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Pasteur's beer fermentation patent, 1873. Printed patent drawings of the fermentation system invented by French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur (1822-1895). Pasteur discovered the principles of microbial fermentation, carrying out research from the 1850s onwards into the production of alcoholic beverages such as beer using yeast. The diagrams show the yeast microbes (top) and the apparatus used to carry out the fermentation. This is patent number 141,072 from the US Patent Office, dated 22 July 1873. (KEYSTONE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/US NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY)