IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN THE FERMENTATION OF WORT AND OTHER FERMENTABLE LIQUIDS
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph, Watts at the Office of the
"Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 29th September
1864.
...
I, JOSEPH WATTS, of Coventry, in the County of Warwick, Accountant
Clerk, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN THE FERMENTATION OF WORT AND OTHER FERMENTABLE
LIQUIDS," to be as follows:
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My Invention consists of the apparatus herein-after explained, whereby the
yeast given off during the fermentation is removed from the liquid undergoing
fermentation and a fresh quantity of clear liquid supplied, and the fermentation
regulated by the attemperating influence of cold water. The said apparatus
consists of a vessel made to float on the surface of a portion of the wort or
other liquid to be fermented, the said portion being contained in a separate
vessel situated upon or at a higher level than the cask or vessel containing
the main bulk of the liquid.
-For convenience of description I will call the vessel containing the main
bulk of the liquid, the cask, the vessel containing the smaller portion of the
liquid, the small vessel, and the apparatus constituting my Invention I will
call the float. The said float consists of a vessel, by preference either conical
or hemispherical and containing four separate compartments; the first upper
compartment contains air to give the requisite buoyancy to the float; the
second compartment is filled with water, and is connected with ingress and
egress flexible tubes, by which a current of water is maintained through it;

page_text: these flexible tubes pass through the sides of the small vessel. The third
compartment of the float contains a portion of the liquid undergoing fermen-
tation, being connected at its under side. by a flexible ingress tube with the
top of the cask, the said ingress tube passing through the side of the small
vessel. The said third compartment has an egress pipe on its upper side,
through which egress pipe the yeast passing from the cask through the said
third compartment and egress pipe falls on the surface of the liquid in the
small vessel. The two compartments last described, containing water and
yeast respectively, are situated at the base of the float and extend over nearly
the whole area of the said base, the water compartment being above the
other. In the centre of the base of the float is a fourth compartment, which
consists of a small circular box, the depth of which is equal to the combined
depths of the water and yeast compartments. The said fourth compartment
is perforated on its under side to allow of the ingress of the clear liquid in the
small vessel, which clear liquid is conveyed from the fourth compartment by a
flexible tube, which passing through the side of the small vessel opens into
the lower part of the cask. By the use of this apparatus the yeast produced
by fermentation in the cask rises through the flexible tube at the top of the
cask, passing into the third compartment of the float, passing out of the egress
pipe of the said compartment and falling on the surface of the liquid in the
small vessel.. An equal quantity of clear liquid from the small vessel passes
at the same time through the fourth compartment, and by its flexible pipe to
the lower part of the cask. The yeast and liquid passing with it, are subjected
while passing through the third compartment to the attemperating influence
of the stratum of cold water contained in the second compartment. The
action of the fourth compartment of the float keeps the cask always full and
renders unnecessary the filling up by hand usually resorted to. One float
may be made to answer for several casks by making the necessary connections
between them, and increasing the size of the pipes, and also enlarging the
vessel in which it floats.
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