An Improvement in or relating to the Preservation of Fish and other Substances, and a Novel Preparation of Antiseptic Material for Use therefor or for other Purposes.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 9th Dec., 1887
Complete Left, 9th June, 1888
Complete Accepted, 13th July, 1888
An Improvement in or relating to the Preservation of Fish and other
Substances, and a Novel Preparation of Antiseptic Material for
Use therefor or for other Purposes.
I AUGUST RICHARD ROOSEN, of 24 Cremon, Hamburg, Germany, Merchant, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
I have found that fish, meat, and other food substances rapidly decay when they are
removed from ice which has been packed with them for the purpose of retarding their
putrefaction.
It is well known that water contains germs of putrefactive and other bacteria, that
these germs are not destroyed by freezing it but that they remain in the ice in a numb
state from which they quickly recover when the ice melts and they then rapidly multiply
or increase when and where they find a suitable soil.
Fish and other food substances when brought into immediate contact with ice or ice
water, and particularly when they are packed under or with ice, receive with the water
which drips from the ice the gerins of putrefactive or other bacteria, and these quickly
develop upon the substance when, there no longer being ice, the temperature has risen.
This cannot be prevented even by sprinkling or covering the substances with an anti-
septic powder, or salt, or with common salt, before packing with ice, because the ice
water gradually washes the antiseptic away. Even in the case of substances which
have been sterilized under or by means of pressure or otherwise, I have found that
during transport, under or with ice, the antiseptic solution with which the substances
had been impregnated is washed away and that new germs from the ice water are
communicate to them.
Now my invention consists in the preparation of antiseptics in a frozen state, that is
to say, in the form of antiseptic ice, and in the employment of this antiseptic ice in
the preservation of fish and other substances whereby the difficulties and objections due
to the use of ordinary ice are overcome.
In order to make or prepare the antiseptic ice, I first sterilize water by boiling it
with steam or otherwise; I then add the desired antiseptic to the water and I freeze

page_text: the solution as quickly as possible. In the manufacture of the antiseptic ice any of
the well known antiseptics or any antiseptic mixture combined or not with common
salt may be employed. It may not be necessary to first boil the water; pure water
from a well or filtered water may answer the purpose. The strength of the solution
can be varied as thought best.
In employing the antiseptic ice in the preservation of fish or other substances, it is
packed or placed with the substances and this may be done in the same way as has
been practised with ordinary ice. It preserves the substances most effectively because,
as the ice melts, the antiseptic solution flows over them and not only prevents fresh
germs of bacteria or bacilli settling thereon but also hinders the development of any
old germs which may not have been destroyed by any process to which the fish or other
substance has been previously submitted.
The antiseptic ice may also be applied to other uses such for example as for medicinal,
surgical or therapeutic purposes.
Dated this 9th day of December 1887.
J. C. MEWBURN,
169, Fleet Street, London,
Agent.

page_text: An Improvement in or relating to the Preservation of Fish and other
Substances, and a Novel Preparation of Antiseptic Material for
Use therefor or for other Purposes.
I AUGUST RICHARD ROOSEN, of 24 Cremon, Hamburg, Germany, Merchant, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
It is well known that cold or a low temperature delays putrefaction in food substances,
while moisture promotes decay. When therefore, ice is placed upon substances to be
preserved, and such ice melts, the resulting ice-water which drips or runs over the
substances, prepares the way for rapid decay, in the development of bacteria or bacilli,
and putrefaction follows, as soon as the temperature rises by the entire melting of the
ice or of the greater portion thereof. Water, if not distilled, or otherwise sterilized,
contains germs of bacteria or bacilli and it has been proved that the freezing of water
does not destroy these. The cold may benumb them or render them torpid, but they
revive as soon as the temperature rises slightly above or reaches the freezing point.
Ordinary ice-water, therefore often presents a fresh supply of bacteria to the substances
to be preserved by the ice.
I have also found, by experience, that borax, boracic acid, and other well known
antiseptics, when used for preserving food substances, require a low temperature for
preventing or retarding putrefaction. Boracic acid, for instance, (when a 3 per cent.
solution is employed) is capable, when the temperature remains at 55° Fahrenheit, of
preventing putrefaction for at least 4 weeks; but when the temperature rises above 60°
Fahrenheit, bacteria or bacilli soon appear and set up putrefactive changes; and
with a temperature varying between 65° Fahrenheit and 104° Fahrenheit, fish placed
in a 3 per cent. solution of boracic acid, begin to putrefy in about 48 hours. It is
therefore necessary when fish or other food substances are to be preserved by means of an
antiseptic or antiseptics, to keep them cool in order that the antiseptic may be effective.
When, however, ice is used for reducing the temperature, the water which the
melting ice produces washes away the antiseptic powder or substance sprinkled over
or mixed with the fish for the purpose of preservation, and leaves the fish to the
destructive action of germs contained in the water and which are not then interfered.
The same result takes place when the antiseptic is mixed with crushed ice packed over
the substance to be preserved, for in this case, the melting ice clears itself as well as
the substance to be preserved, of the antiseptic.
Now my invention consists in the preparation of antiseptics in a frozen state, that
is to say: in the form of antiseptic ice and in the employment of this antiseptic ice in
the preservation of fish and other substances whereby the difficulties and objections due
to the use of ordinary ice are overcome.

page_text: In order to make or prepare the antiseptic ice I take pure water either boiled,
distilled or filtered and dissolve therein the required proportion of antiseptic and 1
then freeze the solution. Any of the well known antiseptics or any antiseptic
mixture capable of being frozen when dissolved in water can be employed, and the
proportion can be varied as thought best; I may employ as much of the antiseptic as
can be dissolved in the water at a temperature of about 32°.
In employing the antiseptic ice in the preservation of fish or other substances it is
packed or placed with or over the substances and this may be done in the same way as
has been practised with ordinary ice. It is a true preventive of putrefaction because
in reducing the temperature of the substances it not only benumbs or renders torpid
the bacilli or bacteria therein but destroys them since the antiseptic ice water which
follows when the ice melts absolutely kills them.
The antiseptic ice may also be applied to other uses such for example as for medicinal,
surgical, or therapeutic purposes.
There is not any novelty in the use of cold and antiseptics combined, as for instance
by mixing or dissolving antiseptics in ice water or by reducing the temperature of
antiseptics by adding ice to a solution containing them, or by keeping the antiseptics
cold in cooling chambers; but what I do consider novel is the uniting and attaching of
cold to an antiseptic by freezing an antiseptic solution so as to present both effects in
a single body that is to say, to make ice a direct antiseptic by dissolving an antiseptic
in pure water and freezing the solution.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is
1. The novel preparation of antiseptic material hereinbefore described, that is to
say, antiseptic ice or an antiseptic solution in a frozen state, as set forth.
2. In the preservation of fish or other substances, the employment of antiseptic ice
or an antiseptic solution in a frozen state packed or placed with or over the substances
as set forth.
1
13
1000
J. C. MEWBURN,
169, Fleet Street, London,
Agent.