IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREAT- MENT, PREPARATION, AND PRESERVATION OF SUBSTANCES OR BODIES POR DIETARY AND MEDICINAL USES AND SANITARY PURPOSES (FARTLY APPLICABLE IN THE ARTS), AND IN THE PROCESSES AND MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR EFFECTING THE SAME." SP
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thaddeus Hyatt, of No. 66, Gloucester Gardens,
Hyde Park, London, in the County of Middlesex, Manufacturer of
Patent Lights, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREAT-
MENT, PREPARATION, AND PRESERVATION OF SUBSTANCES OR BODIES POR
DIETARY AND MEDICINAL USES AND SANITARY PURPOSES (FARTLY APPLICABLE
IN THE ARTS), AND IN THE PROCESSES AND MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR
EFFECTING THE SAME."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thaddeus Hyatt at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th June 1875.
I, THADDEUS HYATT, of No. 66, Gloucester Gardens, Hyde Park,
London, in the County of Middlesex, Manufacturer of Patent Lights, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE TREATMENT, PREPARATION, AND PRESERVATION OF SUBSTANCES OR BODIES FOR
DIETARY AND MEDICINAL USES AND SANITARY PURPOSES (PARTLY APPLICABLE IN

page_text: THE ARTS), AND IN THE PROCESSES AND MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR EFFECTING
THE SAME," to be as follows:—
My Invention has reference to impregnating and aromatizing bodies
or substances; to drying or dessicating them (browning, burning,
roasting, and incinerating being included under the terms "drying or
dessicating"); to pulverizing or comminuting the same; to collecting
or separating comminuted materials from the air when floating therein;
and to the compression of comminuted materials collected and prepared
by the methods herein described.
Impregnating and Aromatizing.-According to this part of my
Invention my improvement consists in obtaining medicinal and aromatic
qualities in forms and under conditions that better fit them for use as
medicines and food than as generally employed, that is to say, in place
of the mineral in its natural state I employ it in soluble form dissolved
in water; this mineralized water I then apply to the roots of some 1
growing plant, wheat for instance, and thus vitalize it, making iron
wheat. In this form the iron is no longer mineral but vegetable, and as
such digestible when converted into flour and made into bread. Other
soluble minerals may be applied in the same way.
According to another part of my Invention my improvement consists 2
in employing the aromas of medicinal substances separated from their
natural bodies and incorporated with a food base. Selecting camphor in
illustration of this method, I place it in a vessel preferably deprived of
air, with any suitable dry absorbent of food character, such for example
as dried bread or biscuit reduced to dust, or starch, sugar, or analogous 2
material, and keep the two together until the food has become suffi-
ciently impregnated. Camphor parts with its aroma readily, but some
substances require the application of heat during the process.
Drying or Dessicating.-According to another part of my Invention
my improvement consists in dessicating bodies through the agency of 3
heat and an absorbent which draws the moisture or juices from while
transmitting heat to the substance or body embedded in it. In carrying
this method into practice I arrange the absorbent material-upon a brick
or other floor similar to an oven floor, or in some cases upon the floor of
an oven, the absorbent for some purposes being clean sand, earth, or 3
ashes, and in this I bury or enclose the substance or body to be dried
or dessicated, the heat being applied either in the ordinary manner of

page_text: !
heating ovens or otherwise. In this way any degree of heat may be
transmitted in a slow, regular, and graduated manner to bodies to
simply dry them, or cook them, or convert them to "dust and ashes."
In illustration of this method I dry, for example, a vegetable like green
beans, or a fruit like cherries, by burying them in clean sand, as
described, subjected to heat. The same with fish and flesh, a porous or
other covering being sometimes used to prevent contact with the sand.
Coffee roasted by this method may be intermingled, if desired, with the
sand, as it may afterwards be readily screened away. A part of my
improvement in this process consists in surrounding the substance or
body which is to be cooked with a food absorbent placed next to or in
contact with it to imbibe its aroma; for example, in roasting coffee I
sometimes mix it with sweetened bran, which absorbs the aroma of the
coffee during the roasting process, and becomes itself converted into
"caramel" at the same time. Where the process is used on sanitary
grounds, as in disposing of the dead, I prefer to first wrap the body in
an asbestos cloth, or otherwise isolate it, in order to make the collection
of the dust certain, and of easy accomplishment. The absorbent earth I
prefer in some cases to treat chemically with carbolic acid or other dis-
infectant, the layer immediately around the body being preferably
charcoal. A part of the process, where the work is the incineration of
the dead, consists in subsequently consolidating the ashes into suitable
memorial shapes, forms, and tokens, such as a medallion likeness, bust,
or statuette of the deceased.
Pulverizing or Comminuting Substances or Bodies.-According to
this part of my Invention my improvement consists in pulverizing or
comminuting food and drink, making, as well as medicinal substances, to
an impalpable powder or dust for the purpose of increasing their power;
for example, as now treated, flour is eaten in the form of biscuit and
O bread, but according to my improvement these are first reduced to an
impalpable powder or nearly so, and collected by the process herein-after
explained as a digestible food for children, invalids, and others, the
powder being in some cases compressed into wafers or other convenient
form for use, carriage, and transportation. Bran, so essential for the
5 growth of bones in children, may by this process be rendered palateable,
M
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1

