Today in 1876, US Patent 185565 A was issued, an invention of Wilhelm Noll, for his “Improvement in Liquid Forcing Apparatus.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:
The invention consists in the combination of an air-pump and an air Washer or purifier, with a tapping-plug and a discharge tube, the several parts being connected with each other so as to be portable and capable of being attached to a barrel or keg.
Today in 1973, US Patent 3780198 A was issued, an invention of Leo F. Pahl and Norman H. Jones, assigned to the Crown Cork & Seal Co., for their “System For Carbonating Beverages.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:
It is one object of this invention to reduce the cost of carbonating beverages.
It is another object of this invention to improve sanitation. in the carbonation of beverages.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a carbonating system for beverages which is easily cleaned.
It is a still further object of this invention to achieve specified levels of carbonation in beverages with a high degree of accuracy.
It is also an object of this invention to achieve a specified level of carbonation without requiring numerous and continuous manual adjustments.
It is an additional object of this invention to permit filling of beverages at a low pressure.
Today in 1900, US Patent 664227 A was issued, an invention of Alexander Plawin, for his “Beer Cooler.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:
My invention relates to beer or liquid coolers; and its object is to provide a cheap and simple portable device of this character which can be conveniently carried by hand from place to place, so that it will be especially adapted for use on picnics and other outings when it is desired to have a barrel or keg of beer or other liquid and where no provision can be made for placing the barrel or keg directly on ice.
While researching Joseph Fallert, whose birthday was earlier today, I came across an interesting lawsuit they were involved in brought by the Department of Agriculture in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, which was in Brooklyn. It seems the Joseph Fallert Brewery mislabeled fifty cases of beer they brewed and shipped them to Cuba. Apparently the beer was labeled “St. Louis” and “Bohemian Brewery’s Bottling” with the beer itself called “Brilliant BOHEMIAN Beer,” none of which was true.
Anyway, below is a report of the adjudication of the case interspersed with beer labels of breweries making Bohemian-Style Beer.
I’m not sure what “Bohemian Beer” was specifically as defined in the early 1900s. There were quite a few beers that called their beer Bohemian, or “Bohemian Style” or “Bohemian Type” beer from that time period up through the 1950s and 60s. But the U.S. Attorney, after an investigation by the Department of Agriculture, alleged the beer brewed by Fallert was not Bohemian.
There even was Bohemian Beer brewed in St. Louis by the American Brewing Co.
If you read through the case, taken from a “Report of Committee and Hearings Held Before the Senate Committee on Manufactures Relative to Foods Held in Cold Storage,” you may have noticed that judgment was rendered without the Joseph Fallert Brewery having brought a defense or even appearing in court. I guess they figured there really was no legitimate defense they could bring and it appears that only the beer was lost, confiscated and sold at auction, and they weren’t fined or in any other way punished as far as I can tell.
Today in 1879, US Patent 222696 A was issued, an invention of Albert Grossmann, for his “Improvement in Apparatus for Pitching Beer-Casks.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:
I have invented a new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for Pitching Beer-Casks, of which in the employment, within the keg, cask, or barrel, of a pitch-consuming device, by which the pitch is prepared or melted and fitted for use, the apparatus employed consisting, in the instance here given, of an extensible tube mounted upon a suitable base and adapted to extend to or near the bottom of the keg, cask, or barrel, so as to permit the ingress within the keg of a fire to melt the pitch, a suitable chimney being provided for the escape of the smoke or vapor, and means employed for regulating the extension of the tube and for stopping the consumption of the pitch.
Today in 1959, US Patent 2917220 A was issued, an invention of Raymond N. Bostock, assigned to Ballantine & Sons, for his “Carrier for Beer Bottles and the Like.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:
Open top cartons, that is cartons having bottom, side and end Walls, but not a top wall or cover, have been used for a number of years for the purpose of storing and transporting Various items of merchandise, including glass bottles containing beer, soft drinks or other liquids. Such cartons are usually provided with partitions that divide their interiors into compartments for receiving individual bottles to prevent the bottles from coming into direct contact with each other, thereby minimizing the possibility of breakage of the bottles in the course of handling.
Due to the weight of the merchandise and the rough handling to which loaded cartons are frequently subjected, present-day open cartons are generally constructed of heavy fibreboard. It is often necessary, in order to provide adequate strength and rigidity, to reinforce the cartons in various ways. As a consequence, such cartons are quite expensive.
container may be made of a relatively lightweight, inexpensive corrugated cardboard. The sling is preferably made of a heavy duty fibreboard, while the partition unit is made of a suitable grade and Weight of fibreboard. Fibreboard is recommended for the sling and partition unit, to provide necessary strength and to permit repeated reuse of the same, with the initial or subsequent outer containers. Also, the sling and partition unit are treated to make them waterproof, thereby protecting them from moisture and prolonging their useful life. It will be understood that the term paperboard, as used hereinafter and in the appended claims, is intended to cover various sheet materials that may be used in the mantufacture of the carrier of this invention, whether corrugated cardboard, fibreboard or other appropriate material.
The primary object of the invention is to provide a carrier for bottles or the like having improved features’ of construction.
Another object of the invention is to provide a bottle carrier having a relatively inexpensive disposable outer container.
Another object of the invention is to provide a bottle carrier having a relatively inexpensive outer container, which may be discarded when scuffed or otherwise rendered unsightly, and a relatively strong reinforced inner container, which may be reused many times with successive outer containers.
