IMPROVED APPARATUS OR MECHANISM FOR DRAWING- OFF, FILTERING, AND GUAGING LIQUIDS IN BUTTS, BARRELS, CASKS, AND SUCH LIKE VESSELS, PRESERVING THE CONTENTS FROM DETERIORATION FROM CONTACT WITH ATMOSPHERIC AIR
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Richardson Fanshawe, late of Messrs. Silver
and Company's Works, North Woolwich, now of 13, Russell Place,
Old Kent Road, in the County of Surrey, India-rubber Manufacturer,
for the Invention of "IMPROVED APPARATUS OR MECHANISM FOR DRAWING-
OFF, FILTERING, AND GUAGING LIQUIDS IN BUTTS, BARRELS, CASKS, AND SUCH
LIKE VESSELS, PRESERVING THE CONTENTS FROM DETERIORATION FROM CONTACT
WITH ATMOSPHERIC AIR."
Sealed the 19th October 1859, and dated the 27th April 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Richardson
Fanshawe at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 27th April 1859.
I, HENRY RICHARDSON FANSHAWE, late of Messrs. Silver and Company's
Works, North Woolwich, now of 13, Russell Place, Old Kent Road, in
the County of Surrey, India-rubber Manufacturer, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS OR MECHANISM POR
DRAWING-OFF, FILTERING, AND GAUGING LIQUIDS IN BUTTS, BARRELS, CASES, AND
SUCH LIKE VESSELS, PRESERVING THE CONTENTS PROM DETERIORATION FROM CONTACT
WITH ATMOSPHERIC AIR," to be as follows:-
I form a bag of vulcanised india-rubber or other suitable material, impervious
to and insoluble in water; this bag must be of such size and construction that

page_text: the elasticity of the rubber will with the atmospheric pressure cause it to
expand to the full size of the butt, barrel, cask, &c. The mouth of this bag
is made to fit round the edge of the bung-hole or aperture of the butt, barrel,
&c., and down the centre of the bag I pass a flexible pipe, closing the bottom
of the bag round said pipe so as to allow sufficient length of pipe to reach
from the bung-hole to the lowest portion of the butt, barrel &c., as placed in
the cellar for use. At the lower end of this pipe I affix a vessel (bell-shaped
for instance) in heavy metal or material, the interior of which forms a filter.
The upper portion of the pipe passes up and through the stopper at the bung
hole or aperture. The tube may communicate to the engine if for publicans'
use, or it may form a syphon whereby the liquid may be drawn off. An index
or guage rod may be passed through the bung hole or aperture along with
the flexible pipe aforesaid, and attached to a float resting upon that part of
the expanding bag resting on the fluid; as this falls, so will the rod sink deeper
and indicate or guage the quantity withdrawn. When the butt, barrel, &c.,
has become empty the stopper ring can be removed and the whole of the
apparatus withdrawn. A small tap fixed at each end and opening inwards, or
any ordinary air cushion valve may be attached to the flexible bag aforesaid
to allow any air contained (say where the bag is required extremely large) to
pass off when necessary. After use the bag & also the filter should be cleansed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry Richardson Fanshawe, in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 27th October 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
RICHARDSON FANSHAWE, late of Messrs Silver & Company's Works, North
Woolwich, now of 13, Russell Place, Old Kent Road, in the County of
Surrey, India-rubber Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Henry Richardson Fanshawe, Her special licence that I, the
said Henry Richardson Fanshawe, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Henry Richardson Fanshawe, 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,

page_text: 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 "IMPROVED APPARATUS OR MECHANISM FOR DRAWING-OFF,
FILTERING, AND GUAGING LIQUIDS IN BUTTS, BARRELS, CASKS, AND SUCH LIKE
VESSELS, PRESERVING THE CONTENTS FROM DETERIORATION FROM DETERIORATION
FROM CONTACT WITH ATMOSPHERIC AIR," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Henry Richardson Fanshawe, 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 Henry Richardson Fanshawe, 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 following statement:-
The object principally purposed to be accomplished by this Invention is,
that of preserving wine, beer, ales, or other vegetable extracts or decoctions,
or other liquids from any decomposition or changes of any kind usually caused
by contact with atmospheric air. In addition to which, it is purposed to filter
or clarify the wine, beer, ale, or other liquid in its course from the butt, barrel,
or other vessel to the beer engine or other drawing-off apparatus. Also to
guage or register the quantity of liquid withdrawn from the butt, barrel, or
vessel, shewing at any time the present contents of the vessel.
To effect the drawing-off liquids and yet preserve them during such drawing-
off free from decomposition or deterioration as aforesaid, I have what I term
a diaphragm bag, which is simply a bag formed of any suitable water and air-
proof fabric, such, for instance, as the vulcanised or cured india-rubber fabrics
of commerce. This bag may be made by any of the processes known to
manufacturers, and of such size, form, and texture, that the atmospheric
pressure when allowed to enter the bag will cause it to expand if needful to
the full size of the interior of the butt, barrel, cask, or vessel. This bag must
have two holes formed opposite each other, close around which pieces of the
same material as the bag, forming short tubes, are secured air-tight, for the
purposes hereafter set forth, and so that when the drawing-off pipe is passed.
through, to allow which these holes are formed, one of the short tubes
aforesaid is made to fit air-tight to the edge of the bung-hole or aperture of
the barrel, &c. Down the centre of the bag I pass a flexible pipe, closing the
bottom of the bag around the said pipe, as, for instance, by tying string round:

