A VISIT TO A FACTORY OF EFFERVESCENT BEVERAGES.

Evening Star, Issue 3150, 25 March 1873, Page 2

A VISIT TO A FACTORY OF EFFERVESCENT BEVERAGES.

A few days since, wc paid a visit to the establishment of Messrs Thomson and Co., in Stafford street, where two great improvements in preparing effervescent drinks have been adopted. In this department of combined chemistry and mechanics, as great improvements have been made as in most other industries in which applied science can be made available. We have a distinct recollection of the steps by which the preparation of lemonade and soda-water has attained its present perfection. Our grandmothers used to prepare their ginger-beer by a process of fermentation generated by yeast. It was not bad stuff when properly prepared, and went through a variety of gradations according to the means of families. Sometimes the basis was treacle, tnen brown sugar, and lastly refined sugar, flavored, by the rule of thumb, with ginger ad libitum, and fermented in brown stone bottles, with the corks tied down to prevent the pressure of the carbonic gas, when evolved, shooting both them and the liquor out of the bottles. The next step was the chemical preparation of carbonic acid gas in a receiver, and forcing it into bottles by lever pressure of the hand At first, common glass bottles were used, but they were found too weak to sustain the enormous pressure necessary to force the cork into the neck of the bottle, and accidents were continually happening through their bursting. We have a vivid recollection of an ingenious chemical friend of ours having one of bis eyes cut completely out, through one of these untoward occurrences. As demand increased, bottles, specially adapted to the p-rpose, were made, and experience led to other safe guards ; means also were discovered of putting wires on the corks so as to secure them, and engine power superseded the use of levers worked by hand. The latest improvement has, however, been adopted by Messrs Thompson and Co., who have introduced a new method of bottling and corking, which enables them to do the work much more rapidly, economically, and safely than by any other means we arc acquainted with. In this case, as in all others, demand has been met by invention. The process is, in some respects, a reversal of the old method. A bottle, spccia’ly made, is fitted with an unyielding stopper of the exact gauge of the neck, to the lower part of which is attached a disc of gutta percha, which extends to some distance beyond the lower edges of the stopper. The bottle is placed in a strong receiver formed of wire netting, through which the end of a tube communicating with the generator and a cistern of pure water protrudes. As soon as it is placed in position, by a very simple mechanical movement the bottle is inverted, the water and carbonic acid are forced into it, and the strong pressure acting upon the disc forces the stopper into the neck, and completely closes the aperture. In order to open the bottle, pressure on the stopper only is necessary, and any quantity of the contents can be taken away without impairing the quality of the remainder. Several important advantages are thus gained. First, the cost of corks is saved, because the same stopper will answer for any number of fillings. Secondly, time is saved, as there is no delay in fastening string or wire. 1 liirdly, the expense of string or wire is saved, which is no small item in factories where thousands of dozens are filled every day. Fourthly, danger of injury to the workman is almost completely obviated, because if a bottle bursts, the glass must either be forced downward or in a partially lateral direction, the effects of which can bo easily guarded against; and fifthly, one man only ,is required, where two or three were formerly employed. Messrs Thomson and Co. have a very neat and powerful hydraulic engine, on a principle adopted by Mr Peters and made by him.