IMPROVE- IN PACKING BUTTER, BUTTERINE, AND LARD, AND IN STORING AND PRESERVING BUTTER AND SIMILAR ARTICLES." MENTS
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William McDonnell at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th September 1879.
WILLIAM MCDONNELL, of the City and County of Limerick, Ireland.
"
IMPROVE-
IN PACKING BUTTER, BUTTERINE, AND LARD, AND IN STORING AND
PRESERVING BUTTER AND SIMILAR ARTICLES."
MENTS
The object of this Invention is to provide simple and efficient means for packing
and storing butter, butterine, and lard, especially applicable for packing small
quantities of such articles or materials.
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The butter or other material to be packed is weighed and pressed in a mould of
the desired shape, say circular or square; then to pack it I take a band of either
tin, wood, waterproof paper, cardboard, or other suitable material, and place it
round the material to be packed. When this band is made of tin I make or cut a
"snip" or snips" in the rim or in a flange on the rim and turn it or them up;
several snips or clip pieces are preferably formed. I next provide circular or square
pieces or bits of wood, timber, board, or other suitable material, and place, say, one
on the top and the other on the bottom of the package and fasten them to the band
by means of the snips or pieces formed in the rim, and this may be done by either
simply turning them over on the top and bottom of the package, or by putting
them through holes made in the circular or square covers, and then fastening them
down. When the band is made from wood or cardboard I place small "snips" of
tin in the sides, and these are turned down on the heads and bottoms in the same
manner; or when the bands are formed of timber or cardboard they may be sewn or
fastened by a snip of tin. These bands may also be wrapped, and they form a very
neat package in this manner, also in tinfoil, paper, or vegetable parchment. I thus
produce a cheap and convenient package for butter, but it is also specially claimed
for the packing of lard and butterine; it may also be used for other purposes, such
as the putting up of the many articles at present packed hermetically in tin. When
it is intended to seal hermetically cases made according to my Invention it can be
done by making the rim or flange turn over on the head or bottom and then beat it
tight or solder. I claim this advantage for soldering in this way that the heated
iron will not injure the contents, especially when butter, as it does by most of the
present systems of soldering; of course when sealing hermetically with solder the
package must be tin, but when timber or paper the shutting close may also be done
by gumming paper round the edges, and as timber is sweeter round butter I am

page_text: inclined to prefer a timber package for this purpose. I would also sometimes close
the timber or paper packages by means of slips of paper, say three; for transport
these small boxes are again packed in cases.
When it is intended to store or to
preserve in warm weather I pack them in watertight vessels or barrels, and fill the
vessels or barrels with iced water or pickle; in this manner they are preserved in
hot weather, and when unloaded for storing by using pickle it will preserve the
butter. When the cases or packages are to be hermetically sealed it is accomplished
by simply laying down a tin top and bottom on the flange or rim, and either
turning the flange over and beating or pressing it tight, or simply laying it down
. and soldering it all round; in soldering on a rim outside the package the contents
will not be as likely to be injured as if the side of the package were heated by the
hot iron used in soldering.
The simplest package before described and that most easy to put together is the
case where the wood band with wood pieces at top and bottom are secured together
by paper or other strips of material, such as ribbon or tape, gummed or otherwise
secured across the package. Butter and other materials packed in the manner
before described can be put up at the factory with trade mark on the package and
the latter need not be opened until reaching the hands of the consumer.