1847 1 



THE CIVIL ENGlNlitll AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



]S3 



Cost of Vario«s Railways Previods to 1841. 

 Return shoxmng the Sums of Money actvally expended by the following 

 Railway Companies previous to 1841 :— Great Western, South Western, 

 Brighton, and North Western (Southern Division) ; likewise the Ay.jreriate 

 Sum expended by the above mentioned Railway Companies in each Year 

 previous to 1841 : — 



FROCBEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCISTIES. 



ON THE M.\NIUFACTURE OF CASKS AND VESSELS, 



AND SEASONING TIMBER. 



At the Western Literary Instituiion, Leicester-square, May 3, the fo!- 



lowinK paper was read, '' On the Manufacture of Castes and Vessels, more 



pnrficutarly tlmse used by Breivers. and on the various metlunls adojUedfor 



Cleansing and Purifying such Vessels":—* 



When it is borne in mind that in some estalilishments in London, there 

 are no fewer than from 70,000 to 80,000 casks employed in sending out 

 beer only ; and when it is further believed that in the United Kingdom for 

 public brewing alone, there cannot be less than 2,600,000 of such vessels 

 in use, — the subject of keeping them in a fit and proper condition for the 

 purpose for which they are intended, becomes one of immense importance. 



It would be folly to say that the subject has not had much attention de- 

 voted to it. Large sums of money have been expended in lilting up various 

 kinds of machinery for this purpose. Many persons incur great expense 

 in removing a head of each cask and thoroughly scouring and cleaning 

 Iheni ; also '' tiring," steaming, the use of chemicals, and other means have 

 been resorted to, in order to effect the ^nat desideratum of clean and sweet 

 casks; but after all, the greatest difficulty is experienced in elTecting this, 

 and a serious loss of property is oftentimes the consequence. 



Before going more fully into the subject, it is necessary that the various 

 methods which have hitherto been adopted and which are still in use, 

 should be fully explained, and we will consider in the first place, uuhead- 

 iug casks. 



Removing the head of a cask is no doubt the surest and best mode, so far 

 as regards getting it clean, and one which, in many establishments, is car- 

 ried out completely at no small expense for labour, damage to heads, 

 grooves, hoops, iVc. These drawbacks, great as they are, might be over- 

 looked, provided by such means they could be insured as sweet. But this 

 by no means always happens; there is then the alternative uf either allow- 

 ing it to remain (without the bead) for a considerable length of time ex- 

 posed to the sou's rays, or extreme frost, or subject it at ouce to the — 



*' I'iring process," — which is that of placing of what is called a **cresset," 

 containing tire inside the cask, and thus heating the wood until the '• must," 

 or mouldy smell is destroyed. During this process it not unfrequenlly oc- 

 curs that a piece of burning wood drops upon the bottom head of the cask, 

 or perhaps the flame reaches to the sides, and hence charring takes place, 

 in all probability, to a serious extent, dud if so, a non-conductor is thus 

 formed, which must necessarily prevent any taint still existing in the body 

 of the wood, from being evaporated. Casks so treated are often found to 

 give out a pernicious flavour to the beer or other liquid, w.th which they 

 may be afterwards charged, to the serious loss of the brewer, inasmuch as 

 he may have to pay double freightage or carriage on ** returned beer," if 

 not the entire loss of it ; besides the repetition of the above ruinous process, 

 which is admitted by those who adopt it, as only advisable in extreme 

 eases. The next process is that of 



"Steaming." — For this purpose many brewers have boilers of large 

 capacity, in which is generated steam of 3 or 4 lb pressure, connected to a 

 pipe leading all round, or by the sides of a building, witl; nozzles inserted 

 in the same, about 2 ft. 6 in. apart, or according to the diameter of vessels 

 requiring to be steamed. These nozzles, on being inserted into the bung- 

 holes, iiave the pressure of the steam forced through them into the casks, 

 in many cases for 3 or 4 hours consecutively, but the more common period 



< We are indebted for thii Report to the " Patent Journal." 



is two hours. This is for the purpose of cleansing as well as sweetening 

 casks, and as a substitute for the more expensive process of unheading. 

 Now the efi'ect of this is, in the first place, to swell and surcharge the pores 

 of the wood with moisture, to force into the blisters any mouldy solution, 

 or taiul, which may have been previously within a line's thickness of the 

 slave, a considerable distance further into the body of the wood. As a 

 proof of this being the case, it is perfectly well known that where the sys- 

 tem is carried on, casks must not remain beyond 36 hours before being; 

 tilled with beer, otiierwise spots of mould will make their appearance, and 

 all the flavour will again return to the inside of the cask ; clearly showing 

 that the germs of the disease have not been destroyed, but simply with- 

 drawn behind the screen, to return in all probability, with increased 

 violence. Can mould and disease be so near at hand and yet the beer not 

 partake of it ? 



