Today in 1883, US Patent 279019 A was issued, an invention of Bernard Rice, for his “Beer Chip.” There’s no Abstract, though it’s described this way in the application:
This invention relates to that class of beer chips in which groves or indentations are made upon the surface surfaces of the chips for the purposes of increasing their superficies. Prior to my invention such grooves have been impressed upon the surfaces of the chips, as by calendering-rolls; but such method of producing the grooves is objectionable,because when the chips are applied to repeated use the grooves are obliterated by the natural expansion of the wood when exposed to the beer, and hence it is necessary to re-indent the chips after each use in order to preserve the desired condition thereof.
My invention is designed to overcome such objection; and to this end it consists in a chip having portions of the wood removed in proper lines across the grain to produce the desired grooves or indentations, as hereinafter more fully described.
This is almost exactly the same as a previous application and patent grant from Rice a year earlier, with Patent No. 257977A.
