IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LOUIS ELIZEE
SEIGNETTE, of Mincing Lane, in the City of London, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-first day of March, in the sixth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Louis Elizec Seignette, His especial license, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Louis Elizee Seignette, my exors, admors, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Louis Eliza Seignette, my exors, admors,
or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING ANIMAL
AND VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES;" communicated to me by a certain foreigner
residing abroad; in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
that I, the said Louis Elizee Seignette, shall cause a particular description of
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery, within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Louis Elizce Seignette, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described by
the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
For the preservation of meat, fish, vegetables for the use of the navy, &c.,
according to the Invention several processes may be employed, but they are
founded upon the same principle of preservation, which consists in surrounding
the substance which it is intended to preserve by an atmosphere free from any
oxygen.
First process: The meat, raw or partly cooked, must remain in a mixture of
salt and nitre from four to twelve hours, according to the size of the pieces
which it is intended to preserve; it is afterwards placed in tin cases or other
vessels, which ought to be sufficiently tight to prevent the action of the
atmospheric air from without. A partial vacuum should be made with an air
pump or any other known or usual means, so as to deprive the meat and
the vessel of the greatest quantity of air. The cases or vessels must be filled
up with salt and water or brine, and turned over a vat filled with the same
liquid (brine) to introduce carbonic acid gas in lieu of the liquid contained
in the vessels, which must then be immediately closed. To introduce the
carbonic acid gas in the vessels a pump may be used, or the gas may flow by
a tube or pipe.
The second process is more simple, and perhaps more advantageous, as it is
more economical. The meat, after having remained, as in the first process,
in salt and nitre, is put in the vases, which are filled with brine, and without
having made a vacuum; but then, in order to destroy the oxygen of the air
which may remain in the vases, a small bag of iron filings or small portions of
iron must be placed internally in the upper part of the vessels. In con-
sequence of its specific weights being less than that of the carbonic acid gas,
the air coming to the upper part of the vessels will then be deprived of its
oxygen by the iron filings. The brine in the vessels must then be replaced
by the carbonic acid gas, as in the first process.
The third process may offer in its results more advantage, as it admits the
disuse of salt. It consists in using vinegar instead of brine, and to replace
the vinegar by the carbonic acid gas as in the other processes; by this process
it is not necessary to leave the meat in salt and nitre.
In all these processes it is useful to place in upper part of the vessels
small pieces of calcined charcoal, so as to destroy any little smell which the
meat might acquire. Several other gases, such as the deutoxide d'azote,
hydrogen, and azote may be employed; they are however less advantageous,

page_text: as they are not to be obtained so easily as the pure carbonic acid gas. Fish
and vegetables are preserved by the same means. The fish must be lightly
salted, and the vegetables must be plunged previously in boiling water, in
order to preserve their color and firmness.
In witness whereof, I, the said Louis Elizee Seignette, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-first day of September,
) in the year of our Lord 1836, the aforesaid Louis Elizee Seignette came before
our said Lord the King in his Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
5
Inrolled the Twenty-first day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.