Today in 1889, US Patent 406486 A was issued, an invention of Fritz Susemiehl, for his “Steeping Tub For Steeping Barley or Other Grains.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
My invention relates to improvements in steeping-tubs for steeping barley and other grain, in which the form of the tub is preferably globular, except at its top, and having a spout or mouth-piece on its upper edge at one side similar in form to those found in pitchers, the water being conveyed into the tub through perforations in exit-tubes in connection with compressed air passed through same by means of an air force-pump, the tub or vessel laving a false perforated bottom with trap-door connecting with a conveyer-pipe passing out through the bottom of the vessel; and the objects of my improvements are, first, to permit the barley or other grain and refuse foreign matter floating on top of the water to be discharged from the vessel or tub through its spout or mouth-piece; second, to cause the Water to be discharged with great force in the vessel through the perforations in the exit pipes, to stir and agitate the grain in the vessel, and thus cleansing it from dirt and foreign substances adhering to it; third, to permit the dirt and foreign substances wash ed off the grain, which sink, to pass through the perforations of false bottom and lie upon the real bottom of the vessel, thus separating the same from the cleansed grain, and, fourth, to provide means for expeditiously removing the cleansed grain, after its proper treatment, from the vessel by means of a trap-door through the false bottom and a conveyer pipe leading therefrom through the bottom of the vessel. I attain these objects by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure l is a front view of the steeping-tub. Fig. 2 is a view of a vertical section of the same. Fig. 3 is a top view of the false bottom. Fig. `1i is a top view of one of the arms of the water and air pipes. Fig. 5 is a vertical section of the same on the line :roc ofFig. 4, the exit-pipes being removed; and Fig. 6 is a detail view of the means of attaching one
