IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF TAPS, VALVES, COCKS, SPIGOTS, OR OTHER APPARATUS OR INSTRUMENTS FOR GUAGING OR FOR DRAWING OFF THE LIQUID OR FLUID CONTENTS OF ANY CASK, BUTT, VAT, BARREL, OR OTHER VESSEL
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Edward Boyd, of Hither Green, Lewisham,
in the County of Kent, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF TAPS, VALVES, COCKS, SPIGOTS, OR OTHER APPARATUS
OR INSTRUMENTS FOR GUAGING OR FOR DRAWING OFF THE LIQUID OR FLUID
CONTENTS OF ANY CASK, BUTT, VAT, BARREL, OR OTHER VESSEL."
Sealed the 7th June 1859, and dated the 7th December 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Edward Boyd at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
7th December 1858.
I, JAMES EDWARD BOYD, of Hither Green, Lewisham, in the County of
Kent, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF TAPS, VALVES, COCKS, SPIGGOTTS, OR OTHER.
APPARATUS OR INSTRUMENTS FOR GUAGING OR FOR DRAWING OFF THE LIQUID OR
FLUID CONTENTS OF ANY CASK, BUTT, VAT, BARREL, OR OTHER VESSEL," to be as
follows:-
It has long been felt necessary and desirable to ascertain the contents of a
cask, butt, vat, barrel, or other vessel capable of holding fluids or liquids, and
also to ascertain the quantity of fluids or liquids drawn therefrom from time
to time without the necessity for guaging the casks or other vessels, an
operation always performed in the dark, and subject to more or less doubt and
uncertainty, independent of which guaging is a science known comparatively

page_text: only to a few and not within the reach of all persons concerned; I therefore
declare that for the purpose of exhibiting at a glance the contents of any
vessel holding liquids or fluids, I claim so to arrange a tap, valve, or cock as to
cause it or them to indicate at a glance whether the cask, butt, vat, or barrel
or other vessel containing fluids or liquids to which it is attached be full or
otherwise of such fluids or liquids, and always exhibiting during the progress
of consumption the progressive decrease, and I therefore propose to attach to
a valve, cock, or tap a hollow tube of glass or other material, or other
apparatus composed of glass or other suitable material, such tube or apparatus
to be in connection when necessary with the liquid contained in such cask,
butt, vat, barrel, or other vessel capable of holding fluids or liquids, so that
upon the principle that water or fluids or liquids find their own level, the level
of the liquid or fluid in such cask, butt, vat, or barrel or other vessel may be
found and exbibited in such self-acting guage, and show at a glance the
contents thereof. It will be necessary to have an index engraven or otherwise
marked or exhibited on or near to the tube or guaging apparatus so as to
denote the quantity of the contents of the cask, &c. by feet, inches, gallons,
quarts, pints, or other means of measurement, and a small hydrometer or
saccharometer, or other apparatus, can be inserted in the said tube, so as to
detect any alteration in the strength of the liquids or fluids by evaporation or
otherwise. The tap, valve, or cock containing this apparatus or tube is to be
so curved or otherwise shaped at both ends, or at one or other end thereof, so
as to enter the cask, &c. in a curved or other position instead of horizontal
as at present, and such tube or apparatus to be capable of being opened or
closed at the top or bottom for the admission or the exclusion of air by a
piston or other arrangement necessary for the purpose of admitting or
exhausting the air in or from such tube, cask, butt, vat, barrel, or otherwise,
and whereby the contents of the cask, &c. will be made to flow up the curved
or incline end of the tap, valve, or cock, and out of the mouth thereof, and
whereby or by some other means the principle of an ordinary syphon may be
applied to this valve, tap, or cock, and thus supersede the necessity for tilting
the cask, which is at present necessary where cocks, valves, or taps of the
ordinary construction are employed, as they, in consequence of their peculiar
shape or formation, enter the cask in a horizontal line, and maintain that
position, preventing the contents under the horizontal line referred to from
being drawn off unless the cask is tilted, because it does not curve into or
descend lower into the bottom or bilge of the barrel, cask, butt, vat, or vessel,
it being a rule never to place a tap in a line with the bottom of the cask for
fear of drawing off the ullage.

page_text: I also claim the right of ascertaining the contents of the barrel, butt, cask,
vat, or otherwise, by means of letting in or otherwise affixing or attaching to
such vessels glass or other illuminating or transparent material thereon or
therein, either in the bulkhead or elsewhere as may be requisite, and whereby
the contents may be always visible if necessary, and the consumption known
by a graduated scale or otherwise thereon. Or the contents of the barrel,
cask, vat, or otherwise can be arrived at by means of an apparatus so made
as to receive the cask and its contents, and by having a spring or other
balance attached to such apparatus exhibit by weight the quantity of its
contents with almost the same accuracy as by the other methods before
referred to. I find it necessary for the proper working of my several apparatus
herein referred to, that leakage at the tap hole and elsewhere should be
avoided, and I propose to supersede the necessity for paper or other envelopes
or wrappers round the taps by the employment of a socket of cork, or gutta
percha, india-rubber, or other material fitting round the tap, which upon being
driven in with the tap, will stop every liability to leakage, which is now so
universally the case where paper or other bindings are used. It is obvious
that other methods of realizing these improvements can be adopted, and I
claim the right of so otherwise constructing them as by time, experience, or
necessity may seem fit, and I claim the Invention for all vessels capable of
holding liquids or fluids, or requiring taps, valves, or cocks, and for all taps,
valves, or cocks employed in the guaging or drawing off of any liquids or
fluids.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed"
by the said James Edward Boyd in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 7th June 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
EDWARD BOYD, of Hither Green, Lewisham, in the County of Kent, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto him,
the said James Edward Boyd, Her special licence that he, the said James
Edward Boyd, his executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as he, the
said James Edward Boyd, his executors, administrators, and assigns, should at

