IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING. PROVISIONS AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED FOR SUCH PURPOSE
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Davies at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 27th January
1863. A communication from abroad by Alfred Henry Rémond, of
Paris, France.
I, GEORGE DAVIES, of No. 1, Serle Street, Lincoln's Inn, in the County
of. Middlesex, and No. 28, St. Enoch Square, in the City of Glasgow,
Civil Engineer and Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING. PROVISIONS AND IN THE APPARATUS
EMPLOYED FOR SUCH PURPOSE," (a communication to me from abroad by
Alfred Henry Rémond, of Paris, France,) to be as follows:-
In preserving cooked provisions in metal or other closed cases it has
always been found extremely difficult to get rid of the whole of the oxygèn
contained in the case, the smallest quantity of which if allowed to remain in
the case would promote fermentation and decay, and hence the provisions
would become deteriorated and totally unfit for food.
Various methods have from time to time been proposed for driving off,
destroying, absorbing, or converting into a harmless gas this deleterious agent
(namely, oxygen), and employed with more or less beneficial effect, such as
employing a very high temperature, the result of which was that the provisions
were over-cooked; other means were also tried, such as placing charcoal, iron
filings, and sulphite of soda, or other chemical agents (having an affinity for
oxygen) in the cases with the provisions.
Now the first part of this Invention consists in causing a current of electric
fluid to pass through the cases containing the provisions after they are finally

page_text: closed up, such electric fluid being
such electric fluid being made to pass along a fine iron or other
metallic wire through the case causes the wire to become red hot and consume
the oxygen.
Another improvement consists in placing inside the case (and in connection
with the thin wire) any known chemical agent (such as common sulphur for
instance), which in its ordinary state has no particular affinity for oxygen, but
which upon becoming ignited (by means of the electric wire above referred
to) evolves any gas (sulphurous acid gas, for instance,) which will absorb,
destroy, or convert into a harmless gas the oxygen which is contained in the
case, and which it is desired to get rid of; or the sulphur or other agent may
be ignited by any other convenient means.
A further improvement in connection with the use of electricity for this
purpose is as follows:-
After the case has been closed a sufficient quantity of hydrogen gas is to be
introduced therein to form (with the oxygen which may be in the case) an
explosive mixture or gas, and this gas is to be then ignited by passing a
current of electricity along a metallic wire through the same, and thus all
traces of oxygen will be destroyed.
Another improvement consists in placing the meat in the cases after a short
parboiling in very fast boiling water, so as to coagulate the albumen and
boiling it as usual with a small hole at the top, the case open, after which
the top of the case is to be cooled to diminish the pressure inside, and the
case filled entirely with boiling water.
In order to facilitate the filling up of the cases with boiling water the top
of the case must be made with two tubes or openings, so that as the water
enters by one tube or opening it drives the air and gases out of the case by the
other. When the case is completely full the tubes or openings are closed by
pinching or otherwise, and a small cap of metal may be, soldered over both of
them, the case is then immersed in the hot bath for about an hour, more or
less, according to the size of the case. The process is then completed.