IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING FRESH MEAT, POULTRY, Game, and Fish, AND IN VESSELS EMPLOYED THEREIT."
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John McCall, of Houndsditch, in the City of London,
Merchant, and Bevan George Sloper, of Walthamstow, in the County of
Essex, Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING FRESH
MEAT, POULTRY, Game, and Fish, AND IN VESSELS EMPLOYED THEREIT."
2.
MEAT, POULTRY, Game, and Fish, anD IN VESSELS EMPLOYED THEREI
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John M'Call and Bevan
George Sloper at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 10th November 1864.
We, JOHN MCCALL, of Houndsditch, in the City of London, Merchant, and
BEVAN GEORGE SLOPER, of Walthamstow, in the County of Essex, Chemist, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRE-
SERVING FRESH MEAT, POULTRY, GAME, AND FISH, AND IN VESSELS EMPLOYED
THEREIN," to be as follows:-
Our improvements relate to preserving fresh meat, poultry, game, and fish.
We treat such food in one or other of the following methods:-We immerse
in or surround the meat for a short time by a solution of bisulphite of soda or
potash in the metal case or vessel in which it is to be preserved, which must
be capable of being made air-tight. After this immersion we remove the air
which fills the vacant spaces in the case and replace it by carbonic acid gas ;
we then introduce into the case a regulated quantity of dilute sulphurous acid,
and an equivalent quantity of carbonate or bicarbonate of soda or potash

page_text: separately. The acid and soda or potash do not come into contact until the
case is hermetically closed, when they are brought into contact by agitation,
and the liquid resulting charged with carbonic acid gas bathes the surface of
and impregnates the meat. Or we place the meat in a case provided with
two small tubes, one at the bottom and the other in the lid. By the lower
tube we introduce a weak solution of bisulphite of soda or potash completely
filling the vacant spaces in the case; we then close the tap on the tube in the
lid, and exhaust the case of its liquid contents by powerful hydraulic suction,
or by the suction of an air pump. We leave the meat under this exhausting
suction to draw out as much air as it will yield up, which we drive off from
the case, and replace by carbonic acid gas; we then proceed as in the method
above described with liquid sulphurous acid and carbonated alkali, close
hermetically, and favor combination and surface contact as before.
When several pieces of meat are to be preserved in one case we use a
solution of bisulphite of soda or potash, and then replace it by a solution of
alkaline carbonate of equivalent strength, leaving both in the case an equal
time. We then withdraw the last liquid and fill up with carbonic acid gas
and introduce sulphurous acid and carbonated alkali, and favor combination.
as before described. Or we introduce into the air-tight case or vessel in which
the meat is to be preserved a solution of sulphurous acid, we then withdraw
that solution and introduce a solution of carbonate or bicarbonate of soda or
potash, withdraw that solution and introduce carbonic acid gas.
Our Invention lastly consists in the employment in combination with one
or other of the methods for preserving the provisions before named of a
lining of matting or other like suitable material to preserve the food from
contact with the inner surface of the case or vessel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John McCall and Bevan George Sloper in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 10th May 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN S
MCCALL, of Houndsditch, in the City of London, Merchant, and BEVAN
GEORGE SLOPER, of Walthamstow, in the County of Essex,. Chemist, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of November, in the year of our Lord 3
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth year of Her

page_text: reign, did, for herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said John McCall and Bevan George Sloper, Her special licence that we, the
said John McCall and Bevan George Sloper, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said John McCall and Bevan George
Sloper, our 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
FRESH MEAT, POULTRY, GAME, AND FISH, AND IN VESSELS EMPLOYED THEREIN,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said John M'Call, and
Bevan George Sloper, or one of us, our executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under our, or one of our 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 immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent..
:
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said John McCall and Bevan George
Sloper, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be. particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, th. It is to say:-.
Our improvements relate to preserving fresh meat, poultry, game,. and fish.
We treat such food in one or other of the following methods:-We-amèrse
in or surround the meat for. a short time, say, from- ten to fifteen minutes
more or less, with a solution of bisulphite of soda, or potash in the case or
vessel in which it is to be preserved, and which must be capable of being made
air-tight. By this immersion we remove the air which filled the vacant spaces
in the case, we then withdraw the solution and replace it by carbonic acid
gas; we repeat these immersions and supplies of gas occasionally as required.
We introduce into the case containing the food a regulated quantity of dilute
sulphurous acid, and an equivalent quantity of carbonate or bicarbonate of
soda or potash separately. The acid and alkaline salt do not come into
contact until the case is "hermetically closed, when they are brought into
contact by agitation and the liquid resulting charged with carbonic acid bathes
the surface of and impregnates the meat; or the acid and salt may be brought
into contact before the case is closed; or we place the meat in a case provided
with two stop-cocks, one in or near the bottom, the other in the lid. By the
lower stop-cock we introduce a solution of bisulphite of soda or potash filling
the vacant spaces in the case, we then close the stop-cock in the lid and

page_text: exhaust the case of its liquid contents by powerful hydraulic suction, or by
the action of an air pump. We leave the meat under this exhausting suction
and thus draw out from the meat as much air as it will yield up, which we
then expel from the case by the introduction of a solution of bisulphite of soda
or potash, which we afterwards withdraw and replace by carbonic acid gas.
We repeat at intervals these alternate introductions of the alkaline solution
and carbonic acid gas.
When metallic cases are used either for preserving or packing the food we use
a lining both for the top, bottom, and sides of a non-metallic nature, such as
thin matting, wickerwork, veneers of wood, cloth, or other suitable materials.
We preserve poultry, game, and fish in the same manner as that described
for meat.
And having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we declare that we claim as our im-
provements in preserving fresh meat, poultry, game, and fish.-
First, the employment of bisulphites of soda and potash, substantially in
manner herein-before described.
Second, the processes herein-before described whatever the antiseptic salt
employed.
Third, the employment of an alkaline salt together with carbonic acid, or
the substances producing the same sulphurous acid and carbonate or bicar-
bonate of soda or potash acting in manner herein-before described.
And we claim as our improvement in the vessels employed in preserving
fresh meat, poultry, game, and fish by any of the methods herein-before
described, the. lining of the same with matting, wickerwork, or other like
suitable material to protect the substance being preserved from contact with
the vessels.
In witness whereof, we, the said John McCall and Bevan George Sloper,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Ninth day of May, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
JOHN M'CALL. (L.B.)
B. G. SLOPER.
.
(L.S.)