A NEW METHOD OF PURIFYING MUSTY CASKS, AND SEASONING NEW ONES
Year: 1804

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, TIMOTHY
BENTLEY, of Lockwood, in the Parish of Almondbury, in the County of York,
Common Brewer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent bearing date at Westminster, the Nineteenth day of June,
in the forty-fourth year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the said
Timothy Bentley, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His special
licence, full power, sole priviledge and authority, that I, the said Timothy
Bentley, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF PURIFYING MUSTY CASKS, AND
SEASONING NEW ONES," for and during the full end and term of fourteen years;
in which Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said
Timothy Bentley, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one
calendar month next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited
Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Timothy Bentley, do hereby declare that my said Invention is performed in
the following manner, that is to say :-
Having created a quantity of steam by means of a boiler, the same is con-
ducted by a pipe and small branching tubes into the casks placed upon the
end, or otherwise, a few inches below the upper head, or at the bung hole, the

page_text: tap hole, or other apperture being at the lowest part, in order that the foul
particles may drain off along with the water which the steam occasions, while
passing through the casks when they are cleared; the steam from the boiler
is to be conveyed through a pipe into a cylinder or any other air-tight vessel,
in which is inclosed another vessel open at the top, and raised from the bottom
of the outer vessel, so as to allow the steam free access to all parts thereof.
This inner vessel is to contain a mixture of small raw wort and spent hops,
either with or without stale beer or beer grounds, or beer grounds only, which
by means of the steam from the boiler must be raised to a state of ebullition.
When the steam from the boiler is sufficiently incorporated with that arising
from the ingredients in the inner vessell, it is to be conveyed into the casks in
like manner as the steam from the boiler before described; or, the small raw
wort and spent hops, with or without stale beer or beer grounds, or beer
grounds only, may be brought to a state of ebullition by being placed in the
outer vessel, and the steam conveyed thereto by proper tubes, or the mixture
may be placed in the boiler and the steam from thence conveyed into the casks,
as before decribed. The above application will answer for the brewers of ale,
beer, or porter. For vinegar brewers the grounds or sediments of vinegar are
to be used; for distillers, rectifiers, brandy merchants, &c., the rinsings of
spirit casks; for cyder and sweet makers, raisins stalks, or the lecs and refuse
of their respective liquids. These are a few specimens of suitable ingredients
for perfectly seasoning casks, after the application of steam has expelled the
pernicious qualities of new wood, and the nauseous foulness of musty ones:
other ingredients might answer the purpose, but the above are the least
expensive, and probably the best; this, however, may be left to the judgment
or fancy of the operator, as the merit of this discovery does not essentially
depend on either the peculiar sort of ingredients to be used, or the mechanical
form of the apparatus, nor the kind of materials which compose it, but on the
application of steam separate from or which is or shall be intermixed and
incorporated with, the steam arising from any mixture of ingredients the most
suitable to the nature of each respective branch of trade to which the Inven-
tion is or may be applicable.
In witness whereof, I, the said Timothy Bentley, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Ninth day of July, in the forty-fourth year of
the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the grace of
God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King,
Defender of the Faith, and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
TIM (L.B.) BENTLEY.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Ninth day of July, in the
forty-fourth year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third, the
said Timothy Bentley came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the several Statutes made in
the sixth year of the reign of the late King and Queen, William and Mary of
England, and so forth, and in the seventeenth, twenty-third, and thirty-seventh
years of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Thirteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and four.