Improvements in Apparatus for Use in Testing and Seasoning Casks.
Year: 1888

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Use in Testing and Seasoning
Casks.
We, WILLIAM PHAUP LOWRIE and ROBERT BARR of the firm of W. P. Lowrie &
Co. Bonded Warehouse Keepers and GEORGE SCOTT Foreman, all of 45 Hopo Street
in the city of Glasgow, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
Our invention relates to apparatus to be used in testing and seasoning casks and it
has for its objects to enable the operation to be effected by means of steam under
pressure greater than atmospheric pressure, and to obviato waste or loss of the reagents
used for seasoning the casks the said loss being occasioned in the ordinary method of
testing and seasoning by absorption in the water of condensation which escapes through
the open bung hole up through which the steaming pipe is led. In our improved
apparatus which is illustrated in the accompanying drawing in sectional elevation as
applied to a cask wo attain these objects by closing the cask during the steaming
operation by means of a conical or tapered plug A adapted to tightly fit the bung holes
or bung hole bushes of casks of different sizes and through which plug the pipe B for
admitting steam is carried. This pipe B is perforated at its end or in proximity
thereto for the purpose of distributing the steam or directing it in jets within the
cask C, and throughout part of its length it is screwed externally, as indicated, to fit a
corresponding internal screw thread in the plug A, so that the extent to which the
perforated part of the tube may be carried within the cask may bo readily varied to
suit casks of different sizes. The outer end of the pipe B has connected to it a branch D
communicating with the steam boiler or other source of steam supply, and at any
convenient point in the pipe a valvo E is fitted to regulate the limit of pressure of the
steam employed. This valve is by preference loaded with movable weights by which
adjustment to suit the strength of the cask under treatment may be effected, but a
spring safety valve or a pressure reducing valve of any well known form may be used
to determine the pressure of steam to be maintained within the cask.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what wo
claim is :-
1. The combination of parts constituting the improved apparatus for use in testing
and seasoning casks substantially as herein described.
2. In conjunction with. the steam admission pipe in apparatus for use in testing and
seasoning casks a tapered plug adjustably fitted on said pipe and adapted to tightly fit
the bung hole of the cask whereby steam may be maintained under pressure within the
cask substantially as described.
3. In combination with the steam admission pipe in apparatus for use in testing and
seasoning casks and with means for maintaining steam under pressure within the cask
a pressure regulating valve capable of adjustment to suit the strength of the cask
under treatmont substantially as described.
Dated this Tanth ...
ML 1000
CRUIKSHANK & FAIRWEATHER,
62, Saint Vincent Street, Glasgow,
Agents.