AN IMPROVED PRO- CESS OF MANUFACTURING VINEGAR
Year: 1824

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HAM, of West Coker, in the County of Somerset, Vinegar Maker, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Seventh day of October, in the fifth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Ham, His especial licence that I, the said John Ham, my exors,
admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Ham, my exors,
admors, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED PRO-
CESS OF MANUFACTURING VINEGAR;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso obliging me, the said John Ham, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within four calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said in part recited Letters Patent, (as in and by the same) reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Ham, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and the

page_text: manner in which the same is to be performed, by the following description
thereof (that is to say) :-
In the centre of the upper head or cover of any vat or cask standing on
one end, or other utensil or vessel similarly situated, I make a hole large
enough to admit a pump of wood or of any metal or material not acted upon
by the acetic acid, and rather longer than the whole length or depth of the
said vat or other vessel, supporting the said pump either on the bottom of
the said vat or vessel, or otherwise on the top thereof by a hoop or circular
collar of any material firmly fastened around the pump, and which hoop or
collar works into the groove of another hoop or collar fixed immovably on
the upper part of the head or cover of the said vat or other vessel, in either
case allowing the said pump freely to turn or revolve on its axis, and a suffi-
cient space underneath or in the side of the pump to draw the liquor to be
acidified or made into vinegar freely through it. About one or two inches
below or beneath the upper head or cover of the said vat or vessel, one, two,
or more spouts (but I recommend two only), having their ends or mouths
closed, are fixed in the side of the said pump, projecting therefrom in a hori-
zontal direction as far as the side of the said vat or vessel will conveniently
admit, so that they can freely revolve with the pump whilst turning on its
centre or axis. These spouts are pierced with a number of small holes. The
upper part, but not the whole, (generally the upper half) of the said vat or
other vessel, nearly as high as the said spouts (so, however, as to interpose
no obstacle to their free revolution), is now to be filled with birch twigs, laid
horizontally, of the size generally made into brooms, or with any other twigs or
other materials (not acted upon by the acetic acid) which will present an equal
surface for the liquor to run over and still leave equal interstices. This bed
of twigs or other materials is supported by beams or joints and hurdles, or by
a false bottom full of large holes, or by any other method which will allow a
sufficient space to contain the liquor below, and a free access or current of
air through the twigs or other materials. The liquor to be acidified (which
may be any fluid whatever which has recently undergone the vinous fermenta-
tion) is now to be put into the said vat or other vessel in such quantity that
the surface of it shall remain somewhat below the support of the said bed of
twigs or other materials, so that a column of air shall at all times be inter-
posed between both. Just above the surface of the liquor a hole is made in
the side of the said vat or other vessel, allowing free ingress to the atmo-
spheric air which will ascend through the bed of twigs or other materials, or
a pipe is fixed in such hole, and conducted to a bellows, air pump, or other
mechanical contrivance to extract the said air, the place of which will be

page_text: supplied with fresh air entering through the top of the pump or through an
aperture in the head or cover of the said vat or vessel, or the air may he
extracted from above the bed of twigs or other materials, and the fresh supply
allowed to enter beneath it, or it may be forced through the said bed, either
from beneath or above. In either of these cases. the air must flow or be
forced through the twigs or other materials as fast as it is rendered incapable
of supporting combustion (which may be ascertained by placing a lighted
candle therein or in contact with the air at its point of egress), but not faster.
The twigs must be occasionally removed and replaced, which I generally
cause to be done every three months. I keep the liquor to be acidified in
the vat or vessel at the temperature of from eighty to one hundred degrees of
Fahrenheit's thermometer, (but I recommend it to be kept at one hundred
degrees as nearly as possible,) by steam conveyed into and through a pipe of
pewter or other material not acted upon by the acetic acid, which passes
through the said vat or vessel, and which makes one or more circumvolutions
beneath the surface of the liquor contained therein. The pump is then to be
worked either by hand or by a crank, or by any mechanical power or con-
trivance whatever, and at the same time made to revolve. on its axis by the
hoop or collar already mentioned as fixed to it, having cogs thereon, and
working into another cog'd wheel, or by any other known or usual method, sö
that the liquor to be acidified shall, by means of the spouts and of the rotatory
motion of the pump, be dispersed in all possible directions over the surface of
the bed of twigs or other materials, meeting or coming in contact in its passage
through it with fresh supplies of atmospheric air, which in general, by con-
tinual action for the space of from fifteen to twenty days or thereabouts,
converts the said liquor into perfect vinegar.
I claim no exclusive right to the manner of giving motion to any part of
the apparatus or machinery, nor to any system of alternate pumping or chang-
ing the liquor from one cask to another over what is called "rapes," or any
other substances, in the manner already practised or described by Boerhaave
and others, nor to any particular method of heating the fluid to be acidified;
but I protest against the use or introduction of any mechanical or other
method, contrivance, or principle whatever, by which twigs or other materials
presenting an extensive surface can be wholly and constantly kept wetted by
the vinous liquor to be acidified for the purpose of forming vinegar, (and I
claim the exclusive right to this process for no other purpose,) so that a current
or shower of the said liquid, and also a current of atmospheric air, can and
shall be simultaneously passing over, in, or through all parts and interstices of
the said twigs or other materials in any direction, as a resemblance of and an

page_text: infringement on my present Patent. And I assert the utility of my said Patent
to consist in enabling me, and all persons who obtain a licence from me to
use it, to manufacture vinegar in large masses, and with greater certainty,
with more expedition, and with fewer utensils than by any method or process
hitherto known or practised.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Ham, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-five.
JOHN (L.B.) HAM.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fifth day of January,
in the year of our Lord 1825, the aforesaid John Ham came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-sixth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-five.