IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRESERVATION OF MEAT, FISH, GAME, AND OTHER ANIMAL SUBSTANCES; ALSO GRAIN, VEGETABLES, AND OTHER VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES, WINES, AND THE EXPRESSED JUICES OF FRUITS, AND THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN."
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Welton, of 13, Grafton Street, Fitzroy Square, in
the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
PRESERVATION OF MEAT, FISH, GAME, AND OTHER ANIMAL SUBSTANCES;
ALSO GRAIN, VEGETABLES, AND OTHER VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES, WINES,
AND THE EXPRESSED JUICES OF FRUITS, AND THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED
THEREIN."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Welton at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 25th June 1879.
THOMAS WELTON, of 13, Grafton Street, Fitzroy Square, in the County of
Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRESERVATION OF MEAT, FISII, GAME, AND
OTHER ANIMAL SUBSTANCES; ALSO GRAIN, VEGETABLES, AND OTHER VEGETABLE
SUBSTANCES, WINES, AND THE EXPRESSED JUICES OF FRUITS, AND THE APPARATUS
EMPLOYED THEREIN."
The object of my Invention is to preserve animal and vegetable substances above
described, and also wines and the expressed juices of fruits.
In carrying out my Invention I adopt mainly the following arrangements:—
I use a chest or receiver, chests or receivers, made of metal or other suitablo
material, of any shape, size, or form, communicating with each other if requisite, and
connected by suitable elastic tubes, or tubes or openings governed by stop-cocks, and
having the meat or portions thereof suspended or otherwise packed in the said
chests or receivers, or compartments of the vessels employed and arranged in lieu of
the chests or receivers. I exhaust the same of atmospheric air by means of an air
pump or other suitable appliance. Then into the vacuum or partial vacuum so
formed I allow to enter nitrogen gas, or carbonic acid gas, or other gas, or a
mixture of them, as most suitable, but I give preference to nitrogen. The nitrogen
may be specially made by suitable apparatus by any of the usual means, and cooled
by passing it through water contained in a wash vessel having a constant influx
and outflow of water. The cheapest method of making the gas (though other
means may be used) is by burning out the oxygen of the air in an iron tube or
chamber, or other suitable appliance filled with copper shavings or turnings.

page_text: In transit, the vessel being fitted for the purpose, it will simply be necessary that
the enclosed meat, game, fish, or animal substance, or grain, vegetables, wines, or
fruits, or their expressed juices, should be frequently or continuously supplied with
fresh nitrogen or other gas by means of a fan, or force pump, or other apparatus,
which while it charges the iron tube or other suitable appliance filled with the
copper shavings with atmospheric air, at the same time ejects from the opposite end
of it the gas made as before described. The improvement consequently consists in
the removal of and the substitution of fresh nitrogen or other gas for that which
is contaminated.
For domestic purposes I use a case of wood, glass, metal, or earthenware for the
preservation of any perishable article, as before described, viz., by a chest or receiver
to contain the liquid or substance, to which may be fixed an exhaust air pump or
other suitable apparatus to cause a vacuum, a gas holder or cooler, and a furnace to
heat the tube or vessel containing the copper shavings which may be heated by gas
or otherwise.
It is evident that upon the air chest being exhausted of air, and the tube con-
taining the copper shavings incandescent, the gas generated in its passage will,
without fan or blower, completely fill the air chest.
The same process may be repeated each time the air chest is opened, and the
articles, either raw or cooked, kept from decay for an indefinite time.
The last named application of my principle, viz., the substitution of fresh gas for
that which is contaminated with atmospheric air for the preservation from decay of
all perishable articles, may be made of any size, form, or configuration as most
convenient for the purpose.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Thomas Welton in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 24th December.
1879.
THOMAS WELTON, of 13, Grafton Street, Fitzroy Square, in the County of
Middlesex. " 'IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRESERVATION OF MEAT, FISH, GAME, AND
OTHER ANIMAL SUBSTANCES; ALSO GRAIN, VEGETABLES, AND OTHER VEGETABLE
SUBSTANCES, WINES, AND THE EXPRESSED JUICES OF FRUITS, AND THE APPARATUS
EMPLOYED THEREIN."
