IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF FOOD FOR HOGS, DOGS, CATS, & POULTRY, & IN APPARATUS FOR THE SAME
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Spratt, of Camden Road Villas, Camden
Town, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF FOOD FOR HOGS, DOGS, CATS, &
POULTRY, & IN APPARATUS FOR THE SAME."
Sealed the 13th May 1862, and dated the 15th November 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Spratt at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 15th
November 1861.
I, JAMES SPRATT, of Camden Road Villas, Camden Town, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF FOOD FOR HOGS, DOGS, CATS, &
POULTRY, & IN APPARATUS FOR THE SAME," to be as follows:-
For making bread, biscuit, or meal for feeding dogs, cats, hogs, or poultry:
First, I crush, pound, grind, or pulverize the articles known as greaves, dregs,
scraps, the same being the residue left after the boiling down of animals, or
portions thereof, or of rough fat from tallow chandlers, fat melters, or
butcher's trimmings, and other such like matters. Secondly, I mix about one
part of the above in its divided or pulverized state with three, four, or niore
parts of flour, meal, shorts, pollard, or any farinaceous article; when duly
mixed I bake into biscuit or bread, as desired. Thirdly, I sometimes add to
the before-mentioned mixture various quantities of ground or granulated
charcoal, to constitute what may be termed a health diet, which mixture

page_text: corrects acidity, or morbid condition of the stomach, and assists the proper
digestion of these ingredients, thereby producing a general tone of good
health. Fourthly, for poultry I add further a small proportion of pulverized
bones and lime, by preference, oyster shell, pounded with a suitable. portion of
sulphur, capsicum, pepper, or spice, or the sweepings from the same, the object
being to keep up and stimulate the animal heat, and so predisposing the bird
to overcome humidity; & further, the combination of various elements for
producing health, flesh, bone, feathers, and the requisite properties to produce
an abundance of eggs, all of which are included in one kind of diet, together
with the necessary facilities for digestion, which last I obtain by adding a
proper quantity of gizard grit, dissimilar in hardness, to approximate as much
as possible the state of nature in which birds select both sharp and soft
grit, for the abrasion and reduction of their food. After baking the above
biscuit or food, I sometimes pulverize it, when sufficiently conditioned, into a
powder or meal previous to use. The apparatus I use for reducing the
greaves or baked food consists of a series of circular saws, placed on an axis in
close proximity to each other, and all set at an angle to the axis, so as to
present somewhat the form of a cylinder, but which is somewhat oval in its
cross section, by reason of the inclination of the saws. This cylinder is driven
at a high velocity against the breast of a table, on which the greaves or biscuit
is pressed up against the cylinder, by which they are rapidly reduced.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Spratt in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 14th
May 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
Spratt, of Camden Road Villas, Camden Town, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said James Spratt, Her special licence that I, the said James Spratt, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Spratt, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any 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

page_text: vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION
OF FOOD FOR HOGS, DOGS, CATS, AND POULTRY, AND IN APPARATUS FOR THE SAME,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Spratt, my
executors or administrators, 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 James Spratt, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the follow-
ing statement (that is to say):-
:-
For making bread, biscuit, or meal, for feeding dogs, cats, hogs, and poultry:
First, I crush, pound, grind, or pulverize the article known as greaves, dregs,
or scraps, the same being the residue left after the boiling down of animals, or
portions thereof, or of rough fat from tallow chandlers, fat melters, or butcher's
trimmings, or other such like matters. Secondly, I mix about one part of the
above in its divided or pulverized state with three; four, or more parts of flour,
meal, pollard, or any farinaceous article; when duly mixed, I bake into bread
or biscuit, as desired. Thirdly, I sometimes add to the before-mentioned
mixture various quantities of ground or granulated charcoal, to constitute what
may be termed a health diet, which admixture corrects acidity or morbid
condition of the stomach, and assists the proper digestion of those ingredients,
thereby producing a general tone of good health. Fourthly, for poultry, I
further add a small proportion of pulverized bones and lime, by preference,
oyster shell, pounded with a suitable portion of sulphur, capsicum, pepper, or
spice, or the sweepings from the same, the object being to keep up and stimu-
late the animal heat, and so predisposing the bird to overcome humidity, and
further combining various elements for producing health, flesh, bones, and
feathers, &c., and the requisite properties to produce an abundance of eggs,
all of which is included in one kind of diet, together with the necessary means
of digestion, which last I obtain by adding the proper quantity of gizzard grit,
dissimilar in hardness, to approximate as much as possible the state of nature,
in which the birds select both sharp and soft grit, for the abrasion and reduc-
tion of their food. After baking the above biscuit or food, I sometimes
pulverize it, when sufficiently conditioned into a powder or meal, previous
to use.

page_text: The apparatus I use for reducing the greaves or the baked food, consists
of a series of circular saws, placed on an axis in close proximity to each
other, and all set at an angle to the axis, so as to present somewhat the
form of a cylinder, but which is somewhat oval in its cross section, by reason
of the inclination of. the saws; this cylinder is driven at a high velocity, and
against the breast of the table on which the greaves or biscuit is pressed up
against the cylinder, by which they are rapidly reduced.
In order to prevent the teeth of the saws clogging with the matters being
cut, I mount a clearer across the breast of the whole series above or below the
cutting point, or indeed it may be at any other point of their circumference;
this clearer is in the form of a comb, the teeth of which project between the
saws, and participates in the wabbling or lateral reciprocating motion of the
saws, the comb being mounted in suitable bearings to permit thereof. Each
of the comb teeth are broader at the point than elsewhere, that is to say, of a
short T form, the cross head of which abuts against the sides of the saws, and
so prevents contact with the teeth, and at same time communicates the lateral
motion from the saws to the comb.
Having described the nature of my Invention; and the manner of performing
the same, I declare that what I claim as. Invention to be protected by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, mixing and combining animal
matters such as greaves; dregs, or scraps, being the residue from boiling down
animals or portions thereof, or of rough fat from tallow chandlers, or fat
melters, or of butcher's and other trimmings, with farinaceous matters, as
herein-before described, for the purpose of feeding hogs, dogs, cats, and
poultry.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Sprätt, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Fourteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
JAMES SPRATT. (L.S.)