CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCES3 AND APPARATUS FOR FERMENTING MALT AND OTHER LIQUORS
Year: 1830

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
RILEY, late of Skinner Street, Bishopsgate Street, in the County of Middlesex,
but now of No. 4, Osborne Place, in the Parish of Saint Mary, Whitechapel,
in the said County of Middlesex, Brewer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date nt
Westminster, the Nineteenth day of July, in the first year of His reign, did,
for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Edward Riley, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Edward Riley, my exors, admors,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Edward Riley, my exors, admors, or
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, and also in all His said Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCES3
AND APPARATUS FOR FERMENTING MALT AND OTHER LIQUORS;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Edward Riley, 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 performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said 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
Edward Riley, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to consist in

page_text: the application of a rotary fan or agitator to the upper part of a divided air-
tight working tun for the purpose of fermentation, as also in the application of
a pump to raise the working liquid from the lower to the upper part of the
said divided tun, and further, in the manner of conducting the process so as to
render the application of the said agitator and pump beneficially available;
and in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Edward Riley, do
hereby describe the manner in which my said Invention is to be performed by
the following description thereof, reference being had to the Drawing annexed,
and to the letters marked thereon (that is to say):-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
A is a stone, copper, or wooden floor, partition, or division in the working
tun, used for fermentation, so as to divide the working tun into an upper and
a lower chamber. It is most convenient to fix this floor, partition, or division,
in the middle of the working tun, but it is not necessary, and the workman
must be guided in this by this rule, that the lower chamber be not larger than
will hold the quantity of liquid to be fermented at one time. From this floor,
partition, or division, I make a stone, copper, or wooden trunk or chimney B,
reaching about one-third of the way up the upper chamber, care being taken
to raise the chimney so high, that in the process herein-after described the
yeast thrown from the lower chamber up such chimney cannot return, and that
the surface of the body of yeast in the upper chamber may always be lower
than the top of such chimney. I also place in this floor, partition, or division,
two copper valves C and C, to be opened or shut at pleasure by a rod or
handle to go outside the working tun; D is what I call a rotary fan or agitator
made of wood or copper; it works in the upper chamber on the iron, copper,
or wooden axis X, something like the framed fans of a hand churn, a space
being left in the framing of the fans to clear the chimney as it revolves. The
shaft X is turned by handles at one or both ends outside the working tun,
which handles may be worked by manual labor, horses, steam, or any other
power suited to the size of the apparatus. The working tun in which this
apparatus is fixed should be closed at the top, as it is now in some breweries,
and in such top over the chimney there should be (as there is now in some
breweries) an aperture or trap door F for getting in to clean the working tun,
and for removing the yeast when the fermentation is over; and this aperture
should be glazed with strong glass (as it is now in some breweries), which will
serve for looking through to watch the progress of fermentation. In this same
top I also place a trap door or valve G for charging the working tun by
pouring in the wort and yeast. I also place in this said top a safety valve H

page_text: to let off gas if necessary to prevent the tun bursting, as is now done in some
breweries, and I fasten to the safety valvo a pipe to carry off such gas for any
nse to which such gas is applicable, but I make no further use of it in my
Invention. Outside the working tun I affix the air-tight pump P to raise
the liquid from the lower chamber to the upper, as herein-after described; and
though not necessary, it is preferable to surround the lower chamber with an
outer case, as shown by the dotted line, to receive cold or warm water,
according as from the hot or cold state of the weather the fermenting liquid
needs regulating by the abstraction or communication of heat.
In order to use the apparatus herein-before described I proceed as follows:-
Through the trap door or valve G in the top of the working tun I pour the
liquid to be fermented, and the yeast into the upper chamber to a height
somewhat less than the height of the chimney B, the valves C and C being
shut; then I turn the agitator D for a short time on its axis X to mix the
liquid with the yeast; after some little turning to mix them in this manner, I
open the valves C and C in the floor partition or division, and thereby let the
whole mixture down into the lower chamber, and then close such valves again.
As the mixture works up the chimney B in formenting, I pump up by the
pump P other portions of the mixture out of the lower chamber into the upper.
I again mix these portions with what thé fermentation has caused to flow over
the chimney as before by the agitator D, and open the valves C and C to let
the contents of the upper chamber down again into what remains in the lower
chamber; and this operation I repeat from time to time, pumping up from
the lower chamber as often as I find from looking down the glazed aperture F
that the mixture in the lower chamber bas nearly thrown off its head or is
fermenting slowly, and the process is continued till the fermentation has been
carried as far as the brewer or distiller wishes; then I cease pumping, let
the agitator remain at rest, and allow the mixture in the lower chamber to
throw the yeast up the chimney. B into the upper chamber, by which means.
the liquid in the lower chamber clears itself; and such of the liquid as comes
up at this time through the chimney with the yeast or scum, and settles at the.
bottom of the upper chamber, I let down again into the lower chamber by
means of the valves C and C; finally I draw off the liquid in the usual way
by a cock at the bottom of the lower chamber, and it is then fit for sending
out. It is only necessary further to observe that the working tun must bo
air-tight all over. If the working tun is very large it will be preferable to
have more than one chimney, placing them in a row or horizontal position as
to cach other; and in such very large working tuns it will also be preferable to
have more than one rotary fan or agitator, each turning on its axis, and all

page_text: such agitators being placed in a row or horizontal position as to each other,
they may then be all worked at once, and need not be so large nor require so
high a working tun as if only one agitator were to sweep the whole upper
chamber.
Now whereas I claim as my Invention an air-tight divided tun, fitted with
an agitator and pump, as aforesaid, and the process hercin-before described,
which I carry on by means of the same, and such my Invention being to the
best of my knowledge and belief entirely new, and never before used within
that part of His said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
called England, His said Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, or His said Colonies and Plantations abroad, I do hereby declare this
to be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe this my said
Specification doth comply in all respects, fully and without reservo or disguise,
with the proviso in tho said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent con-
tained; wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege
to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Riley, havo hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-one.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, by the within-
named Edward Riley, in the presence of
WILLIAM HEATHI,
EDWARD (L.S.) RILEY.