AN IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE APPLIED TO CASKS OR OTHER VESSELS CONTAINING LIQUID TO PRESERVE THE LIQUID WHILE ON DRAUGHT."
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Hotham Needham, of Mortlake, in
the County of Surrey, Naval Instructor, for the Invention of "AN
IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE APPLIED TO CASKS OR OTHER VESSELS CONTAINING
LIQUID TO PRESERVE THE LIQUID WHILE ON DRAUGHT."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Hotham
Needham at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 11th August 1869.
I, FREDERICK HOTHAM NEEDHAM, of Mortlake, in the County of
Surrey, Naval Instructor, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE APPLIED TO CASKS OR OTHER
VESSELS CONTAINING LIQUID TO PRESERVE THE LIQUID WHILE ON DRAUGHT," to
be as follows:-
The object of my Invention is to preserve liquids which are liable to
injury from contact with the air from the possibility of such contact
when on draught in casks or any other vessel.
I attain my object by means of an apparatus (which I propose to term
"the diaphragm spile") composed of a tubular spile of metal or other

page_text: suitable material, to which is attached a bag made of any substance, thin,
flexible, air-proof, and neutral as regards the liquid with which it is to
come in contact when acting as diaphragm within a cask or other vessel.
I prefer making this bag of india-rubber, it being unassailable by alcohol,
but animal membrane and gold beater's skin will be found very suitable
for glass vessels.
In applying my apparatus to a cask containing beer, wine, or other
liquid I remove the bung, pass the tubular spile through. it until it
projects from the under side, attach the bag to this projection, and
replace the bung so that the bag rests on the liquid in the cask, the top
of the tubular spile being flush with or projecting above the upper
surface of the bung. As the liquid is drawn from the cask through the
ordinary tap air will enter freely by the spile distending the bag, which
is thus kept upon the surface of the liquid, and forms a diaphragm
lowering with the liquid, and entirely preserving it from contact with
the air. When the whole of the liquid has been drawn off the fully
distended diaphragm will occupy the position of a lining to the cask,
and to remove it for cleaning or refilling the cask, all that is necessary
is to turn this latter on end and fill it with water through the tap hole;
this causes the diaphragm to collapse, and the tap hole being then
corked the diaphragm is withdrawn on removing the bung in the
ordinary way.
My apparatus is applicable in a similar manner to any other vessel
containing liquid, and particularly to glass jars to stand on the shelves
of wine shops and public houses, or the sideboard of a dining room, in
which application it not only has the effect of permitting the last glass
of wine or other fermented liquid to be drawn off equal if not superior in
quality to the first, but also enables the liquid to be observed as well as
preserved.
The stopper of the jar may, if desired, be of glass perforated to receive
the spile, and these glass vessels will of course be provided with a tap
for drawing off the liquid as from the cask.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Frederick Hotham Needham in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 10th February 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
HOTHAM NEEDHAM, of Mortlake, in the County of Surrey, Naval
Instructor, send greeting...
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs. and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Frederick Hotham Needham, Her special
licence that I, the said Frederick Hotham Needham, my executors, ad-
ministrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Frederick Hotham
Needham, 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 IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE APPLIED TO CASKS OR OTHER
VESSELS CONTAINING LIQUID TO PRESERVE THE LIQUID WHILE ON DRAUGHT," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Frederick Hotham
Needham, 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 Frederick Hotham Needham, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement :-
The object of my Invention is to preserve liquids which are liable to
injury from contact with the air from the possibility of such contact
when on draught in casks or any other vessels.
"
I attain my object by means of an apparatus which I term the
diaphragm spile," composed of a tubular spile of metal or other

