Improvements in the Treatment of Pepper.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 21st Nov., 1893-Accepted, 23rd Dec., 1893
COM DIE OF BUITIVATION.
[Communicated from abroad by the Firm trading as BAN HENG HIN, of No. 195,
Beach Street, Penang, Merchants.]
Improvements in the Treatment of Pepper.
I MAX KIRCHBERGER of No. 4 St. Mary Axe in the City of London Merchant
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 :-
In treating ordinary black sundried pepper of commerce according to this inven-
tion it is thoroughly winnowed to remove dust and other extraneous matters and
then placed in a vessel containing water. The floating grains are taken away being
unfit for bleaching and the sinking ones are put into strong ordinary gunny bags
and their mouth securely tied up with ordinary gunny strings. The bags are daily
soaked in water and well trodden under foot first on one side and then on the other
successively for about half an hour twice a day. At the end of about a fortnight,
the mouths of the bags are untied and the pepper will be found partially bleached
and perfectly free from its outer coverings and oil.
The above effect can also be produced by soaking the sinking pepper until the
outer coverings are rotten and then treading it under foot with alum as described
in the Specification of my application for Patent No. 16941 dated 8th September
1893.
To remove the skins oil and dirt that have been separated by either process, the
pepper is washed by putting it in a round coarse bamboo or other sieve about two
feet two inches in diameter and sifting it in water in a washing vat.
operation is repeated in a second washing vat when the pepper is found thoroughly
washed.
This
The washed pepper is then placed in a vessel containing about thirty gallons of
water to about eight hundred weight of pepper. In this water about six pounds
weight of powdered alum is mixed or that amount of alum may be dissolved in two
gallons of water and added to the water in the said vessel and the pepper is
thoroughly stirred up with a wooden instrument of the shape of an ordinary hoe
with its handle until the alum solution is thoroughly incorporated with the pepper.
About twenty minutes usually suffices to produce this result. The said vessel may
have a small hole at the bottom for running off water which hole is kept closed by
a cork or plug when necessary and the said vessel may be formed of wood and of
the following dimensions namely two feet eight inches in height and about seven feet
two inches in length and four feet five inches in breadth at the lower part and
about six feet two inches in length and three feet four inches in breadth at the
upper part.
In addition to this solution about thirty-six pounds weight of chloride of lime is
dissolved in the water by placing on the pepper in the said vessel two round bamboo
or other sieves one above the other the upper one being much smaller and coarser
than the one below and each being provided at its edge with two handles to protect
the hands and fingers from the action of the chloride of lime. The chloride of
lime is poured on the upper sieve and dissolved with a light wooden instrument
furnished with a handle and shaped like an ordinary hammer. The upper sieve is
sifted about on the lower one on the pepper in the water until all the chloride of
lime in the upper sieve has been dissolved and has passed into the lower one.
upper sieve is then taken away and the contents of the lower one which have been
only partially dissolved are then completely dissolved by means of the wooden
instrument described. The pepper is then thoroughly stirred up for about one hour
and a half and is afterwards removed and placed in another wooden vessel or vat of
The

page_text: a similar description containing a strong solution of alum (about twenty pounds
weight of alum to thirty gallons of water) in which the pepper is allowed to remain
for about two hours during which time it is thoroughly stirred up until the grains
are impermeated with the solution. The pepper is then properly dried in the sun
or otherwise after which it is again washed in a wooden vat containing a weak
solution of hydrochloric or any other acid. The pepper is then sun dried or
otherwise dried and is found to have acquired a beautiful pearly white appearance
while retaining its natural flavour. The pepper thus prepared commands a high
price in the market.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this invention
as communicated to me by my foreign correspondents and in what manner the same
is to be performed I wish it to be understood that I make no claim to the separation
of extraneous matters from the pepper by winnowing nor to the method herein-
before described for separating the light grains from the sound grains but I declare
that what I claim is :-
The treatment of black pepper for the purpose of bleaching it substantially as
hereinbefore described and by means of the implements hereinbefore described.
Dated the Twenty-first day of November 1893.
W. T. WHITEMAN,
Agent for the Applicant.