IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS DIDTI SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS.
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Gill, of Marsala, in the Kingdom of the Two
Sicilies, Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
DIDTI
SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS.
...
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said.. Joseph Gill at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 22nd
April 1854.
I, JOSEPH GILL, of Marsala, in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Merchant,
do hereby...declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR THE DISTILLATION OF SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS" to be as follows:-
The general principles, upon which my Invention is based are nearly the
same as those of the stills commonly used for distillation by the "continuous
process," as Coffey's in England, and Derosne's in France; and my improve-
ments consist principally in so modifying the form and arrangement of various
parts of the apparatus as to obtain great comparative economy, both of material
and workmanship, with equal or superior results; as regard the strength and
flavor of the spirit produced.
In the distillatory or analysing column of stills in common use the wine or
wort is spread over a large-surface-by-traversing-numerous metallic shelves or
diaphragms: now I substitute for the diaphragms a mass or masses of flint,
pebbles, or small fragments of any suitable hard substance that will resist the
corrosive action of the liquid operated on.

page_text: In Derosne's still the "rectificator" and the "condenser " form two distinct
members of the apparatus. In the corresponding part of Coffey's still, the
tubes through which the wine or wort passes, and the diaphragms over which
the condensed weaker portions of the spirit are distributed, form in effect two
distinct metallic arrangements, though they are enclosed in one case or envelope.
The effects of the foregoing and of similar apparatus hitherto used I obtain
by a simple and effective arrangement, consisting of a group of chambers or
tubes, preferably vertical, open below to the ascending vapour from the analysing
column, and above to the cooler or worm, and filled wholly or partially with
small pebbles, &c., as described, for the column; the whole being enclosed in a
case or bath, through which the wine or wort passes in its way to the analysing
column.
In stills generally a serpentine pipe or worm is used for condensing and
cooling the spirituous vapours. My improvement on this part of the apparatus
consists in placing pebbles, &c. in straight tubes or chambers immersed in the
cooling liquid.
The advantages of the use of pebbles, &c., as above described, are very
important. Their cheapness and durability are obvious, and they are peculiarly
well adapted to the purpose in view, as the liquids passing over them are
distributed in very extensive thin strata or films, and brought into extensive
and prolonged contact with the interior surfaces of the tubes or chambers.
When the continuous process of distillation is effected by the direct admis-
sion of steam to the analysing column, it is important that such admission be
constant and regular, and this. I obtain by interposing between the steam
boiler and the column a peculiar thermostatic regulator, in which a float,
actuated by the pressure of the steam on a column of liquid, increases or
diminishes the steam passage from the boiler as the float rises or falls. Thus,
a given area of steam passage to the column being established, by an index
cock, &c. attached thereto, and a given height of hydrostatic column being
determined on, as corresponding to the constant pressure of steam required at
the base of the distillatory column, any increase or diminution of steam pressure
the boiler acting on the intermediate column of liquid, and thus on the float
and throttle-valve, &c. thereto attached, causes a corresponding regulation of
the steam.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph Gill in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
21st October 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
GILL, of Marsala, in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Merchant, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent,-bearing date the Twenty-second day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Joseph Gill, Her special licence that I, the said Joseph Gill,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Josephi
Gill, 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, usc, exercise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR THE DISTILLATION OF SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Joseph Gill, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and scal, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joseph Gill, do hereby declare
the nature of my 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, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
that is to say:-
The general principles upon which my apparatus is based correspond with
those of the stills commonly used for distillation by the so-called "continuous
process," as Coffey's in England, and Derosne's in France; and my improve-
ments consist principally in so modifying the form, arrangement, and material
of various parts of the apparatus, as to obtain comparative economy of cost
and greater durability, with equal or superior results as regards strength and
flavor of the spirits produced, and at the same time a saving of fuel and of
labor. The construction and mode of action of my apparatus will be under-
stood from the following explanations, in reference to the annexed Drawing, in
which A, Fig. 1, is a steam boiler, which supplies the steam required for the

