_text: and exposing a thin body only of wort to the direct action of the cooling
surface. This feature of my Invention is valuable in either way. And where
close tubes for water are desired I recommend the use of a back refrigera or
formed of close metal tubes placed inside the back and running from end to
end thereof parallel with each other, so as to form the tubes in which the wort
runs, and of a less height or depth than the interior of the back. I also
recommend fixing on these tubes pieces of metal or wood, so as to bring the
wort tubes to the same depth as the interior of the back, with an overflow
space cut at each alternate end, and at the same end there shall be a metal
stop fixed between the water tubes, open at the bottom, so that the two form
the stop chamber as in the metal V shaped open tubes, and the same wooden
agitator shall be used nearly the whole length of such tubes, as in the open
tube refrigerator; there may be holes formed in the wooden end of the back
to draw off the wort remaining after the cooling is completed, the water
connexions between the tubes being made on the principle and plan above
described in reciting my Provisional Specification. And I recommend V tubes
with narrow spaces between for all purposes therein described.
Having now fully described and set forth the nature and object of my said
Invention for an "Improved Refrigerator for Cooling Worts for Brewing
or other Liquids requiring Cooling, and for Improving Brewers' Refrigerators
now in use," together with the best means I am acquainted with for carrying
the same into practical effect, I would remark, in conclusion, that I hereby
declare my Invention to consist in, and I claim, constructing refrigerators as
above described with reference to the accompanying Drawing and for the
purposes above stated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Blake, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
Witness,
ISAAC EVANS,
Accountant,
Newport,
Mon.
ALFRED BLAKE. (L.S.)