IMPROVEMENTS IN FREEZING, SHIPPING AND PRESERVING MEAT AND OTHER PROVISIONS, AND IN THE MACHINERY AND APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREFOR
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Julius Jeffreys, of Upper Norwood, in the County
of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FREEZING, SHIPPING
AND PRESERVING MEAT AND OTHER PROVISIONS, AND IN THE MACHINERY AND
APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREFOR."
Sealed the 1st April 1869, and dated the 6th October 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Julius Jeffreys at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
6th October 1868.
I, JULIUS JEFFREYS, of Upper Norwood, in the County of Surrey, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
FREEZING, SHIPPING, AND PRESERVING MEAT AND OTHER PROVISIONS, AND IN THE
MACHINERY AND APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREFOR," to be as follows :-
In the following Specification is briefly described an extensive plant
of many original details for freezing, shipping, and preserving frozen
large cargoes of meat and other provisions, this Provisional Specification
being an extended and improved form of that bearing date the 29th day.
of July last (No. 2384).

page_text: I freeze the meat or other substance in flat boxes, say a yard square
and 5 to 10 inches deep, the broad sides being the freezing surfaces are
of sheet iron, the narrow sides are of deal board for non-conduction.
To preserve the flavor of the meat and keep it from being bruised I
embed it in seasoned soup made of all available parts of the slaughtered
animals not packed as meat. I utilize also their blood mixed with
slaked lime and sulphate of lime for cement for rendering the boxes
soup-tight and even air-tight.
I make the boxes by machinery, thus:-An upright frame of four
stanchions 3 feet apart suspends within it a trunk three feet square.
Down the intervening slits a plunger descending from above pushes
four boards to form the sides of a box. Two of them, three feet long,
are overlapped at their ends by two of 3 feet in length, the thickness
being 1 inches, the breadth of the boards forming the depth of a box,
say, is 9 inches for the deeper boxes, and 4 ditto for the shallower.
The boards are planed smooth on the inside and grooved along both
their outer edges to receive cement. Four trenches projecting from
the 4 sides of the frame alternately contain long and short boards, in
dozens, and drawn in towards the frame by weights. The ends of the
short boards while entering the frame press against and cause to revolve
round perforated cans, which print on them cement which the cans
contain. A square plunger, already mentioned, in rising out of the
frame slits allows four boards to enter them, and then descending pushes
them down a stage. Two swinging frames at opposite sides of the main
frame and carrying each two sets of, say, 5 drills with a rose at the
shoulder of each approach the overlapping ends of the box sides and
drill holes in them, rosing also the mouths of the holes. The drill frame
then swings back and a hinged frame swinging like a door or flap has
along its outer edge a revolving rail turned by a fixed wheel acting on
an arched rack and carrying equidistant pincers, each of which at the
back stroke of the frame seizes a nail lodged in a groove in a travelling
band. By the forward stroke of the frame the nails are pushed into
the drilled holes and the pincers thrown open by a bolt on each striking
the board at the same moment. There are four of these flap frames
acting simultaneously at the four corners of the box to be made. The
flaps are then turned back and two hinged frames carrying rows of
hammers back to back and acting at both strokes drive the four rows
of nails home. The made box frame then drops from the trunk and

page_text: passes to a bottoming machine which forces it down upon a square sheet
of iron 14 inches larger than the box on all sides and ready fluted along
its edges and notched at the corners in a stamping machine. Or the
iron sheet is pressed down on the box and the edges of the sheet turned
over those of the box by the bars of a square frame descending round
the box instead of the box descending into the frame as in the other
alternative. The flutes around the sheet then press into the grooves
round the edges of the box (mentioned in the preparation of its boards),
the groove round that edge of the box being previously filled with
cement of the same kind as that placed across the ends of the side
boards. The iron sheet is then nailed along its flutes into the grooves
of the box thus:-Opposite two opposite sides of the box two oblong
frames, one near each side, are hinged to the framework of the machine
and swing vertically towards the box like a hanging door or flap. These
frames are mounted at a right angle along their outer edge with, say,
18 conical and pointed steel punches. By a cam action from the
driving shaft the frame springs forward and its punches prick holes
along the bed of the flutes in the sheets. On this frame receding it is
followed by a frame swinging on an opposite axis, which frame along
its outer edge is mounted with a row of 18 small pincers, each of which
on a previous back stroke of this frame has picked up a nail from a
horizontal row of parallel nails bedded in equidistant grooves (say
2 inches apart) in an endless metallic band which moves a yard at a
stage and receives a nail in each groove from a hopper of nails; by
jogging it in passing at the forward stroke of the nail frame its charge
of nails is severally deposited in the punched holes in the sheet, and
the nails are held until they are fixed by a gentle blow from the
hammers of a revolving hammer frame. The nail frame then recedes
and the nails are driven home by sharper blows from the hammer
frame, which swings over the nail frame, but with a larger radius so as
to escape the latter through striking the same line; the box then
turns with its bed (like a turntable) one quarter of a circle, that is two
other sides may face the nailing apparatus, and the other two sheet iron
edges be nailed down.
I clear from grease the soup used by means of a blower projecting air
down the back edge of the containing vat, which air reacts against the
surface of the liquid and drives all floating grease over a broad lip in.
front. The vat is suspended on trunnions and gradually tilted to draw

