Today in 1907, US Patent 871073 A was issued, an invention of Richard B. Spikes, for his “Beer Tapper.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
My invention is in the nature of a new beer tapper, for simultaneously drawing beer from a barrel and admitting compressed air, and it consists in a novel construction and arrangement of tapping devices, part of which are permanently fixed in the barrel, and part of which are retained at the bar or dispensing place and are applied by the bar keeper by being coupled on to the permanently attached members on the barrel; an important feature of my invention being a spring pressed conical valve interposed between the stationary parts of the bung casing and the removable coupling, which valve carries registering ports for air and beer and is adjusted by the application and removal of the said coupling and serves to insure a tight fit of the movable parts over each other as hereinafter fully described with reference to the drawing, in which Figure 1 is a central section of the beer tapper shown applied to a barrel part of which is indicated at X. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the bung casing. Fig. 3 is a top perspective view of the spring valve. Fig. 4 is a bottom perspective view of the detachable coupling, and Fig. 5 is a sectional detail of the bung casing.
