Improvements in Apparatus for Automatically Returning Drippings and Overdrawn Portions of Beer or other Liquids to Barrels and other Receptacles.
Year: 1896

page_text: Improvements in Apparatus for Automatically Returning Drippings
and Overdrawn Portions of Beer or other Liquids to Barrels and
other Receptacles.
I, SAMUEL DYSON RHODES, of 30, Gathorne Mount, Roundhay Road, Leeds,
in the County of York, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention.
to be as follows:-
This invention relates to a simple and inexpensive device specially intended for
collecting and returning to the barrel or barrels from which it has been drawn beer
or the like that has dripped from, or been drawn up in oxcess by, a pump or pumps
such as ordinarily used for the purpose. This device comprises a receiver into
which the liquid can flow from the ordinary dripping trough and which is con-
nected by a down-pipe or down-pipes with a suction-pipe or suction-pipes of the
pump or pumps, the down-pipe inlet or inlets being controlled by a valve or valves
adapated to be operated by the rise and fall of the level of liquid in the receiver and
the arrangement being such that the valve or valves will never allow air to be
admitted through the down-pipe or down-pipes so as to interfere with the action
of the pump or pumps.
According to one construction, the receiver is in the form of a closed tank con-
taining one or more floating valves and placed at a somewhat lower level than the
usual dripping-trough placed under the pump-taps. The trough is connecteu
with the tank by a pipe or passage, the upper end of this pipe or passage being
provided with a suitable grating or strainer and the tank being provided at its
upper part with a pipe or passage to allow air to escape as the liquid enters. From
the bottom of the tank a discharge-pipe or discharge-pipes projects or project
upwards and it or each of them is provided with a floating valve and a stop-cock
und is connected to the suction-pipe of one of the beer-pumps discharging into the
dripping-trough. The arrangement is such that as the liquid accumulates in the
closed tank the before-mentioned valves or one of them will be floated and open
the inlet or iulets of the corresponding discharge pipe or pipes so as to allow the
liquid either to flow back into the barrel with which the pump is connected or
to be drawn up again by the operation of the pump; and as soon as the level of
the liquid in the tank has been lowered to a predetermined extent the floating
valve or valves will close the pipe inlet or inlets before the whole of the liquid has
run away, thus preventing air from being admitted to the pumps and interfering
with their action.

page_text: The valves may be of india-rubber or other suitable material that will easily
float, and may be hinged in pairs, so long as each discharge-pipe has its own valve.
Apparatus according to this invention may be modified to suit special require-
ments without departure from the essential features of my invention.
Dated this 30th day of December 1896.
น
Improvements in Apparatus for Automatically Returning Drippings
and Overdrawn Portions of Beer or other Liquids to Barrels and
other Receptacles.
I, SAMUEL DYSON RHODES, of: 30. Gnthorne. Mount, Roundhay Road, Leeds
in the County of York, Engineer 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 relates to a simple and inexpensive device specially intended for
collecting and returning to the barrel or barrels from which it has been drawn beer
or the like that has dripped from, or been drawn up in excess by, a pump or pumps
such as are ordinarily used for the purpose. This device comprises a receiver into
which the liquid can flow, from the ordinary dripping-trough and which is con-
nected by u down-pipe or down-pipes with a suction-pipe or suction-pipes of the
pump or pumps, the down-pipe inlet or inlets being controlled by, a valve or valves
adapted to be operated by the rise and fall of the level of liquid in the receiver and
the arrangement being such that the valve or valves will never allow air to bo
admitted through the down-pipe or down-pipes so as to interfere with the action
of the pump or pumps.
Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings is a partial sectional elevation of a beer-
pump apparatus provided with the preferred construction of the device, and Fig. 2
is a partial plan thereof.
Fig. 3. is a vertical section showing a portion of the dripping-trough and the
receiver with the valves closed; and Fig. 4 is n similar view showing the valves
open.
Fig. 5 is a horizontal section of the receiver, and Fig. 6. is a plan of the receiver.
Figs. 3 to 6 inclusive are drawn to a larger scale than Figs. 1 and. 2.
In the example shown the receiver A is in the form of a closed tank and contains
2. floating valves B which are mounted to rotate on a fixed pin C placed at some
little distance above the bottom to rise and fall. The receiver is placed at a
lower level than, and partly beneath, the dripping-trough D, which is directly
under the beer-pump taps E. The dripping-trough D is connected with the
receiver A. by a drain pipe F, the upper end of which is permanently fixed to the
bottom of the dripping-trough by a lock nut and, contains in its flanged upper
end a removable strainer 1a. The lower end of the pipe F, which is screw
threaded, is connected to a bianch A' of the receiver A by a winged screw union A².
G is a pipe that projects upwards from the upper part of the receiver A to a little
above the upper edge of the dripping trough so as to allow air to escape as the over-
drawn liquid enters. The inlet branch A and the air-pipe G are preferably