page_text: off all
grease; the soup is then strained by running through an inclined
cylindrical gauze strainer which revolves on an axis, and has within
it a dregs tray into which brushes acting exterior to and through the
gauze sweep the dregs. The meat to be frozen is packed, cut into joints,
in the boxes with added soup just enough to fill all interstices and softly
.embed the meat, the soup being previously seasoned with salt. The
packed boxes then pass onwards to a capping machine exactly similar
to the bottoming machine in the form where the bottom is fixed on the
box which is then turned over. The packed boxes then pass along an
inclined roller way to the freezing trunk, described in my former Pro-
visional Specification, but which is horizontal, not inclined, and consists
of two stories. The boxes running on to a stage which travels across
the trench at the rear of the upper trunk are tilted by it into an upright
position to enter the broad passages of the upper trunk, all the passages
having rollers sunk in their floors. The chilling current whether liquid
or gaseous travels along the intervening narrow passages between those
of the boxes, and is ultimately collected into one current in a pipe
conveying it into the chilling chamber adjoining the ether chamber.
Each line of, say, 60 boxes is pushed into the trunk by a travelling
block to the rear of which is fixed a horizontal screw urged by a
revolving nut reacting against friction rollers. Gear extending from
a driving shaft above turns the nut both ways that the pushing block
may at will advance or recede. The block on advancing a second stage
pushes forwards all the boxes of each line to the end of the trunk, and
thus any one or more lines can be left stationary. I prefer this pushing
of the lines of boxes from behind to drawing them with endless bands
lying along the passages. At the further extremity of the upper trunk
its floor under half of the last row of boxes is hinged and suspended by
a screw and nut with a joint and swivel connection, which in descending
inverts the boxes on succesive hinged steps. As this furthermost
transverse row of boxes descends to the level of the lower trunk it is
pushed by similar pushing blocks to those behind the upper trunk along
the freezing passages of the lower trunk forcing before them all the line
of boxes in any of or in all the passages. But before the lines of boxes
are pushed on the front frozen boxes in the lower trunk are let down out
of their way by the floor under them descending on a screw lowered by
the revolving of a nut supporting the screw. The row of released
boxes is then driven forward from under the trunk along grooved roller
warp which converge until all the boxes are in contact, when the trunk

page_text: passages are instantly closed below to receive the next stage of boxes
pushed on. The boxes of the released row are brought together by a
press and have four straps of strong band iron nailed across them by
another cross press, against the opposite faces of which the iron straps
are ready lodged with nails projecting through them which the press
forces into the ends of all the overlapping boards of the box sides, so
as to form the boxes into one package, the straps projecting about six
inches beyond one side of the package. The package then runs on an
inclined roller way towards a ship's stern port, approaching which the
package runs upon a stage like a "lift," and descends vertically like it
to the varying level of the ship's hold, which it then enters, when the
four strap ends of the package (already mentioned) are seized by 4
pincers closed by lever handles, which pincers are fixed to a frame
suspended above the package. The short roller way leading from the
descending stage to the port hole being made to drop leaves the package
suspended to the pincer frame. This frame is suspended by pulley
tackle to the axis of a pair of groove-edged wheels running upon two
parallel lines of bar iron which ride on staples screwed into the ceiling
or deck over the ship's hold, and extend fore and aft over the length
of the bed in which the cargo of packages is to be stowed. There are
fore and aft parallel lines of these pairs of rails about a yard apart over
the width of a stowing bed. At the head and stern ends of this system of
longitudinal rails there is a transverse or a thwart strip line of double
rails which is divided opposite the ends of the fore and aft lines into six
inch sections, each suspended by a swivel to the ceiling to admit of its
being turned for shunting the packages along any of the fore and aft
lines to their proper places, where they can be lowered by the pulley
tackle and their straps released from the gripe of the pincer frame by
easing its lever handles from a catch. The leading wheel of the fixed
pulley of the pulley tackle has a ratchet edge for receiving a pall in it
and a friction break on it, both pall and break being part of a bent lever
turning on a hinge for letting the load run and for easing it down.
As a source of cold for freezing while providing for the employment
of other vapors and condensed air I prefer ether. To accelerate its
evaporation, and its chilling action on the freezing current (whether a
liquid or air) and its subsequent condensation I employ the following
means: I have oblong sheets of copper stamped with flutes in parallel
pairs connected by transverse flutes at the further end of the sheet,.

