IMPROVED ARRANGEMENTS OR APPARATUS FOR FEEDING LIQUORS TO FERMENTING VESSELS, AND CONDUCTING THE BARM OR SCUM THEREFROM
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Barton Pye at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
29th April 1874.
I, THOMAS BARTON PYE, of Longton, near Preston, in the County of
Lancaster, Brewer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVED ARRANGEMENTS OR APPARATUS FOR FEEDING LIQUORS TO
FERMENTING VESSELS, AND CONDUCTING THE BARM OR SCUM THEREFROM," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improved arrangements or apparatus
for feeding liquors to fermenting vessels and conducting the barm or
scum therefrom, and relates to means for supplying and conducting
malt or other liquor to the puncheons or other vessels in which the
process of fermentation takes place.
My Invention is designed to keep the puncheons automatically
supplied with liquor during fermentation, and also to facilitate the
operation of connecting and disconnecting the puncheons with the
trough or cistern from which the supply of liquor is received.
The operation of "tunning" or filling the puncheons for the purpose
of fermentation is commonly performed by filling each puncheon

page_text: separately with liquor, and as fermentation proceeds the barm issuing
from the bung hole finds its way down each side of the puncheon into
a trough below. Other methods have been used or proposed by which
more than one puncheon may be filled at a time from one common
trough or supply cistern, and in one method the scum or barm rising to
the surface of the liquor during the process of fermentation is conducted
back again to the supply cistern or trough through the same tube by
which the supply of liquor descends to the puncheons, but it is found
that the barm during its upward passage through the tube from the
fermenting liquor to the supply cistern interferes with the passage of
fresh liquor descending to replace that carried off in the barm.
Another method consists in having an arrangement of pipes and
union joints in which one pipe is provided to each puncheon for the
purpose of supplying the liquor, and another for carrying off the scum
or barm. The connecting and disconnecting of this apparatus however ]
takes up considerable time whenever the punchcons are to be replaced
or removed as does also the taking to picces and cleaning of the
apparatus itself.
According to my Invention one or more puncheons is or are placed
upon suitable stands or stillages at a convenient distance below a trough
or supply cistern which contains the liquor to be fermented. The bung
hole in each of the puncheons is bushed with any suitable incorrodible
metal, such as tin, and projecting above each bush is a nozzle on the
outside of which one end of an india-rubber tube is fitted. Corresponding
orifices in the bottom of the trough or supply cistern are also bushed
with metal of an incorrodible nature, each bush having a nozzle attached
which projects downwards and is inserted in the other end of the india-
rubber tube. Any convenient means may be employed to ensure the
nozzles and the india-rubber tube being water-tight and to allow at the
same time of the india-rubber tube being easily slipped on and off the a
nozzles when occasion requires the attachment or disconnection of
the puncheons below.
To each bush in the trough a stand pipe is attached of such a height
that the top will stand some distance above the surface of the liquor
which is to supply the puncheons. Through a hole at the lower part
of this stand pipe a little above the bottom of the trough a tube or
supply pipe of smaller diameter is inserted, one end of which, fitted with

page_text: a stop-cock, extends to a convenient distance at nearly right angles into
the trough, and the other end extends downwards inside the stand pipe
a little below the end of the nozzle projecting beneath the under side of
the trough. To the lower end of this tube or supply pipe another tube
is screwed or connected in any other suitable manner, which tube is
continued downwards through the india-rubber tube to the interior of
the puncheon to any depth that may be desirable.
The action of the apparatus is as follows:-The puncheons being con-
nected to the trough by means of the india-rubber tube, and the inner
tube or supply pipe being in position as already described, sufficient
liquor is supplied to the trough above to fill the puncheons, which liquor
passes down into the puncheons through the inner tube or supply pipe,
the top of the stand pipe through which the supply pipe passes being
above the height of the liquour in the trough. The puncheons having
been filled the liquor rises through the india-rubber tube and into the
stand pipe until it finds its level with the liquor in the trough. The
mouth of the supply pipe in the trough is kept immersed in liquor
during the process of fermentation. As fermentation ensues the scum
or barm rises above the surface of the liquor through the stand pipe and
issues from it at the top, falling downwards into the supply cistern or
into any other vessel suitably arranged to receive it.
During the process of fermentation a considerable quantity of liquor
will be carried off from the puncheons in the form of barm or yeast, but
this loss of liquor will be automatically replaced by means of the inner
tube or supply pipe.
To disconnect the puncheons from the trough it is only necessary to
withdraw the india-rubber tube from the nozzles and to unscrew the
lower length of the inner tube or supply pipe, having first turned the
stop-cock to shut off the supply of liquor, and the puncheons may then
be removed to be replaced by others. The trough or supply cistern is
then cleaned and the lower end of the supply pipe having been again
attached to the upper portion, and the india-rubber tube readjusted
on the nozzles projecting below the trough and above the puncheons
respectively, the apparatus is again ready for work.