AN IMPROVEMENT UPON COCKS AND VENTS FOR GENERAL PURPOSES, PARTICULARLY USEFUL TO BREWERS, DISTILLERS, PRIVATE FAMILIES, &c.
Year: 1816

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
RUSSELL, of Avery Farm Row, Chelsea, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Nineteenth day
of November, in the fifty-seventh year of His reign, did give and grant unto
me, the said William Russell, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His special
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said William
Russell, my exors, admors, and assigns; should and lawfully might, during
the term of years therein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"AN IMPROVEMENT UPON COCKS AND VENTS FOR GENERAL PURPOSES, PARTICULARLY
USEFUL TO BREWERS, DISTILLERS, PRIVATE FAMILIES, &c. ;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, the said William Russell, shall
not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chaucery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent,

page_text: and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly
cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same, relation being
thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Russell, do hereby declare that my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be put in practice and carried into effect, is fully de-
scribed, and will clearly appear from the following Drawing and description :-
It consists of a certain cock and apparatus, by the use of which all casks or
vessels in which liquors are to be kept inay be supplied with that portion of air
which must necessarily be admitted into them before the fluid will pass out,
and which in ordinary cases is admitted by a vent hole, to be filled up by a
peg or stopper, the careless use of which is frequently found to be very
detrimental to the liquors by permitting their evaporation, or by suffering any
grass which they may evolve to escape, or by opening a free accession of common
air, by which fermented liquors become flat or vapid, and afterwards sour.
The peculiar construction of my new invented cock and its apparatus is
calculated to prevent this evil, for it effectually shuts off all communication with
the atmospheric air, except when the fluid is actually running into or out of
the vessel, and in some cases the atmosphere may be eutirely excluded, and
only the gass of the peculiar fluid, or any other gass which may be desireable,
admitted; and from the property which my cock has of permitting air and
water to pass through it at the same time, I call it the hydropneumatic cock.
One of its applications, as well as the construction of the cock itself and its
appendages, is shewn at Figure 1, in which A represents a longitudinal section
of a common beer, wine, or other cask, or any vessel for containing fluids.
B, a section of my hydropneumatic cock, driven into a hole in the end, or
otherwise affixed to the lower part of the cask or vessel by any of the common
processes by which cocks are usually attached to vessels. C, the air pipe or
tube, which in this example is external or without the cask, and of which the
end e is screwed, soldered, or otherwise attached to the cock, while the opposite
end d terininates in a taper or conical end or ferrule b, through which the bore
or cavity of the pipe c is continued, and which ferrule is to be firmly screwed,
fixed, or driven into the top or such other part of the cask as may be above
the fluid, in such manner that its joint may be impervious to air. The cock
itself has two passages through it, such as are known to workmen by the name
of water ways. The one f,f, Figure 1, is such as is always made in common
cocks for the liquor to run off, but in my improved cock I have another
aperture, either below, above, or on one side of that by which the liquor

