IMPROVEMENTS IN VESSELS OR COPPERS FOR BOILING BREWERS' WORTS
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Steel, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, Engineer, for the 'Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN VESSELS OR
COPPERS FOR BOILING BREWERS' WORTS."
Sealed the 3rd May 1878, and dated the 9th November 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Steel at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th November 1877.
"
JAMES STEEL, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineer.
IMPROVEMENTS IN VESSELS OR COPPERS FOR BOILING BREWERS' WORTS."
This Invention relates to improvements in vessels or coppers for boiling brewers'
worts, and has for its object to facilitate the reboiling and to economize the use of
hops in breweries.
-
These improved vessels or coppers are constructed for draining off the wort from
the surface, or in other words, to admit of the wort being taken off from the upper
part thereof whilst the hops are being deposited upon the bottom. To effect this,
in the interior of the copper on both sides of the outlet, grooved guides are fixed
extending from the bottom to the top, or nearly to the top. In the grooves of these
guide plates are slipped, which are preferably pierced with small perforations, one
above the other, from the bottom to the top of the copper, so as to form inside the
copper a continuation of the outlet to the top of the charge.
When it is desired to draw off the wort from the copper these plates are removed
by sliding them up the grooves in the guides and removing them therefrom, they
being provided with an eye for the insertion of the removing instrument, the upper
one first; and when the wort has been drawn off to the level of the next plate, then
that is removed in like manner, and so on until the vessel or copper is emptied of
the liquid contents, the hops remaining in the copper and imparting their remaining
properties to subsequent charges of wort.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by the
said James Steel in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 7th May 1878.
JAMES STEEL, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineer.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN VESSELS OR COPPERS FOR BOILING BREWERS' WORTS."
My said Invention relates to improvements in vessels or coppers for boiling
brewers' worts, and has for its object, to facilitate the reboiling and to economize
the use of hops in breweries.
These improved vessels or coppers are constructed for draining off the wort from
the surface, or, in other words, to admit of the wort being taken off from the upper
part whilst the hops remain upon the bottom of the said vessels or coppers.
And in order that my said Invention may be properly understood I now proceed
more particularly to set forth the system, mode, or manner in or under which the
same is or may be used or practically carried into effect, reference being had to the
annexed Sheet of Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is
to say :-
Figure 1 represents in vertical section two coppers A, constructed according to
my said Invention, arranged in combination with a vat or reservoir B above, into
which the wort is pumped through the pipe b, and wherein it is kept heated by the
steam coil c, and from which the said wort is drawn to fill the said coppers A.
Figure 2 is a vertical section (on the line 1, 2, Figure 1), of part of one of the said
coppers; Figure 3 is a plan of the same; and Figure 4 is a section similar to
Figure 2, but shewing the wort in process of being drawn off from the said
copper.
In the interior of each of the coppers A on both sides of the outlet a grooved
guides d, d, are fixed extending from the bottom to the top, or nearly to the top of
the copper.
Into the grooves of these guides & plates e, e, are slipped one above the
other in a row extending from the bottom to the top, or nearly to the top of the
copper, so as to form inside the copper a continuation of the outlet to the top of the
charge of wort in the copper. The said plates e, e, are preferably curved and
pierced with small perforations, as shewn.
When in operation each copper A is charged with wort from the reservoir B and
boiled therein, the said coppers being set in furnaces as usual, and hops are added
to the wort and stirred therein, afterwards sinking to the bottom. When the
boiling has continued for a sufficient time, and it is desired to draw off the liquid
contents of the coppers, the plates e, e, are successively removed by sliding them up
the grooves of the guides & and removing them therefrom, each of the said plates
being provided with an eye f for the insertion of a removing instrument (which
may be a hook provided with a handle of suitable length), the upper plate e being
removed first, and, when the liquid has been drawn off to the level of the top of
the next plate e, then that plate is removed in like manner, and so on until the
vessel or copper A is emptied of the liquid contents. This will be readily under-
stood by reference to Figure 4, where the copper is shewn partly emptied by the
removal of some of the upper plates e. The hops remain in the copper, which is
refilled and the boiling continued, the said hops imparting their remaining
properties to subsequent charges of wort, fresh hops being added as required.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and a system, mode, or manner in or under which the same is or may be
used or practically carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that I do not
limit myself to such precise mode of carrying out my Invention, as the same may
be varied without departing from the nature thereof; for example, a number of
tubes capable of sliding one within the other, after the manner of the tubes of a
telescope, might form the extension of the outlet to or nearly to the top of the
copper, the drawing off of the liquid contents being effected by lowering this
telescope-like extension (after the manner of closing a telescope) as the liquor flows

page_text: off; but what I consider to be novel and original and therefore claim as the
Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,
the herein-before described improvements in vessels or coppers for boiling brewers'
worts, that is to say, providing the said vessels or coppers with an upward
prolongation of the outlet to enable the liquid contents of the said vessels or coppers
to be drawn off from the surface or upper part, and to allow the hops to remain in
the said vessels or coppers, essentially as herein-before described, and illustrated in
the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Steel, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Fourth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-eight.
JAMES STEEL. (L.S.)