AN IMPROVED SUBSTANCE FOR PREVENTING DECOMPOSITION IN PROVISIONS, AND FOR THE METHOD OF MANUFACTURING THE SAME, AND OF CONDENSING AND APPLYING A CERTAIN GAS OR FUME TO CERTAIN PERISHABLE ARTICLES
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MICHAEL
FITCH, of Chelmsford, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Nineteenth day of September, in the eighth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Michael
Fitch, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the
said Michael Fitch, my exors, adiiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Michael Fitch, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times during the terms of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"AN IMPROVED SUBSTANCE FOR PREVENTING DECOMPOSITION IN PROVISIONS, AND FOR
THE METHOD OF MANUFACTURING THE SAME, AND OF CONDENSING AND APPLYING A
CERTAIN GAS OR FUME TO CERTAIN PERISHABLE ARTICLES;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said Michael Fitch, shall cause
a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
Price 22

page_text: , that, in compiance with the said proviso, 1, the said
Michael Fitch, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascer
tained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon
(that is to say)-
My Invention consists, first, of producing a substance to be used in pre-
venting decomposition in provisions; secondly, of the means used for producing
such substance; and, thirdly, of condensing and applying gas or fume evolved
in distilling wood to preventing meat and fish from perishing, by combining
such gas or fume with salt, sugar, treacle, or saltpetre, and then using such
materials for preserving purposes.
And in order that my Invention may be fully understood and readily
carried into effect 1 will proceed to describe the means pursued by me.
The substance constituting the first part of my Invention consists of com-
bining common salt with distilled products of wood, thus obtaining a material
or product to be used in place of common salt in the preserving of meat or
fish; and the provisions thus cured, being dried, will be flavored similarly to
those dried over wood fires; and the description of wood that I prefer to use is
oak, although I do not confine myself thereto; and the proportions that I have
found to answer best are as follows:-For every 6 cwt. of salt I add the vapour
arising from about 2 cwt. of wood combined together, as will be more parti-
cularly described.
In the retort
The Drawing shews the apparatus I employ for manufacturing the same.
A is an ordinary furnace similar to those placed under gas retorts. B is the
door of a retort, which is constructed similarly to a gas retort.
I place wood in pieces (preferring oak). The heat is applied sufficiently to
char the wood, and to cause gaseous matters to ascend up the pipe C. This
pipe passes through a refrigerator D. This refrigerator is intended to hold
cold water to condense a portion of the pyroligneous acid and other products
arising from the wood. The pipe, after passing through the refrigerator, is
made to descend into a receiver E, in which some portion of the wood products
in, a liquified state settle. This latter portion or residuum may be drawn off
from time to time, and carried away, for the purpose of the manufacture of pyro-
ligneous acid. I place in the top of the receiver E a pipe F, which is conducted
into a vat or vessel G, or several such vessels may be used. The products not
condensed are conveyed along the pipe F into the vessel or vessels G, in which
are placed machinery consisting of arms on a shaft, which I call agitators, turned
round by a wheel and pinion with a crank. The vessel G is charged with salt

page_text: by means of a door L in the end, which is made to fit air-tight. After the
salt has been put into the vats, the agitators are put in motion, and the salt in
the vats becomes intimately saturated or blended with the products so passing
through the pipe F, as before mentioned, the effect of which is to condense
those products or vapours.
I have found that within a period of from five to
six hours is sufficient to impregnate the salt. I recommend the vats to be
erected of a size sufficient to hold about eighteen hogsheads of liquid, in which
case the quantity of salt to be acted upon at each time in a single vat would
be from five to six hundred weight. Where using a vat of the size thus
described, the retort should be made sufficiently large to contain two hundred
weight of wood, and the refrigerator should be about ten feet long, and its
diameter about two feet, and the receiver should be about five feet high and
two feet six inches diameter. The receiver and the vats must all be strongly
built, as there is considerable pressure occasioned by the volatile products. At
the point M, I place a stop cock, which is connected with a pipe leading into
the chimney, and whenever the pressure becomes too great in the vats and
receiver the excessive pressure is let off into the chimney by turning that stop.
cock, or a safety valve may be used for such purpose. The extent of pressure
from time to time is easily ascertained by ordinary means and indicators
well known, and which can be affixed to the vats and receiver. The refri-
gerator may be made of iron, but the vats and receiver should be constructed
of wood. The substance composed of salt and distilled product of wood so
prepared is to be employed by rubbing it into the meat or fish to be preserved,
according to the ordinary plan, in the proportion of about one pound and a
half to twelve pounds of meat. In some cases I employ sugar, treacle, or salt-
petre, in place of salt, as a means of condensing distilled products of wood, and
being impregnated therewith, and using the gas or fumes thus condensed to
meat or fish, to preserve them; and in such case I cause the sugar, treacle, or
saltpetre to be acted on in the same manner as that described for common
salt; and the products thus obtained I use for preserving meat or fish in
the same manner as sugar, treacle, and saltpetre have been before used for
such purposes.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention, and the manner in which
the same is to be performed, I would have it understood that I do not confine
myself to the details above described. But what I claim is, the manu-
facture of the improved substance for preventing decomposition in provisions
composed of common salt and the products of distilled wood, as herein
described. Secondly, I claim the arrangement of apparatus shewn for manu-
facturing the same. Thirdly, I claim the condensing and applying products

page_text: of distilled wood, combined with sugar, treacle, or saltpetre, for preventing the
perishable articles of meat or fish from decomposing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Michael Fitch, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-five.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighteenth day of March, in
the year of our Lord 1845, the aforesaid Michael Fitch came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
ז
."
Ja Masch in the root of our Lord One