IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING BRINE FROM SALTED FLESH OR FISH FOR THE ORTAINMENT OR SPRIT Produce mHEREBRAL
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Whitelaw, of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Manufacturing Chemist, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING BRINE FROM SALTED FLESH OR FISH FOR THE
ORTAINMENT OR SPRIT Produce mHEREBRAL "
Sealed the 23rd February 1864, and dated the 30th December 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Whitelaw at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
30th December 1863.
I, ALEXANDER WHITELAW, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, Manufacturing Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING BRINE PROM SALTED FLESH OR FISH
POR THE OBTAINMENT OF USEFUL PRODUCTS THEREFROM," to be as follows, that is
to say :-
This Invention relates to the treatment of brine from salted flesh or fish, and
consists in separating from such brine the salt or saline matters, or a large
portion thereof, leaving in a pure or nearly pure state the juices drawn from
the flesh or fish by the action of the salt.
In carrying out the Invention the brine is subjected to the process of dialysis,

page_text: ""
there being interposed between it and a quantity of water a sheet, skin, or
envelope of a soft substance of close texture, such as "parchment paper or
vellum, bladder, skin, or other animal membrane, or a soft gelatinous substance
combined with a woven fabric. The substance used may be stretched upon an
open framework, so as to form a vessel to contain the brine; and this vessel
or dialyser may be immersed or partially immersed in a quantity of water.
A bladder forms of itself a convenient and economical dialyser, and a number
of bladders may be combined on a frame or on rods to be immersed together
into a tank or stream of water. The bladders may or may not be fitted with
stop-cocks to facilitate their filling and emptying. When the brine is subjected
in this manner to the action of water externally upon the containing vessels or
dialysers, the salt or saline matters contained in it pass through the sides of
the dialysers into the water, the juices remaining in the dialysers in a very
pure state. The juice of flesh thus rendered pure and fresh by the dialysing
process may be at once employed in making rich soups, or it may be con-
centrated by evaporation to a solid state. The liquor may either be evaporated
at a temperature of 212 degrees Fahrenheit to dryness in a thick or coagulated
condition, in which state it may be packed in tins or jars for sale; or it may
be evaporated to dryness at a temperature of 120 degrees Fahrenheit in a
vacuum or otherwise, when the ingredients of the juice will be obtained in a
soluble form, or the liquor in a more or less concentrated state may be
combined with flour to form "meat biscuits," which biscuits may, in a ground
state or otherwise, be packed in tins or cases. The products thus indicated are
all highly nutritive, palatable, and wholesome, and are admirably adapted for
use at sea, abroad, or by an army in the field. The purified juice may also be
otherwise utilised, thus albumen may be separated from it by well known
means. The water outside of the dialyser may in some cases be more or less
saline, thus sea water will serve to extract a considerable proportion of the
saline ingredients of the brine, so that if at sea the brine from salted meat be
put in bladders and suspended in the sea, the nutritive ingredients will be
rendered available, whereas hitherto these ingredients have been entirely
wasted.
The separated juices from fish or other brine, if unsuitable for food, may be
subjected to destructive distillation to obtain ammonia and other products,
whilst the separated saline matters may be concentrated and purified for
re-use.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander Whitelaw in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
30th March 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME; I, ALEXANDER
WHITE LAW, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Manu-
facturing Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Alexander Whitelaw, Her special licence that I, the said
Alexander Whitelaw, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Alexander Whitelaw, 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN TREATING BRINE FROM SALTED FLESH OR FISH FOR THE OBTAINMENT
OF USEFUL PRODUCTS THEREFROM," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Alexander Whitelaw, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, 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 I, the said Alexander Whitelaw, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement in writing, that is to say:.
My Invention relates to the treatment of brine from salted flesh or fish,
and consists in separating from such brine the salt or saline matters, or a
large portion thereof, so as to leave in a pure or nearly pure state the juices
drawn from the flesh or fish by the action of the salt, which separated or
purified juices may be manufactured into various products of a highly nutritive,
palatable, and wholesome character, and admirably adapted for use in hospitals,
at sea, abroad, or by an army in the field.
In practically carrying out my Invention, the brine, such, for example, as
is produced in salting beef, mutton, or pork, is subjected to the process known

