CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN DIS- TILLATION AND DECOCTION, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS: ARE MORE OR LESS APPLICABLE TO THE HEATING OF FLUIDS OF ALL DESCRIPTIONS, AS ALSO TO THE PURIFICATION OF OLEAGINIOUS BODIES, BOTH ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
Bowie, of Bishopsgate Street Within, Surgeon, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Greal Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Twenty-first. day of January, in the sixth year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Robert Bowie, His especial licence, full power, sole privilego and
authority, that I, the said. Robert Bowio, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Robert Bowie, my exors, adñiors,. or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exerciso, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN DIS-
TILLATION AND DECOCTION, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS: ARE MORE OR LESS APPLICABLE TO
THE HEATING OF FLUIDS OF ALL DESCRIPTIONS, AS ALSO TO THE PURIFICATION OF
OLEAGINIOUS BODIES, BOTH ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso," that I, the said Robert Bowie, shall causo
a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Bowie, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully shewn and set
forth in the Drawings hereunto annexed, and in the following description
thereof (that is to say):-
Figure 1 is a sectional view of a distilling apparatus adapted to my said
improved methods or processes of distillation. A is a still; B, a boiler; C, a
furnace placed beneath the boiler, with flues c, c, which pass round the lower
part of the still, but are subject to regulation by means of a damper (not shewn
in the Drawings); D, a curved pipe with a regulating cock, which conveys
steam from the boiler into the still A, near to the bottom thereof, in order that
the said steam (which may be of any required temperature) may slowly and
gradually pass upwards through and among the materials in the still, and assist
in the distillation or decoction of the same; E, the neck of the still, leading to
the refrigerator, of the ordinary form, F; G is a pipe by which the boiler is
kept supplied from the water in the refrigerator; and II, a discharge pipe.
Figure 2 exhibits a distilling apparatus arranged in all respects in the same
way as the preceding, with this difference only, that instead of the still A and
boiler B being placed apart, the lower part of the still A is inserted in and
surrounded by the water in the boiler, which modification of the arrangement
I find to be attended with considerable advantage wherever the materials to
be distilled are of such a nature as to require the sustained application of
great heat, or where saving of room is an object.
Figure 3 represents a still made of wood, which I consider to be preferable
to every other material when the product of distillation is destined for human
consumption, because of its not imparting any deleterious property thereto; but
where such a still is used in conjunction with my said invented improvements
in distillation and decoction, it must be placed quite apart from the boiler and
furnace, and the steam conveyed into it by a pipe from the boiler. When a
still, such as that shown in Figure 3, is intended to be employed in the distil-
lation of spirits or other thin liquids, I divide it into an equal number of com-
partments by thin boards or plates (a, a, a, Figure 3), which are perforated
with holes of suflicient width to allow wash of ordinary thickness to pass easily
through. And I declare that I do not limit myself to the use of stills of any
one sort of material, but that distillation or decoction with the aid of steam in
the manner herein-before described, may be effectually performed in vessels of
any material capable of sustaining the degree of heat applied to them. And
I further declare that though steam may be thus introduced with advantage
into stills of the common size and description, I prefer that the st'll should be

page_text: of considerably greater proportional altitude than usual, in order that the
steam may have more time and vertical space to diffuse itself throughout the
materials subjected to distillation. I declare also, that instead of one still only,
two or more stills may be supplied with steam from the same boiler, and either
by pipes cach communicating directly with the boiler, or by branch pipes
communicating with one main eduction pipe.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I declare that I do not claim as my
Invention any of the parts of the said apparatus, whether arranged in the
manner shewn in Figure 1 or the modes shewn in Figures 2 and 3, separately
and individually, or otherwise, than in so far as the same are newly combined
and productive in their entirety of a more complete extraction of the essential
properties of the material or materials subjected to distillation or decoction
than is attainable by any other method or process known to me to be hereto-
fore in usc. And I declare also that I do not restrict myself to the introduc.
tion of the steam pipe into the still in the particular direction and at the
particular points shewn in the Drawings hereunto annexed, but that I reservo
to myself the right to connect it with the still in any other manner or at any
other point which may be found in practice equally efficient. And I declare
that what I particularly claim as my Invention is the method or methods,
herein-before described, by which steam of any required temperature is intro-
duced amongst the materials to be distilled or decocted, and slowly, gradually,
and completely diffused throughout the same, so that the alcoholic, oleagenous,
or other property sought to be extracted is carried over freer from all empyreų-
matic taint or impurity than by any other method or process with which I am
acquainted. And such my Invention being to the best of my knowledge and
belief entirely new and never before used within that part of His said Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His said
Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare
this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe that this
my said Specification doth comply in all respects fully and without reserve or
disguise with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent contained; wherefore I hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and
privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Bowie, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.
ROBERT (L.s.) BOWIE.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-first day of July, in
the year of our Lord 1836, the aforesaid Robert Bowie came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand night
undred and thirts civ
Inrolled the Twenty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty si