Year: 1899

page_text: A communication by ALBERT F. NATHAN, of Kansas City, Missouri, United States
of America,
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, F.C.S., M.I.M.E., of the Agency for Foreign
Patent Solicitors, 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, and 6, Bank Street, Manchester,
both in the County of Lancaster 118, New Street, Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, and 322, High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
":
This invention relates to apparatus or means for marking and smoking meats,
and consists in a truck provided with a series of wire shelves having formed
thereon projections to produce the mark or marks which it is desired to impress
on the several pieces of meat, and in detachably and adjustably applying said
projections, as hereinafter more fully described.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of one of the trucks.
Fig. 2 is an end elevation of a series of the trucks arranged side by side, and
showing the groove in the floor by which the trucks are guided into and out of
the smoke chamber.
Fig. 3 is a transverse horizontal section of a truck on the line of Fig. 2,
showing one of the shelves with the marks and meat thereon.
Figs. 4 and 5 are views showing details of construction.
In preparing the meat for the trade, the mark is formed by laying the meat
while in a fresh or soft condition on a tray, the upper surface of which is pro-
vided with projecting letters or characters corresponding to the mark to be
produced or impressed on the meat, so that when the meat is laid thereon and
left while being smoked or cured, these raised letters or characters shall form
indentations in the meat which remain fixed therein when the treatment of
the meat is completed.
It has been the practice heretofore to provide a separate tray or support for
each separate piece of meat, and to place these trays or supports on horizontal
bars in the smoke house. Such a plan is laborious, in that it requires much time
and labor to handle and place each tray with its piece of meat separately on the
bars. The object of the present invention is to reduce the labor required and
greatly expedite the operation.
To accomplish this result a series of trucks made as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 is
constructed. These trucks consist of a bed or frame A mounted on two wheels B
located near the front end, and a smaller wheel Cat the centre of the rear end,
this latter wheel being swiveled to the frame to enable the truck to be turned
and guided in any desired direction.
At each corner of the bed or frame A is rigidly secured an upright metal

page_text: post B, and these at their upper ends are connected by cross-bars E at front and
rear, and by longitudinal side bars T, as clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 2. This
upright frame is preferably made of gas or water pipe of the proper size, cut
to the required lengthis, and fastened together by couplings and screw-threads
at the corners, as shown, as the same can thus be made light, strong, and
cheaply.
To the inner side of the corner posts or uprights, is secured a series of light
L-shaped bars a, as shown in Fig. 2, these being arranged in a series along the
two sides and extending from front to rear as shown in Fig. 1, they being de-
signed to support a corresponding series of shelves.
The bars are fastened to the posts B in such a manner that they can be
adjusted vertically thereon, so as to bring the shelves which rest on the bars a
closer together. or further apart, and thus adapt them to the varying
thickness of the pieces of meat, hams and shoulders being much thicker, and
therefore requiring correspondingly more space then bacon or similar thin
pieces of meat.
To accomplish this, on the inner side of the posts D a series of holes has
shown in Fig. 5 is made, these holes having a slot at their lower side of a size
to receive the body of the bolts 1, with which the bars a are provided, as shown
in Fig. 5, the bolts being provided with a head as shown. It will readily be
Been that when the heads of these bolts are entered in the enlarged portion of
the holes and their bodies dropped down into the slots, the heads of the bolts
will engage with the walls of the post, and thus hold the bars securely in place.
To remove the bars it 'is only necessary to raise them and draw the bolts out
of the holes, and thus they can be adjusted as desired.
The holes will be made close enough together to adapt the shelves to be placed
at the proper distance apart to receive bacon or similar thin pieces of moat,
and when it is desired to use them for hams or shoulders, they will be adjusted
accordingly.
By these means, the trucks are adapted to holding all the various kinds of
meat to be treated, and when the meat consists of bacon or other thin pieces: a
very much greater number of pieces can be placed on one truck; or if desired,
the shelves can be so adjusted that both thick and thin pieces can be placed in
the same truck, thus adapting them to all the varying necessities of the various
houses engaged in the business.
It is obvious that other means may be used for adjusting the shelves, but the
plan shown is simple and efficient and is therefore preferred.
Having thus constructed the truck body, a series of reticulated or perforated
shelves T is provided, preferably made of a light metal frame with wires or
small rods crossing it in both directions as shown in Fig. 3. On each of these
shelves is secured the projecting letters or characters which are to form the
marks on the meat, care being taken preferably, so to locate and arrange then
on the shelf that when the shelf is covered with hams or other pieces of meat,
cach piece shall rest upon one only of these mark-forming projecting letters,
words or characters, as shown in Fig. 3, that is to say, upon a single complete
design or mark indicating the producer, or giving similar information.
These marks or designs, which may be of any style or character preferred;
and which of course will vary with each house or company using them, and also
with the various kinds of meat, may be made separate from the shelves, as
represented in Fig. 4.
The letters or characters which constitute the mark, are usually made of large
wire or small rods, bent into the proper shape or form; and if the design or
mark consists of more than one letter or character, they are connected by a finer
wire or by small strips of metal secured to their under side by rivets or solder,
as preferred.
-
Each mark is provided on its under side with two or more pins e, adapted to
fit into the meshes or holes in the shelf and thus to hold the mark in place.