page_text: each pair being somewhat U-shaped. This fluted sheet being faced by
a similar sheet, the two sheets are soldered and seamed together along
their two sides and further end. At the hither end the edges are turned
back and soldered to similar edges or flanges of like pairs of sheets on
either side; a number of such tubular sheet conductors have their
edges thus united over the bars of a gridiron frame having broad
flanged edges which are bolted against those of a gridiron, the bars of
which are notched over the mouths of the tubes. One or two sets
of such chilling tubes having one, two, or more dozen pairs of sheets in
each set have their gridiron mouth fixed to and opening into the bottom
of the ether vessel. Rapid motion of the ether or other evaporating
fluid in the chilling tubes, and a minute subdivision of it, forming an
essential part of my plan. A centrifugal fan acting over one-half
of the mouth of the bottom gridiron frame drives ether lying in the
vessel down that half of the tubes to sweep round their course, and
rise up the other half of the tubes into the vessel again and in the
form of a showering fountain, it being propelled through a conical tube
terminating in a large minutely perforated rose.
A similar sheet-tube system is fixed over the top of the ether vessel,
but in it the flutes run through the upper end of the sheets, the tubes
ending in a gridiron frame at top as well as into the ether vessel
below. This system of tubes conveys the ether vapor to the condensing
pumps while the surface of the tubes is wetted by the spray of the
evaporating liquid. The ether vessel is an upright cylinder with
rounded ends and is enclosed by a casing in and down which flows
the freezing liquid to be chilled; this liquid crosses through the upper
system of ether vapor tubes twice or thrice, then over the surface of
the vessel, and then through the lower system of ether tubes, whence
passing through a main pipe to the freezing trunks it is driven through,
first the lower, then the upper by a centrifugal fan. The current then
returns to the casing surrounding the ether vessel, which casing is
covered by a thick non-conducting jacket.
In condensing the ether vapor I employ a succession of pumps
decreasing in size, between which intervene like systems of sheet con-
ductors to the liquid ether ones. The water condensing the ether
vapor is cooled by open-air evaporation. Breadths of the sleazy Indian
bag cloth "gunny" are made into long endless bands like jack towels,
and ranged in rows upon long rollers suspended high and kept constantly

page_text: revolving.. The lower turns of the bands pass round rollers fixed in water
troughs; the water travelling up and down and exposed to the wind
soon falls to the due point; the whole being screened from the sun by
a thatch.
For preserving in their frozen condition cargoes or other stores of
meat which have been well frozen I lodge together the packages of
boxes into one solid mass so as to avoid any interstices, and I keep a
double current of chilled air in constant circulation over the whole
surface of the mass, as described in my former Provisional Specification.
Blowers or fanners draw the currents from the chilling chamber
surrounding the ether or ammonia vessel when ammonia is used, and
containing the series of sheet metal chilling tubes, and I drive it along
air passages traversing lengthways an air casing surrounding everywhere
the block of boxes. As all these currents meet and oppose each other
round the further extremity of the block they are forced to spread
laterally through channels loosely packed with wool and lined with
sheet tin or tinfoil paper to avoid leakage and radiation inwards of
heat, so that chilled air traverses every part of the surface and is then
conveyed by the wool channels round the edges of a mattressing to
continuous wool channels in a universal casing exterior to the
former, which channels discharge the collecting currents into return
passages which convey them to the main return pipe. This pipe
terminates in the upper part of the chilling case surrounding the ether
vessel.
For the freezing fluid used in the meat freezing trunks I either
employ a chilled current of air as named in my former Provisional
Specification or combine spirit with common brine, or I employ solutions
of chlorides or sulphates of the other alkaline and earthy bases, also
alkaline nitrates.
30 SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Julius Jeffreys in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 6th April 1869.
MA
ATT
WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME I
TULICS
30 SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Julius Jeffreys in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 6th April 1869.
JULIS
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME. I
JEFFREYS, of Upper Norwood, in the County of Surrey, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Julius Jeffreys, Her
special licence that I, the said Julius Jeffreys, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Julius Jeffreys,
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 FREEZING, SHIPPING, AND PRESERVING MEAT AND OTHER
PROVISIONS, AND IN THE MACHINERY AND Apparatus EMPLOYED THEREFOR
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Julius Jeffreys,
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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Julius Jeffreys, 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:-
In the following Specification is described an extensive plant of many
original details for freezing, shipping, and preserving frozen large cargoes
of meat and other provisions; this Specification being an extended and
improved form of that of my Patent bearing date the 29th day of July
last (No. 2384).
I freeze the meat or other substance in flat boxes, say a yard square
and 5 to 10 inches deep, the broad sides being the freezing surfaces are
of sheet iron, the narrow sides are of deal board for non-conduction.
To preserve the flavor of the meat, and keep it from being bruised, I
embed it in seasoned soup made of all available parts of the slaughtered
animals not packed as meat. I utilize also their blood mixed with slaked
lime and sulphate of lime for cement for rendering the boxes soup tight,
and even air-tight.

