Untitled record

. Application filed December 14,1897. Serial No. 661,894, (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, Emil Koenig, of New York, (Long Island City,) and Mitchell L. Erlanger, of the city and county of New 5 York, State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Aerating Liquids or Beverages of all Kinds with Carbonic Dioxid, of which the following is a specification.

io The present invention relates generally to apparatus for aerating beverages; and it consists of certain means by which the aerating may be effected automatically and also of other means by which the quantity of aerated 15 beverage drawn from the apparatus at any one time may be automatically added to the reservoir or receptacle containing the supply of beverage.

Briefly stated, the invention embraces a io closed tank, receptacle; or chamber capable of holding a suitable quantity of water or other beverage that is to be or has been aerated or charged with the gas, such as carbonic-acid gas or carbon dioxid. The tank 25 or chamber is provided with one or more dashers, which are capable of being moved vertically in the liquid, and thereby cause a more thorough intermixture of the liquid and gas and keep such intermixture constant. The 30 dasher or dashers are also so mounted as to have a more or less lateral or swaying movement, so that all parts of the liquid in the tank or chamber are constantly subjected to the agitating effect of the dashers.

With the tank or chamber is associated a pair of cylinders with their respective pistons connected together and with their respective valve-chambers, the stems of whose valves are also connected together, and with 40 a connection between the piston-rod of the pistons and the stem of the valves, so that the movement of the pistons and of the valves and the further supply of liquid to the chamber is controlled by the beverage 45 that may be drawn off from time to time from the tank or chamber. For this purpose when a quantity of the aerated beverage is drawn off for use the piston of one cylinder, owing to the unbalanced pressure 50 thereon, is thereby automatically caused to . move, so that the piston of the other cylinder, which controls the admission of liquid to the tank or chamber, also moves so as to supply to said tank a quantity of liquid substantially equal to that which has been with- 55 drawn, as before stated. The action of the pistons and of the valves is entirely automatic and dependent upon the amount of liquid that may be drawn off at any one time, so that the apparatus is constantly supplied 60 with the same amount of fluid and intermixed gas as it started with. In order to impart the necessary motions to the dasher or dashers before referred to, the pressure of the incoming fluid, with its gas, to the tank is 65 made the means by which the necessary motions are imparted to said dashers.

In order that the invention may be more fully understood, we have illustrated in the accompanying drawings a practical embodi- 70 ment thereof, it being understood, however, that the purposes, arrangement, and details of construction shown may obviously be changed to suit the requirements of the particular use to which the apparatus maybeput. 75

Figure 1 of the drawings illustrates the improved apparatus in vertical central sectional elevation. Fig. 2 is an end elevation of one of the slide-valves, showing the valve-chest insection. 80

Referring to the drawings, the apparatus consists of a closed tank or chamber G, capable of containing the necessary quantity of aerated liquid or beverage. With this tank is, associated, in any convenient position, as 85 shown, supported on the top closing-plate of the chamber, a pair of cylinders h i, having pistons h' i', connected together by a single piston-rod k. Associated with each of these cylinders is a valve-chamber mn, each having 90 a valve m' n’, the valves being connected together by a single valve-stem 0. These valves are of D shape, and each controls admission of fluid to both sides of the piston of each cylinder and also to an exhaust or outlet, as 95 is common in such valves. With the pistonrod fcand the valve-stem 0 is combined a rocking leverp, with collars q and q' or projections on the rod and stem, so that when the pistons move and one of the collars q of the rod k 100 strikes the rocking lever it will act against one of the collars q' of the valve-stem 0 to shift the valves. The valve-chamber n is in communication on both sides of the valve

613,376 therein with a water-supply pipe A, in which J may be interposed any suitable filter or other I water-purifying device F, so that the liquid supplied to the chamber may be purified in anj⁷ proper manner, and the exhaust from the cylinder i, controlled by the valve ri, communicates with a supply-pipe B, which enters the tank or chamber and terminates in a nozzle B', said nozzle in this particular instance being arranged for a purpose to be hereinafter described. With the pipe B is connected a gas-supply pipe B², which conveys gas from any suitable reservoir or other holder to said pipe B, so that it will pass with the liquid from the cylinder i, through the pipe B, into the tank or chamber.

