IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING TURNIPS AND MANGEL WURZEL FOR FOOD OF ANIMALS
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Hugh Smith, of Much Hadham, in the County of
Herts, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING TURNIPS AND
MANGEL WURZEL FOR FOOD OF ANIMALS."
Sealed the 18th October 1867, and dated the 25th April 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Hugh Smith at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
25th April 1867.
I, HUGH SMITH, of Much Hadham, in the County of Herts, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING
TURNIPS AND MANGEL WURZEL FOR FOOD OF ANIMALS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in preparing turnips and
mangel wurzel for food of animals. For these purposes the turnips and
mangel wurzel are reduced into a pulp, and then subjected to heat to drive off
the water and to dry the same, when the pulp will be in a more suitable
condition to feed animals, and will be found to be more productive of fat than
turnips and mangel wurzel eaten in the raw state. The dried pulp may also
with advantage be mixed with gluten or with common beans or other food
whether ground or whole.
Sometimes in place of pulping the turnips or the mangel wurzel I dry or
partially dry them whole by treating them in the following manner :-
I arrange a floor of iron plates or hurdles with a hollow space beneath, and
on this floor I pile up the roots; and I cover the pile with sod or with earth.
In the hollow space beneath the pile I make a fire of wood and turf, which is

page_text: caused to burn very slowly by allowing but a small quantity of air to pass to
it. When the clamp is nearly cold it is opened, and the roots are ready for
Or by other arrangements the hot air and products of combustion from
a slow fire may be made to pass through a clamp or heap of turnips or
mangel wurzel covered over with sods or earth.
The process is conveniently conducted in or near the field where the roots
are grown.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Hugh Smith in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 23rd
October 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HUGи
SMITH, of Much Hadham, in the County of Herts, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Hugh Smith, Her special licence that I, the said Hugh Smith,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Hugh
Smith, 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 Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PREPARING TURNIPS AND MANGEL WURZEL FOR FOOD OF ANIMALS," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Hugh Smith, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, 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 Hugh Smith, do hereby declare the
nature of the 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 :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in preparing turnips and
mangel wurzel for food of animals. All turnips and maugel wurzel contain a

page_text: very large quantity of water as compared with the dry matter therein
contained, which water being taken into the stomach of the animal consuming
the roots in their raw state materially deteriorates the value of the said dry
matter contained in turnips and mangel wurzel. Now my Invention has for
its object the driving off the water contained in turnips and mangel wurzel, so
that the dry matter contained therein may have full force and power. This
driving off of the water from the roots may be done almost perfectly or
partially.
For the almost perfectly driving off the water contained in turnips and
mangel wurzel my plan is to disintegrate the said roots, and this I do by
passing them through a pulping or rasping machine of which there are many
already invented and well known. Having reduced the roots into this state,
my next process is to perfectly or almost perfectly drive off the water; for this
process also many plans may be resorted to, the ordinary malt kiln answers
the purpose perfectly; or drying cylinders heated by steam, with machinery
inside to keep the pulped roots in a state of motion, may be employed.
It is sometimes convenient partially to dry the roots in their whole state
on a kiln or otherwise before pulping them, and treating them as above
described. When the roots are pulped or dried, they may be given to the
animals in that state, or they may be pressed into cake in the same manner
as oil cakes are manufactured. If pressed into cake the dry matter may be
ground or not at option before pressing.
According to another part of my Invention I partially drive off the water
contained in turnips and mangel wurzel, whereby their feeding value is
increased. To effect this I build either with turfs taken from the field, or
with bricks or other suitable matter, an enclosure of convenient area and
between two and three feet high, having an opening on one side for a draught
hole; in this enclosed area I place fuel, wood, coals, turf, and straw, or any
combustible most handy or economical; I now lay upon the dwarf walls of
the enclosed area a metal floor composed of iron rods placed an inch or two
apart, or an iron grating, and on this floor I form a clamp of roots, and cover
these over with earth, turfs, or other suitable material, so that the fire placed
under the roots shall burn in a smothered manner, the smoke formed by the
smothered burning passes through the interstices of the roots and continues
beating and drying the roots for many hours till the fuel is consumed; when
the fuel is exhausted I take off the outer covering, and I find the roots have
been reduced very considerably both in weight and size; they are made in
consequence more portable, and from the water having been partially driven
off the feeding value of the root is increased.

page_text: What I claim is, first, the disintegrating and almost perfectly driving off
the water contained in turnips and mangel wurzel by means of evaporation
produced by artificial heat:
Second, the partially drying turnips and mangel wurzel in clamps so as to
make them more portable and nutritive.
In witness whereof, I, the said Hugh Smith, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Nineteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
HUGH SMITH. (L.S.)