page_text: I make the boxes by machinery thus: An upright frame of four
stanchions 3 feet apart, suspends within it a trunk three feet square,
which is surrounded by a casing. Down the intervening slits a plunger
descends from above, pushing down four boards to form the sides of a
box. Two of them, three feet long, are overlapped at their ends by two
of 3 feet in length, the thickness being 1 inches; the breadth of the
boards forming the depth of a box, say is 9 inches for the deeper boxes,
and 4 ditto for the shallower. The boards are planed smooth on the
inside, and grooved along both their outer edges to receive cement.
Four trenches or guide troughs projecting from the four sides of the
frame alternately contain long and short boards in dozens, they are
drawn in towards the trunk by weights. The ends of the short boards
while entering the frame press against and cause to revolve round per-
forated cans, which print on them cement which the cans contain. A
square plunger already mentioned in rising out of the slits or openings
around the trunk allows four boards to enter them, and then descending
pushes them down a stage. Two swinging frames at opposite sides of
the main frame, and carrying each two sets of, say, five drills with a
rose at the shoulder of each, approach the overlapping ends of the box
sides, and drill holes in them, rosing also the mouths of the holes. The
drill frame then swings back, and a hinged frame swinging like a door
or flap has along its outer edge a revolving rail turned by a fixed wheel
acting on an arched rack, and carrying equidistant pincers, each of
which at the back stroke of the frame seizes a nail lodged in a groove
in a travelling band. By the forward stroke of the frame the nails are
pushed into the drilled holes, and the pincers thrown open by a bolt on
cach striking the board at the same moment. There are four of these
flap frames acting simultaneously at the four corners of the box to be
made. The flaps are then turned back, and two hinged frames carrying
rows of hammers back to back, and acting at both strokes drive the four
rows of nails home. The made box frame then drops from the trunk,
and passes to a bottoming machine.
Figure 1 of the Drawings hereunto annexed is a plan with the upper
part removed of a machine for mailing together the four boards forming
the wooden sides of the freezing boxes; Figures 2 and 3 are side and end
views of the machine. a, a, are four stanchions, supporting within them
the square trunk b, but leaving a groove or space all round, into which
four boards at a time are pushed from four trays c, c, by a travelling

page_text: rack in each tray, drawn in by weights attached to them by cords
passing over pulleys. The plunger or follower d is a square block or
head with four boards fixed round it, and projecting down and around
the inner trunk b. At each descent of the follower these planks push
down the narrow passage, the four boards entering it from the trays.
By the same movement a finished set of box sides strongly united is
pushed out of the machine below. The follower is raised by a crank e
and rod, shown in side view at Figure 4. The rod oscillates between
two stems g, g, fixed in the head of the follower, and the rod ends
below in a boss or head f', with a shoulder on each side, which travels
up and down a groove in each stem g. The boss is perforated to
receive a bolt h, passing through the stems, which bolt enters the
boss as it passes.
The bolt is jointed to a short arm i, which turns
on a pin passing through a bracket fixed on the stem
through a longer arm which has a weight l'at its other end.
and also
This arm
As the
can be turned on the pin joint backward and forward, being stopped
either way when nearly at right angles with the bolt arm by a stud on
either side projecting from it. The two arms then form a crooked lever,
the weight driving the bolt into the crank rod or drawing it out
according as the long arm is tilted to the left or to the right.
l
follower & rises by the upward tension of the crank rod fon its stems
a lug projecting from the long lever armat its hinge presses against
a pin a' standing out from a bar carried by the stanchions, which pin
throws the lever over to that side to jerk back the bolt out of the crank
rod. At the same moment a parallel bolt h' bracketed on the long bolt
and receding with it ceases to keep back a catch m, which then springs
forward over a bar a carried by the stanchions. The follower d is thus
suspended on the bar the moment it ceases to be supported by the crank
rod. By pulling the cord n when the lug is in the dotted position the
lever and weight are turned back into their former position, and the
bolth enters the hole in the crank rod directly it comes opposite to it,
the other bolt ' at the same time driving back the catch m from off
the bar. As the follower d descends when it arrives near the bottom of
its stroke an arm d' projecting from it tilts back a catch o, which then
springs over it. On its rising again this catch pulls up the spring ? and
the attached cord or chain p' which passes under a grooved wheel p
and through a bar q' to which it is hooked or knotted. This bar is a
projection from a metal drill frame a hinged at its upper side to
the frame of the machine and carrying five drills q of which the

