IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING ANIMAL SUBSTANCES FOR FOOD
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edouard Vincent Jules Laurent Gorges, of the City
of Paris, and Empire of France, Gentleman, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING ANIMAL SUBSTANCES FOR FOOD."
Sealed the 19th June 1857, and dated the 1st January 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edouard Vincent Jules
Laurent Gorges at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 1st January 1857...
I, EDOUARD VINCENT JULES LAURENT GORGES, of the City of Paris, and
Empire of France, Gentleman; do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING ANIMAL SUBSTANCES FOR FOOD,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a novel or improved means of preserving animal
substances for food. For the purpose of preserving either butchers' meat in its
natural state, or game or poultry with the hair or feathers on, these substances
should be surrounded with a porous covering of any kind, such as linen, sand;
pulverized charcoal, or other similar material, which must be perfectly dry.
For fish it will be found advisable to damp the covering with a few drops of
vinegar:
The substances thus prepared are to be placed in a heated oven, and left
there for from an hour to an hour and a half, after which the fire must be put
out and the oven allowed to cool as slowly as possible, the substances being left
seven or eight hours in the oven; the covering is then removed from the

page_text: substances and they are left to dry in the open air. If found desirable these
operations may be repeated, so as to ensure success beyond a doubt.
The apparatus to be employed in carrying out the present Invention consists
of an iron box, covered by a second casing of the same metal, made so as
to close as hermetically as possible, and provided with a valve at bottom, and
at top with a chimney communicating with the inner box, for the purpose of
allowing the air and gases contained in that box and in the substances operated
upon to escape therefrom. A fire under the outer casing will produce a
vacuum, and distribute the heat around the inner box by means of two open-
ings in the sides of the outer casing.
:
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edouard Vincent Jules Laurent Gorges in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 30th June 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDOUARD
VINCENT JULES LAURENT GORGES, of the City of Paris, and Empire of France,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of IIer reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Edouard Vincent Jules Laurent Gorges, Her special license that I, the said
Edouard Vincent Jules Laurent Gorges, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Edouard Vincent Jules Laurent Gorges,
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 PRESERVING ANIMAL
SUBSTANCES FOR FOOD" upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Edouard Vincent Jules Laurent Gorges, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, 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 dato of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edouard Vincent Jules Laurent Gorges;
do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the

page_text: same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawing, hereunto
annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):
My Invention relates to a novel or improved means of preserving animal
substances, and consists in extracting from them all the fermentable gases
which they may contain.
And in order that my Invention may be perfectly understood, I will proceed.
to explain the means which I employ for carrying the same into effect,
reference being had to the accompanying Drawing forming part of this my
Specification.
I enclose the substances which I desire to preserve in a porous covering
pervious to air, such covering being composed of linen, sand, damp or dried,
herbs or plants, earth, sawdust, or other suitable material, and place the
enclosed substances in a basket of wire gauze, which I introduce into the
interior of an oven, previously to which the substances may be damped with;
brine or vinegar, or it may be sufficient merely to damp the porous covering.
to.
It is almost unnecessary to observe that the degrees of temperature, the
time during which the substances are to remain in the oven, the thickness and
nature of the covering, and the form and dimensions of the apparatus will be
regulated and modified according to the quantity and quality of the substances;
be operated upon; it must, however, be understood that the object of
the Invention, whatever these modifications may be, is always to preserve,
the animal substances in their natural state, that is to say, perfectly raw.
The degree of temperature employed must never exceed seventy degrees,
centigrade for meat, poultry, and game, and thirty degrees or forty degrees.
centigrade for fish. Pieces of meat weighing about six pounds each. must
remain in the apparatus for about an hour and a quarter, and a longer time.
in proportion for pieces of larger size; fish will not require to remain in for.
more than an hour. The operation of drying may be effected either by simple
exposure to the air or by artificial means.
i
In order to render my process practically useful to the greatest possible.
extent, I have endeavoured in my apparatus to combine economy with a.
constant degree of temperature; it was also necessary for the appraatus,
to combine the following properties, viz-first, it should be capable of being
casily transported from place to place; second, it should occupy the least
possible space; third, it should be easily worked, even by an inexperienced
person. These conditions will be found to be combined in the apparatus
represented in the accompanying Drawing.
Figures 1, 2, and 3 represent an arrangement in which the apparatus is

