IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MEAT CONSERVES
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Simon, of No. 7, St. Peter's Square, Manchester,.
in the County of Lancaster, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF MEAT CONSERVES." A communication from abroad by
Mr. Friedrich Kuntze, Leipzig, in Saxony.
Sealed the 13th December 1878, and dated the 13th August 1878.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Henry Simon at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 13th August 1878.
HENRY SIMON, of No. 7, St. Peter's Square, Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MEAT CONSERVES.' A
communication from abroad by Mr. Friedrich Kuntze, Leipzig, in Saxony.
This Invention relates to the preparation and transformation of raw meat into
the four forms suitable for transport and sale, that is to say, dessicated meat, as
meat powder, as meat tablets, and as meat tablets containing cereals, vegetables,
fat, &c.
For the preparation of dessicated meat I proceed as follows:-Immediately after
the animal has been slaughtered and flayed the muscular tissue, devoid of bone, is
freed from all particles of fat or blood which may adhere to it; it is then divided
into pieces of any desired length, about 8 inches broad and not more than 1 inch
thick (during which process all fatty portions are again carefully eliminated), and
after being cross cut with parallel incisions at a distance of about 3/4 inch apart the
pieces are strewed with finely-powdered cooking salt, in the proportion of 3 per cent.
of the weight of the meat. These operations should be performed rapidly, and
great care should be taken to remove all particles of fat and apply the required
per-centage of salt. The work is done in closed apartments, in which sulphuret of
carbon vapour is diffused to as great an extent as the workmen can bear. These
fumes keep off insects, and protect the meat from change while it undergoes the
subsequent processes; the meat is next deprived of from 40 to 45 per cent. of its>
.

page_text: moisture. The process for this purpose, which I term drying, in contradistinction
to the subsequent dessicating process, is effected by means of artificially-heated air
in vaulted chambers built over vaulted basement chambers, in which I arrange
stoves or hot-water pipes.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 shews a longitudinal section; Fig. 2, a
transverse section; Fig. 3, a half plan of the drying rooms; and Fig. 4, a half
plan of the basement. Along one of the sides of the basement there is an air
channel V, V, from which branches v, v, extend across the basement to the opposite
wall. There are three rows of heating chambers; so that three chambers stand
over each of the branch channels v, v, and each chamber contains a stove R, which
is stoked from outside the chamber.
The introduction of fuel and the removal of ashes and cinders is effected by
means of trucks running on tramways in the passages between the heating
chambers. Air is forced by fans into the heating chambers, and being there raised
to the required temperature it flows from the two sets of side chambers through
pipes or flues r, r, into the drying rooms above. In these rooms rows of horizontal
bars 1, 1, are fixed to the ceiling, and on these bars the pieces of salted meat are
hooked close to each other, so as to form walls of meat. As the outlets from the
heating chamber open into the spaces between these walls of meat the warm air
rises into these spaces, and after acting on the meat is carried off by side flues a, a.
The temperature of the drying rooms is kept at a mean between 120° and 140° Fahr.,
according to the temperature and hygrometric condition of the external atmosphere,
the heat being regulated by more or less opening or closing the flues r, r. In the
drying rooms are placed vessels containing cotton wool soaked in sulphuret of
carbon, the fumes of which protect the meat against insects, whilst these fumes are
so far diluted by the air that the meat itself does not acquire flavour from them.
The drying occupies on an average about 12 hours, driving off 40 to 45 per cent. of
the moisture from the meat.
When the drying of a charge is completed the flues r, r, are closed, and
openings h, h, in the ceiling are opened, for the admission of light and air, where-
upon the dried meat is taken out and fresh meat is put in. Lines of rails are laid
in the passages between the drying chambers, for running trucks to remove the
dried meat and introduce the fresh neat to be dried. The meat thus dried in the
presence of sulphuret of carbon is covered over its whole surface with a leather-
like article, which protects the interior substance of the meat from the action of the
external air. In warm climates, such as South America, the drying in the chambers
may cease when about 30 per cent. of the moisture is driven off, the rest of the
drying being effected in the open air. By exposure for two or three days,
according to the temperature of the atmosphere, the meat parts with a further
30 to 40 per cent. of its original moisture, and in this condition it is rolled and
compressed into bales by means of hydraulic presses, so that it can undergo a sea
voyage without damage; in this state it is employed as the raw material for the
production of the manufactured articles which will presently be described.
The preliminary artificial drying process above described prevents subsequent
chemical change, therein differing from the procedure commonly adopted in the
tropics, where the meat is simply exposed to the action of the sun's rays. Although
it is thereby dried there is a certain amount of chemical decomposition which is
appreciable in the characteristic gamey flavour of meat so treated.
In order to convert the dried meat into meat powder it is exposed to a further
process of dessication, by which the entire moisture remaining in the meat is got
rid of. For this purpose the meat is first cut, by means of any known machinery,
into small cubical pieces, which are introduced into the dessicating chambers D, D,
of which two rows are arranged in the middle of the drying house, above a heating
chamber H, H, common to them all. The front of each dessicating chamber is an
iron framing fitted with a number of flap doors hinged below. In each chamber
there is a stand made of bar and angle iron hurdle gratings, each of which can be
drawn out and filled or emptied when the corresponding flap door is opened. The

