US2315742A

US2315742A - Wooden aging barrel

Info

Publication number: US2315742A
Application number: US305065A
Authority: US
Inventors: Frank M Shipman
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1939-11-18
Filing date: 1939-11-18
Publication date: 1943-04-06
Anticipated expiration: 1960-04-06

Description

April je, 1943.

Ffy- 2 1b Patented Apr. 6, 1943 UNiTED ENT 2 Claims.

This invention relates to wooden whisky aging barrels, i. e. barrels of the character employed for aging spiritous liquors such as Whiskey. During the manufacture of such barrels, the heads are fabricated to size and shape, machinedto provide the bead and bevels, charred on one side and thereafter cooled and stored for use as needed, while the cylinder, after being initially formed and hooped, is charred on the inside and then machined to provide the howels, crozes and chimes. The ends of the cylinder are then closed by the heads and additional hoops provided to tighten the `cylinder around the heads and thus complete the manufacture of the barrel. Since the closing and tightening operations are performed while the cylinder is still hot from the charring operation, .the char heat causes the air within the barrel to expand, normally creating a char pressure of 6 to 8 pounds.

Despite the tightness of the barrel, considerable loss of whiskey is occasioned, during aging, by evaporation, leakage and the like. This loss, or outage as it is usually called, approximates as much as 20% of the initial contents of the barrel during an aging period of four years. That portion of the overall outage, which occurs around the end joint where the bead of the head fits into the croze of the cylinder, is herein designated end-joint outage. It is occasioned primarily by the leakage of whiskey through crevices and cracks in the wood at the end Joint, and secondarily by the seepage and diffusion of whiskey and its vapors through the pores and along the grain of the wood around the end joint. Since end-joint outage approximates as much as one-fifth of the overall outage, attempts have heretofore been made to eliminate it by coating the outer bevel of the head and the outer howel and chimes of the cylinder with various sealers but they have not been entirely satisfactory I have discovered that end-joint outage may be substantially reduced, if not entirely eliminated, by providing a suitable sealer on the inside of the barrel and causing such sealer to penetrate and seal the cracks, crevices and pores of the wood forming the inner-joint surface, i. e., the bead and inner-bevel surfaces of the head and the croze and inner-bowel surfaces of the cylinder, and such forms the principal object of my invention. Y

Another important object of the invention is to provides. novel method of sealing a wooden aging barrel against end-Joint outage, which method can be practised during, and as an incident of, the regular barrel-manufacturing process without complicating such process or materially increasing its expense.

.A further object is to provide a sealing method which utilizes the char heat and pressure to eifect the penetration of a previously applied sealer.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is a fragmentary section of the head of a wooden aging barrel;

Figure Z is a fragmentary section of one end of a barrel cylinder; and

Figure 3 is a fragmentary section showing the relation of the head and cylinder with the invention applied.

The invention is illustrated as applied to one end of a wooden aging barrel which is conventional in that it comprises the` usual head I, having outer and

inner bevels

2 and 3 terminating in a peripheral bead 4, and cylinder 5, having a chime 6 and outer and inner howels 1 and 8 separated by a croze 9. So far as the present invention is concerned, these parts may bevmanufactured and assembled in the convenltional way. When assembled, the bead of the suitable sealing material is applied to all or a suitable portion of the inner-joint surface, prior to the assembly of the barrel, and upon assembly, the sealer is subjected to a. pressure within the barrel which forces it to penetrate and ll the cracks, crevices and pores of the wood forming the inner-joint surface and thereby effectively seal the barrel against end-joint outage.

While any of a variety of .well-known sealing materials, which do not react unfavorably with whiskey, may be employed, the use is preferred of a normally solid impervious sealer, having a. low melting. point, i. e. -a melting-point below the char heat temperatures normally encountered during the manufacturing process but above the barrel and whiskey temperatures normally encountered during the aging process. A Wax, such as paramn, appears to be ideally suited for use as a sealer in the practice of the present invention. Various resins and resinous subs stances may also be employed.

desired way, it is only necessary to apply it to the head, and such application is preferred because of the ease and rapidity with which it may be accomplished. For example, when the head is completely formed, it may be rolled through a shallow layer of molten parailln (not shown) in f a tilted manner such as to coat the bead 4 and part or all of the inner bevel 3. Upon hardening, the wax will form a thin solid film l0 as indicated in Figure 1.

When a coated head is assembled into a barrel, the cylinder of which is cold, it will be necessary to apply sufficient heat to melt the sealer and,

upon melting and subsequent hardening, an yeffective seal will result. The seal, however, may be greatly improved by creating a pressure within the barrel while the sealer is in a liquid condition so as to cause the sealer to penetrate the crevices, cracks and pores of the innerjoint surface before hardening. In this way, the sealer extends from the inner-joint surface into the openings of the wood forming such surface in a pressure-packed condition. In the usual barrel manufacturing process, where the barrel parts are assembled while the cylinder is still hot from the charring operation, the ch'ar" heat and pressure will ordinarily be amply sufficient to effect the melting of the sealer and its penetration into the inner-joint surface. The normal surface distribution of thesealer and the normal depth and area of its penetration into the wood is indicated by the shadingA Illa in Figure 3. Where, however, the head and cylinder contain one or more large pores or crevices, as indicated at I0 and Il, which extend through or into the normal penetration area, the sealer will usually flow into and along such pores and crevices to anA appreciable degree. In fact, sealer excrescences have been observed on the outer bevel of the head and the chimes of the cylinder indicating that the char pressure has forced the sealer along some particular path completely through the full-thickness of the wood. If the char pressure is insulllcie'nt or lost, it should be supamavisy plemented or replaced by gas or air pressure supplied from any suitable outside source.

As the barrel cools, the sealer hardens ultivmately resulting in a solid impervious seal which not only fills the cracks and crevices of the innerjoint surface but extends well into the pores and along the grain of the wood. As will be evident, a seal of this character will substantially reduce, if not entirely prevent, the escape of whiskey or its vapors through the area embraced by the seal and thus practically eliminate end-joint outage. It will also beA evident that the cost of applying the lseal is negligible, while the mode of application does not interfere with or complicate routine manufacturing practice.

Having described my invention, 1 claim:

l. An improvement in the process of manufacturing wooden whiskey aging barrels having an inner joint surface where a head is jointed into the cylinder comprising: lipplying a normally solid sealer having a low melting point to the inner-joint surface of the heads before they are jointed into the cylinder; and, after the heads are jointed into the cylinder, subjecting the sealer to heated fluid under pressure, the heat being of an order suicient to melt the sealer and the pressure being of an order sufficient to force the melted sealer into said inner-joint surface.

below the char heat temperature, whereby the char heat is sufcient to melt the sealer and the "char pressure is sufficient to force the melted sealer into said inner-jointsurface.

FRANK M. SHIPMAN.