page_text: escapes, and which need not be so large as the other end, which I call the air
way or passage, and this must pass thro' the exterior part of the cock, as
well as through the ground part of the plug or key, in the same manner that
the water way does, so that when either of these apertures is closed by turning
the key a quarter round, the other aperture will be closed also, as will be
evident by the Figure. This air passage may be perfectly straight, and its
orifice end in a brush or knob of metal upon that part of the cock which is
least in the way, or it may be made to turn up in a perpendicular or other
direction, as indicated in the Figure at e; but in any case it must be united
either by screws, solder, cement, or other means well known to workmen, to an
air-tight tube, which should be as large as the air passage through the cock,
and should be flexible so that it may be adapted to casks or vessels of different
dimensions, as shewn at e, C, d, in the same Figure. I find annealed copper
or small lead pipe answer best for this purpose. The upper end of this pipe,
or that which is farthest from the cock, must be introduced into the upper part
of the cask or other vessel; and this can easily be effected by soldering or
otherwise fixing on to it a ferrule or vent peg of harder metal, which is
perforated with an air passage, so as to form a continuation of the air pipe, as
shewn at d,b; and, as the outside of this ferrule is turned in a slightly tapering
or conical form, it can be driven into a hole previously bored to receive it, or it
may be screwed into or on to the hole, or fixed in any other manner which
will render it air-tight. It is therefore evident that any liquor which is
contained in a vessel fitted up as aforesaid will be most completely cut off from
all communication with the atmosphere, except at that period of time when it is
drawing off; for when the cock is in the position shewn in the Figure the
liquor will run off by the passage f,f, while an equal quantity of air will pass
by the other orifice g up the pipe e, C, d, and through the ferrule or vent peg b,
to supply the place of the discharged liquor; but, so soon as the cock is shut
by turning it a quarter round, the air passage will also be closed, and no
further quantity of air can either enter or escape.
The above description contains the whole of my principle, though its appli-
cation may be varied in many ways to suit the circumstances or situations in
which it may be placed. Thus, where an external air pipe might be in the
way, and would be liable to injury as in the large vats used by brewers,
distillers, and others, I place that pipe within the vessel, and as the pipe in
this case is protected, it may be made of such metal as will not be affected by
the liquor in which it is immersed; or it may be made even of wood, glass,
leather, kept open by a skeleton or any other material which may be best

page_text: suited to the purpose, all that is necessary being, that it should be impervious
to airor the surrounding liquid, that its topshould be above the surface of that
liquid, and that its bottom end should be closely screwed or otherwise attached
to that part of the air passage of the cock which enters the vessel.
This disposition is shewn at Figure 2, which represents a section of a close
vat, with my improved cock and air vent attached to it. In this Figure b, b,
represents the liquor passage through the cock, and a the air
passage also
pussing through it. c, d, is the air tube, terminating at d, over which a screw
cap may be placed, as ate, for the purpose of clearing out the air tube should
it at any time become foul. This vat may be filled through the liquor aperture
of the cock b, an application which is recommended to brewers in particular, who
find great advantage from starting in near the bottom of their vats, or it may
be filled at the top by an open aperture, or by a hose and screw cap, in which
case the air must be permitted to escape by taking off the other screw cap
placed over the air pipe for getting atit; or, without taking this last cap off, the
air may be suffered to escape down the air pipe and through the cock by a side
aperture or groove in the pin of the cock, as may be seen at g, in Figure 3,
which is a plan or top view of the same, or by the dotted space at h, in
Figure 2, which represents it in front view. While the vessel is filling or
starting in at the bottom, the liquor passage b, Figure 2, must of course be
open, and at this time the air passage a, c, which is immediately over and
parallel to is also open, and the air can blow off at a. But if the vessel is to
be filled from the top while closed, the liquor passage b must be shut, by which
the air passage a, c, will also be shut, and its end next a, Figure 3, will be
brought to that part of the barrel of the cock marked f; but by this motion
the sidegroove or aperturegis brought to coincide with the air communication
c, leading to the inside of the vessel, by which the air can again blow off, while
if the cock is shut by turning itina contrary direction, so as to bringg toa, both
the communicationswill be effectually stopped. Another process for opening the
air communication while the liquor way is shut will be described hereafter.
Figure 4 is a section of my improved cock and air vents as applied to vats
or vessels, in which it may be necessary to completely exclude the atmospheric
air, and to preserve any guss or air which the liquor may generate upon itself,
or for the purpose of exposing the surface of the fluid to any other particular
gass or air as may be desireable. In this arrangement, A, Figure 4, is a
section of the store vat in which the liquor to be preserved is placed, and to
which I apply my improved cock and apparatus, either externally, as in the
Figure at f, its application being similar to that represented in Figure 1), or

