IMPROVEMENTS IN COOLING BACON-CURING ROOMS OR CHAMBERS
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Andrew Boyd, of 11, Duke Street, South-
wark, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN COOLING BACON-CURING
ROOMS OR CHAMBERS."
Sealed the 7th September 1866, and dated the 10th March 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Andrew Boyd
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,, with his Petition, on
the 10th March 1866.
I, ROBERT ANDREW BOYD, of T1, Duke Street, Southwark, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN. COOLING
BACON-CUBING ROOMS OR CHAMBERS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in cooling bacon-curing
rooms or chambers. Heretofore bacon-curing rooms or chambers have very
generally been constructed underground. In some cases these curing rooms
or chambers have been cooled by having ceilings of iron on which ice has
been placed, and in others ice has been placed within the curing rooms or
chambers; sometimes also brine or liquid cooled by ice or cooling mixtures
has been caused to circulate through pipes within the curing rooms or
chambers. Now my Invention consists in causing atmospheric air to enter a
bacon-curing room or chamber through pipes or narrow passages cooled by ice
or freezing mixtures, by which the air is cooled. The atmospheric air is
constantly removed from the upper part of the bacon-curing room or chamber

page_text: by a fan or other suitable exhausting apparatus, and forced through the
cooling apparatus again into the curing room or chamber, and to ensure
sufficient ventilation fresh atmospheric air is introduced as may be required,
whilst part of the air previously in the room or chamber is allowed to escape.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Andrew Boyd in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 10th September 1866.
.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
ANDREW BOYD, of 11, Duke Street, Southwark, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and succèssors, give and grant unto me,
the said Robert Andrew: Boyd, Her special licence, that I, the said Robert
Andrew Boyd, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Robert Andrew Boyd, 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN COOLING BACON-CURING ROOMS OR CHAMBERS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Robert Andrew Boyd, 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 Robert Andrew Boyd, 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
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in cooling bacon-curing
rooms or chambers. Heretofore bacon-curing rooms or chambers have very
generally been constructed underground. In some cases these curing rooms
or chambers have been cooled by having ceilings of iron on which ice has

page_text: been placed, and in others ice has been placed within the curing rooms or
chambers. Sometimes also brine or liquid cooled by ice or cooling mixtures
has been caused to circulate through pipes within the curing rooms or
chambers. Now my Invention consists in causing atmospheric air to enter a
bacon-curing room or chamber through pipes or narrow passages cooled by
icc or freezing mixtures, by which the air is cooled. The atmospheric air is
constantly removed from the upper part of the bacon-curing room or chamber
by a fan or other suitable exhausting apparatus, and forced through the
cooling apparatus again into the curing room or chamber, and to ensure
sufficient ventilation fresh atmospheric air is introduced as may be required,
whilst part of the air previously in the room or chamber is allowed to escape.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, I will proceed more fully to
describe the manner of performing the same.
It
The construction and arrangement of the apparatus employed may be varied,
and I would state that separate from their uso in combination with a curing
chamber no claim is made thereto. The arrangement preferred is to place
numerous pipes or tubes side by side at the bottom of a chamber or ice houso
contiguous to the curing room or chamber, so that the pipes or tubes may at
all times have above them a large quantity of ice. Below the pipes or tubes,
at the bottom of the ice house or chamber, provision is to be made for the
free drainage off of the water resulting from the melting of the ice. The
quantity of pipes or tubes is to be such as to insure the cooling of such a
quantity of air to a temperature below 45° of Fahrenheit as will enable the
workman to keep the curing room or chamber to about 45° of Fahrenbicit,
and it is in practice found important that the temperature of the atmosphere
in the curing room or chamber should not rise above 48° of Fahrenheit.
is desirable that the extent of surface of the pipes or tubes cooled by the ice
or cooling mixture should be in excess of the general requirement, in order to
provide against special occasions when the heat of the outer atmosphere
becomes greater than usual, and by such arrangement of the pipes or tubes
the air may be allowed to remain a proportionally long time in the pipes or
tubes, which is desirable. The quantity of pipes or tubes requisite in each case
will depend on the dimensions of the curing room or chamber; a fan or fans
or other exhausting or pumping apparatus is or are used to withdraw the air
from the curing room or chamber, and to force it again through the pipes or
tubes, and thence into the curing room or chamber. The speed of such appa-
ratus will be varied by the workman according to requirement in order to
maintain the temperature of the atmosphere in the curing room or chamber as
Dear as may be to 45° of Fabicubeit. It is desirable that the cooled air

page_text: should be introduced into the curing room or chamber at or near the floor
and at numerous openings or passages, so as to distribute the cooled air as
uniformly as may be throughout the curing room or chamber, and it is further
desirable that the air from the curing room or chamber should pass off there-
from at the upper part or ceiling, and at numerous openings in connection
with passages in communication with the fan or other exhausting apparatus,
fresh air being allowed by the workman to flow into such passages or ex-
hausting apparatus, and part of the previous atmosphere of the curing room
or chamber being allowed to escape as the workman may judge necessary, in
order that the atmosphere in the curing room or chamber may be kept as
pure and free from animal exudations as may be required.
In order to facilitate the keeping of the atmosphere of the curing rooms or
chambers at a temperature as near as may be to 45° of Fahrenheit, I have
one or more passages formed through the ice house communicating with the
curing rooms; through these at the earlier stage and process of curing I pass
the divided carcases in order that they may be cooled down to about 45° of
Fahrenheit before they are conveyed into the curing room, otherwise tho
placing of a large quantity of comparatively warm meat in the curing room or
chamber tends largely to increase the temperature of the atmosphere therein
to the prejudice of other meat already therein, and which is undergoing the
process of curing; and it is also desirable that the workmen employed in the
curing room should be as few as possible, and that they should remain therein
as short a time only as may be necessary for well performing the requisite
work.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Andrew Boyd, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
ROB. A. BOYD. (L.8.)