AN IMPROVED TAP TO BE USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH 'BEER ENGINES' FOR PUMPING LIQUIDS FROM BARRELS
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Abraham Butterworth, of Rochdale, in the County
of Lancaster, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED TAP TO BE USED IN
CONJUNCTION WITH 'BEER ENGINES' FOR PUMPING LIQUIDS FROM BARRELS,"
Sealed the 13th August 1875, and dated the 18th June 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Abraham Butterworth
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 18th June 1875.
I, ABRAHAM BUTTERWORTH, of Rochdale, in the County of Lancaster,
› do hereby declare the nature of tho said Invention for "AN IMPROVED
TAP TO BE USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH ‘BEER ENGINES' FOR PUMPING LIQUIDS
FROM BARRELS," to be as follows :—
This Invention relates to certain improvements in the construction of
taps to be used in combination with beer engines for pumping up becr
or other liquids from casks or barrels, and is designed to dispense with
the stillages and barrel tilters at present employed.

page_text: The cask or barrel, instead of being laid in a horizontal position, is
(by preference) placed upright, and into its head I insert a stuffing box
through which passes a tube closed at the lower end, but perforated at
the sides, and reaching to the bottom of the barrel, to the upper end of
which is attached the pipe communicating with the beer engine. Inside
this tube is soldered or otherwise fixed a smaller tube, in the bottom of
which is cut a slot for a purpose herein-after described. When the
pumps are worked the beer is sucked through the perforations in the
outer pipe and through the slot in the inner pipe to the taps, where it
has eventually to be delivered. The object of this inner slotted tube is 1
that the suction may be communicated to the bottom of the cask, so
that when the beer is low, and the upper perforations are above its level,
the cask can be pumped out almost to its last drop. Thus all tilting of
casks is avoided, and as the tube is capable of sliding in the stuffing
box above mentioned one tap will serve for any sized barrel required.
Another advantage is that the barrels take up less room than hereto-
]
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Abraham Butterworth in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 17th December 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ABRAHAM
BUTTERWORTH, of Rochdale, in the County of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Abraham Butterworth, Her special
license that I, the said Abraham Butterworth, my exccutors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Abraham Butterworth,
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,

page_text: .
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"AN IMPROVED TAP TO BE USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH BEER ENGITES FOR
PUMPING LIQUIDS FROM BARRELS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Abraham Butterworth, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, 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 Abraham Butterworth, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement and accompanying Drawings:-
This Invention relates to certain improvements in the construction of
taps to be used in combination with beer engines for pumping up beer
or other liquids from casks or barrels, and is designed to dispense with
the stillages and barrel tilters at present employed.
Such being the nature and object of my said Invention, I will now
proceed to describe in detail the manner in which the same is to be or
may be performed or carried into practical effect, and in order that the
same may be clearly understood I have annexed hereunto a Sheet of
Drawings illustrative thereof, and have marked the same with figures
and letters of reference corresponding with those in the following
explanation thereof :-
In the annexed Drawing Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the stuffing box
or plug; Fig. 2, the outer or perforated pipe detached; Fig. 3, the inner
pipe, to which the tap is soldered or fixed, the lead pipe and union joint
being shown as detached therefrom; and Fig. 4 is a section of the whole
as arranged for working.
The cask or barrel instead of being laid in a horizontal position is by
preference placed upright, and in its head (a, a, see Fig. 4) I insert a
stuffing box b, b, through which passes a tube c, c, perforated at the
sides and at any convenient height from the bottom, and closed at the

page_text: lower end but reaching to the bottom of the barrel, to the upper end of
which is attached by means of the union joint d, d, and tap e, e, the
pipeff, communicating with the beer engine. Inside this tube c, c, is
screwed, soldered, or otherwise fixed a smaller tube g, g, the bottom of
which is left open or has a slot cut therein for a purpose herein-after
described. When the pumps are worked the beer is sucked through the
perforations in the outer pipe c, c, and through the opening or slot at
the bottom of the inner pipo 9, 9, and through the lead pipe fif, to the
taps, where it has eventually to be delivered. The object of the inner
open or slotted tube 9, 9, is that the suction may be communicated to :
the bottom of the cask, so that when the beer is low, and the upper
perforations are above its level, the cask can be pumped out almost to its
last drop. Thus all tilting of casks is avoided, and as the tube c, c, is
capable of sliding in the stuffing box b, b, above mentioned one tap will
serve for any sized barrel required.
Another advantage is that the barrels take up less room than hereto-
fore, as they are placed on end.
In applying this apparatus to a cask or barrel the two pipes c, o, and
g, g, being screwed together, a cork is inserted in the bottom of the plug
or stuffing box b, b. This is then placed over the tap cork in the barrel,
and driven in firmly by a mallet, as in tapping a cask in the ordinary
manner, so that no escape takes place. The tube c, c, (the tap e, e,
being closed) is now pushed down through the stuffing box b, b, into the
barrel, forcing the cork from the stuffing box before it into the barrel.
The union joint d, d, (which is provided with a "back clack" valve h)
is then screwed on, and the tap e, e, being now opened the beer pump
be set to work at once. As the level of the beer becomes lower the
may
tube c, c, is from time to time pushed lower into the cask until the
whole of the beer has been drawn off.
Having now described the nature and object of my said Invention, §
together with the manner in which the same is to be or may be per-
formed or carried into practical effect, I wish it to be understood that I
claim as my Invention, the improved tap or apparatus to be used in
conjunction with beer engines, as herein-before described and illustrated
by the annexed Drawing, and more especially I claim the construction 8
and application of the stuffing box b, b, so that it can be driven into the
1

page_text: barrel first, and the tube c, c, afterwards inserted therein without the
escape of any air or gas, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Abraham Butterworth, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of December, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
ABRAHAM BUTTERWORTH. (L.B.)
Witnessed by
JOHN HUGHES,
Olerk to Geo. Davies, O.E.,
Patent Office,
4, St. Ann's Sq.,
Manchester.