IMPROVEMENTS IN OR APPLICABLE TO THE DISINFECTION OR PURIFICATION OF ALCOHOL OF BAD TASTE OR TAINTED QUALITY
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Walter Alfred Barlow, of 6, St. Paul's Churchyard,
London, Patent Agent and Engineer, for an Invention of “IMPROVEMENTS IN
OR APPLICABLE TO THE DISINFECTION OR PURIFICATION OF ALCOHOL OF
BAD TASTE OR TAINTED QUALITY." A communication from abroad by
Laurent Naudin and Joseph Schneider, both of Paris, France.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Walter Alfred Barlow at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th November 1880.
WALTER ALFRED BARLOW, of 6, St. Paul's Churchyard, London, Patent Agent
and Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN OR APPLICABLE TO THE DISINFECTION OR
PURIFICATION OF ALCOHOL OF BAD TASTE OR TAINTED QUALITY." A communi-
cation from abroad by Laurent Naudin and Joseph Schneider, both of Paris,
France.
The fermentation of sweet or saccharine matters generally produces, besides the
ethylic alcohol which constitutes the principal product, numerous compounds, which
have different chemical functions.
Many of these compounds might be isolated and analyzed or studied, but others
being in too small quantity cannot be isolated and analyzed. All these chemical
bodies, with few exceptions, are odoriferous, and are palpable to the taste.
The object of all the alcohol manufacturers has hitherto always been to obtain
the ethylic alcohol completely separated from the said infecting products.
So obtained the alcohol is called neutral in the trade.
It is known that the means, either chemical or physical, by which such alcohol is
at present produced yields but imperfect results.
In carrying this Invention into effect such an alcohol of bad taste or tainted
quality is put into contact during a certain time with a double plate of metal or
metallic "couple," formed by chemically precipitating one of two metals upon
the other, whereby the alcohol loses a great deal of its foreign scent and taste.

page_text: The said precipitating of the one metal upon another is obtained by the use of
a solution of a soluble salt of one of the metals put in contact with the second
metal, use being made, for example, of a "couple" of zinc and copper prepared by
chemically precipitating copper upon zinc.
A suitably conducted distillation will then allow of obtaining at once an alcohol
perfectly neutral, and also a much greater produce.
A like result is also secured by treating alcohol of bad taste, and at a convenient
degree of dilution, by different agents of hydrogenization, which, as well as the
said metallic couples, will furnish nascent hydrogen from the decomposition of
water (such as the amalgam of sodium and metals which decompose water under
the action of acids), and transform the odorous and flavouring matters which soil
the alcohol into other bodies of inodorous and tasteless kind, easily separable from
the ethylic alcohol by means of fractional distillation.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Walter Alfred Barlow in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 5th May
1881.
WALTER ALFRED BARLOW, of 6, St. Paul's Churchyard, London, Patent Agent
and Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN OR APPLICABLE TO THE DISINFECTION OR
PURIFICATION OF ALCOHOL OF BAD TASTE OR TAINTED QUALITY." A communi-
cation from abroad by Laurent Naudin and Joseph Schneider, both of Paris,
France.
2
The object of the present Invention is the separation of the alcohol from the
matters which give bad taste to it, in order to obtain a neutral alcohol, commercially
speaking.
In carrying this Invention into effect such an alcohol of bad taste or tainted
quality is put into contact during a certain time with a double plate of metal or
metallic "couple," formed by chemically precipitating one of two metals upon the
other.
The said precipitation of the one metal upon another (zinc and copper, iron and
zinc, and so forth) is obtained by the use of a solution of a soluble salt of one of the
metals put in contact with the second metal. The water contained in the alcohol
is thus decomposed under the action of the electricity produced by the metallic
couple," then nascent hydrogen, so formed, transforms the odorous and flavouring
matters which soil the alcohol into other bodies of inodorous and tasteless kind,
easily separable from the ethylic alcohol by means of distillation.
A like result is also secured by treating alcohol of bad taste, and at a convenient
degree of dilution, by different agents of hydrogenization, which, as well as the
said metallic "couples," will furnish nascent hydrogen from the decomposition of
water (such as the amalgam of sodium and metals which decompose water under
the action of acids.) Electric batteries may also be used for the purpose of
producing the electrolysis of the water contained in the alcohol to be disinfected;
nascent hydrogen is thus obtained, and the disinfection of the alcohol will be
complete if a sufficient number of cells are employed. A similar result is obtained
by the use of magneto-electric-machines. In this case the disinfection takes place
by immersing both platinum electrodes of the magneto-electric-machine in the
(phlegm) previously acidulated. The free acid is afterwards completely neutralized,
and the distillation takes place with the usual apparatuses.
It has been observed that the previously mentioned different ways of proceeding
do not give quite identical results. Thus sometimes the hydrogenization, by means
of zinc and copper battery, of a neutral liquid suffices for effecting a complete
disinfection, but sometimes a slight impurity still existing indicative of the origin
of the disinfected liquid.
This residual taste is eliminated by submitting the liquid (slightly acidulated)
to the action of an electric current, produced either by coupled batteries or by
magneto or dynamo-electric-machines."
The combined action of the two said processes of electrolysis of the water present
yields a perfectly neutral spirit.
For the said last operation the following process is preferred:-
The liquid to be acted upon is poured into a reservoir A, the receivers B being
placed under the said reservoir A; it is clear that the liquid by its own weight
will pass through all the receivers B, and will arrive to the receiver M through the
syphon E, K.
The cylinder N is full of water, and the alcoholic vapours which would escape
from the receiver will be dissolved in that water, and the said alcohol will be
recovered by distillation.

page_text: Each of the receivers B contain two electrodes H made of platinum, and separated
by a little wooden board.
One of the said electrodes is in communication with the positive pole, and the
other with the negative pole of a dynamo or magneto-electric-machine.
A very easy arrangement allows by means of a commutator of directing the
electric current to as many electrodes as is desired.
It is in the receivers B that the electrolysis of the water contained in the alcohol
takes place. It may be seen that during the passage of alcohol in the receivers B
the electrolysis will take place, either in each of the receivers B or only in a certain
number of them; this may be regulated at will, and according to the liquid to be
acted upon.
The principal character of this apparatus is that the operation is going on
without interruption, and that the action of electricity may be regulated.
Having thus described the nature and particulars of the said Invention,
I claim,―
1st. The use of nascent hydrogen which combines with odorate matters which
stain alcohol, and by that combination takes off their bad odour.
2nd. The production in alcohol of nascent hydrogen by means of electricity,
obtained by the precipitation of the one metal upon another (zinc and copper, or
iron and zinc, and so forth) produced by the use of a solution of a soluble salt of
one of the metals put in contact with the second metal.
3d. The production of nascent hydrogen in the alcohol to be disinfected by
means of agents of hydrogenization, such as the amalgam of sodium and metals
which decompose water under the action of acids.
4th. The use of electric currents produced either by coupled electric batteries or
by magneto or dynamo-electric-machines, in order to decompose water, and then by
means of nascent gases produced simultaneously the hydrogenization and oxidation
of the alcoholic phlegms.
5th. The use of the last specified process either alone or in combination with
the other processes above specified.
6th. The special apparatus described which allows the continuity of the operations
as well as the regulation of the number of the electrolysis to be produced.
In witness whereof, I, the said Walter Alfred Barlow, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty one.