IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRAWING OFF LIQUIDS FROM CASKS AND OTHER VESSELS
Year: 1875

page_text: : LETTERS PATENT to Alexander James Eli, of George Street, Euston
Road, in the County of Middlesex, Publisher, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRAWING OFF LIQUIDS FROM CASKS AND
OTHER VESSELS."
Sealed the 30th November 1875, and dated the 2nd June 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander James Eli
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 2nd June 1875.
I, ALEXANDER JAMES ELI, of George Street, Euston Road, in the
5 County of Middlesex, Publisher, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRAWING OFF LIQUIDS
FROM CASKS AND OTHER VESSELS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a simple and effective self-adjusting appa-
ratus for drawing off liquids from casks and other vessels without

page_text: necessitating the tilting or disturbing of such vessels, and consists
according to one arrangement in the combination of two adjustable
pipes, the one being vertical and jointed to the other in any convenient
manner, but I prefer to use a peculiar flexible joint consisting of a
spherical, cylindrical, or other conveniently shaped hollow chamber of
india-rubber or other suitable air-tight material, with which both the
pipes have free communication, thereby ensuring always a free draught
or flow of the liquid from one pipe to the other, whatever may be their
relative positions or angles. One of these pipes which is placed ver-
tically in the cask or other vessel is furnished with a bung having a
vent hole in it to allow of venting when required, such bung being
capable of expansion by the action of a screw nut so as to fit any
sized bung hole. The vertical pipe is connected with the drawing off
pipe and is made adjustable through the bung to suit any depth of
cask or other vessel. To the lower end of the before-mentioned vertical
pipe there is jointed, as herein-before described, the second pipe which
is provided with a float and strainer, and is immersed in the liquid
contents of the cask or other vessel and floats near tho surface of the
liquid, thereby maintaining the strainer always at such a depth as will
enable the clearest portion of the liquid to be drawn off without in any
way disturbing the sediment at the bottom, or the crust or scum at the
surface.
In lieu of using a jointed pipe as above described I propose some-
times to use a sliding telescopic pipe having a float with strainer
attached to the lower end thereof, the said pipe descending or sliding
down the vertical pipe as the liquid contents is drawn off.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER 30
JAMES ELI, of George Street, Euston Road, in the County of Middlesex,
Publisher send greeting.

page_text: Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-eighth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Alexander James Eli, Her special license that
I, the said Alexander James Eli, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Alexander James Eli, my exe-
cutors, 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRAWING OFF LIQUIDS FROM CASKS AND OTHER VESSELS,”
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alexander James Eli,
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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
“NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alexander James Eli, do hereby
declare 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 accom-
panying Drawings and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is
to say :-
My said Invention relates to certain improvements in self-adjusting
apparatus for drawing off liquids from casks and other vessels without
necessitating the tilting or disturbing of such vessels.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood I
shall now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that
purpose shall refer to the several Figures on the explanatory Sheet of
Drawings hereunto annexed, the same letters of reference indicating
corresponding parts in all the Figures.
Figure 1 of my Drawings represents my improved liquid extractor
as applied to a cask, and Figure 2 is a full sized detail of an elastic

page_text: L
extractor.
In carrying out my Invention I combine two adjustable pipes a and b ;
the one a being vertical and jointed at a convenient angle to the other
pipe by a peculiar elastic spherical hollow joint piece c (shown in
detail at Figure 2) of india-rubber or other suitable material with
which both the pipes a and b are connected at an angle to each other,
and have free communication at all times, thereby ensuring always a
free draught or flow of the liquid contained in the cask or vessel d from
one pipe to the other whatever may be their relative positions or angles.
One of these pipes a which is placed vertically in the cask or other
vessel is made adjustable by being screwed through a bung e, the said
bung having a vent hole or pipe f in it to allow of venting when
required, and being capable of expansion by the action of a screw nut g
so as to fit different sized bung holes. The vertical pipe a commu-
nicates with the drawing-off pipe, and being adjustable through the
bung e it can be disposed so as to suit any depth of cask or other vessel
to which it is to be applied, its lower end reaching to about the middle
of the said vessel. To this end of the pipe a there is jointed by means
of the clastic spherical hollow chamber c herein-before referred to, the
second pipe 6 which is provided with a strainer h and is immersed or
partially immersed in the liquid contents of the cask or other vessel and
maintained by the resilent action of the elastic spherical chamber c near
to the surface of the liquid, thereby maintaining the strainer always at
such a depth as will enable the clearest portion of the liquid to be
drawn off or extracted without in any way disturbing the sediment at
the bottom of the vessel or the crust or scum at the surface of the
liquid. The angle of junction of the pipes a and b with the elastic
spherical chamber c will vary according to the required range of rise
and fall of the end of the pipe b, or in other words according to the
maximum and minimum angles which that pipe is required to make with
the vertical pipe a. For example, if the minimum angle be 45° with
the pipe a when the end of the pipe b is elevated to its highest position,
then the angle of junction with the said elastic spherical chamber
should be about 45° for the reason that at this angle the elastic material
of the said chamber c will be at rest, or exerting no further lifting
power upon the pipe b, which so long as the said pipe remains wholly

