IMPROVE- MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRAWING BEER AND OTHER LIQUIDS FROM CASKS AND OTHER VESSELS, AND IN EXCLUDING THE AIR FROM THE LIQUIDS IN OR REMAINING IN THE SAID VESSELS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Albert Julius Mott, of Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, Wine and Spirit Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRAWING BEER AND OTHER LIQUIDS FROM CASKS AND
OTHER VESSELS, AND IN EXCLUDING THE AIR FROM THE LIQUIDS IN OR REMAINING
IN THE SAID VESSELS"
Sealed the 4th February 1862, and dated the 9th August 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Albert Julius Mott at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents with his Petition, on the 9th
August 1861.
I, ALBERT JULIUS MOTT, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Wine
and Spirit Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRAWING BEER AND OTHER LIQUIDS FROM
CASKS AND OTHER VESSELS, AND IN EXCLUDING THE AIR FROM THE LIQUIDS IN OR
REMAINING IN THE SAID VESSELS," to be as follows:-
A flexible and expansible, or partly flexible and expansible, or moveable
bag, diaphragm, chamber, piston, or other apparatus of a size and shape to
follow, say, on the surface of the liquid, is introduced into or forms part of an
ordinary "air-tight" vessel, thus constituting a moveable medium; the one side
of which receives the pressure of the atmosphere and compels it to move or
follow in the said vessel during withdrawal of the fluids.
"
To force from air-tight" vessels under my Invention, it is only necessary
to apply pressure to the moveable medium, and this can easily be done by
weights or other arrangements.
In one modification of my Invention for supplying families with small quan-
tities of fermented liquors, I take a cylindrical porcelain jar open at one end,

page_text: and with the ordinary tap or withdrawal plug at the bottom, around the
mouth a recessed space similar to a chimb is formed, into which I fasten or
secure the end or top made of a disc of wood, or like material; to the peri-
phery or inner side of this end or top an india-rubber or other flexible
diaphragm or cylinder, nearly the same size as the jar, is secured; its other
end being attached to a similar disc, smaller in diameter, to move inside the
cylindrical jar. The flexible material and dises so constructed or fitted
resemble small rivet bellows, or flexible gas-holders, and as apertures are
made in the end or top the atmospheric pressure compels the inner disc to
follow on the surface of the liquid as it is withdrawn from the vessel, and
prevents the air coming in direct contact with the liquids, and rendering them
flat, the disc and flexible diaphragm being interposed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Albert Julius Mott in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
8th February 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALBERT
JULIUS MOTT, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Wine and Spirit
Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Albert Julius Mott, Her special licence that J, the said Albert Julius
Mott, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Albert Julius Mott, 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 terin 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 APPARATUS FOR DRAWING BEER AND OTHER LIQUIDS FROM CASKS AND OTHER
VESSELS, AND IN EXCLUDING THE AIR FROM THE LIQUIDS IN OR REMAINING IN THE
SAID VESSELS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Albert
Julius Mott, 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

