An Improved Appliance for Aerating, Rousing and Mixing Fermenting and other Liquids.
Year: 1897

page_text: An Improved Appliance for Aerating, Rousing and Mixing
Fermenting and other Liquids.
I, EDWIN BASIL LUDLOW, of The Brewery, Oundle, in the County of Northampton,
Brewer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
:-
This invention consists of the hereindescribed improved appliance for aerating
rousing and mixing fermenting and other liquids.
In carrying out my invention I provide an endless chain which gears with and
hangs on to a sprocket wheel supported on a shaft so that it can be revolved by
hand or power.
This sprocket wheel is fixed at a suitable height above the level
of the fermenting liquor which is to be aerated roused or mixed and the endless
chain dips into the same for a certain depth. Fixed on the chain there are two or
more buckets (or the chain may have only one bucket) which buckets are arranged
at certain intervals apart so that one or more of the buckets are ascending whilst
the other bucket or buckets are descending. As the sprocket wheel revolves the
endless chain and the buckets travel down into the fermenting liquor and the bucket
or each bucket takes up a bucket full of the same and tips part of it back into the
vessel as the bucket is raising and the remainder as the bucket passes over and down
the other side of the sprocket wheel so that the liquor is aerated or roused and mixed
as required. That side of the bucket which is fixed to the chain is by preference
curved to the radius of the sprocket wheel so as to fit upon the same and made with
a groove in which the chain and the sprocket wheel engage so that the groove serves
to keep the buckets in position on the chain and the sprocket wheel as they pass
over it.
The buckets are by preference weighted or made heavy enough to give a
certain pull on the endless chain so that the same will follow round the sprocket
wheel without the use of a bottom wheel.
By constructing the apparatus as above described the liquor is lifted and exposed
to the air and the bulk disturbed or mixed and as the chain and buckets are merely
suspended on the sprocket wheel they can readily be lifted off the wheel and taken
out of the liquor when required. I may employ one two or more of the endless
chains each having one or more buckets upon it and passing round the sprocket
wheels arranged side by side on the same shaft.
Dated this 25th day of November 1897
CHARLES BOSWORTH KETLEY,
Agent for the Applicant.

page_text: An Improved Appliance for Aerating, Rousing and Mixing
Fermenting and other Liquids.
I, EDWIN BASIL LUDLOW, of The Brewery, Oundle, in the County of Northampton,
Brewer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
-
This invention consists of the herein described improved appliance for aerating
rousing and mixing fermenting and other liquids. The said appliance is of very
simple construction and can readily be applied to a vat or vessel containing the
liquid without any part of the apparatus having to be fixed in or on the vat or
vessel itself.
I will describe my invention by referring to the accompanying, drawings..on
which Fig. 1 is a sectional front elevation of a vat of fermenting liquid with my
invention applied thereto; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same and Fig. 3 is a
plan of the same: Fig. 4 is a side view on an enlarged scale of the two buckets and
part of the chain of the said apparatus and Fig. 5 is a plan of the said buckets and
chain.
The same letters of reference indicate the same or corresponding parts in all the
figures of the drawings.
In carrying out my invention I provide an endless chain A which gears with and
hangs on to a sprocket wheel 1 fixed on and revolving with a horizontal shaft C
carried at a convenient height above the level of the liquid 1 which is to be aerated
roused or mixed in the vat E so that the sprocket wheel is over about the centre
of the vat E. The endless chain A dips into the liquid 1) to the required depth.
Fixed on the chain A there are two buckets FF (or the chain may have only one
or more than two buckets) which buckets FF3 are arranged at equal distances
apart so that when one of the buckets say F¹ is ascending (see Figs. 1 and 2) the
other bucket F2 is descending. That side of each of the buckets which is fixed to
the chain A is by preference curved to the radius of the sprocket wheel B and is
made with a groove f in which the chain A and the sprocket wheel B engage so
that the groove f serves to keep the buckets in position on the chain and the
sprocket wheel B as they pass over the latter. The buckets are
made heavy enough to give a certain pull on the endless chain A so that the same
will follow round the sprocket wheel and keep in the right position without the
use of a bottom wheel for the chain to run round.
As the sprocket wheel B revolves, the endless chain A and the buckets F1 F2 travel
down into the fermenting liquor and each bucket takes up a bucket full of the same
which runs out through holes f in the bucket back into the vat E as the bucket is
rising and the remainder is discharged through the mouth f* and the holes f³ in the
bucket as the latter passes (with the bottom f5 upwards) over and down the other side
of the sprocket wheel so that the liquor is aerated or roused and mixed as required.
The shape of the buckets shewn upon my drawings is what I have found to answer
well in practice but it is to be understood that the shape may be varied without
leparting from the nature of my said invention. Each of these buckets is by
preference made on the outer rounded side with a projecting vertical web G which
cuts into the liquid and assists in making the bucket move through the liquid in
the right path.
By constructing the apparatus as above described the liquor is lifted and exposed
to the air and the bulk disturbed or mixed and as the chain A and buckets F Fare

page_text: merely suspended on the sprocket wheel B they can readily be lifted off the wheel
and taken out of the liquor when required and used for another vȧt.
I may employ one two or more of the endless chains for each vat each chain having
one or more buckets upon it and passing round corresponding wheels arranged side by
side on the same shaft.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:-
1. An appliance for aerating rousing and mixing fermenting and other liquids
consisting essentially of an endless chain having one or more buckets fixed on it
and suspended in the liquid by merely passing over and hanging on a sprocket wheel
adapted to revolve so that the revolving of the latter and the movement of the chain
causes the bucket or buckets to descend empty into the liquid and to rise up with a
certain quantity of said liquid and to discharge the same back into the bulk
substantially as described.
2. In an appliance of the kind denoted under Claim 1 for aerating rousing and
mixing fermenting and other liquids, making the buckets with the vertical groove fo
to receive the endless chain and to engage with the sprocket wheel substantially as
described.
3. In an appliance for aerating rousing and mixing fermenting and other liquids
the combination of the endless chain A, the buckets F F fixed thereon, and the
sprocket wheel B adapted to revolve and on which said chain with the buckets are
suspended the said parts being arranged and operating substantially as herein before
described and illustrated by the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 14th day of February 1898.
CHARLES BOSWORTH KETLEY,
Agent for the Applicant.