IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING INFUSIONS AND DECOCTIONS, AND IN VESSELS OR APPARATUS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jolin Piddington, of Brussels, in the Kingdom
of Belgium, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
OBTAINING INFUSIONS AND DECOCTIONS, AND IN VESSELS OR APPARATUS
Scaled the 9th November 1853, and dated the 17th June 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Piddington at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 17th June 1853.
I, JOHN PIDDINGTON, of Brussels, in the Kingdom of Belgium,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING INFUSIONS AND DECOCTIONS, AND IN VESSELS
OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," communicated to me by a foreigner
residing abroad, to be as follows:-
The Invention consists in causing water or other liquid employed to
continually pass through or percolate the body or substance from which
the infusion or decoction is to be obtained, until the whole or as much
of the properties of such substances as may be required have been
extracted.
I have a great variety in shape or configuration of my apparatus,
but the essential features in all are contained in the following outline

page_text: description. The vessel to which I am about to refer is specially
intended for obtaining decoctions of coffee. I have a hollow stand or
base for containing water connected by a neck to the body of the
vessel; communication between the body and water reservoir is shut off,
except through two pipes which are provided for the purposes herein-
after mentioned. The coffee is held in the body of the vessel in a case
or box, the bottom of which is pierced with fine apertures. There is
a cover to the top of the vessel, and a spout for pouring out the coffee
when made. The action is as follows:-On heat being applied under
the water in the foot of the vessel, and the water being made to boil,
it rises up through one of the pipes in the neck of the vessel. This
pipe terminates in a perforated mushroom-shaped top, from which the
water descends in finely divided streams upon the coffee, passes through
it, and descends into the foot of the vessel through the second pipe
before alluded to, as connecting the foot and body of the vessel. The
liquid is caused to circulate continuously through the coffee in the
body of the vessel, and into and through the hollow foot until heat is
withdrawn. The main features of the Invention consist in this con-
tinuous circulation, and in the peculiarly constructed vessels or appara-
tus in which this circulation is caused on the application of heat
thereto.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Piddington in the Great Seal Patent Office,
on the 17th December 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JOHN PIDDINGTON, of Brussels, in the Kingdom of Belgium, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the six-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Ierself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Piddington, Iler special licence
that I, the said John Piddington, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said John Piddipgton, my executors,

page_text: "f
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, usc, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for IMPROVEMENTS
IN OBTAINING INFUSIONS AND DECOCTIONS, AND IN VESSELS OR APPARATUS
EMPLOYED THEREIN," communicated to me by a foreigner residing abroad,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Piddington, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that 1, the said John Piddington, do hereby de-
clare the nature of the 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:
The Invention consists in causing water or other liquid employed to
continually pass through or percolate the body or substance from which
the infusion or decoction is to be obtained, until the whole or as much
of the properties of such substances as may be required have been
extracted.
In Figure 1, of the Drawings annexed I have shewn the Invention
applied to and in a vessel for obtaining a decoction of coffee, and in
Figure 2, I have shewn an apparatus for obtaining coloring matter
from woods. a, is a hollow stand or base for containing water, con-
nected by a neck c, to the body of the vessel b; communication between
the body and water reservoir is shut off, except through two pipes d,
and e, which are provided for the purposes herein-after mentioned. The
coffee is held in the body of the vessel in a case or box f, the bottom
of which is pierced with fine perforations. The pipe d, passes up
through the bottom of the case, and terminates in a mushroom shaped
top d', as shewn in the Drawing; g, is a cover to the top of the vessel,
and h, a spout for pouring out the coffee when made. The action is as

page_text: follows-On heat being applied under the water in the foot of the
vessel, and the water being made to boil, it rises up through the pipe d,
in the neck of the vessel, falls on and through the coffee in the case f,
and returns into the foot a, of the vessel through the pipe e. The
liquid is caused to circulate continuously through the coffee in the body
of the vessel, and into and through the hollow foot, until heat is with-
drawn. Figure 2, is an apparatus for obtaining an infusion or coloring
matter from wood for dye purposes. A, is a boiler heated by a
furnace B; C, is a cylinder fitted with a top c; it contains a cylindrical
case D, with perforated top and bottom, in which the wood reduced to
small pieces or shavings is placed. The boiler is filled with water, but
the cylinder is only partly filled in order to leave space for the steam
which may be generated; E, is a forked pipe leading from the upper
part of the boiler to the bottom of the case D. The water on being
made hot rises through the contents of the case, and returns into the
boiler through the pipes F, F, and this circulation will be maintained
as long as heat is applied to the boiler.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,-
First, the obtaining of decoctions or infusions by causing water or
other liquid to circulate continuously through the matters from which
decoctions or infusions are to be made, in the manner herein-before
described; and,
Second, the construction and arrangement of vessels or apparatus
for obtaining decoctions and infusions by continuous circulation,
represented in the Drawings hereunto annexed, and herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Piddington, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of December, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
JOHN PIDDINGTON. (L.S.)