NEW OR IMPROVED MEANS AND PROCESS OF TRANSPORTING, PRESERVING, AND RECONSTITUTING OR REVIVIFYING PULPY FRUITS
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henri Adrien Bonneville, of the British and Foreign
Patent Offices, 8, Rue de la Chaussée d'Antin, Paris, France, and 90, Cannon
Street, in the City of London, Patent Agent, for an Invention of "NEW OR
IMPROVED MEANS AND PROCESS OF TRANSPORTING, PRESERVING, AND
RECONSTITUTING OR REVIVIFYING PULPY FRUITS." A communication from
Denise Cornilliac, Wife of Adrien Ralu, of Rue Condorcet, Paris, France.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Henri Adrien Bonneville at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 16th September 1881.
HENRI ADRIEN BONNEVILLE, of the British and Foreign Patent Offices, 8, Rue de
la Chaussée d'Antin, Paris, France, and 90, Cannon Street, in the City of London,
Patent Agent. "NEW OR IMPROVED MEANS AND PROCESS OF TRANSPORTING,
PRESERVING, AND RECONSTITUTING OR REVIVIFYING PULPY FRUITS."
A com-
munication from Denise Cornilliac, Wife of Adrien Ralu, of Kue Condorcet, Paris,
France.
This Invention relates to new or improved means and process of transporting,
preserving, and reconstituting or revivifying pulpy fruits in general, and more
especially colonial exotic fruits, by submitting them to the action of alcohol for the
purpose of transporting them, and subsequently eliminating the alcohol and
reconstituting the fruit in its primitive state.
The object of applying this process, which has nothing in common with any of
the methods hitherto employed for merely preserving fruits in alcohol, is to effect
on a large scale the importation of the enormous quantities of exotic fruits which
go to waste in the colonies, and which could be utilized by industry, thereby
ensuring return freights to vessels bound from Europe, and creating a new source
of riches to the much tried colonies.
The fruits to which the improved process is more particularly applicable are
pine-apples, mangoes, mangos, mangotines, mangostans, guaiavas, mombin plums,
cytherean apples, apricots, bananas, and fig bananas.

page_text: Barrels or vessels of wrought iron of a certain capacity are employed, having an
opening.calculated according to the bulk of the fruit that are to be placed therein,
and the process is as follows:-
For ripe pine-apples.-These are peeled and then placed in the barrels or vessels,
which when full are filled up preferably with white rum or taffia, or any other
alcohol of from 54 to 60 degrees proof; the barrel or vessel is now closed and is
ready for transport. When the pine-apples are very ripe they are placed in the
barrels or vessels without being peeled, the bunch of leaves at the top and the
stalk alone being removed.
For mangoes, mangos, mangotines, mangostans.-When perfectly ripe they are
placed into the barrels or vessels, care being taken to prick them beforehand in
order to facilitate the action of the alcohol.
For guaiavas, mombin plums, cytherean apples.-These are culled when quite ripe
and laid out upon wattles in the shade to get rid of all their humidity; they are
then introduced into the barrels or vessels until three parts full, after which the
rum or alcohol is added.
For apricots, bananas, and fig-bananas.-The same method is employed as above
for the guaiavas, mombin plums, and cytherean apples, but after first removing the
skin and inner pellicle, which would give a bitter taste to the alcohol.
By the time the fruits have arrived at their destination they are saturated with
alcohol, and the main part of my improved process consists in eliminating the said
alcohol and substituting in its stead a water analogous to that of vegetation
in order to regenerate, revivify, or reconstitute the fruit in its pristine or fresh
state.
In order to effect this the fruit is placed into a drying-place moderately heated
in order to drive out all the alcohol which is received in a recipient surrounded by
ice. This operation may last about an hour, according to the bulk of the fruit.
They are then exposed to the air for a day or two, according to the temperature,
in order to completely eliminate the little alcohol they may still contain.
At this stage of the process the fruits are in a concentrated state, and in order to
regain their original bulk require to dilate to be reconstituted and to absorb a
water similar to that of vegetation. For this purpose an extremely light syrup is
prepared with about one kilogramme of sugar to four or five litres of water, and
when this syrup is cold the fruit is plunged into it for about a quarter of an hour
and then allowed to drain and afterwards wiped. They are now in a condition to
be delivered to trade and are as fresh and delicate as when just culled.
For fruit that is not peeled the_sugar_may_be_dispensed-with,-and-they-are-
simply plunged into water for half an hour.
Having thus described the Invention and the manner of performing it, I
claim,―
The method of temporary preserving, of transporting, and of reconstituting all
kinds of fruit, and more particularly of exotic colonial fruits to their fresh state by
means of their concentration by the addition of rum or other alcohol, the subsequent
elimination of the said alcohol by a moderate heat and by exposure to the air, and
the introduction into the fruit of a water similar to that of vegetation, substantially
as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, have hereto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty one.