page_text: Collecting or Separating Comminuted Matters from the Air.-The
common method of collecting floating dust from the air, as practised in
pencil making and other manufactories, is by gravity, a process both
tedious and costly; but according to my Invention my improvement.
consists in using a vaccuum chamber for this purpose, that is to say, on
the principle that "a feather in a vaccuum falls with the same velocity
as a guinea," I withdraw the air from the chamber where the dust is
floating, when it at once falls in a mass. This cheap and instantaneous
method of collecting dust renders possible the manufacture of dust food,
a thing never hitherto attempted, although food materials of various
degrees of fineness exist.
In the manufacture of dust food I proceed upon the assumption that
all materials, whether food or medicines, manifest their potency in pro-
portion to the number of particles into which they are reduced and
presented to the organs of digestion, a principle which homeopathy
seems to have demonstrated. In carrying out this part of my Invention,
as an illustration of the method, I grind or otherwise pulverize tea,
coffee, cocoa, or other substance until sufficiently fine to float in the air,
allowing the coarse particles to fall into a drawer at the bottom of the
chamber, which may be removed. I then by means of an air pump or
otherwise withdraw the air, when the dust at once falls in a mass, which
may be collected and packed as dust, or be reduced to cakes or tablets
by compression.
Compression of Comminuted Materials.-In this part of my Invention
I make use of any of the well known means of consolidating materials
by pressure, my improvement consisting merely in compressing into
suitable and convenient forms, substances, or bodies which have been
reduced to dust by the means, methods, and processes herein set forth.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thaddeus Hyatt in the Great Seal Patent Office 30
on the 24th December 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THADDEUS
HYATT, of No. 66, Gloucester Gardens, Hyde Park, London, in the
County of Middlesex, Manufacturer of Patent Lights, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Thaddeus Hyatt, Her special
license that I, the said Thaddeus Hyatt, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thaddeus Hyatt, 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 IB THE TREATMENT, PREPARATION, AND PRESERVATION OF
SUBSTANCES OR BODIES FOR DIETARY AND MEDICINAL USES And Sanitary PURPOSES
(PARTLY APPLICABLE IN THE ARTS), AND IN THE PROCESSES AND MACHINERY OR
APPARATUS FOR EFFECTING THE SAME," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Thaddeus Hyatt, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my or their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 Thaddeus Hyatt, 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, reference being had to the accom-
panying Drawings and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that
is to say:-
My Invention has reference to impregnating and aromatizing bodies
or substances; to drying or desiccating them; (browning, "burning,"
roasting, and incinerating, being included under the terms "drying or
desiccating"); to pulverizing or comminuting the same; to collecting
or separating comminuted materials from the air when floating therein;
and to the compression of comminuted materials collected and prepared

page_text: (
qualities in forms and under conditions that better fit them for use as
medicines and food than as generally employed, for example, minerals
when used medicinally are commonly adminstered in their natural or
inorganic state; but according to my improvement I first bring the
mineral (iron for instance) into a soluble condition, say a salt of iron;
this salt I dissolve in water and apply or feed to the roots of a growing
plant fit to be eaten as food. A mineral thus absorded into the tissues
of a plant becomes digestible or food, because vitalized with the life of
the plant of which it forms a part.
According to another part of my Invention my improvement consists
in a method of dry impregnation. In this process I make use of an
aromatizing vessel A, Figure 1, in which I place the medicinal substance
B (camphor for example) with the absorbent food C, which may be
dried rusk or biscuit, or dried bread reduced to powder or dust, sugar,
or other nutritious food. In some cases, as in that of camphor for :
example, the medicinal substance will be bodily absorbed, the whole of
it disappearing, in others the aroma or essence only or soul of the
´medicine will be absorbed. In some cases I find it abvantageous to
conduct the operation in vacuo by pumping out or otherwise with-
drawing the air; and in some cases I find it useful to employ heat.
S
Desiccating. According to another part of my Invention, my improve-
ment consists in a method of desiccating substances or bodies for use as
food, or with reference to their preservation; in the case of human
bodies, the preservation being a sanitary measure, the method consisting
in placing the substance or body to be acted on in a heated absorbent g
earth or other absorbing material, and keeping it therein subjected to
heat until dry, and in some cases until reduced to powder or dust. In
carrying this part of my Invention into effect I find it convenient to
make use of a drying chamber A, Figure 2, in the upper part of which
a, o, upon the bottom portion thereof or table b, b, I place the substance 8
or body B to be dried upon a layer or bed c, c, of absorbent material
adapted to the nature of the substance or body to be dried out. In the
case of vegetables, fruits, flesh, and fish, I prefer in some cases to
employ an absorbent fit to be afterwards used for food, such for example
as baked or dried flour, bread, or similar substance, the absorbent when 3
so employed catching and retaining the flavor or quality of the dried
out material. When roasting coffee by this process I sometimes mix
it with clean sand, the heat being gradually raised to the roasting point,

