AN IMPROVEMENT IN OR PROAL
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Sydney Foye Shore, of Clifton Hall, in the County
of Derby, Gentleman, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN OR
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Sydney Foye Shore at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
27th February 1860.
I, SYDNEY FOYE SHORE, of Clifton Hall, in the County of Derby, Gentleman,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN
OR ADDITION TO CASES TO PREVENT THEIR BECOMING FOUL," to be as follows:-
Casks when returned from the consumer to the brewer frequently become
foul and smell badly, from the vent hole and the aperture for the tap not
having been properly closed after the cask has been emptied. Now my
Invention is intended to remedy this inconvenience, and consists in placing
plugs inside the cask, and in connecting springs to them in such manner that
the plugs will yield to allow of the insertion of the tap, and of the vent hole
being opened to admit air, and that on the tap.being withdrawn. or pressure
being removed from the vent plug, the springs will force the plugs into. their
respective apertures, exclude the air, and thus keep the casks sweet.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Sydney Foye Shore in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
27th August 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SYDNEY
FOYE SHORE, of Clifton Hall, in the County of Derby, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Sydney Foye Shore, Her special licence that I, the said Sydney.
Foye Shore, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Sydney Foye Shore, 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 IMPROVEMENT IN OR ADDITION TO CASKS TO PREVENT THEIR BECOMING
FOUL," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Sydney Foye
Shore, 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 Sydney Foye Shore, 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 thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say:-
Casks when returned from the consumer to the brewer frequently become
foul and smell badly, from the vent hole and the aperture for the tap not
having been properly closed after the cask has been emptied: Now my
Invention is intended to remedy this inconvenience, and consists in placing
plugs inside the cask, and in connecting springs to them in such manner that
the plugs will yield to allow of the insertion of the tap, and of the vent hole
being opened to admit air, and that on the tap being withdrawn or pressure

page_text: being removed from the vent plug, the springs will force the plugs into their
respective apertures, exclude the air, and thus keep the casks sweet.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a section of so much of a cask
as will be necessary to show the manner in which I carry my Invention into
effect. a is a plug, of india-rubber or other suitable material, of or about tho
size of the tap hole. This plug carries a disc b, connected to a metal spring
or springs c, fastened to the head of the cask, as shown. d is a collar, fitted
to the tap hole, and attached to the inner part of the cask, as shown. When
a tap is inserted in the hole, it presses against the india-rubber plug, and
forces it into the position indicated by the dotted lines. As soon as the tap is
removed, the spring c forces back the plug into the tap hole, and prevents air
entering the cask. The same arrangement is applicable to the vent, the
spring keeps the hole closed until it receives pressure from the outside of the
cask by a finger or otherwise. If metal springs are employed, they should be
formed of or coated with some metal not liable to produce injurious effects
upon the contents of the cask.
Instead of a spring or springs, I sometimes connect the plug to a lath or
bar hinged or fixed at top. I pass an india-rubber or other elastic band e
round the bar, as shown at Figure 2, and obtain the same action as from the
spring shown at Figuro 1.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim the employment
in casks of a spring in connection with an internal plug, essentially in manner
and for the purpose herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Sydney Foye Shore, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of August, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty.
SYDNEY FOYE SHORE. (L.S.)