IMPROVEMENTS IN Civil Engineer and Patent Agent, for an Invention of PRESERVING MEAT AND OTHER PERISHABLE ARTICLES
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Hector Auguste Dufrené, of No. 10, Rue de la Fidélité,
Paris, in the Republic of France, and 4, South Street, Finsbury, London,
"IMPROVEMENTS IN
Civil Engineer and Patent Agent, for an Invention of
PRESERVING MEAT AND OTHER PERISHABLE ARTICLES." A communication
from "la Société Anonyme le Froid," of No. 20, Rue Erard, Paris
kr
aforesaid.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Hector Auguste Dufrené at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 12th June 1880.
HECTOR AUGUSTE DUFRENÉ, of No. 10, Rue de la Fidélité, Paris, in the Republic
of France, and 4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Civil Engineer and Patent
Agent. "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING MEAT AND OTHER PERISHABLE ARTICLES."
[A communication from "la Société Anonyme le Froid," of No. 20), Rue Erard,
Paris aforesaid.]
The Invention communicated to me consists in preparing meat and other
perishable substances for preserving them during transport for long or short
distances.
In carrying out this Invention the meat is exposed in chambers through which a
current of air is caused to pass, dried by means of chloride of calcium, or by other
suitable means, and then cooled, so as to cause the meat to lose a certain quantity
of water, at the same time maintaining it at a temperature a little above that in
which the freezing of water takes place.
The meat thus partly dried is placed in waggons, ships, and other conveyances,
and submitted during the transport by any suitable means to a temperature a
little above 0 degrees centigrade, but without being subjected to ventilation.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Hector Auguste Dufrené in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
11th December 1880.
HECTOR AUGUSTE DUFRENÉ, of No. 10, Rue de la Fidélité, Paris, in the Republic
of France, and 4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Civil Engineer and Patent
Agent. "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING MEAT AND OTHER PERISHABLE ARTICLES."
A communication from "la Société Anonyme le Froid," of No. 20, Rue Erard,
Paris aforesaid.
The Invention communicated to me consists in preparing meat and other
perishable articles of food for preserving them during transport for long distances.
The operation consists of two parts, firstly, the preparation of the meat which is to
be placed in ships, railway trucks, or other vehicles; secondly, the transport and
storage of the said meat.
The method employed according to this Invention for preparing meat or other
perishable articles for transport consists in the preliminary cold drying of the meat
or other perishable articles.
For this purpose refrigerating chambers are provided in which the meat or other
article is suspended in what may be termed passages, allowing of the regular or
methodical circulation of rapid currents of air. The said passages are so arranged
that by means of valves the air can be distributed at will in one passage or another
as required.
As the preparation of the meat consists in removing from it the water or
moisture it contains, it will be understood that in order to economically apply the
process it will be necessary to cause the air to first pass over the drier portion of
the meat, which in consequence yields less moisture, and then to conduct the air
over the meat more recently introduced into the drying chamber, and which being
more moist necessarily gives off more water. By this arrangement the same
volume of air will carry off more water, and consequently give a greater useful
effect. This arrangement although always the best means of utilizing the work
of drying is not necessarily the one which must be employed.
In order to facilitate the absorption of humidity it is advisable to cause the
current of air (before.cooling it by any suitable known means) to pass through a
chamber filled with dry chloride of calcium, or if preferred liquid chloride of calcium
well saturated. The drying and cooling operations may be combined by employing
currents of cold chloride of calcium in small jets, or these jets may be caused to
impinge on cloths stretched in the chamber and cutting the air into streams of about
one and a quarter to one inch and a half in thickness. But in this case it will be
necessary to employ and maintain a very concentrated solution of chloride (which
may be easily effected since it consists in a simple concentration by heat of part of
the solution in such a manner as to precipitate the chloride and pour it into the
bath), otherwise the drying of the air would only be imperfectly effected.
The herein before described circulation should be very rapid, because air at a
temperature approaching zero (and it is necessary to maintain it at this temperature
in order that the meat shall not become deteriorated during the operation) absorbs
very little moisture. It is therefore necessary to carry on the process quickly and
forcibly.
The degree of dryness to be produced varies from five to twenty five per cent.,
according to the length of time of the voyage and the nature of the article of food
operated on.
This result being obtained the meat may then be stored in stationary store
rooms, in steamships, railway trucks, or otherwise, the temperature being regulated
according to the ultimate duration of the preservation or distance to be travelled,

page_text: a circulation of cold and dry air being no longer necessary for the preservation, and
which constitutes the second part of the Invention.
It is to be understood that although the description has had reference chiefly to
the preservation of meat, the Invention is equally applicable to other perishable
articles, such as fish, fruit, and vegetables.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention communicated to me, and the
best means with which I am acquainted for carrying the same into effect, what is
claimed and intended to be protected by the herein in part recited Letters
Patent is,
The described method of preparing meat and other perishable articles by means
of a partial drying effected by means of currents of air dried by means of chloride
of calcium or other suitable substance, then cooled by any suitable known process,
the said preparation being combined with the transport of the meat or other
perishable article in ships, railway trucks, or other vehicles, in which it is maintained
at a temperature a little above the freezing point of water without necessitating
ventilation by cold and dry air during transport.
In witness whereof, I, the said Hector Auguste Dufrené, have hereto set
my hand and seal, this Ninth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty.
H. A. DUFRENE. (L.S.)