IMPROVEMENTS IN CONCENTRATING BEER, ALE CYDER WINE AND VINEGAR
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Bollmann Condy, of Battersea, in the County
of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CONCENTRATING BEER,
ALE CYDER WINE AND VINEGAR."
Sealed the 22nd September 1854, and dated the 7th April 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Bollmann Condy
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
7th April 1854.
I, HENRY BOLLMANN CONDY, of Battersea, in the County of Surrey, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
CONCENTRATING BEER, ALE, CYDER, WINE, AND VINEGAR," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the obtaining much more concentrated
beer, ale, cyder, wine, and vinegar than has heretofore been produced, and
consists of means of removing water from such liquids, which will render them
more easily portable; and such liquids may at any time be brought back to
their original state by again adding water equal to what has been extracted.
For which purpose these liquids are subjected to one or more of the following
processes; by freezing, by distilling, or by crystallizing matters therein, by
which processes water may be separated or extracted from beer, ale, cyder,
wine, and vinegar, and those liquids thereby greatly reduced in bulk.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Bollmann Condy in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 7th October 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
BOLLMANN CONDY, of Battersea, in the County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Henry Bollmann Condy, Her special licence that I, the said Henry
Bollmann Condy, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Henry Bollmann Condy, 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN CONCENTRATING BEER, ALE, CYDER, WINE, AND VINEGAR," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry Bollmann Condy, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Henry Bollmann Condy, 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 statement thereof (that is to say) :-
This Invention has for its object the obtaining much more concentrated
beer, ale, cyder, wine, and vinegar than has heretofore been produced, and
consists of means of removing water from such liquids, which will render them
more easily portable, and such liquids may at any time be brought back to
their original state, by again adding water equal to what has been extracted.
For which purpose these liquids are subjected to one or more of the following
processes, videlicit, freezing, distilling, or crystallizing matters therein, by
which processes water may be separated or extracted from beer, ale, cyder,
wine, and vinegar, and those liquids thereby greatly reduced in bulk.
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the means pursued by me.

page_text: I take beer, ale, cyder, wine, or vinegar, and I place it in a vessel so fixed
that artificial or natural cold may be applied to it; the peculiar form of appa-
ratus, and the artificial method of obtaining cold, which I prefer being
presently described. The liquid is gradually cooled down until it is about
half congealed; and I would remark, that the degree of cold which will be
requisite will depend on the original strength of the liquid. When the semi-
congelation is effected, the liquid portion will be found to contain the greater
part of the acetous or spirituous strength; this liquor I separate and call first
liquor. As the process, when a considerable degree of concentration is required,
will require to be repeated several times, this first liquor.I then replace in
the refrigerating vessel, and subject it again to cold, until again about half of
the liquid is congealed; afterwards the liquor is again drained off from the
crystalline mass of ice, and the liquor, which I then call second liquor, is either
considered as sufficiently concentrated, or may undergo a still further degree
of concentration, by application of a sufficiently low temperature. The con-
gealed portions which are obtained consist mainly of ice, which, having been
thawed by application of heat, either by steam or otherwise, may be employed
for mixing with fresh wash, in the case of brewing beer or vinegar, or they
may be treated again with cold. The liquors resulting from thawing the ice
when mixed together I call third liquor, and I subject it to cold until half or
more is congealed, and then when the liquor is drained out it will be found to
be equal in strength, or thereabout, to the original liquor, and may be mixed
with it to be converted into first liquor, by freezing out its water, as before
described.
By the process just described, beer, ale, cyder, wine, and vinegar may be
easily so concentrated, that one part may be equal in point of strength to four
or to six parts of the original liquor, and will be capable of being reduced to
the same strength by the simple addition of water.
The method of obtaining the cold which I adopt is the following:-Chemists
are aware that some gases when compressed or condensed by great pressure
are capable of being made to assume a liquid form; the gas I most prefer
being sulphurous acid. When these gases are allowed to expand again, or to
assume their gaseous shape, they give up a very large amount of cold, or
rather abstract a large amount of heat from any surrounding body; of this fact
I avail myself in concentrating these liquids by congelation, by allowing the
gas which has been liquified by pressure or otherwise to reassume its gaseous
shape at the expense of the heat contained in the liquid; the latter is cooled
down to that point at which a large quantity of its water is frozen, and this
process is repeated; or the concentration may be accomplished at one opera-

page_text: tion, by congealing a large proportion of the liquid, though I prefer to repeat
the process.
The apparatus which I employ for cooling the liquids is constructed as
follows-The sulphurous acid gas when first manufactured is collected in a
copper gasometer, in connection with which is a force pump, worked by a
steam engine or other power. This force pump draws the gas from the
gasometer and forces it into a receiver of copper, at such a pressure that the
gas becomes liquified; to this receiver is attached a safety valve, loaded to,
say, seventy lbs. on the square inch, and an indicator, for the purpose of
showing the amount of liquid in the receiver, and similar to those used for
steam boilers. From this receiver the liquid sulphurous acid is by means of
a tap allowed gradually to escape into a long coil of copper pipe immersed in
the vessel in which the liquid to be cooled is placed. This coil of pipe (and
I make it as long as possible) I arrange in such a manner as to leave the
centre of the vessel free, so as to leave room for an agitator, by means of
which the liquid is kept in motion during the first part of the cooling process.
After circulating in this coil of pipe, the gas is conducted back to the
gasometer, from which it first started, and from which it is again drawn by the
pump to be re-condensed.
The second part of my Invention consists in abstracting the water from
.beer, ale, cyder, wine, and vinegar by crystallizing therein salts; and to effect
this, I take a given quantity of the liquid to be concentrated, and I dissolve
in ten parts of the liquid, at its boiling temperature, eight and a half parts of
dry or an hydrous sulphite of soda, or seven and a half parts of dry sulphate of
soda, or twelve and three quarter parts of dry acetate of soda (by preference
the latter), or other dry salt of a suitable nature, and then put aside the
solution to cool; after it has cooled to sixty degrees, I loosen the crystallized
salt, and set it aside to drain, when the liquor will contain all or nearly all the
strength. In order to hasten the cooling the liquid, the sulphurous acid
process, before described, may be employed; or it may be employed to remove
(by cooling the liquid to a low temperature) any trace of salt which may
remain dissolved, if this process be not perfectly conducted.
The third part of my Invention consists in concentrating beer, ale, cyder,
wine, and vinegar by distillation, in the following manner: -I place the liquid
in a still, and distil gradually in the ordinary manner; the first one-sixth
part which comes over I put aside; the next two-thirds are received in a
separate vessel, and consist of little else than water; and the contents of the
still at this period consist of the ingredient with which the spirit was com-
bined. I then mix together the portion which first come over with the contents

page_text: of the still, and thus obtain a concentrated beer, ale, cyder, or wine, requiring
only the addition of water equal to that separated to become of the strength it
originally was. In the case of vinegar, the first portion will contain the
flavour, the next two-thirds only very weak vinegar, and that left in the still
will be strong vinegar; the last is to be mixed with the first portion con-
taining the flavour, and will then be concentrated vinegar, requiring only
the addition of a quantity of water equal to that separated to again become
ordinary vinegar.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I do not confine myself
to the exact details described; but what I claim is, the concentrating beer,
ale, cyder, wine, and vinegar by the process of freezing, distilling, or crys-
tallizing matters therein, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Bollmann Condy, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
W. CARPMAEL, Jun.
HENRY B. CONDY. (L.S.)