IMPROVEMENTS IN SINGEING PIGS AND IN APPARATUS FOR THE SAME
Year: 1860

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Anderson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 18th July
1860.
I, GEORGE ANDERSON, of Leadenhall Street, in the City of London, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
SINGEING PIGS AND IN APPARATUS FOR THE SAME," to be as follows:-
My Invention of improvements in singeing pigs and apparatus for the
purpose, relates to the manner of subjecting those animals to that process in
the application of gas i
for the purpose..
According to one arrangement I hang the pig up by the legs in the ordinary
manner of hanging them up when killed, & traverse the carcasses along a suitable
rail or bar, conducting them through a chamber in which the gas burners are
situated. These burners consist of a number of fixed vertical tubes having
suitable appertures, such tubes being arranged in the form of a quadrant. The
supporting bar or rail from which the pig hangs takes a similar curved course
and exposes the back and sides of the carcass to the heat and flame during its:
traverse, another series of vertical jet pipes are arranged in a curve having
the concave towards the concave of the quadrant jets, this second series of
jet tubes are mounted so as to be movable towards or from the fixed jet tubes
and also so as to turn on a pivot; by this capability of movement of the second
series these gas jets can be brought closer to or further from the opposite series
and according to the size of the animal, it also admits of the extremes of
the movable series being brought in closer proximity round the sides and

page_text: belly of the animal, which the attendant regulates by leverage or otherwise as
may be required, he having suitable spy holes to watch the progress of the
operation, which when complete, the animal is conducted out of the singeing
chamber on a continuation of same supporting bar or rail. In order to keep
the chamber as close as possible, I employ double doors at the entrance &
also at the exit, if necessary; these doors are self-closing, & open by simply
pushing the carcass through; sufficient air is supplied for the combustion of the
gas, such air being admitted at or near the exit door and escaping at the
entrance door near the lower part thereof, this arrangement conducts the heat
towards the lower part of the pendant animal, which may require the greatest
& longest duration of the heat and singeing operation. The passage of air
may be produced by blowing apparatus or by draught exhausting from the
chamber between the double entrance doors. The burners, instead of being
series of vertical tubes, may be tubes in a horizontal, diagonal, or other position
or may be other kind of surface burners.
Another method consists in hanging the carcass up by the four legs from a
suitable frame, traversing rails or supports on each side of an oven or singeing
chamber in which the gas burners are disposed in the form of an inverted arch,
approaching somewhat to the form of a pig, & so as to singe round the back,
sides, & as far round the belly as possible. The animal being traversed
through this curved burner suspended as before mentioned, the hair is singed
& removed as required, double doors may be adopted for the entrance & exit
of the pigs, and the air conducted to carry the greatest heat to the position
required, all as before mentioned.
Another arrangement consists in placing the animal on a kind of inclined
gridiron having suitable gas jets immediately below, or they might be in the
gridiron itself, the carcass is laid on at the top and rolled over on this gridiron
towards the lower part, and being inclined is easily manevred so as to
expose the parts requiring the most singeing the greatest length of time to
the heat and flame. I place the bars of the gridiron at an angle to the traverse
of the pig, or they might be at right angles thereto.