page_text: centre lines only are shown in each of its two legs which project
downwards. A round band q drives all the ten drills and is guided
by the two pulleys and two pulleys abreast of each other on
the upright a to a grooved wheel on a driving shaft overhead which
keeps the drills constantly revolving. By the tension of the spring p,
the cord p' pulls its attached bar q' against the rod o' behind it, which
rod is a long lever, at the upper end of which the catch o is formed, and
on which is also an eye suspending the spring p. The rod o¹ passes
loosely through a staple projecting from the stanchions, which staple
acts as a fulcrum causing the upper end of the rod o' and the catch o
to recede from the bar d' on the follower, when the lower end of the
lever rod has been pressed far enough inwards by the arm on the drill
frame. By the escape of the catch the rod drops on to a stop pin below,
and the spring ? ceases to pull on the drill frame, which then by means
of a spring behind it, or by a weight acting over a pulley, is tilted outward
into the position in which it is shown in Figure 3, withdrawing its drills
from the holes in the longer broad ends which overlap the shorter
boards; nails or pegs are then placed in these holes, either by hand
or by a row of pincers in a flap not shown in the Drawing, hinged to
an upright frame near, each pincer picking up a peg from a grooved
lodgment in an endless band which receives them from a hopper, and
travels vertically by stages. On the flaps swinging forwards the pincer
frame rotates and the pegs are deposited point onwards into their several
holes; the pegs are then driven in by a row of dwarf hammer heads on
each side of a flaps hinged at the back against the machine in mid-line
between the pegs on either side of the machine, so that on swinging
right and left the flap strikes both ways, driving the pegs into the boards
on either side alternately. An arched rack, not shown in the Drawing,
on the heel of the flap behind its hinges and concentric with them, is
acted on by a straight rack which rides in staples and has standing up
from its other end two pins; these are alternately struck by two cams,
one on each side of a disc revolving on the same axis with one of two
cones connected by a shifting band, to give a varying speed for com-
mencing with gentle blows on the pegs and ending with sharper.
The finished box frame on dropping from the machine travels laterally
under a press, which deposits on it a square sheet of iron having its four
edges turned down like those of a lid of an inch deep. These edges
enter a groove ploughed along the four edges of the box frame and are
wedged tight into the groove by slips of compressed deal forced against

page_text: the box sideways down to the sheet-iron edge in the groove by a drill
frame suspended and acting in a nearly similar manner to that in the
box frame machine. As the drill frame recedes a hammer flap swinging
vertically like it, but with different radius, drives home nails previously
deposited in the holes. To make the compressed deal slips thin deal
planks are passed between two rollers, one of them formed of a series of
parallel wedge-formed circular cutters, being thick at the axis which
carries them, and the other roller being cylindrical, but with narrow
grooves to receive the edges of the circular cutters of the other roller.
A rake fixed in front of the rollers forces the compressed slips out from
between the cutters.
Figures 5 show one of the boxes complete. I clear from grease the
soup used by means of a blower, projecting air down the back edge of
the containing vat, which air re-acts against the surface of the liquor
and drives all floating grease over a broad lip in front. The vat is
suspended on trunnions and gradually tilted to draw off all grease; the
soup is then strained by running through an inclined cylindrical gauze
strainer which revolves on an axis, and has within it a dregs tray, into
which brushes acting exterior to and through the gauze sweep the dregs.
The meat to be frozen is packed, cut into joints, in the boxes with
added soup just enough to fill all interstices and softly embed the
meat, the soup being previously seasoned with salt; the packed boxes
then pass onwards to a capping machine exactly similar to the bottoming
machine in the form where the bottom is fixed on the box, which is
then turned over; the packed boxes then pass along an inclined roller
way to the freezing trunk described in my former Specification, but
which is horizontal, not inclined, and consists of two stories; the boxes
running on to a stage which travels across the trench at the rear of the
upper trunk, are tilted by it into an upright position to enter the broad
passages of the upper trunk, all the passages having rollers sunk in
their floors. The chilling current, whether liquid or gaseous, but by
preference, gaseous, travels along the intervening narrow passages
between the boxes, and is ultimately collected into one current in
a pipe conveying it into the chilling chamber adjoining the ether
chamber. The boxes are carried along the trunk by endless bands
lying along the passages. At the further extremity of the upper trunk
its floor under half of the last row of boxes is hinged, and in descending

