Today in 1899, US Patent 635514 A was issued, an invention of Theodor Schnutz, for his “Apparatus For Drawing and Preserving Beer.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:
I have invented new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Drawing and Preserving Beer, and what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is …
1. The combination with the storage-chamber containing the ice-box having water chamber H, of the box 7 above the said chamber and having the superimposed box It, the pipe Z connecting the box 70 with the said water-chamber, the coil Win the ice-box having pipe connection Z with the box it and also connected with the chamber H, and the overflow-pipe Z for the box 7r, substantially as described.
2. In a beer drawing and refrigerating apparatus, the combination with the storagechamber containing a refrigerating vessel, of the box 7.; having the superimposed ice-box k, a pipe leading from said ice-box 7a to the said refrigerating vessel, the gas vessel B located in the box 7; and connected with a pipe containing mercury, said last-mentioned pipe intersecting the ice-water pipe, and a valve a adapted to regulate the flow of said ice-water, substantially as described.