Steaming frequently causes the complete fracture of the staves, on ac- 

 count of the expansion which necessarily takes place; the fibres of the 

 wood are destroyed, the resins and other solid matters which bind the fibres 

 together are gradually washed away, and each successive steaming, when 

 carried to excess, has been known to charge the pores of the wood wild 

 3 lb. weight, or nearly the third of a gallon of water, which on coming into 

 contact with the remains of the beer (after the cask has been emptied) then, 

 most likely, iu an acid state, very speedily generates mould, as proved by 

 M. Dutrochet, who says — " that a drop of acid in an ounce of water pro- 

 duced mould in eight days." But independent of the presence of acid, 

 water left in the pores of the wood is suflicient of itself in certain situations 

 to create decomposition, and all the worst evils of which the brewer and 

 others have to complain. But after all, that steaming will not cleanse a 

 cask, has been proved on several occasions. When mouldy casks have 

 been subjected to it for upwards of two hours, it has been found upon un- 

 heading them that they have been in a slimy and filthy condition. Scald- 

 ing and " blowing off," as it is termed, have then been resorted to, but still 

 the casks could not be considered clean inside; that which appeared be- 

 fore the steaming as mould, had afterwards the appearance of glue. 



There is another very important matter as regards damp being allowed 

 to remain in any vessel intended for the reception of beer. Take the simple 

 fact of its being put into a wet jug, or glass — do we not at once find it 

 " flat," and out of condition ? Indeed, so much so that those, whose trade 

 it is to bottle beer, are compelled to be exceedingly particular in having 

 the bottles perfectly dry. If it is thus necessary in the one case, surely it 

 must be so to some extent in the other. 



With regard to the sweetening the casks by chemicals, the methods are 

 as numerous as they are varied. Some use common salt, others soda, lime, 

 sulphuric acid, muriatic acid, leys made of ash, beech, or oiher hard wood, 

 ashes, together with boiling water in abundance, and many other expe- 

 dients, all of which are attended with labour in the lirst instance, and un- 

 heading and scouring the cask. Much lime is afterwards spent in waiting 

 for these solutions taking effect ; and after all this, there is perhaps an 

 odour left quite as bad as the original one which they were intended to 

 cure. The result is, that frequent scaldings with hot water or steam be- 

 come necessary, and the cask is Qnally left in the best possible condition to 

 generate mould and other evils. 



The machinery iu its simplest form for cleansing casks, has hitherto been 

 that of a common chain, or, in some instance, a *' mair'-chaiu, placed in- 

 side the cask, with two or three gallons of hot water, and the cask after- 

 wards rolled about in a backward and forward direction, until it was con- 

 sidered to be sutBciently cleansed ; but this has been found uncertain in 

 its results, there being no proof whatever of the chain having traversed 

 over the whole of the surface, and pirticularly in the angles of the heads. 

 This process, therefore, is not to be depended upon. 



A piece of machinery was invented a few years since, to work either by 

 hand or engine power. It consisted of frames or cradles at right angles 

 to each other, on one continued shaft, the frames being attached at the 

 diagonal points, the casks thus lying in an oblique position, and secured to 

 the frames or cradles by means of a strap and set-screw ; a common chaia 

 was placed inside for the purpose of cleansing, but owing to the continu- 

 ous angular movement of the cask, the chain only acted partially on the 

 surface; it was therefore necessary to shift it several times before anything 

 like a clean cask could, by this method he obtained ; so that, from the 

 labour in shifting, added to the uncertainty of having a clean cask, the 

 invention met with very litlle encouragement. 



There was another fitted up some years since at a large establishment ia 

 South Wales, at an expense of £l,500, and which is still in use. It con- 

 sisted of a series of jointed brushes, which are made to revolve horizon- 

 tally ; one head of each cask being taken out, the cask is put upon a truck 

 (or something of that kind), and pushed towards the brush, which, going 

 at considerable velocity, removes the adhering matters, but owing to the 

 inequality of thickness of the slaves, the brushes leave a considerable 

 quantity of dirt in the angles, which has afterwards to be scraped or 

 brushed out with scrubbing brushes, the latter operation being performed 

 by women employed expressly for this work ; as many as 400 casks per 

 day being thus cleaned, and after being headed up again, are, in cases of 

 must or smell, subjected to steam, the use of soda, &£C., as previously al- 

 luded to, at no little expense for damage done to casks, besides the wear 

 and tear of brushes, winch is very great. 



Having pointed out the evil eliecls of firing, hard steaming, the use of 

 chemicals, and other methods, as well as the attempts which have been 

 made at machinery, toreuder casks lu a tit and proper condition to coataia 



2S* 