The valve-chamber m, on both sides of its valve m', is in communication with the pipe d', and thence with the tank or chamber C, preferably near its lower portion. The exhaust from the cylinder h, controlled by said valve m', is in communication with a drawoff pipe d, having any suitable valve to control or cut off the fluid that may pass through said pipe.

The operation of the apparatus so far as has been described is as follows: Assuming that the tank or chamber C is more or less filled with the aerated beverage which is to be drawn off, such beverage, being under pressu re, will flow by the pipe d' to the valve-chamber m into the cylinder h, at one side of the piston Ji', filling such cylinder and in condition to be drawn off whenever the valve in the draw-off pipe d is opened. Whenever the valve in the draw-off pipe is opened, the liquid on one side of the piston h' is allowed to pass out through said pipe under the pressure in the tank, thereby permitting the pressure of the liquid on the other side of the piston to move said piston, so that it may at the same time aid in forcing the liquid on the other side of the piston out through said draw-off pipe. As the piston 7i' moves in the cylinder one of its collars strikes the rocking lever p and shifts the valves m' ri, so that the other side of the piston h' is open to the drawoff pipe d” to repeat the operation just described whenever the valve in the said pipe is again opened. While this is taking place, water in the cylinder i on one side of the piston i' is in communication through the exhaust of that cylinder to the pipe B. As soon as the pistons move, this water will be forced into said pipe, and the incoming water by the pipe A will pass under its pressure to the other side of the piston, ready to be likewise forced into said pipe B after the valves have been shifted, as before explained, upon the return motion of the pistons. These operations will be repeated each time the liquid is drawn off from the pipe d”.

The tank or chamber supports one or more dashers c' to c⁷, inclusive, carried by a vertical rod, the lower end of which is connected to a spring s, the upper end of which rod is connected to a crank-shaft r, horizontally sup ported in the apparatus. These dashers are preferablj⁷ made of cork or other light material, and the spring tends to pull the rod and 70 the cork dashers downwardly. With the crank-rod r is associated a number of fan or propeller blades t, located on the rod directly under the nozzle B', so that the force of the incoming intermixed gas and liquid from said 75 nozzle will impinge directly upon said blades and cause the rotation of said shaft,and thereby impart a vertical reciprocating motion of the cork dashers in the liquid. As the cork dashers are loosely connected to the crank- 80 rod r, it results that as they are moved vertically by the rotations of said shaft they will have an unsteady lateral motion, so that all parts of the liquid will be agitated, and thereby caused to become more intimately inter- 85 mixed with the gas that is contained in the chamber.

From the foregoing it will be understood that the improved apparatus provides automatic means controlled by the draw-off of 90 the required amount of beverage to resupply the tank or chamber with a like quantity of beverage, so that there is a constant quantity of beverage ahvays contained by the tank or chamber. The improvements also provide 95 means by which the pressure of the intermixed incoming water and gas will cause the water contained in the tank or chamber to be agitated, so that there is insured a proper saturation of the gas by the water, so that 100 the beverage passing from said chamber by the pipe d' to the cylinder h and thence outward will always be properly charged with the gas.

It will of course be understood that while 105 we have described our apparatus in connection with means for conveying an intermixed water and gas from a closed receptacle and for supplying such aerated liquid from time to time as may be needed it is apparent that no the apparatus may be adapted to supply any liquid, whether it be intermixed with gas or not. It is also to be understood that while we have described and shown a particular form of an embodiment of the invention the 115 improvements arenot necessarily limited in scope to the particular form of apparatus illustrated.