IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING MEAT, FISH, FRUITS, AND OTHER EATABLES FROM DECAY, AND FOR THE PUR- POSE OF THEIR BEING USED AS PROVISIONS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Bethell, of No. 8, Parliament Street, West-
minster, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING
MEAT, FISH, FRUITS, AND OTHER EATABLES FROM DECAY, AND FOR THE PUR-
POSE OF THEIR BEING USED AS PROVISIONS."
Sealed the 28th December 1855, and dated the 12th July 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Bethell at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th July
1855.
I, JOHN BETHELL, of No. 8, Parliament Street, Westminster, Gentleman,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PRESERVING MEAT, FISH, FRUITS, AND OTHER EATABLES FROM DECAY, AND FOR THE
PURPOSE OF THEIR BEING USED AS PROVISIONS," to be as follows:-
I preserve the above-named articles to be used as provisions by drying out
of them about 80 per cent. of the water usually contained in them, at a tem-
perature not exceeding that at which albuminous matter is coagulated; and
after such treatment these provisions will keep sweet in a dry place for a great
length of time, and will, after having been soaked in water for some time, be
restored to their original state of freshness and flavour.

page_text: In carrying out this process, the articles are cut into small pieces and dryed
for many hours in houses or other drying apparatus, kept constantly heated to
a temperature not exceeding 130 degrees of Fahreinheit, and whilst drying,
the articles are frequently turned over and exposed to the air.
The drying apparatus I prefer using, is that described in the Specification,
filed by me on the 21st February 1849, to my Patent, dated 21st day of
August 1848, for preserving animal and vegetable substances.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Bethell in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 11th
January 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BETHELL, of No. 8, Parliament Street, Westminster, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Bethell, Her special licence that I, the said John Bethell, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Bethell, or 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
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING
MEAT, FISH, FRUITS, AND OTHER EATABLES FROM DECAY, AND FOR THE PURPOSE OF
THEIR BEING USED AS PROVISIONS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said John Bethell, 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 John Bethell, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-

page_text: It is well known that putrefactive fermentation does not take place in
animal and vegetable bodies that are wholly or in a great measure deprived of
their water, as the albumen which they contain requires to be dissolved in a
certain portion of water before it will putrify, and hence, various modes of
drying and smoking these bodies have been adopted; but in all those which
have hitherto been used (while they have more or less succeeded in preserving
the articles from decay), the juices have been so acted upon by the heat
employed, and by the rapid drying, as to become to a very great degree, if not
entirely, insoluble; and therefore soups, broths, and gravies could not be made
from the animal matters so dried, nor syrups nor soups from the fruits and
vegetables; besides which, the heat employed and the rapid drying has to a
great extent volatilized and driven off along with the water the peculiar and
essential oils, in which the flavour generally exists; and therefore the articles
so prepared and preserved when used have been comparatively flavourless and
insipid.
This Invention has, therefore, for its object the remedying of these defects,
and consists in a method or methods of very slowly drying animal and
vegetable substances within kilns, houses, or chambers, in an atmosphere
rendered as anhydrous or dry as possible, and the temperature of which is
regulated at from 90 to 130 degrees of Fahrenheit, but which latter tempe-
rature is on no account to be exceeded (albumen not being coagulated at that
heat), whereby the juices of the articles so dried remain in a soluble state.
The atmosphere so employed in the said kilns, houses, or chambers I render
anhydrous or as dry as possible, in order to absorb readily the water which is
driven off from the substances to be dried.
The substances to which this Invention has more especial reference are
provisions, such as meat, fish, fruit, and culinary vegetables; and the manner
in which I carry it into practice is as follows:-
I cut these articles into small pieces and deposit them in thin layers on trays
of wire gauze or perforated zinc, and place the trays on shelves in kilns or
other drying houses, which I maintain at the required temperature, which
never exceeds 130° degrees of Fahrenheit, and keep them full of an atmosphere
of common air, which I render as dry as possible previously to its admission
into the kilns, by passing it through burning coke or charcoal, or anthracite
coal, or by any other process that will render it dry, or quickly absorbent of
the moisture driven off from the substances upon the trays, the said substances
while drying being frequently turned over and exposed to the said atmosphere,
and the process continued until from 60 to 80 per cent. of their constituent

page_text: water has been driven off, the precise quantity of water so evaporated being
regulated to meet the special requirements of each article. The temperature
which I have found most convenient and answer best is from 90 to 100 degrees
of Fahrenheit. In the case of animal substances I prefer to crush them,
so as to disintegrate their particles, instead of or in addition to simply cutting
them in pieces previously to their being dried in the kilns.
The drying apparatus described in the Specification filed by me, to my
Patent of 21 August 1848, for preserving animal and vegetable substances,
answers very well for this Invention also, but it must be supplied with the
dry atmosphere, and of the temperature as above described.
INO PETHELL
INO BETHELY
(2.0.)