Today in 1871, US Patent 2064748 A was issued, an invention of George Arthur Hinds, for his “Machine For Plucking Hops.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:
This invention has for its object to provide an improved machine for plucking hops, that is to say for detaching the flowers or cones from the main parts of the plants (commonly termed vines or bines).
The invention comprises, for use in such a machine, a plucker in the form of a comb-like device having notches adapted to be engaged by only the thinner stems of the plants, namely those attached to or in the immediate neighbourhood of the flowers.
The invention also comprises the combination of a plurality of the aforesaid pluckers, movable means on which the pluckers are mounted, means for suspending the hop plants in the inverted condition adjacent to the pluckers, and means for producing relative movements between the pluckers and plants.
In particular the invention comprises the combination of an endless conveyor, pluckers as aforesaid carried on this conveyor, an overhead conveyor fitted with means from which the hop plants can be suspended, the second conveyor being movable in a line parallel with a plane containing the working side of the plucker conveyor, and means for reciprocating or swinging the hop plants towards and away from the working side of the plucker conveyor.
Further the invention comprises the combination with plucker and plant conveyors, of means for producing an air stream whereby the plants are moved towards the pluckers, and means for intermittently interrupting the air stream.
Today in 1871, US Patent 171204 A was issued, an invention of Lucien B. Woolfolk, for his “Improvement in Refrigerating Apparatus.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:
This invention consists in so constructing the perforated compartment for containing the salt that it shall surround an opening in the top of the refrigerator, through which ice may be supplied to the refrigerator. The ice is forced down to its desired position in the ice and brine holder by means of a dasher. Overflow is guarded against by means of a waste-pipe, which extends from near the bottom to near the top of the vessel, and is of such form that the cold brine will be kept at one uniform level.
Figures 1 and 2, Sheet 1, represent my invention as applied to a Water-cooler, of which Fig.1 is a plan, with covers removed, and
Fig. 2 is a vertical section of same, taken through the center. Fig. 3 is a detached plan view of the dasher. Figs. 4 and 5, Sheet 2, represent my invention with a modification as applied to a refrigerator for cooling beer in the keg, of which Fig. 4 isa front elevation, showing a vertical section of the refrigerating apparatus. Fig. 5 is a plan with covers removed.
Today in 1965, US Patent 3223062 A was issued, an invention of Harry Mulder, assigned to the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., for his “Bung Patch Plate Assembly Method.” Here’s the Abstract:
This invention relates to containers, such as single-walled metal beer barrels, and the method of construction of the same.
The primary object of the invention is to provide an improved patch plate assembly for reinforcing and protecting the bung opening.
One of the problems involved in the construction of a container having a single-walled thickness is to provide a protecting structure about the bung opening, through which the container may be cleaned, filled and drained. The bung opening also must be capable of withstanding the force exerted when the bung plug is driven therein.
Generally, bung patch plate assemblies around bung openings in beer barrels, for example, involve two separate walls or thicknesses of metal separated by a space, the latter being completely enclosed by the two metal walls. Normally, there is no opening leading to this space for the ingress or egress of liquids or gases. The two metal walls enclosing this space are sealed by the use of welds.
One or more of these welds, in prior art barrels are generally located so as to be in a position between the sealed space and the barrel cavity with the inner patch plate about the bung opening welded at its peripheral edges to the inside surfaces of the container. During the cleaning stages and prior to the filling of a single-walled metal beer barrel, it is inserted in a mold, filled with water and subjected to a pressure of approximately 900 lbs. per square inch in order to remove all dents to insure an exact volumetric capacity, and so that the barrel itself will present a more pleasing appearance. Therefore, it is not unusual that in the course of time and through other hard use, these welds sometimes become cracked.
When a crack occurs in a weld in the area between the enclosed space and barrel cavity, some of the beverage seeps into the enclosed space. The entrapped liquid decomposes and becomes extremely odious. When the containers or beer barrels are washed they are subjected to temperatures which vary greatly, the varying temperatures causing pressure changes within the enclosed space. These pressure changes cause seepages of the decomposed liquid from the space out of the crack in the weld( s) which seepages are not only offensive in smell and taste, but also are detrimental to the maintenance of high health standards.
The detection of a crack in a weld occurring in a location between the enclosed space and the beverage cavity presented a further problem. The crack could not be seen and usually the first time anyone knew of its presence would be because of the noxious smell. To repair such a crack it was necessary that one of the end shells be sawed off, the weld repaired from the inside of the barrel, and then the end shell placed back into position and secured by a fusion welding process. This was not only expensive, but was also time consuming in that the barrel generally had to be sent back to the place of manufacture or some other place where there were available facilities for so cutting and re-welding.
One of the objects of the invention is to avoid the above-mentioned problems by constructing the bung patch plate assembly so that there are no welds between the enclosed space and the beverage cavity.
Another object is to arrange all of the welds of the patch plate assembly on the outside of the container so that, in the event a weld does crack, the crack may be readily seen and repaired.
A further object of the invention is to provide a support within the space enclosed by the two metal walls designed to distribute over a wider area the stresses and strains occurring around the bung opening.
Today in 1904, US Patent 777463 A was issued, an invention of Albert M. Woltz and Charles A. Suman, for their “Barrel Holder.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:
The invention relates to a barrel-holder, and has for its object to improve the construction of barrel-holders and to provide a simple and comparatively inexpensive one adapted to be readily applied to a counter and capable of ready adjustment to suit the height of the same.
A further object of the invention is to provide a device of this character of great strength and durability adapted to readily engage barrels of different sizes and capable of enabling the same to be conveniently swung to a position beneath the counter to arrange the barrel out of the way and from under the counter when it is desired to obtain access to the contents of the barrel.
