HAMPILDI
Year: 1825

page_text: LONDON:
PRINTED BY GEORGE E. EYRE AND WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE,
PRINTEM TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY:
PUBLISHED AT THE GREAT SEAL PATENT OFFICE,
25, SOUTHAMPTON BUILDINGS, HOLBORN.

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
MASTERMAN, of the Dolphin Brewery, 38, Broad Street, Ratcliffe, in the
County of Middlesex, Common Brewer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Nineteenth day of February, in the sixth year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Thomas Masterman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His
especial licence that I, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and every
of them, by myself or themselves, or by my and their deputy or deputies,
servants or agents, or such others as I, my executors, administrators, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times thereafter, 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 within all His Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "Ax APPARATUS FOR BOTTLING
WINE, BEER, OR OTHER LIQUIDS, WITH EXCREASED ECONOMY AND DISPATCH;" in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, 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 Majesty's High

page_text: Court of Chancery within two 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
Thomas Masterman, do hereby declare that the nature of my Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and ascertained
by the Drawings in the margin of these Presents, and by the following ex-
planation thereof, and by the descriptions and observations hercin-after con-
tained (that is to say) :-
I assume the liquid I am about to bottle to be contained in a cask well
closed, placed on its side, and in a situation proper for bottling the liquid in
the usual manner. (It will be seen that the liquid may bo contained in any
other close vessel rendered air-tight.) In the following description the letters
refer to the Figure in the margin. (a) is the cask; I drive it into its tap hole a
brass cock (6), having a nozzle of about four or five inches in length, and
baving a bore or passage of equal or greater area than the sum of the areas of
the whole of the syphons after mentioned added together. (c) is a water-tight
trough. Its dimensions are about fourteen inches in length, six inches in
breadth, and four inches in depth. It is attached to the frame (d, d,) in such
a manner that its distance from the foot thereof may be increased or diminished
at pleasure. (e, e, e, e,) are four syphons of pure tin. One leg of each syphon
is fixed to the inside of the front of the trough (or that side of it farthest from the
cask), the ends being within an inch of the bottom of the trough. The other
leg of each is of such a length that its end is as low as or lower than the
bottom of the trough. This leg is outside of the trough, and about three
inches apart from its said front. The crowns of the syphons are about three
inches above the upper edge of the trough. (f) is a trough to catch the
liquid that may be spilt while changing the bottles; it is also attached to the
frame so as to move up or down. (g) is a rail attached to trough (f), so that
it moves with the same trough. Its use is for the bottles to stand on while
they are filling. As I shall not have occasion to mention trough (f) again,
trough (c) must be understood when I afterwards mention "the trough." (h,h,)
represents what I designate "the air tube." The length of the perpendicular
part thereof is as after mentioned; the inner diameter of the same part may
be more, but ought not be less, than one inch; the inner diameter of the
horizontal part need not be greater than about one fourth of an inch. The
cross piece (i) is of solid brass, bored only so bigh as just to pass the end of
the tube soldered into it. The horizontal part of the tube is made of puro
tin on account of its flexibility; the perpendicular part thereof may be mado

page_text: of block tin or any other metal. The top of this part is of course closed. The
two parts are connected together at (k) by a union joint, in order that they may
be detached when not in use. (1) is an iron bow or brace across the trough
for the purpose of retaining the air tube firmly in its proper situation. I place
the trough under the cock, and fix it so high in its frame that the bottom of the
trough may come within an inch of the orifice of the cock. I then fix the air
tube into the brace (7) so that the orifice of the tube may be at least one inch
above the orifice of the cock, but it ought also to be at least one inch lower
than the level of the upper edge of the trough. The perpendicular part of the
air tube ought always to be of such a length that its top may reach (when the
tube is fixed as above ready for acting) higher than the surface of the liquid
in the cask. The horizontal part of the air tube is then bent so that the cross
piece (i) at its end may be, and it then is, driven air-tight into a hole made
either through the bung of the cask or through a hole made for the purpose
in the cask above the surface of the liquid therein. It is proper to observe,
that there must be no passage for air into the cask except through the air tubo
by means of the orifice at its lower end. The apparatus being thus adjusted I
open the cock; the liquid then flows into the trough until it rises so high as
to close the orifice of the air tube. The consequence of this is, that the further
admission of air into the cask is prevented, and the flow of the liquid through
the cock ceases. I then put the syphons in action by drawing the air out of
them successively by means of the mouth, applied directly to their ends, or
through the medium of a small pipe, one end of which is wrapped round with
soft leather or other elastic substance, so as to fit air-tight to the ends of the
syphons. As I thus put each syphon in action I place a bottle so that the end
of a syphon enters the neck, and the point to which I desire to fill it is brought
on a level with the orifice of the air tube, the rail (9) being adjusted so as to
retain the bottles at this elevation. As the bottles fill the surface of the liquid
in the trough sinks until it descends below the orifice of the air tube. The
instant this occurs the air rushes into the cask, and the liquid immediately
recommences and continues flowing therefrom until it gain so much upon the
discharge through the syphons as again to rise in the trough so high as to
alose the orifice of the air tube, and then the liquid ceases to flow from the
cask as before. Thus, by this alternate action it is evident that the surface of
the liquid in the trough is always preserved nearly on a level with the orifice
of the air tube. As each bottle fills it is withdrawn quickly from its syphon
and replaced by an empty one; but if the hottles are suffered to remain they
will never fill higher than about the level of the orifice of the air tube, which
it has been shewn is the lovel to which the liquid in the trough is confined.

page_text: Where the liquid to be bottled is malt liquor, or any other of a viscid nature,
its frothing in the air tube would prevent the free admission of the air into
the cask. I obviate this by placing in the trough under the orifice of the air
tube a floating vessel containing more water than sufficient to fill the air tubo
up to the level of the liquid in the cask. This vessel (rising and falling with
the liquid in the trough) causes the water in it to exclude the air from and
admit it to the cask in the same manner as if the liquid in the trough was in
direct communication with the orifice of the air tube.
The above is a description of the apparatus constituting my Invention,
according to the construction which 1 conceive to be the best; but it is evident
that the apparatus admits of numerous modifications, which may still retain
the principles of, and be in effect my Invention. I therefore declare that any
apparatus, of whatever construction, whereby the liquid to be bottled runs
from the vessel in which it is contained into another vessel, and from thence
through a syphon or syphons into the bottles, and whereby the flow of the
liquid from the first into the second vessel is regulated by the rising or falling
of the surface of the liquid in the second vessel being the means of closing or
opening the only passage or passages into the first vessel through which the
air can enter that vessel, I say I declare that any such apparatus is, to all
intents, my Invention, and I claim it as such. And I also declare that the
using it for bottling of liquids, without my permission, will be an infringement
of the Letters Patent granted to me as aforesaid.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, the Second
day of March, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred