Improved Method and Means for Preserving Food and other Substances, and for Supplying Sterilised Air to Rooms and other Enclosed Spaces.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 19th Aug., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 1st May, 1894-Accepted, 9th June, 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improved Method and Means for Preserving Food and other
Substances, and for Supplying Sterilised Air to Rooms and
other Enclosed Spaces.
I, JEAN EFFRONT of 2 Rue de l'Union, Brussels in the Kingdom of Belgium,
Doctor, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention has for its object a system of permanently preserving food or
other substances which it is impossible to prevent coming in contact with the air,
and it consists in a mode of procedure by allowing the air which must come in
contact with such substances to be radically sterilised, the substances are
consequently presumed to be contained in vessels to which the air has no access
except by a part which is fitted with the sterilising apparatus.
The sterilising process, or rather the apparatus, is based on the principle that a
layer of air passing over a moist surface will leave on this moist surface all the
microbes and bacteria which it contains, so that, if the place where air is admitted
into a suitably closed vessel is provided with an apparatus forcing such air to
circulate over bygroscopic surfaces, or zig-zags, before its access into the vessel,
this latter will only contain absolutely sterile air which will not in any wise alter the
food or other substances which it encounters in this receptacle.
The sterilising effect may be rendered still more reliable and efficacious by
completing the absorbent action of the hygroscopic surface by the exterminating
action of antiseptics preventing the microbes and bacteria from co-existing
with them. Thus, by mixing with the hygroscopic agent a suitable antiseptic, the
bacteria and microbes captured or retained by the moisture are simultaneously
exterminated by the antiseptic action, which guarantees the permanence of the
sterility of the air in the vessel.
It is evident that the nature, form, dimensions, in a word, the arrangement of
the sterilising apparatus or device, will vary with the size and the character of the
receptacle which is to be fed with sterilised air, and that the applications are of a
diversity corresponding to that of the substances which are to be maintained in the
sterilising medium, and even passing beyond the range of the simple preservation
of substances, the process may be applied with the same advantages to therapeutics,
and serves, following this train of ideas, for sterilising experimenting rooms as well
as for supplying sterilised air to a sick room hermetically closed on all sides and
provided with a chimney for renewing the air which does not allow the admission
of external air, and it is clear that, if the sterilising apparatus may be, for the first
applications, a simple glass tube suitably arranged, for the second it must have the
form of an actual passage with hygroscopic zig-zags in order to cope with the
quantity of air with which the room must be fed.
It is needless to state that the dimensions and the arrangements will be the same
for any sort of industrial exploitation, and where it is necessary in order to preserve
the worts in large brewer's vats, for instance, to have a sterilising apparatus of a
large section and provided with zig-zags, a bung arranged as a steriliser would
suffice for a simple cask of beer. As the invention will have very numerous
applications under the form of a preserving bung, it will now be described more in
detail under such form.
In this form it is shown in longitudinal section on the accompanying drawing.
The old bung or plug is replaced by a conical screw V, which fits into the bung
hole. The screw V has a small tap on its upper end, and it is surmounted by a
tube T of tinned iron or other suitable material. This tube contains hygroscopic

page_text: and antiseptic zig-zags, which are represented in this case by simple threads of
asbestos and of other suitable material, soaked in a liquid which does not easily
evaporate, such as glycerine, chloride of calcium, or other suitable substance, in
order to maintain, so to speak, permanently the hygroscopic condition of the
zig-zags and walls of the tube, and an antiseptic, such as hydrofluoric acid or some
other fluoride or other antiseptic, is mixed with this glycerine in order to realise
the results hereinbefore mentioned.
The threads of asbestos, etcetera, may be also replaced by broken pumice
stone, etcetera.
The tap R of the plug remains ordinarily closed, in order that the carbonic acid
shall not escape, and that the evaporation of the beer cannot take place in the plug
and cause condensation in the latter, a condensation which would otherwise be
collected in the bottom r of the head of the screw V. This tap is opened when it
is desired to draw the beer, and then the air traversing the plug is sterilised
completely and does not in any way affect the beer with which it comes in contact
in the cask, so that it is preserved precisely as if no air had come in contact with
the beer.
It would be superfluous to detail the form of sterilisation apparatus or device
necessary for each application, after what has been described herein before, seeing
that the arrangement alone would change with the modifications, all depending on
the same principle.
Dated this 18th day of August 1893.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Method and Means for Preserving Food and other
Substances, and for Supplying Sterilised Air to Rooms and
other Enclosed Spaces.
I, JEAN EFFRONT of 2 Rue de l'Union, Brussels in the Kingdom of Belgium,
Doctor, 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:-
This invention has for its object a system of permanently preserving food or
other substances which it is impossible to prevent coming in contact with the air,
and it consists in a mode of procedure by allowing the air which must come in
contact with such substances to be radically sterilised, the substances are
consequently presumed to be contained in vessels to which the air has no access
except by a part which is fitted with the sterilising apparatus.
The sterilising process, or rather the apparatus, is based on the principle that a
layer of air passing over a moist surface will leave on this moist surface all the
microbes and bacteria which it contains, so that, if the place where air is admitted
into a suitably closed vessel is provided with an apparatus forcing such air to
circulate over bygroscopic surfaces, or zig-zags, before its access into the vessel,
this latter will only contain absolutely sterile air which will not in any wise alter
the food or other substances which it encounters in this receptacle.
The sterilising effect may be rendered still more reliable and efficacious by
completing the absorbent action of the hygroscopic surface by the exterminating
action of antiseptics preventing the microbes and bacteria from co-existing
with them. Thus, by mixing with the hygroscopic agent a suitable antiseptic, the
bacteria and microbes captured or retained by the moisture are simultaneously
exterminated by the antiseptic action, which guarantees the permanence of the
sterility of the air in the vessel.