page_text: inverts the boxes on successive hinged steps. As this furthermost
transverse row of boxes descends to the level of the lower trunk it
passes on to a short roller way, and is moved by a set of endless chains
and bars out of the way of the step trap, which then ascends. By a
reverse movement of the bars the row of boxes is pushed into the lower
trunk. On the freezing of their contents being perfected the front
frozen boxes in the lower trunk are let down by the floor under them
descending on a screw lowered by the revolving of a nut supporting
the screw.
The row of released boxes is then driven forward from
under the trunk along grooved roller ways, which converge until all the
boxes are in contact, when the trunk passages are instantly closed
below to receive the next stage of boxes pushed on. The boxes of the
released row are brought together by a press, and have four straps of
strong band iron nailed across them by another cross press against the
opposite faces of which the iron straps are ready lodged with nails
projecting through them, which the press forces into the ends of all
the overlapping boards of the box sides, so as to form the boxes into
one package, the straps projecting about six inches beyond one side of
the package.
So much of this apparatus as requires further description is shown in
longitudinal section at Figure 6, which represents a double freezing
trunk with a lower and upper story; Figure 7 is a transverse section
taken at line 1, 1, Figure 6. In front of the lower story is a current
guide, consisting of a row of wedges a, a, a, a small distance apart, with
their sharp edges perpendicular and pointing towards a large centrifugal
fan; the wedges receiving the blast (where air forms the freezing
current) on their edges, divide it into a number of smaller currents and
contract them to the breadth of the narrow apertures left between the
broad backs of the wedges and to the breadth of the passages between
the boxes in the trunk. The currents rushing along between the boxes
are at the end of the lower trunk stopped by a damper b and turned
into the upper trunk through an opening a¹ in the top of the lower
trunk. The currents flowing between the rows of boxes to the hither
end of the upper trunk are then stopped by a damper c at its entrance
and unite into one main current, which passes out of the trunk under
a hood above by the main pipe d. At the entrance of the upper trunk
are tilting boards, on to which the flat boxes of meat from the packing
house, cach with a flat supporting board under it, are run from trucks.

page_text: By raising suitable handles the tilting boards are turned down over the
edge e of the platform. The edge e is formed in steps, so that when the
boxes are all tilted into the trench they may be placed in the positions
required. The boxes are then pushed by hand into a line at the entrance
of the upper trunk and against its outer damper; an inner. damper being
closed the outer one is then opened; the rows of boxes are then urged on
either by travelling on an endless flat wire band resting on the rollers
under them and drawn on by main rollers at intervals, or by preference
by bars behind each box crossing the trunk about a foot from the
bottom, the ends of the bars travelling in longitudinal grooves in its
opposite sides. The bars are attached to endless chains made of a double
line of flat links set edgeways, the lines being kept apart, and the links
connected by transverse pins; a chain runs along every passage between
the rows of boxes and serves instead of frets to keep the rows apart.
At each end of the trunk the chains ride round wheels of spokes without
felloes; at the same time I provide a driving screw and bar to force on
any line of boxes which should from accident resist the traction. is the
step descending and inverting apparatus at the end of the upper trunk,
which receives the furthest transverse row of boxes and deposits them
inverted upon an endless band on a short roller way below, which conveys
them into the lower trunk. The boxes are kept in line duly apart by frets
or partitions, both in the step apparatus and in the deposit chamber at
the entrance of the lower trunk. There is a sliding damper b at its
entrance, and another a stage within alternately opened as a fresh row of
boxes enters the trunk; there are also two similar dampers at the exit
mouth of the upper trunk. The discharging apparatus at the hither end
of the lower trunk consists of the trap head h, which forms the bottom
of the trunk under the foremost row of boxes. The fixed nut h' acting
on the screw h² brings the trap head and boxes on it down to the level
of the truck. The damper door being drawn open the driver / pushes
the boxes on to the truck; the damper behind the truck is then closed
and one in front m of the truck is opened; the truck is then moved
forward by the chain and wheel n below on to a tilting stage o, the
converging walls of the passage pressing the boxes and their outer boards
together as they travel to the stage, where a couple of iron bands with
projecting nails having been placed behind them the block of boxes and
boards are finally compressed by the screw and shield P, and the bands
nailed to its sides, the four ends of the bands projecting sideways beyond
the block or package.

page_text: The package as it now appears is shown at Figure 8. The tilting stage
which is supported on pivots is then turned on its side, which having
rollers allows the package to run off upon a truck on a line of rails to
the stern port of a ship. The truck on the tilting stage remains on it,
and on the stage being turned upright the truck is returned into its first
position adjoining the descent trap to receive another row of boxes and
boards. The package then runs on an inclined roller way towards a
ship's stern port, approaching which the package runs upon a stage,
descends to the end of the ship's hold, which it then enters, when the
four strap ends of the package (already mentioned) are seized by four
pincers closed by lever handles, which pincers are fixed to a frame
suspended above the package.
Figure 9 is a plan, and Figure 10 a side view of this apparatus. a is
a plate to which the lifting tackle is connected by an eye a'; b, b,' are
clipping bars, which by turning the cam-headed levers ċ can be caused to
slide upon it, closing slots d after the strap ends of a package have been
passed through the slots. This gripping frame is suspended (by pulley
tackle having a lowering break lever) to the axis of a pair of groove-
edged wheels running upon two parallel lines of bar iron, which ride on
staples screwed into the ceiling or deck over the ship's hold, and extend
fore and aft over the length of the bed in which the cargo of packages is
to be stowed. There are fore and aft parallel lines of these pairs of rails
about a yard apart oyer the width of a stowing bed. At the head and
stern ends of this system of longitudinal rails there is a transverse, or
athwart strip line of double rails, which is divided opposite the ends of the
fore and aft lines into six to twelve inch sections, each suspended by a
swivel to the ceiling to admit of its being turned for shunting the
packages along any of the fore and aft lines to their proper places, where
they can be lowered by the pulley tackle, and their straps released from
the grip of the pincer frame by easing its lever handles from a catch. The
leading wheel of the fixed pulley of the pllley tackle has a ratchet edge
for receiving a paul in it and a friction break on it, both paul and
break being part of a bent lever turning on a hinge for letting the load
run and for easing it down.
As a source of cold for freezing while providing for the employment
of other vapours I prefer ether; to accelerate its evaporation, and its
chilling action on the freezing current (whether a liquid or air), and its
subsequent condensation, I employ the following means-I have oblong

