IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING MEAT AND OTHER ARTICLES FOR Food
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick John Money, of No. 1, Marlborough
Place, Brighton, Sussex, Doctor of Medicine, for the Invention of
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick John Money
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 8th November 1873.
I, FREDERICK JOHN MONEY, of No. 1, Marlborough Place, Brighton,
Sussex, Doctor of Medicine, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING MEAT AND OTHER ARTICLES FOR
Food," to be as follows, viz. :—
My Invention for improvements in preserving meat and other articles
for food consists in, removing the oxygen from the closed chambers
containing the articles of food to be preserved, and from the substance
of the food itself, by the use of reagents having a strong affinity for
oxygen and capable of completely withdrawing it without being them-

page_text: .selves necessarily placed in contact with the food to be preserved. To
effect this I place the food of whatever nature, as meat, fish, fruit, eggs,
milk, and the like in a strong air-tight chamber, from which I first
exhaust the atmospheric air as far as possible by mechanical suction, as
with an air pump; or, otherwise, I displace the air by some liquid. In
either case I then substitute for the atmospheric air so removed another
gas, such as carbonic acid or carbonic oxide, or the like, having little or
no free oxygen. By these means by far the larger portion of the oxygen
(which is an indispensable element in putrefaction) is rapidly withdrawn.
If the process stopped here, however, little good would be done beyond
retarding to some extent the inevitable changes.
The real difficulty which I claim to have surmounted by my Invention
lies in the removal of the oxygen dissolved in the tissues of the food
itself, or introduced, as it practically will be, along with the gases used
in substitution. The least particle of oxygen left behind will induce in
course of time changes varying in energy according to the quantity of
the noxious agent so remaining.
In order, therefore, to remove the whole of the oxygen I place the
interior of the air-tight chamber containing the articles of food to be
preserved in free communication, as by a tube, with another closed.
chamber containing some reagent having powerful affinity for oxygen.
The most convenient reagent for this purpose, although I do not confine
myself to its use, is probably phosphorus. This substance, whether
burning actively or in the simply glowing condition, abstracts free
oxygen rapidly from all gases in which it may be immersed, and continues
to do so as long as there remains the faintest trace of oxygen in them,
producing a state of things which may be called an oxygen vacuum,
into which, under the well-known law of gas diffusion, any oxygen
present, however distant, however attenuated, however separated by
membrane or tissue, tends to diffuse itself without practical limit; and
as soon as it appears it is at once seized and appropriated by the ever
watchful phosphorus. Thus in a short time the whole thickness of a
carcase may be thoroughly deoxygenized; and when in this state will
keep perfectly sweet and fresh in any temperature and for any length of
time, so long as oxygen be kept excluded.
In carrying out this process into practice two principal precautions
are necessary to be observed; first, the food must be guarded against the

page_text: phosphoric acid which is given off in white clouds as long as oxygen is
present; and secondly, against the phosphorus vapour which rises as
soon as an oxygen vacuum is established. Either of these will damage
the flavour and appearance of meat, fish, or other animal matters.
A. To prevent the access of phosphoric acid it is only necessary to
keep the phosphorus in a separate chamber, the bottom of which, as
well as of the passage leading to the food chamber, must be kept covered
with water properly renewed at intervals.
B. To guard against the detrimental effects of phosphorus vapour,
which has the power of permeating most animal substances, but which,
by proper management, should be entirely excluded from the food
chamber, I generally use some protective covering. Thus I dip meat
repeatedly in strong solution of gelatine, suffering it to dry after each
immersion. By this I obtain a firm and elastic coat, which keeps in the
juices and preserves the appearance of the meat. This, however, is no
protection against phosphorus vapour unless further coated with some
vegetable matter (such as starch or paste made with carefully
deoxygenated water). This I find while kept moist effectually shuts
out the phosphorus.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Frederick John Money in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 7th May 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
JOHN MONEY, of No. 1, Marlborough Place, Brighton, Sussex, Doctor of
Medicine, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Frederick John Money,
Her special licence that I, the said Frederick John Money, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Frederick John Money, my executors, administrators, and assigns,

page_text: chamber filled with the same deoxygenised gas (and herein-after called
the chemical chamber) in which a quantity of phosphorus is exposed.
So long as any oxygen, however attenuated, remains in the gas of the
chemical chamber, the phosphorus will glow more or less, and by
entering into combination with the said oxygen will render it powerless
to cause decomposition in organized tissues. When all oxygen has been
so disposed of the phosphorus becomes quiescent and remains immersed
in what I call an 66
'oxygen vacuum," namely, an atmosphere entirely
deoxygenized and full of vapours arising from the phosphorus.
The object of making communication between the two chambers
above described is to transfer the residual oxygen from the food chamber
to the chemical chamber without allowing the vapours arising from the
phosphorus to have access to the food. For this purpose advantage is
taken of the fact that water, when placed in contact with an " oxygen
vacuum," gradually gives off to the uttermost any oxygen which it may
hold in solution, and becomes itself perfectly deoxygenised. If when
in this condition it be again exposed to oxygen it will reabsorb it.
This being so, my mode of management is to cover the floors of the
two chambers to equal depth with distilled water, and then by
mechanical means to produce a circulation of this water between the
two chambers in such a way as to increase as far as possible the surface
of exposure to the action of the contained gases. Thus the water from
the food chamber may be pumped into a cistern in the upper part of the
chemical chamber and suffered to flow in a thin stream down a series of
inclined planes of considerable extent, or to drop in a shower from
numerous small openings in the bottom of the cistern; or it may be
thrown up in a jet and suffered to burst in spray. The precise mode is
unimportant, the only object being to increase the surface of exposure.
Precisely in like manner the water from the chemical chamber is
simultaneously thrown into the food chamber. The effect is that the
deoxygenised water from the chemical chamber being exposed to the
atmosphere of the food chamber absorbes to the uttermost all the
6
oxygen
it finds there, and carrying it into the chemical chamber there gives it
off to be neutralized by the phosphorus. This makes and keeps up an
"
oxygen vacuum in the food chamber, and all the oxygen contained
in the tissues of the food passing gradually by diffusion into the
atmosphere surrounding it, the food so deoxygenized becomes protected
from decomposition.

page_text: For convenience it is found useful to keep the portion of the food
chamber in which the food is stored apart from the portion in which the
water circulates; or the two portions may form two distinct chambers
connected by a tube. Then as soon as the process of deoxygenation is
complete the channel of communication may be stopped and the food
case detached and hermetically sealed ready for exportation.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick John Money, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this a Seventh day of May,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.