Today in 1894, US Patent 523274 A was issued, an invention of Harry Genovar, for his “Apparatus for Collecting Dripping from Beer Faucets and Returning Same to Kegs Under Gas Pressure.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

The object of my invention is to provide means whereby the drippings and waste from beer faucets and other sources may be easily and quickly returned to the keg, without loss of gas from the latter and Without impairing the quality of the beer.

In retailing beer by the glass, it is usually drawn directly from the keg through pipes which traverse a refrigerating chamber, carbonic acid gas being supplied to the keg at a substantially uniform pressure. The presence of large quantities of foam, as the beer comes from the faucet, and the necessity of running off the larger part of the foam, entails a considerable waste, as the beer into which this foam is resolved soon parts. with its gas and becomes stale.

It is the purpose of my invention to provide means whereby this waste may be entirely avoided without involving more than an extremely moderate expense for apparatus which may be easily operated by any person with a small expenditure of time and labor.

The invention consists in the several novel features of construction and new combinations of parts hereinafter fully explained and then particularly pointed out and defined in the claims which follow this specification.