IMPROVEMENTS IN COLLAPSABLE CASKS OR VESSELS FOR CONTAINING FER- MENTABLE OR AERATED BEVERAGES
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Paterson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 15th
March 1873.
I, ROBERT PATERSON, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN COLLAPSABLE CASKS OR VESSELS FOR CONTAINING FER-
MENTABLE OR AERATED BEVERAGES," to be as follows, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object to simplify and improve the con-
struction and treatment of collapsable casks or vessels for containing
fermentable or aerated beverages.
The cask as made with the improvements comprises a plain cylindrical
shell of tinned sheet iron or other suitable metal, strengthened by wires
at each end, that at the top being put outside, and that at the lower end
inside, so that the cask can be inserted into a close fitting casing of

page_text: wickerwork. The bottom of the cask is fixed at a short distance from
the lower end of the shell, so as to allow of a tap being fixed below it by
which the entire contents may be drawn off; but in order to prevent
sediment on the bottom being washed into the tap at the last the bottom
is slightly indented round the inner end of the pipe leading to the tap,
whilst the edge of that pipe is flush with the general level of the bottom.
The collapsing or closing piece, which by following down upon the
surface as the beverage is drawn off prevents the access of air thereto,
consists of a hollow piston made of tinned sheet iron or other suitable
metal, and is packed by means of two bands of a thin flexible or elastic
material such as vulcanised rubber, rubber and cloth combined, or
leather applied in a peculiar manner. Each band is fixed on the
surface of the piston by its edges with its middle part bulging outwards,
and this outward bulging middle part acts as a very efficient and elastic
packing. The packing bands may be filled with water or liquid or their
interiors may be put in communication with the interior of the cask by
small tubes so that they may have inside of them whatever pressure is
in the cask. Two bands are by preference used, but a single one will
answer if the piston is otherwise guided.
Rings of solid rubber of an angular section may in some cases be
substituted for the hollow bands. The piston is prevented from rising
too high when the cask is being filled or from internal pressure by three
equidistant catches hinged to the top wire of the cask shell, and which
can be turned over out of the way when it is wished to take the piston
out. The piston is by preference made of a size to float in the beverage
when loaded just enough to overcome the friction of the packing bands.
A small valve is fitted in the side of the cask at the level of the bottom
of the piston in its highest position, and this valve which consists of a
hollow screw plug closing against a rubber seat, and prevented from
unscrewing entirely separate by a screw pin, can be opened for the escape
of gas or air or to act as an overflow, and show when the cask is filled.
The internal surface of the cask is coated so as not to impart an
undesirable taste to the contained beverage by washing it out with a hot
solution of soda (monocarbonate) and sugar.

page_text: present Invention by fitting a short cylindrical metal shell in their upper
ends, and placing within such shell a floating piston of the kind herein-
before described, and which will prevent access of air when the vessel is
either full or to a certain extent short of being full.