IMPROVEMENTS IN OR ADDITIONS TO CASKS OR VESSELS FOR CONTAINING BEER, AND OTHER LIQUIDS, SEMI-LIQUIDS AND GASEOUS MATTERS OR PRODUCTS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Watts at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 21st May 1883.
JOSEPH WATTS of Birmingham in the, County of Warwick Merchant
"IMPROVEMENTS IN OR ADDITIONS TO CASKS OR VESSELS FOR CONTAINING BEER,
AND OTHER LIQUIDS, SEMI-LIQUIDS AND GASEOUS MATTERS OR PRODUCTS
"
My invention has for its object, isolating from the external atmosphere, beer and
other liquids contained in casks or vessels, that is to say; the cask proper in which
the beer or liquid is contained is impenetrable to air, and forming a detached
In order that the salient properties of the liquids contained therein shall
be perfectly preserved and the liquids drawn therefrom without the use of vent
pegs.
area.
Casks of the ordinary construction are usually fitted with vent pegs at their
bungs, to allow the requisite quantity of air to enter the upper part of the cask, to
allow the liquid to flow from the tap or faucet-It is well known that casks remain
airtight, so long as the vent peg is kept in its affixed position, the surface of the
liquid in the vessel will be excluded from the atmospheric pressure, and the liquid
can only flow from the cask in virtue of its own weight-But if the weight of the
Atmosphere be greater than the column of liquid corresponding with the depth of
the liquid in the vessel, the liquid cannot flow from the cask; but as soon as the
peg is removed, and atmospheric air admitted above the surface of the liquid in the
cask, the liquid flows from the cask by virtue of its own weight-The deleterious
influence of the atmosphere coming in direct contact with the liquid deteriorates
the liquid proportional to the extent of surface thus exposed; and also renders
impure and foul the lining or interior surface of the cask impregnated with the
liquids contained therein.
I will describe my invention as applied to a beer cask although my invention is
equally applicable to all vessels, or enclosed surfaces.
My invention consists in placing within a perfectly air tight cask or vessel a self
inflating air sack or bag, composed of India-rubber, caoutchouc, tissue gutta percha,
or other suitable material. The interior only of the said sack or bag, being open
or exposed to the external atmosphere, while the exterior surface is presented to
the inside of the hermetically sealed cask or vessel, the area of the sack or bag
being equal when inflated, to the superficial internal area, of the cask.
77
The said air

page_text: sack or bag may be suspended from the head or any other suitable portion of the
interior of the cask, by a neck or contraction, through which air enters or leaves
the said sack or bag described.
The barrel or vessel when filled with beer or other liquid is perfectly air tight ;
the sack or bag being in its collapsed state, and occupying a very circumscribed
area. Air can only enter the sack or bag by passing through the neck thereof;
and inflating it to an extent equal to the amount of liquid withdrawn from the
cask or Vessel, a constant equilibrium is thereby established between the interior of
the sack or bag, occupying the space in the barrel above the liquid and the exterior
atmosphere. And as more liquid is withdrawn from the cask, so the sack or bag
inflates itself automatically, from the external atmosphere. Thereby producing
perfect regularity in the flow of the liquid, from the cask or vessel through the tap.
The liquid in the barrel and the interior surface of the said barrel or vessel being
perfectly isolated from direct contact with the atmosphere thus supplied, although,
air is supplied to the interior of the barrel, but only within the circumscribed
limits of sack or bag, the liquid in the barrel is thereby kept perfectly free from
deterioration, while the internal walls of the barrel itself are preserved from
fouling. And further as the whole of the liquid in the cask becomes withdrawn,
so the whole interior surface of the barrel or vessel becomes occupied by the self
inflated air sack or bag described.
I prefer to make the sack, bag, envelope or air isolating medium of India-rubber,
caoutchouc, oil silk, tissue gutta-percha or other suitable substances or materials
not likely to be affected, by contact with the liquids, being preserved.