IMPROVEMENTS IN AERATED WATERS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Gedge, of No. 4, Wellington Street South,
Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN AERATED WATERS."-A communication from Charles
Dienre Cueattion of Mans in the Tempire of France Chemist
Sealed the 28th December 1855, and dated the 7th July 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Gedge at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 7th July
1855.
I, JOHN GEDGE, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN AERATED WATERS," communicated by C. P. Guettier, of
Mans, in the Empire of France, Chemist, to be as follows:-
Instead of the mixture of tartaric acid and bicarbonate of soda, hitherto
employed in antagonistical powders to make aerated drinks, I propose
economise, by employing instead of the former article, which is expensive, and
yearly increases in cost, soluble salts of alumine, when mixed with alcoline
bicarbonates gives a precipitate of alumine in disengaging carbonic acid.
Thus, the alumn and the bicarbonate of soda mixed (in water), in ratio of
thirty of the former to twenty-four of the latter, will evolve gas as freely as
tartaric acid mixed with the latter, the precipitate above mentioned in no wise
interfering with the operation.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Gedge in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 5th
January 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
GEDGE, of No. 4, Wellington Street South, Strand, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Gedge, Her special licence that I, the said John Gedge, my exc-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Gedge,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter 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 AERATED WATERS," being a
communication from Charles Pierre Guettier, of Mans, in the Empire of
France, Chemist, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John
Gedge, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particu-
larly 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Gedge, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention which has been communicated to me, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement (that is to say):-
In the manufacture of aerated waters (produced by the employment of
Briet's gazogène or other similar apparatus), in which the substances that
supply the carbonic acid gas are not in contact with the liquid intended to be
drunk. A mixture composed of tartaric acid and bicarbonate of soda is
usually employed; but as tartaric acid is rather an expensive article, it is pro-
posed to employ in place thereof some other chemical substance of less value,
and which in combination with the bicarbonate of soda will give an equivalent
result, (that is to say,) will readily evolve carbonic acid gas. This object I effect
by employing the soluble salts of alumina, commonly known as alum, which, in
combination with an alkaline carbonate or bicarbonate, gives a precipitate of

page_text: alumina, at the same time disengaging carbonic acid gas, and I use this in
place of the tartaric acid hitherto employed. The proportions of these mate-
rials which will answer this purpose are, of alum thirty parts, bicarbonate of
soda twenty-four parts; but as some variation in these proportions may
possibly be found to answer, I do not intend to confine myself rigidly thereto.
When these substances are brought into chemical contact a copious discharge
of gas is obtained as readily as with tartaric acid, and the precipitate of
alumina which will be formed will not interfere in the slightest degree with
the operation.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention that has been commu-
nicated to me by my foreign correspondent as aforesaid, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be clearly understood that I
do not confine myself to the precise proportions herein specified, as other pro-
portions may produce a discharge of carbonic acid gas, but I have given those
which have been found best adapted for the purpose; but that which I claim,
and desire to have secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent, is, the application to or employment in the manufacture of gaseous
or aerated waters, as aforesaid, of the soluble salts of alumina, commonly
known as alum, instead of tartaric acid, for the purpose of disengaging
from alkaline carbonates or bicarbonates the carbonic acid gas contained
therein.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Gedge, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Fourth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
FRED. WALKDEN,
66, Chancery Lane.
JOHN GEDGE. (L.S.)