page_text: to chemists as "dialysis," and respecting which existing information is mainly
due to recent elaborate and searching investigations of Professor Graham of
the London Mint. The process of dialysis takes place when a fluid mixture
of so-called colloid and crystalloid substances is on one side of a suitable
membrane or diaphragm which has water at its other side. Under these
circumstances, the crystalloid substances, or a large portion of them pass
through the diaphragm into the water, leaving behind the colloid substances.
Brine is a mixture of "colloid" juices and "crystalloid" salts, which I find
can be separated sufficiently and satisfactorily by this process of dialysis.
The membrane or material by means of which the dialytic separation is
effected may be a soft substance of close texture, such as "parchment paper,"
vellum, bladder, skin, or other animal membrane; or a soft gelatinous sub-
stance combined with a woven fabric; or, again, a porous material.such as
porous earthenware having the pores filled with size or the like gelatinous
substance. Moist clay or other suitable plastic material may also be used in
forming dialytic partitions or envelopes.
It is most convenient, in applying the process of dialysis for the purposes
of my Invention, to put the brine into vessels which can be immersed in
water in a tank or stream, such vessels being formed entirely or for the most
part of dialytic materials, and being termed dialysers. A vessel of large size
may be conveniently formed with an open framework of wood or metal, and
with sheets of skin or the like dialytic material stretched over the openings,
and fixed to the frames in such a way as to be water-tight. I find. a series of
common bladders fitted with stop-cocks or with gutta percha neeks and plugs,
and hung upon rods which are laid across within the vats or tanks of water
form a very cheap and effectual arrangement. Bags of larger size may also
be employed being made of the skins of animals, and such bags may either
be used open, or they may be fitted with stop-cocks or with metal or other
necks and covers.
In conducting operations with the brine, and using, for example, the
bladder arrangement, herein-before described, the bladders are nearly but not
quite filled with the previously filtered brine by means of funnels or fillers;
and their stop-cocks or plugs being closed, they are arranged in rows suspended
from rods, and immersed in vats of water. The water in these vats is renewed
once or twice a day, or oftener, and at the end of the third or fourth day the
bladders may be taken out, when it will be found that the greater part of the
nitre and common salt has been removed, and that the liquid remaining in
the bladders is pure or nearly pure juice of flesh in a fresh and highly
nutritive condition. The purified juice in the state in which it comes from

page_text: the dialysers may be at once employed in making rich and palatable soups, or
it may be evaporated to the state of solid extract of flesh.
By one plan I evaporate the purified juice, by preference, in enamelled
vessels at a temperature of 212 degrees Fahrenheit to dryness, or to a thick
state, and I pack it in tins or jars for the market.
By another plan I concentrate the purified juice at a temperature of about
120 degrees Fahrenheit, by means of a vacuum pan or other convenient
arrangement, and thereby get all the ingredients of the juice in a soluble
condition.
By another plan I evaporate the purified juice to a more or less con-
centrated fluid or semi-fluid condition, in which I combine it with wheat,
flour, or other farinaceous ingredient, and thereby form "meat biscuit." This
biscuit may be ground and packed in tins for the market. The purified juice
may also be otherwise utilised; thus albumen may be obtained from it by
well-known means. Fish brine can be treated in the same way as that
from flesh.
It is not essential for the water outside of the dialyser to be quite pure and
free from salt, as the dialytic action will take place with saline water if some-
what less saline than the brine, but of course with proportionately less energy.
Thus the operation may be conducted in sea water; and on board ships at sea
the brine from salt meat may be profitably used up, and be made to restore to
the meat a great part of the nutritive matter drawn from it by the salting
action. Or the operation may be partly conducted in sea water, and then
completed in fresh or distilled water.
An important application of my improved treatment of brine is effected in
connection with the steeping of salt meat, which is commonly done to remove
salt prior to cooking the meat. In this application I employ a dialyser of a
sufficient size to contain one or more pieces of salt meat along with a quantity
of brine, in which brine the meat. is steeped. On the dialyser with its con-
tajued meat and brine being immersed in water, and on the saltness of the
brine becoming partly reduced, the salt from the meat passes into the brine,
and then out of the dialyser, and the action may be continued until almost the
whole salt is removed from the meat and from the juice surrounding it. A
further important action also takes place: as the salt leaves the meat, and its
contractile action becomes diminished, the meat re-expands and re-absorbs the
nutritive ingredients from the brine, having its quality thereby considerably
enriched, and being restored more nearly to the condition of fresh meat.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is or may be performed, I have to state that I do not restrict

page_text: myself to the precise details herein described, but that what I believe to be
novel and original, and claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent is, the treating of brine by dialysis or
equivalent means for the separation of salt therefrom, and the utilising of
the purified juice thereby obtained, substantially as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Whitelaw, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
28, St. Enoch Square,
Glasgow.
ALEX. WHITELAW. (L.S.)