page_text: weight of the grating, covered with a layer of meat cubes 3 to 4 inches thick
being about 50 lbs., it can be easily handled by two persons.
The warm air from the heating chamber H, H, flows by openings in the back
wall into the dessicating chamber under the lowest grating, rises through the inter-
stices, and issues by openings in the upper part of the front wall, regulated by
valves or dampers.
The temperature is not allowed to exceed 212° Fahr., and for observing it two
thermometers are introduced into the front wall, one below, the other above, with
their bulbs projecting into the dessicating chamber. After the meat cubes have been
exposed to a temperature of 212° Fahr. for about 12 hours they are almost
absolutely dry; the gratings are then drawn out, emptied, and refilled, the trucks
on the trainways of the drying house being used for the conveyance of the meat.
The meat besides undergoing a considerable loss of specific gravity is so altered in
its structure by the dessication that when subjected to pressure it is friable like char-
coal, and consequently peculiarly adapted for grinding. In order, however, to render
the ground product of uniform fineness throughout the fibrous tissue has to be cut, for
which purpose a preliminary chopping is applied to the meat before grinding; this
chopping is effected readily by means of serrated conical rollers. The grinding of
the meat to powder is effected as the grinding of other substances, the usual
fittings of a mill being provided for the purpose of converting the mass, with the
exception of about 4% of refuse, into a fine powder or dust by several successive
grindings.
The meat powder contains on an average 10 per cent. of cooking salt, 5 per cent.
of water, and 85 per cent. of dry meat, the latter ingredient consisting of about
92 per cent. of albumen and 8 per cent. of extract and animal salts; the amount
of water contained in the meat powder is probably absorbed from the atmosphere
after dessication. Meat powder prepared as above described is partially soluble in
hot water, forming a soup, thick or thin, according to the amount of water added,
which tastes as good broth, and contains all the nutritious albumen of the meat.
This broth may, by the addition of vegetables or cereal substances, be employed in
the preparation of other aliments, which, in respect of flavour and nutritious
qualities, are equivalent to the like aliments when prepared from 5 to 7 times the
same weight of fresh meat.
In order to give the meat powder a form more suitable for transport and stowage
it is moulded by hydraulic pressure into tablets. It is of advantage to form the
moulds for the tablets with cross ribs, which mark the tablets with indentations
that facilitate their subdivision into equal portions. Owing to the comparative
cheapness of meat abroad the tablets are principally formed from foreign meat
powder and pressed abroad, but it is of advantage to mix about 10 per cent. of
home-made powder. The meat tablets are used in the same way as the meat.
powder.
The tablets may be of a compound character, consisting of the meat powder
produced under this Patent, and mixed with flour, or meal, or vegetables, or, if
required, with the addition of fat, such compound tablets being especially suited
for military and naval commissariat. These substances with other ingredients may
also be made up into the form of sausages.
The mixing of the ingredients may be effected by any known means, and in any
desired proportions, the tablets retaining their tenacity even when a large quantity
of flour or meal, cooked or raw, is added to the meat powder.
When green vegetables are added they should first be steamed and dried in the
usual manner. The addition of suet or other fat has no injurious effect upon the
keeping properties of the tablets, whilst it improves the flavour and renders
unnecessary the addition of fat in preparing the food.
.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, I
claim,―
First. The manufacture of dessicated meat by subjecting muscular fibre in

page_text: presence of the fumes of sulphuret of carbon to the successive operations of dividing,
removing fat and blood, cross cutting, salting, and partial drying by heated air at
moderate temperature, and thereafter dividing the partially dried meat into small
pieces and drying them at boiling heat, substantially as herein described.
Second. The manufacture of meat powder by the chopping and grinding of the
desiccated meat referred to in the preceding claim.
... Third. The manufacture of the preparation of meat above referred to in the form
of tablets or sausages, and the manufacture of mixtures of the meat powder prepared
in the above-described manner by compression in moulds, with or without the
admixture of other substances.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Simon, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Twelfth day of August, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-eight.
HENRY SIMON. (LS.)