IMPROVEMENTS IN AERATED OR SPARKLING WHITE WINES
Year: 1861

page_text: Sealed the 21st March 1862, and dated the 26th September 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Victor Sosthène Lété at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
26th September 1861.
I, VICTOR SOSTHENE LÉTÉ, of Paris, France, Gentleman, do hereby declare
5 the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AERATED OR SPARKLING
WHITE WINES," to be as follows:-
These improvements in aerated or sparkling white wines consist in mixing
therewith in the bottles a suitable quantity of small pieces or even fine par-
ticles either of gold or silver leaves (commonly called gold beater's leaves,)
0 or a combination of both the pieces of metal leaf may have been cut into stars
or other suitable form, or be reduced to fine particles.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Victor Sosthène Lété in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 26th March 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, VICTOR
SOSTHENE LETÉ, of Paris, France, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her reign.
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Victor Sosthène Lété, Her special licence that I, the said Victor Sosthène Lété,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Victor
Sosthène Lété, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN AERATED OR SPARKLING WHITE WINES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Victor Sosthène Lété, my executors or adminis-
trators, 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 Victor Sosthène Lété, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the fol-
lowing statement :-
These improvements in aerated or sparkling white wines consist in mixing
with champaign, or other white wine of the kind known as sparkling or
aerated wine, in the bottles from which the same are to be poured out for
consumption, a suitable quantity of small pieces, spangles or particles of fine
gold or silver leaf, or of both, viz., that description of gold or silver leaf known
as gold beater's leaf-gold or leaf-silver, and is sold in small books, and made
use of for gilding wooden frames-or-other-similar-objects. The pieces of leaf-
gold or leaf-silver must be very small, and be sufficiently light for allowing
the same of keeping themselves suspended in the wine; they may be cut out
into any suitable shape or configuration so as to form, for instance, small

page_text: stars, squares, circles, rings, or other figures, or they may be reduced to a more
or less coarse powder.
Having thus described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
Invention, and the manner of using the same, I hereby declare that what I
consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured
to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, consist in mixing
with champaign or other white wines of the description known as aerated or
sparkling wines, small pieces of leaf-gold, leaf-silver, or of both, the pieces
being sufficiently light for allowing the same to be kept in suspension in the
wine.
In witness whereof, I, the said Victor Sosthène Lété, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
5 Witness,
DREYFOUS.
Ingenieur.
VICTOR SNE LÉTÉ. (L.S.)