AN IMPROVED MODE OF PRESERVING ANIMAL' AND VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES
Year: 1865

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 "AN IMPROVED MODE OF PRESERVING ANIMAL'
AND VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES."-A communication from abroad by Francis
Stabler, of the City of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, United
States of America.
Sealed the 16th February 1866, and dated the 9th December 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th December 1865.
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 "AN IMPROVED MODE OF PRESERVING ANIMAL:
AND VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to means of depriving animal or vegetable substances
of their watery constituents and securing them in an air-tight vessel from which
the air has been expelled without the use of heat. For example, in preserving
oysters, a table is covered with a layer of dry salt, and upon this layer the.
6

page_text: oysters are laid; they are then covered over with another layer of salt and
allowed to stand from two to four hours. After this treatment the oysters
are filled into cans with what salt adheres to them. Then with the aid of a
soda fountain from which the air has been expelled, and charged with carbonic
acid gas, discharges the gas into the filled cans until the air is expelled there-
from (which can be told by applying a lighted taper to the top of the can).
This having been effected the can is to be sealed up air-tight.
In preserving fruit, peaches for example, sugar is used in place of salt; the
skin is removed and the stone taken out to allow the sugar to act on the water
in the peach.
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 9th June 1866.
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, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth. 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, 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
"AN IMPROVED MODE OF PRESERVING ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE. SUBSTANCES,"
being a communication to me from abroad, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors or admi-
nistrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
canse 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..

page_text: 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 (that is to say) :-
This Invention relates to the employment of certain means for depriving
animal and vegetable substances of their watery constituents, and securing
them in air-tight, receptacles from which the air has been expelled without
the use of heat. In order to prepare (for example) oysters according to this
Invention, a table is covered with a layer of dry salt, and upon this layer the
oysters are laid; they are then covered over with another layer of salt and left
undisturbed for from two to four hours, and after this the oysters are placed
in cans with what salt adheres to them. By the use of apparatus similar
to a soda-water fountain from which the air has been expelled by means of a
jet of carbonic acid gas the air is expelled from the filled cans. The fountain
is filled with carbonic acid gas, as in making soda or mineral water; and
when the fountain is charged with gas a draw pipe is attached to it similar to
that used for drawing soda water, which pipe is introduced to the bottom of
the can filled with oysters, and the gas is allowed to flow into the can until
the air is expelled therefrom. This test for ascertaining when the air is
expelled is simply to apply a lighted taper to the top of the can, when (if the
can is full of gas) the taper will cease to burn. The pipe is then to be with-
drawn and the can sealed up.
In preparing fruit, peaches for example, sugar is used in place of salt;
the skin is removed and the stone taken out to allow the sugar to act on the
water in the peach.
The rest of the preserving process is similar to that above detailed.
Although I have given above the mode of applying the Invention to the
preservation of oysters and peaches only, I would remark that it may be
applied to many other articles without any essential variation of detail, except
such as will be obvious to persons skilled in the art of packing animal or
vegetable substances for food.
I have described a convenient mode of introducing the gas, but do not
limit myself to any particular manner, as many others are well known and
can be used.
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention of "An Improved Mode
of Preserving Animal and Vegetable Substances," as communicated to me
from abroad, 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 preserving animal or vegetable substances used for food, when treated

page_text: as above explained, by sealing up the same, in air-tight vessels, and expelling
the air by the substitution of gas that will not support combustion, substan-
tially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)