page_text: sheets of copper stamped with flutes in parallel pairs, connected by
transverse flutes at the further end of the sheet, each pair being some-
what U-shaped. This fluted sheet being faced by a similar sheet the
two sheets are soldered and seamed together along their two sides and
further end. At the hither end the edges are turned back and soldered
to similar edges or flanges of like pairs of sheets on either side. A
number of such tubular sheet conductors have their edges thus united
over the bars of a gridiron frame having broad flanged edges which are
bolted against those of a gridiron, the bars of which are notched over
the mouths of the tubes. One or two sets of such chilling tubes having
one, two, or more dozen pairs of sheets in each set have their gridiron
mouth fixed to and opening into the bottom of the ether vessel, rapid
motion of the ether or other evaporating fluid in the chilling tubes and
a minute subdivision of it forming an essential part of my plan.
centrifugal fan acting over one-half of the mouth of the bottom gridiron
frame drives ether lying in the vessel down that half of the tubes to
sweep round their course and rise up the other half of the tubes into
the vessel again and in the form of a showering fountain, it being pro-
pelled through a conical tube terminating in a large minutely perforated
rose. Figures 12 show a portion of the tube passages through which
the ether passes.
A
A similar sheet tube system is fixed over the top of the ether vessel;
but in it the flutes run through the upper end of the sheets, the tubes
ending in a gridiron frame at top as well as to the ether vessel below.
This system of tubes conveys the ether vapour to the condensing pumps
while the inner surface of the tubes is wetted by the spray of the evapo-
rating liquid. The ether vessel is a dwarf upright cylinder with rounded
ends, and is enclosed by a casing in and down which flows the freezing
liquid to be chilled. This liquid crosses through the upper system of
ether vapor tubes twice or thrice, then over the surface of the vessel
and then through the lower system of ether tubes, whence passing
through a main pipe to the freezing trunks it is driven through first
the lower then the upper by a centrifugal fan. The current then returns
to the casing surrounding the ether vessel, which casing is covered by
a thick non-conducting jacket.
i
In condensing the ether vapor 1 employ a succession of pumps
decreasing in size between, which intervene like systems of sheet con-
ductors to the liquid ether ones. The water condensing the ether vapour

page_text: is cooled by open air evaporation; breadths of the sleazy Indian bag
cloth gunny are made into long endless bands like jack towels, and'
ranged in rows upon long rollers suspended high and kept constantly
revolving. The lower turns of the bands pass round rollers fixed in
water troughs, the water travelling up and down, and exposed to the
wind, soon falls to the dew point; the whole being secured from the sun
by a thatch.
Figure 11 is a side view partly in section of this apparatus; a is the
evaporating vacuum vessel a dwarf cylinder saucer shaped below and
"dome headed;" b, the stock ether vessel within it; c, c, the centrifugal
pump drawing ether from the left hand stem of the system of tubes d
thereby causing it to rush down the right hand stems from the ether
chambers a into which the tubes open. The ether from the pump is
forcibly projected in a shower up the insides of the ascending sheet
tubular system e, e, whence it passes as vapour down the descending
incline of tubes f, f, to the great pump g, and thence to the smaller
pump h, h; between which pump and the smallest pump i is a system of
tubes k, for partially condensing the vapour by water flowing trans-
versely between the sheets of tubes. After leaving the smallest pump
the vapour is completely condensed in the last system of tubes 1, 1,
and flows into the ether sink or basin m, and thence by the tube n to
the reserve bottle o from which the ether is allowed to enter the vacuum
vessel a by means of a regulating tap. Any atmospheric air leaking in
at any part of the engine passes through the pipe p, p, which is closed
at its commencement by a slightly weighted valve. The pipe is made
to traverse through the chilling case q, q, that any ether in the air may
become condensed and run back to the sink k or onwards to the ether
bottle. The freezing fluid (say air) returning from the upper freezing
trunk of Figure 5 to be chilled proceeds by a large pipe, of which r, r,
is a continuation, entering the case q, q, which encloses the systems of
chilling tubes, the side of the case being removed to show the tubes.
Where air is the freezing fluid returning to be chilled the casing is
highly arched over above and below the tubes to guide the air current
and allow it free flow upwards and downwards between the tubes and
over the ether vessel, and lastly between the systems of curved ether
containing tubes into the main pipes which conveys it to the centrifugal
fan described as in connection with the freezing trunks Figure 5. Pro-
pelled by the fan the current rushes to the hither end of the lower
freezing trunk.
•