page_text: immersed it is capable of maintaining by its inherent clasticity at the
angle required. As the level of the liquid descends so as to uncover
more or less of the pipe 6, the increased gravity of the said pipe will
overcome the resilient action of the rubber of the said elastic spherical
chamber, and the said pipe will descend more or less by its own gravity
in proportion as the liquid level is lowered, but the strainerd will always
be maintained a little below the surface of the liquid. By the time the
vessel is nearly empty the strainer on the pipe 6 will have descended to
near the bottom of the vessel, the elasticity of the spherical chamber c
allowing of such descent of the pipe. The inner ends of the pipes a
and 6 are linked together inside the spherical chamber c (see Figure 1)
in order to take off all strain from such chamber when the pipe 6 is
suspended vertically or nearly so for introducing the same through the
bung hole.
According to another arrangement of self-adjusting extractor shown
in sectional elevation at Figure 3, I make the self-adjusting pipe 6 act
telescopically inside the stationary vertical pipe a, which is made
adjustable through the expanded vented bung e as in the first described
arrangement. An inner flange or collar is formed in the pipe a, and
an outer flange or collar on the inner end of the pipe b, so that the
latter will be prevented from dropping out of the pipe a when being
lifted out of or placed in the cask through the bung hole thereof.
In order to maintain a perfectly air-tight joint between the two
pipes I secure a spherical chamber c of india-rubber or other suitable
elastic material to the lower end of the pipe a, and allow the pipe b
to slide with easy friction through a second aperture in the said
chamber. At or near the lower end of the pipe b there is fitted a
float of any suitable buoyant material provided with a strainer g,
which communicates through the float with the said pipe, as shown
clearly in Figure 3. The buoyancy of this float combined with the
friction of the sides of the orifice of the elastic chamber c against the
pipe should be just sufficient, when the said float is covered or nearly
covered by the liquid, to maintain the strainer of the said pipe b about
one and a half or two inches below the surface of the liquid, but not
sufficient to float the said pipe alone the weight of the pipe and strainer
when not covered by the liquid being sufficient to overcome the friction

page_text: of the collar of the spherical air-tight chamber c. The lower end of
the float is, by preference pointed as shown, in order to allow it to
descend gently and quietly into the sediment with as little bearing on
the sediment as possible. As the liquid level descends the pipe 6 with
its strainer descends at the same rate, and consequently the liquid is
extracted at the clearest part, and when the vessel is nearly empty the
height of the strainer above the bottom of the float i will effectually
prevent the sediment from being disturbed in the act of extracting the
liquid.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
said Invention and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that I am aware that
it has been proposed to draw off liquids from casks or vessels by means
of a self-adjusting jointed syphon pipe, connected by a ground-in metal
joint, or by a length of flexible tubing to a vertical fixed pipe con--
nected with the longer leg of the syphon, and provided also with a
float for the purpose of maintaining the ends of the said adjustable
pipe at the proper height in the liquid. Such arrangement has been
found to be impracticable by reason of the liability of the ground-in
metal joint to stick fast if made air-tight, and the flexible tube joint to
collapse and stop the flow of the liquid when the pipes assumed an acute
angle with each other; whilst at the same time the said adjustable
pipe was liable to be agitated inside the vessel by the act of drawing
off the liquid and thereby disturbing the same; and consequently I
do not claim such an arrangement of self-adjusting apparatus, but
what I consider to be novel and original and therefore claim as the
Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent is,-
First. The application and use of the elastic spherical chamber c
acting in combination with the pipes a and b, substantially in the
manner and for the purpose herein-before described and illustrated by
Figures 1 and 2 of my Drawings.
Secondly. The peculiar construction and arrangement of self-adjusting
telescopic extractor, as herein-before described and illustrated by Figure 3
of my Drawings.
Thirdly. The application and use of the expanding bunge having a
vent hole or pipe therein, and made adjustable on the pipe a in com-

page_text: bination with a self-adjusting liquid extractor, as and for the purpose
herein-before described and illustrated by Figures 1 and 2 of my
Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander James Eli, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this First day of December, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.
Witness,
EDWIN P. ALEXANDER,
Consulting Engineer and Patent Agent,
14, Southampton Buildings,
Chancer Lane, W.C.
A. J. ELI. (L.S.)