My Invention has for its objects improvements in methods of preserving ment or
other animal or vegetable substances, and in the construction and arrangement of
the apparatus to be employed therein.
In order to put my Invention in operation I take one or more chests or receivers
of metal or other suitable material, and of any convenient shape or size, according
to the circumstances under which they are to be used, and if more than one be used
I prefer to arrange them so that they can be connected together by means of
suitable flexible or other pipes which may be provided with regulating cocks or
valves, and I place the meat or other articles which it is desired to preserve into
these receivers, either by suspending them in the receivers or by packing or
arranging them in any convenient way in the receivers, or in compartments of the
vessels used for conveying the meat or other articles, which vessels may be especially.
arranged to serve the purpose of the receivers..
If milk, or cream, or other fluids are the substances to be preserved I place them
in suitable vessels or receptacles in the receivers.
I then close the chambers or receivers, so arranged and filled with the meat or
other articles, so as to be as nearly as possible air tight, and I exhaust the air from
them by means of air pumps or other ordinary well known apparatus applicable to
the purpose, and into the vacuum thus formed I admit nitrogen gas, carbonic acid
gas, or other gas or mixture of gases having more or less the property of preventing
change or decomposition in animal and vegetable substances.
I prefer however to use nitrogen gas which may be obtained by any of the well
known methods ordinarily practised, and afterwards cooled by passing it through
water or other means, but I preferably obtain it by passing ordinary atmospheric
air through a tube or chamber heated to a sufficiently high temperature and con-
taining shavings, turnings, or other fragments of copper, by which the oxygen of
the air is absolved, and the remaining nitrogen is set free.
In order that the nitrogen gas may be supplied in sufficient quantity, and often
enough, into the chambers or the compartments of the vessel where my improved
process and apparatus are being used, I employ one or more fans or force pumps
operated by steam, band, or other convenient power, which when necessary force the
air through the tube containing the copper fragments, and afterwards drive the
remaining nitrogen gas (which may be first cooled by water as already described)
through the chambers or compartments containing the meat or other articles, whenco
after the gas has remained sufficiently long it can be allowed to escape through a
pipe in any convenient position.
By my improved process and arrangement of apparatus as described the nitrogen
or other gas used as a preservative is removed when desirable at intervals, and
a quantity of fresh gas is substituted for that so removed.
Where my Invention is to be applied to domestic purposes I arrange a chest or
receiver of wood or other suitable material as first described, and I connect to it air
pumps or other suitable appliance for exhausting the air, a gas holder or cooler, and
a tube or retort for obtaining the nitrogen gas by means of fragments of copper as
already described, which tube or retort may be heated by gas or other convenient
means

page_text: When such tube or retort is incandescent the nitrogen gas generated will pass,
when a communication is made, into the chests or chambers from which the air has
been withdrawn without the use of any fan or blowing appliance being needed.
The same processes can be repeated each time a chest or receiver is opened, and the
articles contained in it can thereby be preserved for a great length of time from
decomposition, a fresh supply of gas being substituted when necessary for that
which has become contaminated by air or by the articles in the chambers.
Milk or cream may be saturated with gas or gases as above described in order to
preserve them from decomposition, and they may afterwards be used if desired in
the manufacture of butter or cheese.
I sometimes compress the gas or gases which are to be used as above described
into sufficiently strong iron or other bottles or vessels, which vessels so filled may be
conveyed to any distance and supplied and exchanged as required to the places
where my process is to be used.
Having now described my Invention, and the manner in which it is to be per-
formed, I claim the method of preserving animal or vegetable substances from
decomposition by surrounding them with nitrogen or other suitable gas or gases,
which gas or gases are changed at intervals, substantially as and for the purposes
hereinbefore described.
Also, for the purpose of so preserving animal and vegetable substances the com-
bination of the chambers or the compartments in vessels, with the appliances for
withdrawing the air from such chambers or compartments, and for admitting the
gas or gases at intervals, substantially as herein before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Welton, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this 24th day of December, in the year of our Lord 1879,
THON WELTON