Foreword:  Making whiskey is not like peeling potatoes or baking bread.  It requires a highly mechanized process involving a number of instruments to help the distilling process along the way.  In the past a few invention-minded Americans have put their genius (or something) to work in improving elements of whiskey manufacture and testing.  Here are the stories of three such inventors and the widely varying results of their efforts.

Mark Twain called it a “ten million dollar swindle.”   The U.S. Commissioner of Revenue saw it as the answer to preventing the government from being deprived of “a vast amount of revenue” through frauds committed by distillers. They both were referring to the spirits meter invented by Isaac P. Tice, a New York mechanical engineer and inventor.  For Tice the meter represented recognition of his inventive skills and a monetary bonanza.

In 1867 strong evidence emerged that the national government was being cheated out of tax money through frauds committed by distillers.  For the Commissioner of Revenue the answer was to measure liquor output by means of meters attached to stills that would aid inspectors in detecting gross underestimates of spirits being manufactured.  The Commissioner advertised for inventors to come forward with meters and asked the National Academy of Sciences to appoint a committee to review the submissions and select a winner.  

Tice, an engineer working in New York City, already had patented an improved windmill, milk rack, and water meter, among other items.  After the water meter proved to be commercially profitable, Tice had turned his attention to liquor.  In March 1867 he had patented what he called a “Revenue Guard for Stills.” Using that as a model he submitted what was called the Tice Spirit Meter, shown below — and won the government contract.

Forced to buy the device, distillers, some of whom required multiple devices,  were appalled at costs of up to $1,500.  Tice, who had a wife and three children, had never seen so much money.  Faced with anguished howls from distillers, officials in 1871 retested the Tice Meter, decided it was inaccurate, and discontinued its use.  In the meantime, hundreds of distillers and rectifiers had been forced to buy it — and now Tice meters had been trashed.  The inventor’s reputation and income plummeted.  Four years later Tice was dead at age 41, leaving behind a widow and three minor children.

In 1872 Gordon Byron Bingham of Patoka, Indiana, patented an upright tank for holding liquor that he claimed was aimed at preventing “fraud on the revenue.”  Just three years later, as a distiller, Bingham, shown left, was implicated and convicted as a participant in the “Whiskey Ring,” whose sole purpose was to defraud the revenue.  As a result, Bingham ruined himself and the town of Patoka was said to be thrown “on the downgrade of the stream of time….”

Having a mind for invention, Bingham in February 1872 patented a metal tank for holding whiskey that, he claimed, would “prevent fraud.”  Shown here, his “high wine cistern” was aimed at preventing the tax-avoiding removal of spirits that otherwise could go undetected by a U.S. revenue gauger.  Bingham’s invention, he said, provided federal officers with “…an easy means of determining at all times, the exact proof and quantity of the spirits within the tank.”  The invention went nowhere.

Ironically, it was not long after obtaining his patent that Bingham became entangled in the massive fraud against the U.S. government’s collection of taxes on spirits, a scam that became known as “The Whiskey Ring.”  By massive payoffs to top revenue officials and the “watchdog” gaugers,  distillers and “rectifiers” (whiskey blenders) in the Ring were able to get away with paying only a fraction of the liquor taxes they owed.  Indicted in 1875, the Feds seized Bingham’s distillery, stocks of whiskey and other tangible property.  Thoroughly cowed, the Indiana distiller pled guilty and became a principal witness for the government. Other Ring defendants detested him for “squealing”.

Disgraced, headed for jail, and beset on all sides,  Bingham within a matter of days was dead, passing on January 10, 1876, at the age of 49.  The effects of Bingham’s fall would continue to be felt.  His widow, with five minor children, was sued by the government for $30,000, representing the amount believed to have been fraudulently withheld.  Some Patoka residents implicated with Bingham were disgraced and bankrupted over the scandal.  With its distillery gone, the town of Patoka — an Indian name meaning “log on the bottom” — went into serious decline from which it never recovered.

Recently Whiskey Magazine listed the 100 “Greatest Whiskey People,” highlighting individuals worldwide who have left a lasting legacy to the whiskey trade.  Frederick Stitzel, left, was among that chosen few.  His claim to fame was based on his patented invention for stacking barrels of whiskey for aging.  Earlier the custom was to stack them directly on top of each other.  This was a highly risky practice.  Each barrels held about 53 gallons of whiskey and filled would weigh around 500 pounds.  Putting one of those behemoths on top of another could cause leakage, outright ruptures and other problems.

As shown here in a drawing, Stitzel’s system consisted of what he called rails, shelves attached to heavy wooden frames to support the weight of individual barrels.  The rails were spaced, so that when a barrel was placed on its side, each end would be supported by a rail.  It also allowed for the barrels to be turned from time to time, assisting the aging process.  Stitzel’s design called for each section to be made separately, allowing easier configuration of tiers in the warehouse.  Stitzel rails currently are in  use in most American distilleries.

With his father and brothers, all immigrants from Germany, Frederick also was a  major Kentucky distiller.  The  Stitzel distillery, above, eventually covered an area of two and one half acres   An 1895 publication entitled “Louisville of Today,” featured the facility:  “Here are a large and splendidly equipped stillhouse, elevator, immense warehouses, cattle sheds, etc.  The plant stands second to none as regards modern high-class machinery and appliances, power being supplied by a thirty horse power engine.”

Although his time and energy was directed toward making good whiskey, Stitzel is credited with a dozen or more inventions, including a railroad semaphore system used for years by the rail industry.  Although he was no competition for the Ohio genius with his record 1,093 patents, Frederick Stitzel deserves to be called “The Thomas Edison” of whiskey men.

Note:  Longer vignettes involving each of these inventors and their inventions may be found elsewhere on this website:  Isaac Tice, January 29, 2018;  Gordon Bingham, April 15, 2017; and Frederick Stitzel, September 22, 2021.