IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING VEGETABLES AND FRUITS."
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Gustav Warnecke, of Frankfort-on-the-Maine,
Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING VEGETABLES
AND FRUITS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Gustav Warnecke 'at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th January 1855. ..
I, GUSTAV WARNECKE, of Frankfort-on-the-Maine, Merchant, do hereby.
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING
VEGETABLES AND FRUITS" to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in exposing fruits and vegetables to be preserved to
superheated steam; impregnated with or carrying with it the fumes of salt, or
of a suitable saline solution; the object of this exposure being to drive off
from, or deprive the fruits and vegetables of, their natural moisture, while the
saline fumes will cause them in a great measure to retain their color. After
exposure to the fumes for a period, varying with the nature of the fruit or
vegetable, from about five to twenty minutes, they are immersed for from ten
to twenty-five minutes in cold water, preference for such immersion being
given to a running stream. The fruits or vegetables so treated are next dried,
and may be packed or stored in any convenient manner.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Gustav Warnecke in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
10th July 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GUSTAV
WARNECKE, of Frankfort-on-the-Maine, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Gustav Warnecke, Her special licence that I, the said Gustav Wanecke,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Gustav
Warnecke, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdoin of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING
VEGETABLES AND FRUITS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Gustav Warnecke, by an instrument in writing under my. hand and seal,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same
to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Gustav Warnecke, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
Many attempts have been made to preserve vegetables and fruits by drying,
and then pressing them into a small compass; but as every vegetable and
fruit contains either albumen, cassein, chlorophyl, or bassorine, which the pro-
cesses hitherto followed in their preservation have failed to extract, they
frequently assume a black color, cannot be readily softened when afterwards
cooked, and are so injured in taste as to become nearly, if not entirely, unfit
for use.
Now, my Invention consists in absorbing or extracting albumen, cassein,
chlorophyl, and bassorine from vegetables and fruits, by first exposing them to
a heated saline vapor or water bath, and then washing them in clear water.
They are next dried and pressed, when they may be packed for use.
The manner in which I proceed is as follows:-I prepare my saline vapor

page_text: bath by heating water containing salt, in the proportion of one pound of
mineral salt to every one hundred pounds of water, and maintain the vapor
at from 200° to 400° Fahrenheit, according to the vegetable or fruit under
treatment. I expose the vegetable or fruit to this heated vapor from five to
eighteen minutes, which will have the effect of dissolving and bringing to the
surface the albumen, cassein, chlorophyl, and bassorine, or either of them,
which I afterwards wash off in clear running water. The fruit or vegetables
must he next dried in any convenient manner, when they may be pressed
and packed or stored ready for use. Instead of being exposed to a saline
vapor, it will be found preferable for some descriptions of vegetables and
fruits to be placed in a bath containing salt, in the proportion of one pound
of salt to thirty-five pounds of water, heated by steam, at about 400°
Fahrenheit, passing into it. For washing, I take any suitable vessel, through
which clear water at from 40° to 70° is kept running. Vegetables and fruits
prepared in the manner herein-before described will to a great extent retain
their color and flavor, and will keep good for a long time.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim the subjecting of
vegetables and fruits to a saline vapour or water bath, and then washing them,
in the manner and for the purpose herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Gustav Warnecke, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixth day of July, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-five.
GUSTAV WARNECKE. (L.S.)