IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRESERVATION OF ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MATTERS
Year: 1859

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Clark at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th November
1859. A communication from abroad by Louis Joseph Frederic
Margueritte, of Paris, Chemist.
I, WILLIAM CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer & Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRESERVATION OF ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MATTERS,"
to be as follows:-
The various methods which have been proposed for the preservation of
animal and vegetable matter, and particularly of alimentary substances, are too
numerous to mention, such as the use of salt, deprivation of air, desiccation,
and other methods, each possessing certain advantages or inconveniences and
especially differing in degrees of efficiency.
These improvements consist in causing the substances to be preserved to
imbibe & be impregnated with matter possessing in itself the quality of
being alimentary, of agreeable taste, capable of being taken in large quantities
with food without causing any prejudicial effects, such as result from the use of
saline food, and which is moreover abundant in comerce and of little value.
Such substance being sugar, or more properly, the residue of its manufacture-
" molasses."
The process is as follows:-For preserving meat, the meat is cut into pieces
of suitable size, which are then plunged into the molasses of the ordinary
density. By the natural phenomenon of endosmose & exosmose a relation

page_text: will be established between the greater density of the molasses and the lesser
one of the liquids contained in the meat, & in such manner that after a certain
time the molasses will acquire a certain liquidity, which is a sure indication
of the complete impregnation of the meat. This action is completed more or
less rapidly according to the size of the pieces of meat.
When this operation is completed the meat is withdrawn from the molasses
and washed in plenty of water. It is then hung out in the air and allowed to
dry. Meat thus prepared may be placed in boxes and transported long dis-
tances without spoiling, and if cut into thin slices is transparent, and presents
the color & appearance of what is termed in France "Lyons sausage." It
may be at once roasted or otherwise prepared, and has an excellent taste,
but preferably it should be previously cleansed in a similar manner to salt
meat by steeping in water, after which the meat when roasted or treated in the
ordinary way has an excellent flavor, while it will be difficult to detect the
sacharine taste, even for persons aware of the treatment.
Fish may be preserved in a precisely same manner.
Butter or eggs if
plunged in molasses are preserved, & remain perfectly fresh even after being
immersed for 18 months. Vegetables & fruit are preserved in the same way,
with the exception of their outside surfaces, which will shrivel, in consequence
of the desiccation produced by contact with the molasses.
As regards the application of this principle to the alimentation of sailors, it
will render great service as use of meat preserved in sacharine matter will
not produce the disastrous effects caused by the continued use of salt
provisions.
Further, the enormous quantity of of meat resulting from the slaughter of
horses may be utilized for the feeding of certain animals, pigs, for example, the
meat or flesh being easily preserved sweet in the manner above described,
may be used in a dry state by farmers or breeders in rearing stock. In an
agricultural point of view this process possesses great importance, as it will
be easy to preserve immense quantities of fish which are taken on some parts
of the coast, and which have hitherto been wasted. These matters, which are
extremely rich in azote, may then be used as manure.
This principle of treatment is also applicable to tripe and skins. The skins
or hides are first steeped in the molasses in the manner above described, and
then cleansed from the sugar & tanned in the ordinary manner.