page_text: Heated by the naked fire; Fig. 1 being a vertical'section, taken in the line
A, B, of Fig. 3; Fig. 2, a horizontal-section of the same, taken in the
line C, D, of Fig. 1; and Fig. 3; a vertical section, taken in the line E, F, of
Fig. 1. In these Figures, which are drawn one-tenth the real size, similar
Jetters indicate corresponding parts.
a is the fire-place, furnished with registers 6 underneath the fire bars c, for
the purpose of conducting the air up through the centre of the fire-place, where
it becomes heated; and passes thence to the interior of the apparatus; d is a
sand-bath for protecting the bottom of the ovens f from the direct action of the
fire; e, e, are flues for the circulation of the heated products of combustion;"
fff, are the ovens ; 9; g, are pipes for the admission of cold air when it is
required to lower the temperature; and h, h, are tubes for the escape of the
heated gases, the ovens being at other parts hermetically closed.
.
When the ovens are required to be heated by steam or hot water, according
to the degree of heat desired to be obtained, I employ the arrangement of
apparatus represented at Figures 4, 5, and 6; Fig. 4 being a vertical section
in the line G, H, of Fig. 6; Fig. 5 is a horizontal section in the line M, N, of
Fig. 4; and Fig 6, a vertical section in the line K, L; of Figures 4 and 5.
The same letters indicate like parts in all these Figures, which are also drawn
to a scale of one-tenth the real size,..
The apparatus consists of a casing, furnished at bottom with a fire-place i
(having fire bars m), from which lead flues, having spaces between them at
jj, j, for containing the water to be heated. is the chimney for the escape
of the products of combustion; n, m, n, are the ovens, set above the steam or
hot water generator, and-which are surrounded by the hot water or steam. In
some cases it may be desirable to place the ovens all in one horizontal plane;
and in that case the fire-place i, instead of being situated below, as represented;
will be placed in the centro of the apparatus. The generator represented
is similar to that employed for marine boilers. The flues jj, j, might also be
replaced by tubes, or any other suitable arrangement known and employed in
the construction of steam boilers.. I are pipes for the escape of the gases from
the ovens o; o, o, are cocks for determining the amount of water required; as
for instance, when it is required to heat the apparatus by means of hot water
it is filled up to the last cock o; but if steam be required to be employed, the
water must flow freely froni the first cock, and only in a thin stream from thie
second. If it be desired to heat the apparatus by means of steam supplied from:
à separate generator, it will only be necessary to do away with the fire-place.
represented at Figures 4, 5, and 6; or the apparatus might be heated by
means of air heated by a detached furnace, and thus the waste heat of any kind

page_text: of furnace might be utilized. Lastly, the ovens might be heated by means of
gas, spirits of wine, simple oil, or essential oils, or hydrocarbons; it would
only be necessary in these cases to adapt thereto a suitable mode of heating.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and set forth the best
means with which I am acquainted for carrying the same into effect, I would
observe, in conclusion, that I do not mean or intend to confine myself rigidly to
the details herein shewn and described, as they may doubtless be varied without
departing from the nature and object of my Invention; but that which I consider
to be new, and therefore desire to claim as the Invention secured to me under
the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the expulsion, by means of
heat regulated as above set forth, and with the precautions above mentioned,
of any fermentable gases which might be contained in the substances to
be preserved.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edouard Vincent Jules Laurent Gorges,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, the Nineteenth day of June,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
A. PERPIGNA,
42, Ruo Neuve, St. Augustin,
Paris.
E. V. J. L. GORGES.