page_text: It will be seen that by reason of this construction the individual marks.or
designs can be changed in position on the shelf, and be placed closer together or
further apart, and be arranged lengthwise or crosswise of the shelf as shewn in
Fig. 3, so as to adapt them into the varying sizes of the pieces of meat, whatever
these may be.
In practice, some of the shelves which will be used continually for one
particular kind of meat, as for instance hams or shoulders which vary but little
in size, will preferably liave the marks or designs permanently fastened in place,
while others will have them made detachable, or if preferred, part may be per-
manently secured to the shelves, and part be detachable.
Fach truck is provided with a set of these shelves more or less in number
according to the height of the frame, nine being shown in the left hand truck
in Fig. 2. The truck and shelves may be made of any size required, the only
limit being the size that can be conveniently moved when fully loaded.
It will be seen that when made of a size sufficient to hold eighteen hams on
each shelf, and nine shelves in a truck, cach truck will hold one hundred and
sixty-two, shoulders or pieces of bacon, and that all of these can be shoved to-
gether into, or drawn from the smoke chamber at once, thus greatly expediting
the operation, and requiring much less space than when the meat is hung up by
strings, as was the former custom, besides saving the time and labor necessary
to put in, tie, and subsequently remove the strings.
To load these trucks, all the shelves except the lower one may be removed,
and the lower shelf then covered with the hams or other pieces of meat, (one
being shown partly covered in Fig. 3); after which another shelf will be in-
serted and covered, and so on until all the shelves have been inserted and covered
with pieces of meat, when the loaded truck is ready to be run into the smoke
chamber. It is obvious however that the meat may be placed on the shelves
before they are slid into the truck, if desired for any reason, though the former
is the preferred plan.
The smoke house or chamber, one end of which is shown in vertical section
and indicated by the letter H in Fig. 1, and transversely in Fig. 2, has its floor
or sill at the entrance provided with grooves G of the proper size to serve as
guides for the wheels of the trucks; and within, the chambers are provided
with a series of trough-shaped rails I resting on girders and extending in
parallel lines the entire length of the chamber, so that a large number of trucks
can be run in on each of these tracks, the tracks being arranged side by side
the whole width of the chamber, as represented in Fig. 2. It will thus be seen
that a largo amount of meat can be marked and smoked in a comparatively small
chamber.
These smoke houses are usually constructed with several tiers or stories of
rails arranged one above another, as indicated in Fig. 1, where two such tiers
are shown, an elevator being arranged to raise the trucks to, and lower them from
the various tiers or stories.
This construction of the smoke house or chamber however, forms ino part of
the present invention, as tliese 'trucks may be used in other smoke houses; and
the reference herein to the special construction of the smoke house or chamber
is only to better illustrate the best manner of using the trucks.
The great benefit arising from the use of these improved trucks by the saving
of time and labor will be obvious to anyone at all familiar with the business of
preparing smoked meats, which has grown to be an enormous business, and uced
not therefore be further described:
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said in-
vention and in what manner the same is to be performed as communicated to
me by foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is:-
1. In combination with a reticulated or perforated meat shelf, a detachable

page_text: or movablo dosign or character, such as described, for producing marks upon the
meat during smoking or curing.
2. In combination with a reticulated or perforated shelf, a plurality of designs
or characters such as described, said designs or characters being removable and
capable of application at different points on the shelf, whereby various designs
may be used, and their relative position or arrangement on the shelf may be
varied at will.
3. The herein described apparatus for handling and marking meat during
the process of smoking, consisting of a truck, a series of reticulated or perforated
shelves carried by said truck, and raised characters or designs detachably
secured' to said shelves, substantially as described.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Agents.