64 Improved Method of Preserving Wines, &c. 



increase the volume, and so exclude the air, is, in my 

 opinion, one of those rule-of-thumb plans that, in the absence 

 of any better method, may partially answer its intended 

 purpose, but requires constant care and attention to be of 

 any service whatever. 



An acquaintance of mine recently informed me that, 

 before he knew anything of wine-making, he had tried this 

 plan, and the result was, that a small cask of fair wine was 

 changed into bad vinegar, a result so totally unexpected 

 that he thought the great chemical change was due to, or 

 caused by, the quality of the stones that he had put into the 

 wine, rather than by the careless way in which he had 

 managed the operation, as he admitted that the cask was 

 only half full, and the bung left out of it on different occa- 

 sions for a considerable time. 



How, or why, or to what extent, the wine is affected by 

 the presence of air in the casks I will leave others to 

 decide ; but as it is admitted by all that its presence is 

 objectionable, I shall now proceed to describe my patent 

 improved method of keeping wines, ales, or other liquids 

 free from contact with the air, and I feel assured it will not 

 be the less interesting to you when I state that it is inex- 

 pensive, self-acting, continuous in its action, and thoroughly 

 efficient. 



I have here a cask, made of crystal, so that by means of 

 its transparency the whole modus operandi can be observed. 

 It is filled with coloured liquid to represent wine. This 

 vessel, having the opening or bung-hole at the upper end, I 

 have fitted the bung in that position ; but, under ordinary 

 circumstances, it would, of course, be applied to the top 

 side of the cask. 



You will observe that two small stopcocks are screwed 

 into the bung, both of which communicate with the inside 

 of the cask. To the end of one of these stopcocks, marked 

 A, is attached an elastic watertight bag or sac, which may 

 be made to contain any quantity, from half a gallon to 

 twenty gallons and upwards. This bag before inflation is 

 passed through the bung-hole of the cask to which it is 

 applied, and hangs loosely in the interior thereof. A second 

 stopcock, marked B, opens freely into the interior of the 

 cask. The small water cistern, funnel, and tubes, comprise 

 the whole apparatus, and the mode of action is as follows. 



Supposing the cask to be full of liquid, as it now is, the 

 cistern is placed at a slight elevation above the cask, the 