page_text: placed near opposite corners of the receiver, as shown in Fig. 6, so that the air-
pipe may clear the dripping-trough as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 2. From
the bottom of the receiver A, in the example shown, two discharge or down-pipes H
project upwards, terminating in tapered nozzles, each of which has only a small
hole for the escape of the liquid; each of the discharge pipes H is provided with
a floating valve B and is connected by means of a rubber down-pipe J and a stop-
cock K with one of the suction pipes L of the beer pumps whose faps E discharge
over the dripping-trough D. In the example shown, each floating valve B has,
immediately over the corresponding discharge-pipe nozzle, a cavity B', which is
covered by a thin diaphragm Ba of rubber or other suitable elastic material
atretched across and secured round the edges of the cavity so as to form a resilient
valve face, the object in view being, that any foreign substance, such as a bit of
hop, sucked upon the top of the nozzle, shall be removed when the valve has rested
thereon and is being again floated off. The hinged valves B may of of Indiarubber
or other suitable material that will float in the liquid and not be detrimental
thereto. The hinge-pin C is placed as far away from the discliarge pipes as con-
venient, and the discharge pipe nozzles project sufliciently from the bottom of the
receiver to allow any foreign matter that may come from the dripping-trough to
settle below their upper ends.
The arrangement is such that as liquid accumulates in the closed receiver A the
valves B will be floated and uncover the inlets of the discharge pipes H so as to
allow the liquid to flow through one or both of the flexible rubber tubes J into one
or both of the suction-pipes L of the beer-pumps M and into one or both of the two
barrels to which the pumps are connected, according to whether one or both of the
stop-cocks K are open; and as soon as the level of the liquid in the receiver has
been lowered to a certain extent, the flexible diaphgrams of the floating valves
will close the inlets of the pipes H before the whole of the liquid above the nozzles
has run away, thus preventing air from being admitted to the pumps and inter-
fering with their action.
It will thus be seen that each discharge-pipe has its own independent flonting
valve, and being connected with a pump-suction pipe by a removable flexible
rubber tube J and a stop-cock, the overdrawn beer, say for example, bitter beer,
may be returned to the suction pipe of a barrel of inferior quality of beer.
When it is desired to clean the receiver, the two stop-cocks K are closed, the
rubber tubes J are disconnected from the dischargo pipes H, and the winged
union A is unscrewed, whereupon the receiver can be removed.
The apparatus just described may be modified to suit special requirements
without departure from the essential features of my invention. Thus, there might
be only a single discharge or down pipe or more than two discharge or down nipes
may be employed provided that each pipe has its own separate floating valve, but
I find in practice that a receiver having two discharge pipes and two valves is
the most satisfactory.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is: -
1. The combination with a dripping-trough of one or more beer or other liquid
pumps of a removable receiver into which the liquid can flow from the dripping-
trough, a down-pipe or down pipes connecting the receiver with a suction-pipe
or suction-pipes of the pump or pumps, and a valve or valves adopted to be
operated by the rise and fall of the level of the liquid in the receiver, flor controlling
the down-pipe inlet or inlets, the arrangement being such that the valve or valves
will prevent air being admitted through the down-pipe or down-pipes so as to
interfere with the action of the pump or pumps, substantially as described.
2. Apparatus for automatically saving and causing to be redrawn drippings or
overdrawn. portions of beer or other liquids, constructed, arranged and operating

page_text: substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and shown in the accom-
panying drawings.
Dated this 30th day of September 1897.
For the Applicant.
W. LLOYD WISE,
46 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Chartered Patent Agent.