page_text: the sand being afterwards screened out; but I prefer in general to roast
it in a food absorbent, such for example as dried sweetened bran, the
coffee of preference being first partially dried out, the bran under these
circumstances becoming caramelized while imbibing the flavor of the
5 roasting coffee; B, Fig. 2, represents the coffee, and c, c, the absorbent.
In the desiccation of human bodies B, Fig. 2, represents such body;
c, c, represents baked or dried earth; this earth being in some cases
impregnated with disinfectants or mixed with charcoal. The body may
be kept from mingling its dust with the earth by wrapping it in an
O asbestos sheet, or in wire cloth, or in thin perforated metal, or otherwise.
The heat which is admitted into the lower part d, d, of the desiccating
chamber A through a pipe e, e, Fig. 2, communicates with a furnace O,
passing upwards through perforations in the table b, b, into and through
the absorbent layer c, c, the moisture or juices of the body B'in this way
5 being gradually withdrawn. In some cases I prefer to additionally
employ an air pump D to facilitate the drying process, which is effected
by drawing off any escaped gases or vapours through a pipe f, f.
Bodies thus treated I propose to reduce either to the condition of
mummies or to "dust and ashes," and as one means of preserving this
O dust I propose to consolidate it by pressure into medallion form, or into
busts, or otherwise, in some cases fashioning the dust so as to represent
the deceased as in life.
Pulverizing, Collecting, and Compressing Food and other Substances.
-According to this part of my Invention my improvement consists in
› a dry method of preparing biscuit and other food, as opposed to the wet
method of biscuit and bread making commonly employed, the flour
by my method being cooked or baked in its dry state before being made
up. All that is required by this plan for reducing the flour to form
for marketable purposes is to compress it in suitable moulds into any
O required shapes and sizes, a form of biscuit consisting in combining
with such cooked flour the dried fish, flesh, vegetable, or fruit flour,
herein-above mentioned, another form of biscuit made as aforesaid,
consisting in mixing sugar with the flour before compression, and then
caramelizing the same by heat. This form of farinaceous "sweet" I
also make by soaking ordinary bread or biscuit in sweetened water, then
drying and caramelizing it by the heat of an oven or otherwise.
According to another part of my Invention I make biscuits of all
kinds from flour prepared in the usual manner of making bread. . This

page_text: bread I then bring to the condition or similar to “ dried rusk," which I
then pulverize and reduce to the finest flour, and finally compress
into biscuit or cakes, as already mentioned.
According to another part of my Invention my improvement consists
in preparing tea and coffee as a marketable commodity for transporta- |
tion, sale, and use, in the form of powder or dust compressed into
tablets or otherwise, the Invention consisting in the reduction of the
tea or coffee to an impalpable powder to develope its aroma and strength,
and to also put it in a condition similar to powdered or "prepared
cocoa," as to the method of its use, that is to say, to be consumed
bodily instead of in fusion.
According to another part of my Invention my improvement consists
in preparing and obtaining food material in dust form by a process
analogous to that employed for obtaining refined plumbago for pencil
making, a part of the Invention consisting in a new method of col- 1
lecting the floating particles from the air, and which process applies to
materials other than food, as plumbago itself for example. This process
I term the vacuum process. A, Figure 3, represents a vessel or chamber
of any convenient size and form; B, an air pump connected with A. by
the pipe C, which is attached to the under side of the porous bottom D.
This bottom may be made of plaster of Paris, or other material that
will intercept the floating particles a, b, c, while permitting the air to be
withdrawn through it. When the air pump is set in motion the particles
a, a, a, will begin to fall, the heaviest descending in a less completo
vacuum than the finest, which fall last. Figure 4 represents the first :
effects of withdrawing the air, the heaviest particles a, a, a, having
fallen; a slide E is then drawn over the descended particles and the
air pump again set in motion, when the next heaviest particles b, b, b,
descend, as seen in Figure 5. Another slide being drawn over these
the process is continued until all have fallen, and the different grades &
or qualities of material secured. These varying grades of dust may be
put up in powder form or compressed, as above-mentioned, into tablets,
pastiles, or otherwise. In some cases I prefer to attach the pipe C of
the air pump B to the top of the chamber A, the porous diaphragm D
being then fixed at the top instead of at the bottom of the chamber A. &
A part of my Invention consists in preparing cocoa according to the
process herein above described, and compressing. it in its dry and dust

page_text: form into cakes, tablets, pastiles, and other forms, using sugar in dust
form to combine with it when making sweetened cocoa.
•
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to
be novel and original and therefore claim as the Invention secured to
me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, impregnating
and aromatizing, drying or desiccating, pulverising or comminuting,
collecting and compressing substances, materials or bodies, substantially
in the manner, and by the methods or processes, and for the uses and
purposes herein described and set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thaddeus Hyatt, have to this my
Specification, set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of
December, One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.