page_text: operation. When steam is used on the premises for other purposes, the same
boiler may supply the still. B is a thermostatic regulator, in which the steam
admitted through the tube a presses the surface of water or other liquid
contained in the close vessel b, forcing it down, and at the same time raising
a column of this liquid in the central tube c, which is soldered above into the
cover of b, and is open below to the interior of this vessel through a small
aperture. A float d rises and falls with the fluctuations of the liquid, and
acting by the rode on the cock or valve f, moderates and regulates, the
admission of the steam. A. given pressure of steam in the vessel-b, is obtained
by means of the regulating cock g, and also by lengthening or shortening the
acting part of the wire e, by means of the moveable screw studs 1, 2, and, the
proper point being ascertained and thus fixed, the automatic action of the float
preserves a constant height of liquid in the tube c, and consequently a constant
pressure of steam in the yessel b; from which arrangements results an equable
supply of heat to the apparatus, notwithstanding fluctuations of temperature and
pressure of the steam in the boiler. The distillatory or analysing column C is
a cylinder or similar vessel, closed below, and having a false bottom or per-
forated dome y, which supports a mass of flint pebbles, or bulbs or fragments
of substances which will resist the action of heat and of vegetable acids, filling
the column to near the top, as shown by the dotted line a. The wine or wort
enters this column at s¹ in a continuous slender stream, and impinging on the
small disc s², rebounds thence and falls in a shower on the top of the mass of
pebbles, &c., among which it trickles downwards, wetting their surfaces and
spreading over them in thin films. .It is met in its leisurely descent by the
hot vapor constantly ascending from below, and there results a continuous
process of distillation over the extensive wet, surfaces of the pebbles, &c., the
spirituous vapors rising upwards to the top of the, column, while the spent
wash runs out, continuously below through the inverted syphon i. From the
top of the column C the spirituous vapor enters the rectificator D, of which
Fig. 2 is the plan, and Fig. 3 a vertical section, at right angles to Fig. 1.
The flat chambers, k, are soldered below into the disc 1, and have each a
perforated bottom; they are closed above, excepting the necks m,,m, which are
soldered into the transverse tube n, which conveys the aggregate of the vapors
furnished by them to the refrigerator through the tube o.. These chambers
are filled with small_bulbs-or-fragments, of flint, &c., among which the weak
spirit condensed in the chambers descends, and is thus spread out over an
extensive surface, with which, the vapor, ascending through the interstices,
comes into intimate contact, and there result a corresponding absorption and re-
distillation over the wet surfaces...The condensed portions or weak spirits fall

page_text: from the bottom of the chambers into the subjacent column, while only, the
strongest portions which retain the vaporous state at. a lower temperature can
pass over from the top. This rectificator may obviously be fornied of a number
of small tubes, annular chambers, or similar arrangements. Of whatever forin
the chambers may be, they are enclosed in a case or bath q, through which the
wine or wort, entering from above, passes in its way to the column C, into
which it is conducted by the double syphon pipe s. By means of the cocks
4, 5, 6, in this pipe, the level of the liquid in the bath or case 9 may be varied,
so as to produce spirits of different strengths, as may be required; the rectifica-
tion being more complete, and consequently a stronger spirit produced, when
the bath is full, and vice versa. The effect of this rectifier may be increased
by filling the case q, and consequently the spaces between the chambers, with
small bulbs, pebbles, &c., which check the action of the ascending calorific
currents in the liquid filtering down through them, and thus preserve a lower
temperature at the top of the bath than at the bottom. Where spirit of high
strength is required without the use of cold water, I'employ the cooling effects
of the air on the exterior surfaces of a double cylinder, as shown in section by
Fig. 4, or any analogous arrangement, inside of which the spirituous vapor
passes, as previously used by Grimble and others; but I materially increase
the effect of this arrangement by filling the chamber or tubes with small
bulbs or pebbles,, which cause an extensive absorption and prolonged re-
distillation of the condensed portions of the spirituous vapor passing through
them. Instead of a worm or serpentine pipe for condensing and cooling the
spirit, I prefer a narrow annular chamber (or more than one), as shewn in
section by E, Fig. 1, closed above and below, and furnished with a perforated
false bottom at w, and a similar false top at v, the interior space between.
which is filled with small bulbs or pebbles, which prevent the too ready
passage of the vapor and condensed spirit, bringing them into prolonged
contact with all the interior surface of the refrigerator. Instead of a
steam boiler, I also use one or two wine boilers with this apparatus, as com-
monly used in other stills, and especially in Derosne's. This arrangement is
shown with two boilers by Fig. 5. It will be understood, that in the continuous
process of distillation, the cold wine or wort flows continuously at a given rate
into the apparatus from an elevated reservoir through the index cock to the
lower part of the close case or bath containing the "worm or refrigerator,
from the top of which case it passes upwards through the pipe a to the
rectificator D, into which it falls at r, at a temperature more or less elevated
by the heat which it has taken from the spirituous vapors descending through
the worm.
"

page_text: When the apparatus is used with one or two wine boilers for rectification
or distillation by the method of distinct separate charges of wine or wort, or
of matters of a thick or pasty consistence, it will be understood, that the baths
of the rectificator and refrigerator are supplied with water or other cold liquid, '
which runs off more or less heated from a waste pipe in the case q, Fig. 1, the
cock 6 remaining shut, and the syphon pipes inactive. For the production
of very weak spirit, the vapor from the column C (either in the "continuous"
or the "interrupted" process) passes to the refrigerator directly through the
three-way cock p, and the rectificator remains inoperative.
From the remarks which preface this description of my apparatus, it will
have been seen that the general principles upon which it is founded are nearly
the same as those of other stills at present in use, by which similar results are
obtained by analogous means, but with greater complication and cost of
construction.
What I claim is, the peculiar application of bulbs or fragments of flint,
quartz, or similar substances, as above described, in connexion with the general
arrangement of the apparatus, and particularly in the rectificator, air cooler,
and refrigerator or worm.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Gill, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Fourth day of October 1854.
JOSEPH GILL. (L.S.)