page_text: the short tube aforesaid, so as to bind it air-tight to the said flexible pipe, and
so as to allow sufficient length of pipe to reach from the bung-hole to the
lowest opposite portion of the butt, barrel, &c., as placed in the cellar for use.
At the lower end of this pipe and open to it I affix a vessel (bell-shaped, for
instance,) in heavy metal or material, the interior of which being filled with
layers of sponge and fine felt, or other filtering material, forms a filter, which
is open or partially open to the pipe and to the butt, barrel, cask, or vessel.
The upper portion of the pipe passes up and through the stopper at the bung-
hole or aperture, which is necessary to keep the mouth of the bag tightly
fixed in the said bung-hole or aperture. The apparatus for stopping the bung-
hole is this-First, the upper short tube forming, as aforesaid, part of the
diaphragm bag, is made to line the bung-hole, and is turned over the outside
edge of it; then in this I put a vulcanised or cured india-rubber washer, into
which is to be pushed a metal ring, of such diameter that it requires to be
tightly pressed or forced into the bung-hole, being provided with an internal
thread, into which the external thread on the annular portion of a screw cap
or cover for the bung-hole is screwed, such cap having a hole for the aforesaid
flexible pipe to pass through, this hole being somewhat greater in diameter.
than the pipe, both to allow it to move freely, and to allow the atmospheric
air to enter and fill the diaphragm bag, when from the liquid being drawn off
a void is left in the vessel. If instead of a flexible pipe a rigid one be used,
duly graduated, it may be made to act as a guaging or registering apparatus,
for shewing the quantity of liquid drawn off, and by consequence the quantity.
remaining in the butt, barrel, cask, or vessel, for, the said pipe being attached
to the diaphragm bag, as that is distended, so the pipe will sink the extent of
such sinking, shewing the liquid consumed. Or a guage or register may be
obtained by using the flexible pipe, and employing a rod passed through the
bung-hole alongside the aforesaid flexible pipe, and attached to a float resting
on that part of the expanding bag which rests on the liquid, consequently as
this moves, the guage rod moves with it. If a butt, barrel, or cask be placed
on end with a bung-hole in the end, in place of, as at present, in the stave,
this diaphragm system could be applied to it with advantage.
The Invention can also be advantageously applied in small domestic barrels
or casks, with a syphon and ordinary tap, the index being upon the short leg
of the syphon pipe.
The Invention can likewise be adapted to any suitable vessels for containing
Jiquids.
In using this Invention I commence by placing, in the butt, barrel, or.
other vessel, the diaphragm bag herein-before described, which I do by

page_text: twisting the ends of the said diaphragm bag so as to exclude the air, and form
a rope, as it were, in order to its more ready introduction, and I insert one end
at a time into the bung hole. The filterer herein-before described having been
first passed in, I then fix the neck or short tube of the diaphragm bag to the
edge of the bung-hole, by putting in the metal ring as herein-before described.
The stopper herein-before described must then be put on over the drawing-off
pipe, and placed in its position in the bung-hole, serving at the same time as a
support to the index or registering tube, as also preventing any substances
from dropping into the diaphragm bag through the bung-hole. When the butt
or barrel is empty, and the diaphragm has to be removed, I then take out the
stopper and remove the ring and washer, and release the neck or short tube
attached to the bag, and forming part of it, from contact with the bung-hole,
allowing the air to enter between the butt and the diaphragm, causing the
latter to fall away, when, by twisting the end of the bag or diaphragm to
exclude the air, it is easily withdrawn. In the case of the drawing-off and
guage pipe, which is rigid, and should be made of thin metal, a flexible pipe
must be secured by union joints or otherwise to it, and to the beer engine pipe
when used in connexion with it.
Having now particularly described the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim the use and
adaptation of a bag with its adjuncts, which, by the introduction of air pressure
will occupy the void formed as the liquid is drawn off; sufficient pressure being
kept up by this means to allow a free draught. Also the guaging and filtering
apparatus herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the the said Henry Richardson Fanshawe, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this 27th day of October. 1859.
Signed and sealed in my presence,
F. W. CAMPIN,
Patent Agent.
H. R. FANSHAWE. (L.S.)