Year: 1886

page_text: We, JOSEPH SMITH of 11 Clarendon Street in the County of Middlesex Mechanic,
and WALTER SIMKINS of 6 Wellington Street St. Pancras in the County of Middlesex,
Music Smith, do hereby declare our said invention to be as follows:-
The object of this invention is to enable any liquid to be drawn from a cask barrel
or other closed vessel without allowing of the essential gasses or vapours, accumulated
therein to escape, thereby greatly preserving the quality of the liquid, by means of
simple construction of valve placed in the spile substantially as follows:-
The spile is composed of wood or other suitable material with one end made taper
so as to enable it to be easily fitted into the hole in the cask or barrel and from this
taper end, a vertical hole is bored, crossing a hole of larger diameter bored transversely
but only partly through the diameter of the spile.
The vertical hole aforesaid may either be continued right through the length of the
spile or communicate with a transverse hole so as to admit air.
In the upper part of the first named transverse hole is placed a piece of india rubber
or other flexible material so as to shut the vertical hole and this rubber valve is held
in position by a short plug made (preferably of a porous material) fitting the outer
end of the before described hole thus forming a valve chamber, by this arrangement
the air can only pass through the spile in one direction thus forming an automatic
spile made in one piece only.
BROWNE & Co.,
Agents for the Applicants.

page_text: We, JOSEPH SMITH, of 11, Clarendon Street, in the county of Middlesex, Mechanic,
and WALTER SIMKINS, of 6, Wellington Street, St. Pancras, in the county of Middlesex,
Music Smith 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 :-
The object of this invention is to enable any liquid to be drawn from a cask, barrel
or other closed vessel without allowing of the essential gases or vapours, accumulated
therein to escape, thereby greatly preserving the quality of the liquid, by means of a
simple construction of valve placed in the spile substantially as follows:
The spile is composed of wood or other suitable material with one end made taper
so as to enable it to be easily fitted into the hole in the cask or barrel and from this
taper end, a vertical hole is bored, crossing a hole of larger diameter bored transversely
but only partly through the diameter of the spile.
The vertical hole aforesaid may either be continued right through the length of the
spile or communicate with a transverse hole so as to admit air.
In the upper part of the first named transverse hole is placed a piece of india rubber,
thin metal or other flexible material so as to shut the vertical hole and this rubber or
thin metal valve is held in position by a short plug fitting the outer end of the before
described hole thus forming a valve chamber, by this arrangement the air can only
pass through the spile in one direction thus forming an automatic spile made in one
piece only.
In order to enable our invention to be fully understood we will proceed to describe
how it can be carried into practice by reference to the accompanying drawing in
which figure 1 represents an elevation of an automatic spile constructed according to
our invention; figure 2 is a transverse vertical section and figures 3 and 4 are
horizontal sections taken on the lines A, B, and C, D, respectively of figure 1. Similar
letters in all the figures represent similar parts.
a, represents the taper end of the spile by which it can be easily fitted into the
usual spile hole in the cask or barrel; b, is the vertical hole bored from the lower end
of the spile and c, is the transverse hole in the upper part or head a¹, of the spile with
which the vertical hole b, communicates as shewn, and whereby air is admitted to the cask
or barrel (or the hole b, may be continued right through the length of the spile as
herein before described in which case the transverse hole c, would not be required);
d, is the hole of larger diameter than the hole b, and bored transversely partly through
the diameter of the head a', of the spile; e, is the piece of rubber, thin imetal or other
suitable flexible material placed in the transverse hole d, and under the upper part of
the hole b; the said piece of rubber, thin metal or other. flexible material forming a
valve which closes the vertical hole 6; f, is the short plug serving to hold the piece e
in position in the hole d, which thus forms a valve chamber.

page_text: A spile of this construction when applied to the usual spile hole in a cask, barrel or
other vessel of liquid will allow air to enter the cask or the like through the valve e,
as the liquid is drawn off, but will prevent the escape of the accumulating gases or
vapours as any upward pressure on the valve e, will only tend to more firmly close
the latter.
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 we claim is
The manufacture and use of the improved automatic spile constructed substantially
as hereinbefore described and represented in the accompanying drawing.
Dated the 19th day of April 1887.
G. F. REDFERN,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London,
Agent for the Applicants.
G. F. REDFERN,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London,
Agent for the Applicants.