A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OF CURING MEATS, PRESERVING PROVISIONS, AND VENTILATING AND COOLING BUILDINGS, CADO AND VESSELS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OF CURING
MEATS, PRESERVING PROVISIONS, AND VENTILATING AND COOLING BUILDINGS,
CADO AND VESSELS "A communication.
Sealed the 18th March 1856, and dated the 11th January 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 11th January 1856.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OF CURING
MEATS, PRESERVING PROVISIONS, AND VENTILATING AND COOLING BUILDINGS, CARS,
AND VESSELS,-to-be as follows:-
pro-
This Invention relates to the curing of meat, preserving all kinds of
visions and fruits, and the-ventilating and cooling of buildings, cars, and vessels,
by means of currents of air, artificially dried by ice, or its equivalent, and
circulated through the room, apartments, or building wherein the curing,

page_text: preservation, ventilation, or cooling takes place, the object being to free the
apartments of any warm or moist air, and maintain a uniform temperature,
from freezing point up to any desired point sufficiently cold to answer all prac-
tical purposes in effecting the curing of meats and other provisions, so that
they will keep when exposed to ordinary summer weather,.and to furnish fresh
dry cold air for ventilating and cooling purposes.
The curing house for preserving meats is furnished with two chambers, one
of which is for receiving ice, and the other the meats to be preserved. These
chambers are connected together by openings closed with sliding doors. The
ice in the ice room is at all times kept above the openings in the partition, so
that currents of air passed into the ice room, for the purpose of entering the
curing or preserving room, will have to find their way through the interstices
of the ice before entering the curing or preserving room. By coming in con-
tact with ice, or a surface cooled by ice, the air will be caused to deposit the
moisture which it contained.
The preserving room may be, as it were, perfectly enveloped in an ice house,
with openings to admit the cold current of air from the surface of ice, and
hatchways to let in provisions or fruits, and an opening for the ventilating flue;
or the air may be carried through pipes or tubes leading into the room or
rooms; or, in constructing refrigerators, the flues, pipes, or tubes may not be
used; or fans or wheels may be brought into requisition to force the air over
and around the ice.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 11th July 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS-SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, sends greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special licence that I, the said Alfred.
Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns,

page_text: 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 "A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OF CURING MEATS, PRESERVING PROVISIONS,
AND VENTILATING AND COOLING BUILDINGS, CARS, AND VESSELS," being a communi-
cation from abroad, upon the condition, amongst others, that I, the said
Alfred Vincent Newton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
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 Alfred Vincent Newton, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
It is well known, that in order to preserve meats from decomposition (arising
from the effects of heat or a high temperature), ice has been employed' in a
variety of ways, but not with that success which has rendered any one of the
methods used of any commercial value. It has been found, in curing meats
in particular, that the atmosphere should be in a certain condition to render it
successful. The conditions are, first, a certain degree of cold; and, secondly,
a certain state of dryness, and without these conditions all will prove a failure,
if attempted. For instance, a temperature of forty degrees is sufficiently cold,
but dampness even at that degree of cold will induce decomposition, because
the humid air will not allow the salt to abstract from the meat the juices, which
cause decay when exposed to a warm atmosphere.
Now, in all of the methods invented for curing meats, preserving provisions
and fruits, and for ventilation with the use of ice, the presence of too much
dampness in the atmosphere has been the great difficulty, and to remove this
is the object of the present Invention. To this end, the Inventor of the
present improvements proposes to employ, in the curing of meats and pre-
serving of all kinds of provisions and fruits, as well as for ventilating. and
cooling buildings, cars, and vessels, currents of air (artificially dried by ice or
its equivalent), and circulating through the room, apartments, or building
wherein the curing, preservation, ventilation, or cooling takes place, and
thereby to free the said apartments of any warm or moist air, and maintain