page_text: It is evident that the nature, form, dimensions, in a word, the arrangement of
the sterilising apparatus or device, will vary with the size and the character of the
receptacle which is to be fed with sterilised air, and that the applications are of a
diversity corresponding to that of the substances which are to be maintained in the
sterilising medium, and even passing beyond the range of the simple preservation
of substances, the process may be applied with the same advantages to therapeutics,
and serves, following this train of ideas, for sterilising experimenting rooms as well
as for supplying sterilised air to a sick room hermetically closed on all sides and
provided with a chimney for renewing the air which does not allow the admission
of external air, and it is clear that if the sterilising apparatus may be, for the first
applications, a simple glass tube suitably arranged, for the second it must have the
form of an actual passage with hygroscopic zig-zags in order to cope with the
quantity of air with which the room must be fed.
It is needless to state that the dimensions and the arrangements will be the same
for any sort of industrial exploitation, and where it is necessary in order to
preserve the worts in large brewer's vats, for instance, to have a sterilising
apparatus of a large section and provided with zig-zags, a bung arranged as a
steriliser would suffice for a simple cask of beer. As the invention will have very
numerous applications under the form of a preserving bung, it will now be described
more in detail under such form.
In this form it is shown in longitudinal section on the drawing accompanying the
Provisional Specification.
The old bung or plug is replaced by a conical screw V, which fits into the bung
hole. The screw V has a small tap on its upper end, and it is surmounted by a
tube T of tinned iron or other suitable material. This tube contains hygroscopic
and antiseptic zig-zags, which are represented in this case by simple threads of
asbestos and of other suitable material, soaked in a liquid which does not easily
evaporate, such as glycerine, chloride of calcium, or other suitable substance, in
order to maintain, so to speak, permanently the hygroscopic condition of the
zig-zags and walls of the tube, and an antiseptic, such as hydrofluoric acid or some-
other fluoride or other antiseptic, is mixed with this glycerine in order to realise
the results herein before mentioned.
The threads of asbestos, etcetera, may be also replaced by broken pumice.
stone, etcetera.
The tap R of the plug remains ordinarily closed, in order that the carbonic acid
shall not escape, and that the evaporation of the beer cannot take place in the plug
and cause condensation in the latter, a condensation which would otherwise be
collected in the bottom of the head of the screw V. This tap is opened when it
is desired to draw the beer, and then the air traversing the plug is sterilised com--
pletely and does not in any way affect the beer with which it comes in contact in
the cask, so that it is preserved precisely as if no air had come in contact with.
the beer.
It would be superfluous to detail the form of sterilisation apparatus or device.
necessary for each application, after what has been described hereinbefore, seeing
that the arrangement alone would change with the modifications, all depending on.
the same principle.
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. An improved method and means for permanently preserving food and other-
substances which it is impossible to keep without contact with the air, by depriving
the air which must come in contact with such food or other substances of any
microbes and bacteria which it may contain, by passing it through a steriliser
having hygroscopic surfaces, substantially as herein before described and for the
purpose set forth.
2. The extermination of microbes and bacteria caught on the hygroscopic:

page_text: surfaces by mixing an antiseptic, such as hydro-fluoric acid, fluorides or the like
with the liquid used for moistening these hygroscopic surfaces or zig-zags,
substantially as described and shown.
3. An improved steriliser adapted for use as a bung for casks for beer and other
liquids, consisting of a conical screw V with a tap R surmounted by a tube of
tinned iron containing antiseptic hygroscopic surfaces or zig-zags in the form of
threads of asbestos, broken pumice stone, substantially as herein before described
and shown on the drawing accompanying the Provisional Specification.
Dated this 30th day of April 1894.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, Agents for the Applicant.