Clackmannanshire Distiller Robert Stein was able to bring a column still into use commercially for the first time in Scotland in 1829. As we can see below, he had improved upon previous designs, and those improvements allowed him to produce spirit at prodigious rates. Having tested his improvements from around 1826, he patented these improvements in 1828. Robert was at the time the owner of Kilbagie Distillery. The adjoining farm (also owned by the Steins) was the first in Scotland to use a powered threshing machine, in 1787.
Robert's design had three preheaters and steam boiled in a separate vessel was used to heat the wash, which was intermittently sprayed by pistons into a series of chambers. The chambers were divided by crude cloths (probably haircloths). The cloth permeated ethanol well, but less so water and soluble matter, therefore acting both as a rectifier and a filter. It enabled large amounts of distillate to be produced in a single run and improved the heat economy compared to the pot stills. The process had to be stopped for cleaning and discarding the excess oily residue, so it was not a fully continuous operation. The first production version of this still was installed at Kirkliston Distillery.*
Patent 5583
Patent granted to ROBERT STEIN, of Regent Street, Gentleman, for an improvement in applying heat to the purpose of distillation. - Dated December 13, 1827.
The repertory of patent inventions, volume VIII, 1830
Account of new Patents
Patent 5721
Patent granted to ROBERT STEIN, of Regent Street, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for certain Improvements in Distillation. - Dated December 4, 1828.
These improvements consist in an apparatus, by which heat is applied to a continuous supply of wash in the distilling vessel, while the wash is in a minutely subdivided state, and also in causing the hot vapour of distillation to pass into the upper part of the bath used in the process, instead of from below, as in ordinary methods; by the former arrangement a greater surface of wash will be exposed to the active action of the heat of the steam from the boiler; and by the latter, it is stated, a more perfect separation of the purified from the un-purified spirit will be obtained.
In describing his apparatus, Mr. Stein remarks, that a shower or mist of the wash intended for distillation may be produced in various ways, such as by the constant rotation of brushes or paddles in the interior of the distilling vessel ; but the means he has found to be most effectual and beneficial for this purpose are as follows :-
He constructs a reservoir for supplying three cylinders or vessels with the wash, which communicate with one another by pipes fixed for that purpose, and are furnished with stop-cocks for regulating the supply : around each of these vessels is fixed an outer casing, two of which form the baths for the vapour previous to its passage through the worm, and the remaining casing forms a passage for the waste or spent wash proceeding from the distilling vessel; by this arrangement the vapour, before its entire condensation, and the refuse wash in passing from the apparatus, impart a portion of their heat to the wash contained in the inner vessels, which is in course of undergoing the process of distillation.
The distilling vessel consists of a long cylinder placed horizontally, and divided into eight compartments, by as many metal hoops with coverings of coarse cloth, or other fibrous substance. Under each of these compartments are fixed what he terms a well and an air-chamber, furnished with valves to regulate the ingress and egress of the liquor, and communicating with the corresponding divisions of the distilling vessel by a small pipe passing upwards. These pipes have a small perforation at their upper extremity,
through which a jet of wash is forced (by means that we shall presently describe), in such manner as to strike against the edge of a piece of metal of the form of a prism, which is supported immediately over it, and thus produces a dispersion or shower of the liquor in minute particles in every compartment of the distilling vessel, which is in consequence greatly exposed to the action of the steam passing from the boiler through each division alternately.
The wells we have before alluded to are also furnished with pipes, proceeding downwards, to a cylinder, in which is worked a piston horizontally (but by what means we are not informed in the specification), and supplies alternately, by each stroke, four of the jets proceeding from the wells ; but, as by such an arrangement only four of the jets would be in actual operation at the same time, the patentee has added an air chamber to each (as we have before noticed): these, by the first action of the piston being nearly filled with the liquor, the air compressed by this means forces the water through the four small apertures, whilst the piston is receding and acting as before on the second row of wells, and thus are produced a continued series of jets.
The spirit, it is stated, will be obtained of a purer quality by its passing through the baths from above, as the wash contained in the internal vessel (partially heated, however, by the passage of the vapour), acting as a primary refrigerator, condenses that portion of the vapour which is impure, while the stronger part passes off as usual into the worm; the impure liquor obtained by this means is conveyed by a pipe to one of the reservoirs, and mixes with the remainder of the wash intended for distillation.
We are looking for a drawing or picture of a Stein continuous still or possibly a copy of the patent diagrams. If you can help, please get in touch.
References:
The repertory of patent inventions, volume VIII, 1830
*Whisky Science