page_text: internally as shewn at Figure 2. C is the underback which first contains the
fluid. B, a starting pump, by which the vessel A can at any time be filled
from C whenever the commou cock in the connecting pipe at e is opened.
a gasometer, and g, i, y, an air pipe passing from above the water or other
finid in the gasometer, either through the bottom of the vessel A or on its
outside, but terminating within the vessel A, close to its top, so that no liquor
it may at any time contain can run down the pipeg, i, y. For this disposition.
of apparatus I make use of my improved cock, with a double external air way
as shewn in the sectious Figure 5 and 6, in which last Figure it will be seen
that the air way does not pass through the pin or key of the cock, but termi-
nates at the inside of the body or barrel, where it is bored or ground. The pin
or key is similar to that of other cocks, but has two grooves or cavities cut
into it, one directly over the water way, but not communicating with it, asseen
atc, Figure 6; the other cut on the blank side of the pin or key at right angles
to the first, as at d, and both of them opening to the atmosphere at their
upper ends above the barrel of the cock in Figure 5 and 6; a, b, is the barrel
of the cock, and c, d, e, f, the pin or key. The water way through the cock is
seen by the dotted lines g, h, while c, d, shew the two grooves or cavities for
the passage of air, and i is the termination of the air pipe leading into the
interior of the vessel; as the cock now stands any liquid would run out from
the water way g, h, while air would pass down and along i to supply its place.
If now I turn the cock a quarter round so as to bring to i, the water way
will be shut, but the air communication will still be open down d and through
i, so that although no fluid can run out, yet air can pass either in or out
of the vessel. Upon turning the pin or key a quarter more round, c in
Figure 5 will be carried to e, and d to f, so that the water way will be again
open, but without any air communication, for now i has no groove or cavity
against it, and the air, if any is to be supplied to the vessel) must come from
another source. On turning the cock a quarter further, the grooves c, d, will
be at e, d, and consequently not only the water but the air communication
will now be both completely cut off, and hence this cock is capable of pro-
ducing every effect which is necessary in the use of the apparatus shewn at
Figure 4. If, for instance, I wish to fill and use the back or vessel A, as if
it were not connected with the gasometer D, the cock at i must be shut, and
my improved cock at o so placed that its water way may be shut while its air
passage at n is open. Having opened the common cock e and set the
starting pump B to work, I can fill A with liquor while the air will escape
through in and n, and I then turn the cock o so as to close both its passages;

page_text: to draw off with atmospheric air I turn ftill the water way and air passage at
nare both open, and now while the fluid runs of the air will enter at n and m.
If I wish to use any air or gass which may be in the gasometer D, instead of
atmospheric air, I open the common cock i, and placed my improved cock by
turning in such situation that while its water way is open the air passage n
may be shut; and now whatever air gets into the vessel must be supplied from
the gasometer through the air pipe g, i, g; and in order not to waste any gass
which may be in the gasometer or vessel A, when all its liquid is exhausted
I shut both passages of my improved cock o, and upon charging A with
liquor, by working the pump B,any air or gass which may previously be in A
will be forced along the air pipe g, i,g, into the gasometer; where if it is too
abundant for the contents of the gasometer, it will escape into the open air by
the waste pipe h; and in the same manner any number of vats or vessels may
be filled or drawn off by air tubes communicating with the gasometer and a
general main communicating with the drawing-off cocks. For the sake of
producing a more perfect and air-tight closure in those vessels to which my
improved apparatus may be applied, I have introduced screw caps instead of
bungs to the upper part of the vessels in the annexed Drawings, and small
safety valves opening outwards should also be applied where the contained
liquors are at all liable to ferment or produce gass; but I beg to state that I
do not claim or consider either of these or the casks, gasometers, or pumps
which I have been under the necessity of mentioning to shew the application
and utility of my Invention, as any part of it, to the making, vending, putting
up, or use of which I claim any exclusive right or privilege under my aforesaid
Patent, which I declare to extend only to my hydropneumatic cock, with its
air pipes and appurts, as herein-before particularly described, and to such
modification of parts and principles as will cause the air vent or cock to open
and shut simultaneously with the drawing-off cock, and without a separate
application of motion. And I declare that my said improved cock may be
made of any metal or metals, or of any material that will answer the same
purpose, and of such dimensions and proportionsasare commonly made use of
for cocks of the ordinary description.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Russell, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventeen.
WILLIAM (L.S.) RUSSELL.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twentieth day of March, in
the year of our Lord 1817, the aforesaid William Russell came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Seventeenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousan eight hundred and