page_text: any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF TAPS, VALVES, COCKS, SPIGGOTTS, OR OTHER APPA-
RATUS OR INSTRUMENTS FOR GUAGING OR FOR DRAWING OFF THE LIQUID OR FLUID
CONTENTS OF ANY CASK, BUTT, VAT, BARREL, OR OTHER VESSEL," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that he, the said James Edward Boyd, his executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under his, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,
and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Edward Boyd, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner. the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
It has long been felt necessary that a tap, valve, or cock or spiggott should
be so constructed as to draw off all the contents from a barrel, cask, butt, or
vat without the necessity for tilting such vessels, and it has also been held
desirable to ascertain the contents of a cask, butt, vat, or barrel, or other
vessel capable of holding fluids or liquids, and also to ascertain the quantity of
fluids or liquids drawn therefrom from time to time without the necessity for
guaging the casks or other vessels. I therefore declare that for the purpose
of exhibiting at a glance the contents of any vessel holding liquids or fluids, I
claim so to arrange and construct a tap, valve, or cock, as to cause it or them
to indicate at a glauce whether the cask, butt, vat, or barrel or other vessel
containing fluids or liquids to which it or they may be attached be full or
otherwise of such fluids or liquids, and always exhibiting during the progress
of consumption the progressive decrease, and I therefore propose to attach to
any valve, cock, or tap, a hollow tube of glass or other material, or any
apparatus composed of glass or other suitable material, such tube or apparatus
to be in connection when necessary with the liquid contained in such cask,
butt, vat, barrel, or other vessel capable of holding fluids or liquids, so that
upon the principle that water or fluids or liquids find their own level, the
level of the liquid or fluid in such cask, butt, vat, or barrel or other vessel
may be found and exhibited in such self-acting guage, and show at a glance
the contents thereof. It will be necessary to have an index printed, stamped,

page_text: engraven, or otherwise marked or exhibited on or by the side or near to the
tube or guaging apparatus, so as to denote the quantity of the contents of the
cask, &c. by feet, inches, gallons, quarts, pints, or any other means or method
of measurement. And I declare that I likewise claim that the tap, valve, or
cock, whether employed in conjunction or combination with the guaging
apparatus or otherwise, shall be so shaped, constructed, formed, and contrived
by means of a bent or curved or otherwise shaped shank or end, which on
being placed in the cask, butt, vat, or barrel, will descend or curve down-
wards and dip into the lowest part of such cask, butt, vat, or barrel, or
sufficiently near thereto as to escape if necessary the sediment or ullage of
any fluid contained therein; the opposite end or external aperture or mouth of
the tap, valve, or cock to be the longest and descend the lowest, so as to afford
the advantages and combine the principles of a syphon, so that on entering
into the cask or other vessel containing liquid or fluid, the contents of such
cask would exhaust force or otherwise expel the air from the tap, and the
liquid filling up such vacuum would rush out of the mouth of the tap, and'
this action could be kept up at pleasure until nearly every drop contained in
the barrel, vat, or otherwise was exhausted therefrom, or until the air would
again take the place of the fluid. It may, perhaps, in certain cases be found
necessary to expel or exhaust the air from the tap by other means, as by an
indian-rubber ball or exhausting apparatus composed of that substance or any
other material, or by an air-pump or piston or other arrangement, for the
purpose of admitting into or exhausting the air from such tap, valve, cock,
tube, cask, butt, vat, barrel, or otherwise, and whereby the contents of the
cask or other vessel holding any liquid or fluid will be made to flow up the
curved or otherwise shaped end of the tap, valve, or cock, and out of the
mouth or external aperture, and whereby or by some other means the principle
of an ordinary syphon may be applied to this valve, tap, or cock, and thus
supersede the necessity for using ordinary syphons, or for tilting the cask,
which is at present necessary where cocks, valves, or taps of the ordinary
construction are employed, as they, in consequence of their peculiar shape or
formation, enter the cask in a horizontal line, and maintain that position,
preventing the contents under the horizontal line referred to from being
drawn off unless the cask is tilted, because it does not curve into or descend
lower into the bottom or bilge of the barrel, cask, butt, vat, or vessel, it being
at present a rule not to place a tap in the bottom of the cask, for fear of
drawing off the bilge, ullage, or sediment. I find it necessary for the proper
working of my several apparatus herein referred to, that leakage at the tap
hole should be avoided, and I propose and claim the right to supersede the

page_text: necessity for paper or other cnvelopes or wrappers round the taps by the
employment of a wedge or otherwise shaped socket or band, or ring, or case
of cork, gutta percha, indian-rubber, or other material fitting round the tap;
either on the outside thereof or in a groove or slot made for its reception,
which upon being driven in with the tap will form a lining or filling up of
the aperture between the tap and the hole for its reception in the cask, and
stop every liability to leakage, which is now so generally the case when paper
or other bindings are used.
And I declare that I claim the right of introduction of these several
apparatus, improvements, appliances, alterations, or forms, modes, and shapes
for all vessels capable of holding fluids or liquids, or requiring taps, valves, or
cocks, and for all taps, valves, or cocks employed or to be employed in the
drawing off or filling or guaging of any liquids or fluids.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Edward Boyd, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixth day of June, 1859.
JAMES EDWARD BOYD. (L.S.)