page_text: suitable material, to which is attached (in any convenient manner) a
bag made of any substance, thin, flexible, air-proof, and neutral as regards
the liquid with which it is to come in contact when acting as diaphragm
within a cask or other vessel. I prefer making this bag of india-rubber
as being unassailable by alcohol, but muslins, animal membrane, and
gold beater's skin coated with india-rubber will be found very suitable
for glass vessels.
In applying my apparatus to a cask containing beer, wine, or other
liquid I remove the bung, pass the tubular spile through it until it
projects from the under side, attach the bag to this projection, and replace
the bung so that the bag rests on or in the liquid in the cask, the top of
the tubular spile being flush with the upper surface of the bung. If
preferred the tubular spile may be first attached to the bag and be
passed through the bung from the under side, but I deem the method
first described the best, as being less likely to injure the bag.
The action is as follows:-As the liquid is drawn from the cask
through the ordinary tap air enters freely by the tubular spile and
distends the bag, keeping it upon the surface of the liquid remaining in
the cask, so that it forms a diaphragm lowering with the liquid and
entirely preserving it from contact with the air. By slightly weighting
the bag any tendency to gather at the top is obviated, and its proper
expansion secured. When the whole of the liquid has been drawn off
the fully distended diaphragm will occupy the position of a lining to
the cask, and to remove it for cleaning and refilling the cask all that is
necessary is to turn this latter on end and fill it with water through the tap
hole; this causes. the diaphragm to collapse, and the tap hole being then
corked, the diaphragm is withdrawn by the removal of the bung in the
ordinary way, or it will be sufficient to remove the tap, thus admitting
air outside the diaphragm and allowing it to collapse on pressure; it
can then be withdrawn by pulling gently on the bung, taking care not
to prevent the escape of the contained air.
My apparatus is equally applicable to any other vessel containing
liquid, and particularly to glass jars to stand on the shelves of wine
shops and taverns or the sideboard of a dining room, in which application
it not only has the effect of permitting the last glass of wine or other
fermented liquid to be drawn off equal if not superior in quality to the
first, but also enables the liquid to be observed as well as preserved..

page_text: The stopper of the jar may, if desired, be of glass perforated to receive
the spile, and these glass vessels will of course be provided with a tap
for drawing off the liquid as from the cask. An aperture may be pro-
vided in the stopper or bung (or other part of the vessel) through which
the vessel may be filled without removal of the stopper or diaphragm,
this aperture to be closed with a cork or otherwise when the vessel is
full.
In order that my Invention may be fully comprehended I have
hereunto annexed a Sheet of Drawing illustrating its application to a
glass jar such as is used in taverns and wine shops, and also to an
ordinary cask. Similar letters of reference denote corresponding parts
in each of the Figures respectively.
Fig. 1 represents a glass jar full of liquid, B indicating the bag or
diaphragm slightly weighted to keep it immersed in the liquid; T,
tubular spile which forms the mouth of bag B and passes through
stopper or corks to the outside of the jar. Fig. 2, same vessel half emptied,
the diaphragm B partially expanded by the air which has entered by the
spile T to supply the place of the liquor which has been drawn off at C.
Fig. 3, same vessel, the whole of the liquid being drawn off and the
diaphragm B fully expanded. Fig. 4 section of a cask filled with liquid,.
the weighted diaphragm B suspended from the bung 6 by its spile T.
Fig. 5, same, with part of its contents drawn off, and diaphragm B ex-
panded by air to a corresponding extent. When the whole of the
liquid is drawn from the cask the diaphragm comes against all its sides,
forming a lining, as in the glass jar at Fig. 3.
I would here observe that the fully expanded bag occupying no more
space within the cask than would a lining of paper, it does not interfere
with its capacity to any appreciable extent. The tubular spile may
screw into the stopper or bung, or may be passed through and secured
to it in any suitable manner.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is performed, I desire it to be understood that I do
not limit myself to the use of any particular material in the manufacture
of my improved apparatus; further, that I do not claim the exclusive
use of a flexible diaphragm within a cask or other vessel containing
liquid; but that I claim, as the Invention secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, the use of an air-proof
bag or diaphragm in combination with a tube or tubular spile passing

page_text: through the bung or stopper of a cask or other vessel holding liquid in
such a manner that all air entering such cask or vessel to supply the
place of liquid drawn off shall be retained in the expanding bag or
diaphragm, and be thus prevented from coming into contact with the
remaining liquid, substantially as herein-before described and illustrated
on the accompanying Sheet of Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Hotham Needham, have
hereunto set my hand and scal, this Ninth day of February, in.
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
F. H. NEEDHAM. (L.S.)