IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING PROVISIONS, AND IN THE APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Isham Baggs at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 1st November 1865.
I, ISHAM BAGGS, of Number 54, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Electrical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING PROVISIONS, AND IN THE APPARATUS CONNECTED
THEREWITH," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in the use and appropriate combination of certain
chemical and mechanical principles for the complete and effectual preservation
of animal substances and articles of food.
The improvements comprehended in this my Invention are as follow:-
1st, in addition to the tin cases commonly employed I now introduce for
such provisions, especially for purposes of exportation and for operating upon
a large scale, air-tight vessels of iron, whether wrought or cast, zinc, or other
suitable metal made in halves or pieces capable of being bolted or otherwise
fastened together and made air-tight by soldering or other convenient means;
such vessels may be made of any capacity and used again and again. I also
use lead vessels for the same purposes, such vessels being protected from
contact with the provisions by the interposition of paper or textile or other
fabrics adapted for the purpose, the joints of such vessels being burnt together
by the blow pipe (as well known), and the lead after use being remelted,

page_text: reduced to sheet lead, and used again and again. These vessels are supplied
with the proper exits and entrances for the gases and vapours to be employed
in the process of preservation.
2ndly, I employ a rush of high-pressure steam from a suitable boiler to
blow the air (or the gas subsequently introduced) out of such cases or vessels,
with or without the employment of previous pneumatic exhaustion. I also
introduce mechanical agitation of the vessel when necessary, such agitation
being effected by means of any suitable arrangement.
3rdly, I expel the air. or steam by a-preservative. gas, any-will suffice, but
in the outset of the process I prefer that from burning wood, turf, or peat;
these gases may alternate with steam as required. I sometimes dip the meat
to be preserved in crude pyroligneous acid as a preparatory operation to the
processes already described.
4thly, I finally introduce into the case any preservative gas divested of free
oxygen, which may be carbonic acid, hydrogen, or other non-oxidating gas
known to chemists, but I prefer to employ nitrogen from atmospheric air
deprived of its oxygen by any known means, or nitric oxide, or both combined,
and under certain circumstances I place within the vessels or cases metallic
sodium, phosphorus, or other substance having a strong affinity for oxygen,
in order to extract therefrom any minute or fractional portion of oxygen still
remaining within the cases or vessels.
5thly, in certain cases I fill the vessels above referred to with an alkaline
sulphite or hyposulphite to the exclusion of the gases or steam, as a
preliminary or alternative process in the system of preservation.
6thly, I also use for purposes of preservation caoutchouc or other varnish,
metallic leaf, collodion, gold beaters' skin, vegetable parchment, or other
protective coating laid over the surface of the meat or provisions so as
to exclude the oxygen of the air, with or without previous dessication of the
substances to be preserved.
7thly, I use the above improvements variously combined with or without
the antiseptic sulphurous acid as well known, to form an auxiliary part of
this process.