page_text: Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Albert Julius Mott, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement (that is to say):-
It is well known that the withdrawal of liquids from "vessels of capacity"
cannot be effected unless there is a pressure on the said liquids equal to that
of the atmosphere; and it is also well known that the admission of atmospheric
air into contact with the surface of such liquids as are mentioned in the title,
renders them "flat" and "sour."
Now the object of this Invention is to prevent the air from coming in
contact with fermented liquids when contained in casks and other vessels,
herein after more particularly described, and yet to allow the atmosphere to
exercise a pressure on one side of a travelling medium interposed between.
such liquids and the air, which travelling medium will give or transmit the
said atmospheric pressure to the liquids. A system or method which I
believed to be entirely novel when I filed my Provisional Specification, but
which I have since learned has been tried several times without success.
My Invention, therefore, relates only to the apparatus employed in the per-
fection of this system or method, and in supplying limited quantities (for
domestic use) of beer and other fermented liquids in an effervescent state,
which would be the greatest use of my said Invention, and to keep the same
"brisk" and "sound" I have found the following conditions essential:-The
vessel and travelling apparatus must be air-tight, and both so arranged that
they can be easily cleaned. They must be made of such materials and in
such manner that the liquids will not be injuriously affected by them in
taste or otherwise, and the travelling apparatus must expand with and float
on the surface of the liquid, and so prevent any gases given off from rising.
into the vacated space.
My improvements, therefore, consist, firstly, in making the vessels when
used in connection with an interposed medium or travelling apparatus of
earthenware or porcelain, or the largest portion of the same of earthenware or
porcelain; and I prefer making such vessels cylindrical, preferably with a top
or bottom made of wood, so that the said travelling apparatus can be
removed, and both it and the vessel easily cleaned.
Secondly, in introducing into or combining with the earthenware vessel
above named, or to or with any other cask or vessel, the following travelling
apparatus to permit the drawing off of fermented liquids from such casks or

page_text: vessels through taps or other openings provided for that purpose, and to
exclude the air from actual contact with the liquids in or remaining in the
said vessel A flexible bag made of air-tight material, deprived as much as
possible of smell, say, india-rubber or gutta-percha cloth, or the two combined,
or these or other cloths or fabrics coated with varnish, of a size and shape to
fill or nearly fill the vessel when distended, but which will occupy small space
when collapsed, is fastened to part of the top, cover, or uppermost part of the
vessel, or to a disc near the top, cover, or uppermost part by cord, tacks,
adhesive gum or other mechanical or chemical means, so that the contact is
entirely air-tight. The other end is fitted by like means to a dish-shaped
utensil or basin preferably made of earthenware, which will float on and be
partially sunk into or amongst the liquids, and so give the necessary pressure
by its own weight and that of the atmosphere which is admitted into the bag to
allow withdrawal, and yet to prevent the flexible bag from being immersed in
the liquids. A travelling apparatus or pressure medium of this class when fitted
to a cylindrical earthenware or porcelain vessel would, when distended, have
nearly the same external area as the inner surface of the liquid vessel; but
when collapsed, as would be the case more or less when the vessel was filled
or partially filled, it would be folded similar to a flexible gas-holder or rivet
bellows, and like them it might have discs or hoops to prevent the flexible
part from twisting into the form of a rope.
Thirdly, in constructing a travelling piston medium suitable for earthenware
and other vessels, but more particularly so for metallic vessels with a smooth
surface, say, such as have had their surfaces enamelled, I take two discs or dished
utensils, or one of each, made of wood, earthenware, or enamelled metal, and
connect them by a flexible diaphragm attached to or near to the peripheries
of both, so that the said dises or dished utensils when pressed towards each
other will cause the diaphragm to project beyond the circumference of both,
and be, when in use, the part in contact with the internal surface of the vessel.
To keep the discs or dished utensils forming the framework of this piston
nearly parallel with or about an equal distance from each other, I pass a bolt
or pin through the one in contact with the air, and fasten it to the one floating
on or in contact with the liquid, and to make the opening through which this
bolt or pin has passed air-tight I surround the said bolt with flexible india-
rubber tubing, the ends of which are made fast by any convenient means
respectively to the discs or utensils before named. On the top of the bolt or
pin I place a moveable pressure regulating nut, between which and the piston
I insert a spiral spring. When the piston has been charged (through an
aperture having a plug or other apparatus for closing the same) with water

