Today in 1897, US Patent 580104 A was issued, an invention of Andrew Worthington Billings, for his “Apparatus for Manufacturing Beer or Ale.” There’s no Abstract, but here’s how it’s described. “It is the object of the invention to provide an apparatus by the use of which malt liquors may be manufactured in a simpler, quicker, and less expensive manner than heretofore and to effect the aeration of wort in the same apparatus in which the mashing and boiling take place. A further object of the invention is to insure the perfect sterilization of the air used in the aeration of the wort and to regulate the flow of such air in the manner hereinafter more particularly pointed out.”