IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PURIFYING PROCESSES OF ALCOHOLIC LIQUIDS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Adcock, of Wolverhampton, in the County
of Stafford, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
PURIFYING PROCESSES OF ALCOHOLIC LIQUIDS."-A communication.
Sealed the 26th October 1855, and dated the 1st May 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Adcock at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 1st
May 1855.
I, ROBERT ADCOCK, of Wolverhampton, in the County of Stafford, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
PURIFYING PROCESSES OF ALCOHOLIC LIQUIDS " to be as follows:-
Liquids submitted to the operation of distillation in order to extract alcohol
are generally of a complex nature, and contain or produce during the operation
of distillation substances more or less volatile and empyreumatic. These
volatile and empyreumatic substances, the composition of which has not been
well ascertained, are carried over with the alcohol, and cannot be perfectly
separated from it by the simple processes of elimination, and the alcohol thus
obtained is impure. This impurity in commerce is objectionable, according
as the matters with the alcohol impart to it a flavor or odour more or less
disagreeable.
The disadvantage arising from this impurity is so great for many kinds of
alcoholic distillations, as, for instance, those from corn, potatoes, carrots, beet

page_text: -
root, and of the molasses of beet root, and other similar substances, that
numerous chemical attempts have been made to remedy it. These attempts
have been based on two processes, and consist in the employment of sundry
agents. The first consists in mixing these agents with the alcoholic liquids
to be distilled; and the second, in bringing them in contact with the impure
alcoholic vapours. By the first method, generally these agents are mixed with
the alcoholic liquids in the boiler of the still; and by the second method, the
alcoholic vapour is passed through-liquids containing the disinfecting agents in
solution. The disinfecting agents employed have been numerous, namely,
potass, soda, magnesia, the carbonates, sulphates, and acetates of lime, potass,
soda, magnesia, barytes, iron, lead, copper, et cetera; also sulphuric acid, and
some unctuous bodies. With the first method, namely, the action of disin-
fecting agents on the liquids to be distilled, these agents have been employed
separately or together. With the second method, namely, the action of disin-
fécting agents on the vapour of the liquids under distillation, these agents have
been employed separately or in succession; thus the vapours have been forced
successively through the liquid contents of two baths, of which the first con-
tained potass or soda, and the second the acetate of lead: In employing
either of these methods for disinfecting the liquids to be distilled or of the
vapours arising from them, the agents which are regarded as most efficacious
are nitric acid and the nitrates.
The following are the purifying processes of alcoholic liquids-herein-par
ticularly referred to
First, the employment of nitric acid, either in mixing it with the. liquids
to be distilled, or by the contact of this acid with the vapours of these
liquids.
Second, the employment of the nitrates in the same circumstances.
Third, the employment of an alkali or alkaline earth in special succession
to an acid, either in liquids to be distilled or to their vapours.
Fourth, the employment more particularly of a base of any kind in succession

page_text: WHEREAS Her most 'Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of May, in the year of our 'Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto 'me,
the 'said Robert 'Adcock, Her special licence that I, the said Robert Adcock,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Robert Adcock, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others," from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE PURIFYING PROCESSES OF ALCOHOLIC LIQUIDS," communicated to me from
abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the 'said Robert Adcock,
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
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent.
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...
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NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Adcock, 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 (that is to say): "
.
My Invention consists of employing nitric acid in obtaining more pure
alcohol, whether distilled from corn, potatoes, carrots, beet roots, molasses, or
other substances; and I prefer to proceed as follows:-Having obtained a
first or rough distilled product, and supposing it to contain forty-five per cent.
in volume of alcohol, I stir in from one to two quarts of nitric acid of commerce
to every one thousand gallons. of. the. rough spirit above mentioned. If the
rough spirit contain more spirit than forty-five per cent., then I use more nitric
acid; if it contain less spirit, I use less nitric acid. I allow these matters to
stand for about one quarter of an hour to one hour, according to the quantity
of empyreuma or essential oils to be removed. I then neutralise the acid by
means of lime in excess, using for that purpose a cream of lime at the rate of
about fifteen to thirty pounds of quick lime in the cream when using the
quantity of acid above mentioned. I add the acid and the lime to the spirit
in its highest state of concentration as it may come from the first distillation
or a previous rectification, and after the addition of these agents, should the
liquid contain more than about thirty-five per cent. in volume of alcohol, I
reduce it to this standard by the addition of water, and then proceed with the

page_text: rectification. In doing so, I find the first portion and the last portion of the
distilled product come off impure, for which reason I receive them in a sepa-
rate receiver. The intermediate product is that which is the most pure, and
for that reason is kept separate, whilst the other products are again treated as
above described. The quantity of good spirits obtained at each rectification
by this operation is greater than by the present system.
I would remark, that although I have given a precise and particular account
of the process preferred and practised by me, I have found that the lime may
be replaced by potash, soda, and other alkaline earths or bases; and, further,
that instead of mixing the acid and lime or other base with the rough distilled
product, they may be mixed with the liquor before distillation; or the distilled
vapours may be passed through diluted nitric acid, and then through a cream
of lime; but so far as my experience goes, these means of employing nitric
acid are not so useful as the process first described. At every new operation it
is necessary that the vessels should be cleansed of the lime or other alkaline
base of the previous operation. By using the lime and alkalies in excess, as
above prescribed, it sometimes happens that the alcohol contains a small
quantity of these substances; should this be the case and it be required to
remove them, it may be done by carefully adding a few drops of nitric acid
to the alcohol until blue litmus paper begins to change red.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Adcock, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of October, A.D. One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-five.
ROBERT ADCOCK.