page_text: or air, or part both, the nut is screwed down until the desired expansion of
the diaphragm has been obtained, and if any irregularities of the surface of the
liquid vessel have to be passed in the travelling of the piston with the liquids
as withdrawn, then the spiral spring allows the diaphragm to contract or
expand, and so maintains an equal contact all the way down.
But that these my said improvements may be thoroughly understood in
detail I have hereto attached a Sheet of Drawings containing views of the
travelling apparatuses combined with the vessels I consider best adapted for
carrying my Invention into use.
Fig. 1 represents a vertical section of a combined travelling apparatus, as
described under the second head, and earthenware vessel; the former being
formed of a rigid disc secured to and through part of the top of the vessel,
flexible bag, and earthenware floating pressure basin; the latter (or earthen-
ware vessel) having a wooden bottom secured by iron tie rods, which also
serve, in connection with a top cover, as protectors from injury. Fig. 2 a side
elevation of the same. Fig. 3 a plan also of the same.
Fig. 4 a vertical section of a hopper-shaped earthenware vessel, with a
wooden lid, to which is secured the top end of travelling apparatus tapered
to suit the form of the vessel, but otherwise the same as shewn in Fig. 1.
Fig. 5 a vertical section also of a similar travelling apparatus, fitted with an
earthenware jar with recessed mouth, between which and a wooden cover the
one end of the flexible bag is secured, and Fig. 6 a vertical section of my
improved travelling piston, fitted in a metallic vessel, with wooden top and
bottom protectors. In all these views the same letters designate like parts.
a, the vessels; b, the liquids; c, bung holes for cleaning and filling; d, out-
flow taps and apertures for same; e (Figs. 1 and 2) bottom of vessel; f,
(Figs. 4 and 5) tops or covers of vessels. The tops or bottoms of vessels when
formed as here shewn require to be made air-tight, and to secure this I have
turned out a groove in the disc, into which I fit an india-rubber ring, gasket,
or other packing, (sometimes dipping in liquid shell-lac,) which packing
comes between the cylinder and the cover or bottom. g, protectors; h, tie-
rods securing the protectors g and protectors 9 and bottom e, and making a
transportable package; h*, the flexible bag made fast at the various parts
marked i at its top end; ;, the earthenware dish-shaped float; j*, cord or chain
secured to the travelling apparatus and carried outside the vessels through the
air-pressure apertures k, this cord is necessary for drawing all the travelling
apparatus close up to the top when filling; 1, dises or hoops for keeping the
flexible bag in shape; m, the discs of the travelling piston; n, the diaphragm ;
o, the screw or pin; p, the regulating nut; 2, the spring; r, the india-rubber

page_text: tubing for making the screw or pin aperture air-tight; s, opening for charging
the piston; t, guides to keep the piston level in the vessel. If the weight of
either of these travelling apparatus is not sufficient to overcome the pressure
of the gases from some kinds of fermented liquids, then weights u (as shewn
in Fig. 4) could be used, and such weights, if in sufficient quantity, could
also be made to force liquids from close vessels through openings to a limited
height.
Having now described the nature and particulars of my said improve-
ments and how they can be practically carried into use, I would have it
distinctly understood that I do not confine myself to the exact proportions and
shapes laid down in the Drawings, or herein described, as these may be
variously altered without departing from the leading features of such improve-
ments; but I claim as my Invention,―
I. Making vessels or jars of earthenware, or porcelain, or the largest
portion of the same of earthenware or porcelain for containing and supplying
fermented liquids when such vessels or jars are used in connection with
travelling media for excluding the air from liquids in the manner and for the
purpose herein set forth.
II. Making that part of an interposed medium or travelling apparatus that
floats on or is partially immersed in the liquids of a dish or basin-shape, as
herein described, and for the purpose set forth.
III. The flexible bag h, rigid top or disc f, with air-supply aperture k,
rigid float or bottom j, and cord or chain j*, combined and arranged as
herein described and illustrated in the accompanying Sheet of Drawings by
Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, for the purpose set forth.
IV. Constructing a piston as herein described and illustrated in the accom-
panying Sheet of Drawings by Fig. 6, for the purpose set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Albert Julius Mott, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
ALBERT JULIUS MOTI. (L.S.)
In the presence of
JOHN THOMSON KING,
Patent Agent, 4, Clayton Square,
Liverpool.