AN IMPROVED METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING ROOMS OR PLACES FOR CURING AND PRESERVING MEAT OR OTHER PERISHABLE ARTICLES
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Harris, of Calne, in the County of Wilts,
for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING ROOMS OR
PLACES FOR CURING AND PRESERVING MEAT OR OTHER PERISHABLE ARTICLES."
-A communication from abroad by George Harris, of Schenectady, in
the United States of America.
Sealed the 14th March 1865, and dated the 1st December 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Harris at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st December 1864.
I, THOMAS HARRIS, of Calne, in the County of Wilts, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING
ROOMS OR PLACES FOR CURING AND PRESERVING MEAT OR OTHER PERISHABLE
ARTICLES," (a communication to me from abroad by George Harris, of
Schenectady,. in the United States of America,) to be as follows:-
This Invention is applicable to the curing and preserving of meat and also
to the storing of all perishable articles requiring a uniform cold tempera-
ture at all seasons, and consists principally in a peculiar construction aud

page_text: combination of a curing or preserving room or rooms with an ice house or
refrigerator.
In carrying out this Invention the curing, preserving, or storing room is
constructed either partially or wholly beneath the surface of the earth, the
walls being built of thick brickwork or masonry, and having an internal lining
of brickwork or other material; the space between this internal lining and the
outer wall is to be filled or packed with charcoal or other material being a
non-conductor of heat, and a similar thickness of the same substance is to be
laid beneath the floor of the curing or storing room, which latter may be of
stone, tile, or other material. The ice house or refrigerator is constructed
above the curing or storing room by carrying up the same walls, and lining with
a packing of the non-conducting substance between them. The roof of the
euring or storing room (which forms the floor of the ice house) is made of
metal, and supported upon iron columns and beams or girders, being provided
with a drip roof beneath to catch and carry away any water that may run
from the ice above. The door and roof of the ice house are also protected
from radiation by means of an internal lining and a packing of non-conducting
material. By this arrangement and construction of ice house and curing or
storing room the latter will be kept uniformly at a cold temperature
throughout the year, and meat may be cured or preserved at any time or
season, and other perishable articles can be stored for a long period without
decay or deterioration more effectually than can be effected by the use of the
methods and apparatus hitherto employed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Harris in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
1st June 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
HARRIS, of Calne, in the County of Wilts, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Harris, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas Harris,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Thomas Harris, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any

page_text: time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD
OP CONSTRUCTING ROOMS OR PLACES FOR CURING AND PRESERVING MEAT OR OTHER
PERISHABLE ARTICLES," (a communication to me from abroad by George Harris,
of Schenectady, in the United States of America,) upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Harris, my executors or admi-
nistrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their
hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Harris, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the fol-
lowing statement in writing, and on reference to the accompanying Sheet of
Drawings, that is to say:-
This Invention is applicable to the curing and preserving of meat, and also
to the storing of all perishable articles requiring a uniform cold temperature
at all seasons, and consists principally in a peculiar construction and com-
bination of a curing or preserving room or rooms with an ice house or
refrigerator.
In carrying out this Invention the curing, preserving, or storing room is
constructed either partially or wholly beneath the surface of the earth, the
walls being built of thick brickwork or masonry, and having an internal lining
of brickwork or other material; the space between this internal lining and the
outer wall is to be filled or packed with charcoal or other material being a
non-conductor of heat, and a similar thickness of the same substance is to be
laid beneath the floor of the curing or storing room, which latter may be of
stone, tile, or other material. The ice house or refrigerator is constructed
above the curing or storing room by carrying up the same walls, and lining
with a packing of the non-conducting substance between them. The roof of
the curing or storing room (which forms the floor of the ice house) is made
of metal, and supported upon iron columns and beams or girders, being
provided with a drip roof beneath to catch and carry away any water that
may run from the ice above. The door and roof of the ice house are also
protected from radiation by means of an internal lining and a packing of non-

page_text: conducting material. By this arrangement and construction of ice house and
curing or storing room the latter will be kept uniformly at a cold temperature
throughout the year, and meat may be cured or preserved at any time or
season, and other perishable articles can be stored for a long period without
decay or deterioration more effectually than can be effected by the use of the
methods and apparatus hitherto employed.
Such being the nature and object of the said Invention for "An Improved
Method of Constructing Rooms or Places for Curing and Preserving Meat or
other Perishable Articles," I will now proceed to describe more in detail the
manner in which the same is to be or may be performed or carried into prac-
tical effect; and in order that the same may be distinctly understood, I have
annexed hereunto a Sheet of Drawings illustrative thereof, and have marked
the same with figures and letters of reference corresponding with those in the
following explanation thereof, that is to say:―
In the annexed Drawing, Figure 1 is an elevation of a curing and pre-
serving house constructing according to this Invention, and Figure 2 is a
vertical section of the same; Figure 3 is a section taken horizontally just
above the ice floor, and Figure 4 is a ground plan of the curing or preserving
room.
A, A, represents the ice room, and B, B, the curing or preserving room.
a, a, are the exterior walls of the building, and b, b, are the interior walls,
between which there is left a space c, c, which is filled with charcoal or other
non-conductor of heat; d, d, is the ice floor, which forms also the ceiling of
the curing or preserving room B, B, and divides it from the ice room A, A.
This floor is made of metal, being supported by girders e, e, and pillars f, f.
It will be observed that the floor slopes towards the sides, where it is furnished
with gutters and pipes g, g, for conveying away the waste or drippings from
the ice. The floor h, h, of the curing room is made of stone or tile, and has
a layer of charcoal or other non-conducting material beneath it. The ice
room is furnished with air traps i, i, and it is charged with ice through the
trap doors k, k, in the ceiling, which is afterwards covered with a layer of
charcoal. The roof of the ice house is (by preference) thatched. The Drawing
represents a building about 25 feet square in ground plan.
Having now described the nature and object of the said Invention for "An
Improved Method of Constructing Rooms or Places for Curing and Pre-
serving Meat or other Perishable Articles," together with the manner in which
the same is to be or may be performed or carried into practical effect, I would
remark in conclusion, that I claim as the Invention communicated to me from

page_text: abroad by the said George Harris, the combination of an ice room with a
curing or preserving room or rooms substantially in the manner and for the
purposes above particularly set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Harris, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of May, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-five.
THOMAS HARRIS. (L.B.)