Improvements in the Manufacture of Vinegar and in Apparatus therefor.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 13th July, 1892-Accepted, 13th Aug., 1992
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Vinegar and in Apparatus
therefor.
I, EDMUND KÜCHENMEISTER, of 41 Böhmische Strasse, Zittau, in the Empire
of Germany, Manager of Works, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to a process and apparatus for the manufacture of vinegar
(essigsprit) by the employment of a current of air for the purpose of atomizing
the vinous or alcoholic liquids.
In the process hitherto employed the vinous liquid is brought to the required
condition by periodical affusion or by being constantly supplied by means of a
rotating sprayer. The process of periodical affusion, however, has the disadvantage
that the liquid is only very imperfectly divided, and that only that portion which
trickles down gradually is oxidized, moreover, after the affusion the temperature
falls considerably, often to such an extent that the mother of vinegar ceases to act
for a shorter or longer period. Also the rotary sprayer, which supplied the vinous
liquid in thin streams, is very easily choked by the vinegar-mother as it forms, and
as a result, in this case, too, the operation ceases until the stoppage is removed.
The division when the rotating sprayer is used as just referred to is much more
satisfactory than in the process wherein periodical affusion is adopted but it is
nevertheless very inadequate. In the process hereinafter described a vinegar
generator with a hermetically closing cover is used whilst in the apparatus in which
periodical affusion is adopted this is impossible, and furthermore the lively oxidation
which is developed, and which would lead to great loss by evaporation has to be
so far kept in check that the temperature shall not exceed 37° C. The hermetical
covering in my apparatus allows of a very rapid oxidation, caused by the extremely
fine sub-division of the vinous liquid, and the intimate contact between the latter
and the air blown in, and choking is quite prevented.
The
In the middle of a wooden vat A, with a hermetically fitting cover is fitted a stand
pipe or tube B. Below the top of this tube is a number of outlet tubes b directed
upwards. The vinous liquid is admitted through a tube C provided with a valve D
which controls the flow of the liquid coming from a tank E in such a way that the
position of the fluid in the tube B constantly remains at the height indicated in
the drawing by the line F. A tube G passes through the bottom of the vat inside
the tube B. Through the tube G air is driven by a blower, the air being warmed
if required. The air issues from the tube G through small taper nozzles. g.
nozzles and tubes g and b constitute the atomizing apparatus for the vinous liquid.
The air escapes from the vat A through a tube H and enters a vessel M, which is
filled with vinous liquid or with water, in order that the vapours which it has
carried off with it may be recovered and used again. A tube J serves to draw off
the manufactured vinegar (essigsprit). The line K indicates the level of the
finished vinegar in the vat and the line L shews the height to which the vat is
filled with chips, or preferably with balls of beechwood. The quantity of vinegar
which can be produced by the new process is far larger than by any method
hitherto known. The atomizer can conveniently be provided with fifteen spraying
nozzles and tubes and each nozzle will finely divide one litre of vinous liquid in
about six minutes, so that with an atomizer having fifteen nozzles 3600 litres may
be treated in a working period of 24 hours.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The herein described process for the manufacture of vinegar (essigsprit) by
the employment of a current of air from a blower, such process consisting in
discharging the vinous liquid in a very fine state of division and, in combination
with the current of air (which may be previously warmed) into a vat, filled with
chips of wood or the like.
2. The apparatus for carrying out the process described in Claim 1, such
apparatus comprising a hermetically closed vat into which opens a tube for the
admission of the vinous liquid, which tube surrounds within the vat, an air-supply
tube, both the said tubes being provided with small tubes having their outlets at
an uniform height above the bottom of the vat, substantially as set forth and
illustrated in the accompanying drawing.
n
11
101 1
1
1009
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Agents for the Applicant.