IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRESERVATION OF FOOD AND OTHER PERISHABLE SUBSTANCES
Year: 1874

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PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Mort at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th May
1874. A communication from abroad by Eugene Dominique Nicolle
and Thomas Sutcliffe Mort, both of Sydney, in the Colony of New
South Wales:
I, WILLIAM MORT, of 155, Fenchurch Street, in the City of London,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE PRESERVATION OF FOOD AND OTHER PERISHABLE SUBSTANCES," to be as
follows:-
: The Invention consists of an improved process for the preservation of
food and other perishable substances by means of artificial refrigeration.
Since the time at which Messrs. Nicolle and. Mort commenced their
researches into the subject of the preservation of food by means of cold,
they have through their experiments discovered that the germ of
ferment in fermentable substances could be destroyed by the agency of
cold, yeast, for instance, submitted to a temperature of two degrees (2°)
below zero, having lost its germinating power; subsequently they
experimented upon other substances, and more recently upon the juices
of meat and upon meat itself, in the course of which experiments they
discovered that by placing such substances in air-tight vessels, and then

page_text: exposing them to the action of cold the spores or germs which produce
the chemical changes were overcome, and that the substances themselves
remained fixed, and were so long as kept from the air in a state of
preservation.
The present Invention consists in preserving meat and other fer-
mentable substances by placing the same in hermetically closed vessels,
and then subjecting the vessels with the substances therein to the action
of cold, until the point of temperature is arrived at at which the germ of
ferment is destroyed, and which in meat for instance will be found to be
effected at about 60° below zero; a more extended exposure to the
action of the cold at a higher temperature will however effect the same
object, whilst a lower temperature will effect it in a shorter period.
Although by preference the meats or other substances are placed in
the vessels before operating upon them, such substances may be first
reduced in temperature and then packed in any air-tight vessel, removing
the air in such vessel by insufflation with air or antiseptic gases, which
have been exposed to as low a temperature as the food itself.
The agent which is used by preference for imparting cold to the
substances to be acted upon, is highly compressed air or antiseptic gases
subsequently expanded either through (in pipes or otherwise) or around
the vessels containing the meat or other substances, or by the liqui-
faction and subsequent gasification of ammonia, sulphuric either, &c.,
through pipes or otherwise or outside the vessels containing the said
meat, &c.
As the substances after being operated upon do not require
to be kept refrigerated the cold in such substances may be availed of to
obtain intensity, and for continuous use by means of temperature
exchangers, as described in the Specification of the Patent granted to me
on the 19th June 1873, No. 2153.
It is unnecessary to describe any particular machine for the production
of the cold.
The Invention above described is not only applicable to the preservation
of meat, but also to other perishable articles, such as wine and other