IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF AND APPARATUS FOR PRESERVING ANIMAL PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Estor, of Hampstead, in the County of
of Belsize
Middlesex, Analytical Chemist, and Maximo Terrero, of
Park Gardens, in the said County, Esquire, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF AND APPARATUS FOR PRESERVING ANIMAL
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Estor and
Maximo Terrero at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 4th May 1868.
We, WILLIAM ESTOR, of Hampstead, in the County of Middlesex,
Analytical Chemist, and MAXIMO TERRERO, of Belsize Park Gardens, in
the said County, Esquire, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
IN THE MEANS OF AND APPARATUS FOR
PRESERVING ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:-
attempted
Hitherto generally animal and vegetable substances have been
to be preserved from decay or decomposition by liquid
Now the nature of our Invention consists in preserving
solutions.

page_text: carcases or joints of meat in a fresh condition, as well as other animal
or vegetable substances for shorter periods or until they are required
for food, either while in the shop or in a safe or other receptacle, or
for longer periods as when it is required to transport the same from
one place or country to another. The treatment is also applicable to
the preservation of poultry, game, fish, and vegetables, and also to hides
previous to the operation of tanning.
The Invention is based upon the principle of applying chemical gases
for the preservation of animal and vegetable substances, and we find
as the most efficient and prefer to use chlorine and sulphurous acid
gases.
The gaseous matter is applied surrounding the meat or other
substance to be preserved to check the tendency which the air other-
wise possesses to promote decay, decomposition, or putrefaction.
The apparatus we employ for the production and application of the
gases consists of a chamber or chambers in the nature of retorts of
enamelled metal or other suitable material into which the ingredients
are placed in connection with a closed safe or chamber of suitable
construction and dimensions according to the substance or material to be
treated.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Estor and Maximo Terrero in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 4th November 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
ESTOR, of Hampstead, in the County of Middlesex, Analytical Chemist,
and MAXIMO TERRERO, of Belsize Park Gardens, in the said County,
Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-first
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto us, the said William Estor and Maximo Terrero, Her special
licence that we, the said William Estor and Maximo Terrero, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
William Estor and Maximo Terrero, our executors, administrators, and

page_text: 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 THE MEANS OF AND
APPARATUS FOR PRESERVING ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said William Estor and Maximo
Terrero, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under our, 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 we, the said William Estor and Maximo
Terrero, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
Our Invention relates to certain improvements in the means of
preserving animal and vegetable substances from decay and maintaining
them in a perfectly fresh condition unchanged in their appearance and
weight.
Hitherto generally it has been attempted to preserve animal and
vegetable substances from decay or decomposition by liquid solutions
or by gases.
Now the nature of our Invention consists in preserving
carcases or joints of meat as well as other animal and vegetable
substances in a fresh condition either for short periods, or until they
are required for use, either while in the shop or in a safe or other
receptacle, or for longer periods as when it is required to transport the
same from one place or country to another. The treatment is also
applicable to the preservation of poultry, game, fish, and vegetables, and
also to hides previous to the operation of tanning.
The Invention is based upon the principle of employing certain
chemical gases for the preservation of animal and vegetable substances,
and we use the two gases known as chlorine and sulphurous acid.
The gaseous matter is applied surrounding the meat or other substances
to be preserved to check the tendency to decay, decomposition, or
putrefaction.

page_text: The apparatus we employ for the production and application of the
gases consists of a chamber or chambers in the nature of retorts of
enamelled metal or other suitable material into which the ingredients are
placed capable of generating the two gases, and the apparatus is placed
within the safe or chamber in which the articles to be preserved are
contained. The mode of producing these gases may vary according to
circumstances, but for general purposes we make a pastille in the burning
of which sulphurous acid and chlorine or chlorous acid will be eliminated.
The pastille consists of a clay or earthen bowl, the outer side of which is
coated with a composition of sulphur and adhesive materials or solution
which when lighted will yield sulphurous acid gas; the inside of the
bowl is nearly filled with a paste from which chlorine or chlorous acid
gas escapes as the bowl becomes hot. The materials for the pasto
consists of chloride of lime and bi-sulphate of soda, or of any others
capable of yielding chlorine by chemical decomposition aided by heat.
The mode of applying the gases to the substances to be preserved
depends on the nature of the materials used for generating the gases;
for ordinary use the following adaptation is preferred:-A safe is
constructed on an air-tight principle, and the inside should present a
surface of wood or be lined or coated with a suitable material or com-
position, and the upper part furnished with a dome receptacle or holder
for containing the pastille to be burnt. The result of subjecting organic
matter to this process is simply a protection against change, but not
altering the quality of the substance to be preserved, and meat thus
preserved or protected is not preserved meat in the ordinary sense of
the term but simply meat kept in a fresh state. Neither sulphurous
acid nor chlorine separately is perfectly effective in preserving animal
substances except when used in such quantities as to injure their
flavour; but when these gases are employed concomitantly, according
to this Invention, very small quantities are sufficient. No trace of thesc
gases remains however often the process be repeated, the chlorine
uniting with the hydrogen of the water and the sulphurous acid with
the oxygen.
The new compounds may exist in the meat in minute
quantities, but they are not unwholesome.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we would remark that we are
aware that gases have been previously used to preserve animal and
vegetable substances, and we make no claim to the use
of gases

page_text: generally; but what we claim and desire to be secured to us by the
herein in part recited Letters Patent is, the use and application of
sulphurous acid and chlorine
and chlorine gases concomitantly or in a mixed
condition for the preservation of meat, poultry, game, fish, hides, and
other animal and vegetable substances, substantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Estor and Maximo Terrero,
have hereunto set our hands
hands and seals, this Third day of
November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-eight.
Witness,
ALEX. PRINCE,
Office for Patents,
No. 4, Trafalgar Square,
Charing Cross.
WILLIAM ESTOR. (L.S.)
MAXIMO TERRERO. (L.s.)