THE PRESERVATION OF MEAT IN THE RAW STATE
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Arthur Albion Libby, of Chicago, in the State of Illinois,
one of the United States of America, for the Invention of "THE PRESERVATION
OF MEAT IN THE RAW STATE."
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Arthur Albion Libby at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 7th January 1879.
ARTHUR ALBION LIBBY, of Chicago, in the State of Illinois, one of the United
States of America. "THE PRESERVATION of Meat in the Raw STATE."
My Invention relates to the preservation of meat in the raw state. One object
is to slaughter and prepare the ment so that when bought for consumption it shall
be in a fresh state, wholly unaffected and untouched by any fermentation or putre-
factive process, to which it would be liable if left exposed to air in its natural con-
ditions. My Invention nims, first, to the slaughtering of the cattle under such
atmospheric conditions that the germs of putrefaction and decomposition shall have
been quite or nearly removed from the air as well as the animal itself. In other
words, my Invention aims to taking and killing the animal under and in such an
atmosphere that the germs or elements of putrefaction have been wholly or entirely
removed therefrom as well as from the animal itself, or the meat of the same.
In
The meat is then taken and packed without being to the same extent subject to
the destructive agencies which exist in the air as when in its natural condition.
the preliminary treatment of the meat I propose to have this work carried on by
the workınan in an air freed from these destructive agencies as far as is practicable.
With this view I first slaughter and dress the cattle or animals of any kind if found
necessary under euch conditions that the surrounding atmospheric air may be as
free from the germs or bacteria which it contains as possible. This may be effected
by several methods which are embraced in my Invention. The slaughter-house
should preferably adjoin the packing or preserving houses or buildings, and should
have all the necessary openings for the admission of air covered with fine screens,
for the purpose of preventing strong drafts of air containing gerirs entering the
houses or buildings from the outside, and as a further protection the air, previous to
entering the screens, should first pass through or be admitted through a series of
boxes or spouts connecting with each other at right angles, or through tubes bent

page_text: upon each other, or of sinuous forms, the interior of which are coated with some
sticky substanco, as glycerine. glue, or the like; a stuffing of cotton wool, at
intervals in the boxes or spouts, could also be used.
By this arrangement a large portion, if not all, of the germs contained in the
outside air would be retained, detained, deposited, and imprisoned, and in the ends,
corners, angles, or curves on the interior of the boxes, spouts, or tubes by the sticky
substance composing the inside coating. I would also further recommend that the
whole interior surface of the house be kept conted with some sticky substance, as
aforesaid, which would largely assist in ensuring the safety of the process, as
putrefaction progresses in direct proportion to the number of the bacteria.
During the process of the slaughtering of the cattle or other animals, and of pre-
paring the meat for packing, the presence of a low temperature and dryness, either
natural or produced by artificial means, would also be desirable, as cold and dryness
prevent the development of the ferments of the air, while moisture and warmth
accelerate the same.
I do not however propose to limit my process to this preliminary preparation of
the cattle or ment. I propose also to slaughter the animals under natural atmo.
spheric conditions, and afterwards remove the germs of decay from the meat itself
at any convenient stage of preparation for packing or canning, or after such canning,
and then afterwards to pack the meat as herein-after set forth.
The meat having been first properly dressed, is allowed to remain a sufficient
length of time previous to packing for final preservation for the animal heat to be
thoroughly evaporated and the flesh to become firm in texture. The raw ment is
then, if desired, cut up into pieces of the requisite size for preservation, and
immersed in or brushed over with a solution of bi-sulphite of lime or any other
equivalent substance, which will accomplish the purpose, and is permitted to remain
a short time in order that the solution or conting may become dry. The food is
then either, with or without bone, put into a tin or tinned can, case, or vessel, the
cover of which is preferably conical or pyramidal, or rising to a point at the centre.
The vessel may be however made of any suitable material, the interior thereof, and
the cover intended for the same, Laving been previously or first lined with glycerine,
glue, or other sticky substance not liable injuriously to affect the taste or Havor of
the meat. The cover is then soldered on, or it may be fastened in such manner as
the material of which the case is made may render necessary. The tin or vessel is
closed with the exception of a small hole in the cover of the same, preferably neár
the centre, and a small injecting tube, which enters the can perpendicularly through
the cover near its edge. At this point it passes through and is made air-tight in
the cover. This tube should be of sufficient length to nenrly reach the bottom of the
vessel, in addition to extending a sufficient distance outside the cover to allow a pipe
to enter it (the tube), for the purpose of injecting calcined air into the vessel, as
berein-after explained. The injecting tube should be made of tough flexible iron
tinned, in order that it may admit of being squeezed or compressed tightly together,
for the purpose of closing the case or can air-tight. Or a tap may be used for the
purpose to close the tube.