page_text: For preserving in their frozen condition cargoes or other stores of
meat which have been well frozen I lodge together the packages of
boxes into one solid mass so as to avoid any interstices, and I keep
a double current of chilled air in constant circulation over the whole
surface of the mass as described in my former Specification. Blowers
or fanners draw the current from a chilling chamber and drive it along
air passages traversing lengthways an air casing surrounding everywhere
the block of boxes. As all these currents meet and oppose each other
round the further extremity of the block they are forced to spread
laterally through channels loosely packed with wool and lined with
sheet tin or tin foil paper to avoid leakage and radiation inwards of
heat, so that chilled air traverses every part of the surface, and is then
conveyed by the wool channels round the edges of a mattressing to
continuous wool channels in a universal casing exterior to the former,
which channels discharge the collecting currents into return passages
which convey them to the main return pipe. This pipe terminates
in the upper part of the chilling case surrounding the ether vessel.
This arrangement of cooling channels is shown at Figure 13, and the
arrangement is similar on every side of the block.
The Drawing represents a compact block of packages of say 500 or
1000 tons resting on boarding propped on wooden sleepers six inches
above the bottom of the hold, the under surface of the boarding being
covered with thin wainscot canvas on which is pasted tinfoil paper facing
downwards. Directly above the bottom boarding is stretched similar
canvas covered with tinfoil paper facing upwards. Then follows exactly
the same arrangement for the circulation on all sides of the cargo of an
inner and outer current of freezing air. a is the boarding next the
compact cargo; b, b, are transverse boards or frets from 4 to 6 inches
deep, set edgeways and parallel, but leaving a longitudinal passage c.
The passage is from two to four feet broad at the entrance and narrows
to one-half at the further end, where it meets the similar inner current
on another side of the cargo. The pressure causes a transverse flow
between all the frets towards the sides shown by the arrows. All the
spaces between the frets are filled with loosely-packed wool, through the
interstices of which the currents flow, but the wool offers sufficient
resistance to favour the longitudinal flow of the main current and the
equal distribution of the transverse currents. Over the whole surface of
this arrangement lies a second boarding d, Figure 14, which exhibits a
transverse section of the arrangement. This boarding or floor is narrower

page_text: than the inner one by an inch or two on each side, leaving fissures e, e,
running the whole length and also down the upright ends of the block.
Through these fissures the inner currents pass, emerging from the inner
wool, and turning over the edge of the middle boarding travel through
the wool packed between the frets f, f, towards the exit passage g, g.
Thus the inner universal circulation becomes, after emerging round the
edges of the middle partition, an outer universal circulation flowing
through the wool. Emerging from this outer stratum of wool the
currents converge to form a middle returning current which flows back
into the air main, returning to the chilling engine where the air travels
upwards, and downwards through its tubular system, and is cooled to
form again the inner and flood currents protecting the frozen cargo.
For the freezing fluid used in the meat-freezing trunks I either employ
a chilled current of air, as more especially described above, or I may
combine spirit with common brine, or I employ solutions of chlorides or
sulphates of the other alkaline and earthy bases, also alkaline nitrates.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, I would have it understood that I
claim,
1. In freezing meat in cases to exclude air and support the joints of
meat by equal pressure by embedding them in liquid meat extract or
soup made of the refuse meat.
2. To make the boxes air-proof with cement made with the blood of
the animals.
3. To make and employ boxes of wood and iron made by machinery
arranged as herein described.
4. To freeze the charged boxes in a double trunk one above the other,
with an especial charging apparatus at one end of the upper trunk, an
inverting descent apparatus at the other end of the upper trunk, and an
especial descent compressing and packing apparatus at the hither end of
the lower trunk.
5. The gripping suspending frame and block tackle with overhead
railways for ship stowage.
6. The construction of the ether evaporator, with pump or other
means for breaking up the ether or other fluid into a shower which is
projected over the interior of tubes, and all other particular arrange-
ments, with the method of making the sheet tubing for the purpose.

page_text: 7. The method of cooling the condensing water by endless cloths on
rollers.
8. The particular method of stowing and protecting aboard ship, and
afterwards on land after importation, a cargo previously frozen on shore.
In witness whereof, I, the said Julius Jeffreys, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
JULIUS JEFFREYS. (L.S.)