page_text: an uniform temperature from freezing point up to any desired point sufficiently
cold to answer all practical purposes in effecting the curing of meats and other
provisions, so that they will keep when exposed to ordinary summer weather,
and furnishing fresh dry cold air for ventilating and cooling purposes.
This Invention is particularly applicable to the construction of pork and
fruit houses, for the purpose of curing meats and preserving provisions and
fruits in the summer season, and at such times when the weather is not sufli-
ciently cold to cure or preservo in the ordinary way:
To enable others skilled in the art to apply the improvement, I will proceed
to describe the manner of carrying out the same, by referring to the accom-
panying Drawing.
Fig. 1 represents a transverse sectional elevation of the curing and pre-
serving apartment in connection with the ice room; showing the air passages
from the surface of the ice into the curing or preserving apartment; and
ventilating flue, furnished with valves, for retaining or permitting the air to
escape as may be required.
Fig. 2 represents a longitudinal sectional elevation through the pork or fruit
house, shewing the sliding doorways that permit the air to come from the ice;
and illustrating the mode of working the same.
The structure in the present Drawing represents a pork or fruit house,
furnished with an ice room by its side, and the house is furnished with a room
B, in which the meats, fruits, or other provisions may be cured, preserved, or
packed. The two apartments are connected together by openings k, k, fur-
nished with sliding doors c, c, which can be closed and opened at pleasure,
they being counterbalanced by weights, as represented in Fig. 2. The ice
in the ice room is at all times kept above the openings k, k, in the partition, so
that the warm atmosphere will not find its way into the curing room B. The
air which enters the curing or preserving room will thus have to pass
down through the interstices of the ice, and be cooled before entering that
chamber...
The above is the method employed for obtaining the proper degree of cold;
but I do not confine myself to the particular mechanical structure represented
in the accompanying Drawing. The curing or preserving room may be, as it
were, perfectly enveloped in an ice house, with openings to admit the cold
current of air from the surface of ice, and hatchways to let in provisions or
fruits, and an opening for the ventilating flue; or the air may be carried
through pipes or tubes leading into the room or rooms.. Fans or blowers may
also be brought into requisition to drive the air over and around the ice, all of

page_text: which I consider equivalent to the plan represented in the Drawing. It is
well known that the atmosphere at ordinary temperatures contains much
moisture, and that when it comes in contact with colder surfaces the moisture
is deposited in the form of dew or rain; hence, all tho contrivances to effect
the curing or preservation of meats in a cold atmosphere from ice during the
summer months are objectionable, as no provision is made to get rid of the
moisture in the air; but, as in the present plan the air is passed over the sur-
face of ice or over a surface cooled by ice before entering the room B, it is
made to deposit its moisture, and pass into the room in a sufficiently cold and
dry state. In consequence, however, of an introduction of warm meats or
other warm or moist bodies, the air again becomes partially mcist and warmer;
it is then conducted off through the ventilating flue f, which is provided with
valves, either to retain it, or allow it to escape out at the top of the building,
or into either of the rooms R and S above the room B. When it is desired
to free the room B of the moist and warm air, all the valves g, h, i, and jare
closed in the side of the ventilating flue, as represented in Fig. 1, and the air
is permitted to escape, as indicated by the darts, marked through the venti-
lating flue, and out at its top; and when the air which arises from the room B
is wanted in the rooms R and S above it, all the valves are opened, which
causes the air to circulate through each room before its final exit through the
top of the ventilator. o and d represent steps for descending into the curing
room and ascending to the upper story; n,.n, are doorways at the top of the
steps, and made to fit tight, in order to retain and exclude the air, as may be
required; G, G, represent hatchways through the floors of the rooms R and S,
for the purpose of elevating or lowering provisions or fruits; W is an opening
in the roof over the ice chamber, to admit the atmosphere (as the arrows
indicate), which, passing down through the ice, escapes at the openings k, k,
into the curing room B, then thoroughly filling and circulating through all
parts of the room, and as it becomes moistened and warmed, it passes out, or,
rather, is forced out of the apartment through the ventilator f.f, as repre-
sented by the darts marked thereon to denote the course of the air. In
applying the improvement to refrigerators, or for ventilating purposes, the
arrangement for traversing the air over or among cooling surfaces is
substantially the same.
Having thus fully described the nature of the Invention as communicated
to me by my foreign correspondent, and explained the manner of carrying
the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above in
part recited Letters Patent, I claim the process of curing meats, preserving

page_text: provisions, and ventilating and cooling buildings, cars, and vessels by means
of circulating currents of air, artificially dried by ice, or its equivalent, and
passing through the apartments or chamber in which the curing, preservation,
ventilation, or cooling takes place, substantially as and for the purposo set
forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Eleventh day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)