•
I then attach to or introduce into the injecting tube a pipe, through which I force
cool air into and through the can. This air has been previously calcined and
deprived of all its fermentation gerins by passing through hot sinuous or bent
platinum tubes containing bundles of hot platinum wires. The pure air is thus
forced into the can through the injecting tube, and escapes through the hole in the
cover near its centre. This creates a current, which is continued until the causes of
fermentation in the can are either forced out through the hole in or near the centre
of the cover or lodged in the glycerine or sticky substance with which the interior
of the can is conted.
In this sticky or adhesive lining the germs of the fermentation process become
fastened, deposited, and imprisoned. I then, while the pressure of calcined air is
Fassing through the can and its contents, close the small hole in the cover, and then

page_text: immediately thereafter hermetically seal the injecting tube, or close the same, thus
completing the process.
Instead of the foregoing, and as a modification thereof, I also take the ment after
the cooling process is completed, as berein-before specified, and before and without
the application of the hi-sulphite of lime, and without any interior coating of the
can, and place the meat in a can or vessel similar to the one herein-before described
in other particulars, in such a manner that the meat shall not be in contact with the
top, bottom, or sides of the vessel. To this end the inent may be held or suspended
in the can in a variety of manifest ways. I then force or inject into the can hot
calcined air until the exterior surface of the meat is sufficiently hardened to prevent
the escape of the juices of the saune, and to effect the destruction or reinoval of the
germs of fermentation from the vessel and its contents, leaving the meat in sub-
stantially an uncooked state, and in air deprived of any putrefactive agencies. I
then close the can, as before described, while the pressure is on.
Before being placed in the can, as herein-before stated, the ment may be first
hardened on it's outside and the moisture thereof evaporated by being placed in an
oven under a high quick heat or submitted to a current of hot air or singed in a
flame such as will also destroy the causes of fermentation, or submerged in a bath
of hot odorless fat, in order to enable it to retain its juices. It may then be treated
in the can as Inst above specified. The air should be heated sufficiently to destroy
the germs of fermentation as quickly as possible, and at the same time produce no
cooking in the interior of the meat. The handling of the neat under this last
method should be in or with instruments heated so as to prevent the communica-
tion by them to the meat of any of the agencies of fermentation or decay.
Another method is to take the neat after the cooling of the same, as herein set
forth, and dip it in or coat it with an adhesive or gummy substance, of a character
such as herein named, and then suspend, or by preference place without contact with
the interior of the can the same, in a can or vessel which has itself been first coated
within and on the inside of the cover with a similar lining. Then hermetically seal
the can and place it away for a certain time where it may be left, not subject to dis-
turbance. The ferment of the air thus left stationary in a closed chamber, prepared
as herein specified, will in a certain time become deposited and immovably fixed in
and upon the said sticky surfaces, and thus the air will lose its capacity for pro-
moting the destruction of animal and vegetable tissue. While the deposition or
subsidence of the spores or fermentative gerins is going on the meat itself is protected
by the coating and by being motionless."
The germs of putrefaction in the contained air of the can having thus become
fixed and imprisoned in the sticky coating of the meat and the lining of the vessel,
the air is purified from the same, and the ineat will remain in a fresh and unimpaired
condition as long as the can is kept herinetically sealed. Previous to being placed
in the can the ineat may be bathed in a solution of bi-sulphite of lime, salicylic
acid, or similar substance.
What I claim as my Invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is, -
1. The process of preserving raw meat from decomposition or putrifaction, and
which consists in slaughtering the animals in an atmosphere freed as far as prac-
ticable froin fermentative agencies, cooling the meat, bathing it in a solution of
bisulphite of lime, placing it in a partially closed vessel, and then submitting it to
a current of cool air previously calcined, and then hermetically closing the can or
vessel, as herein set forth.
2. The process of preserving maw meat in hermetically closed cans or vessels,
which consists in cooling the meat, placing the same in a partially closed vessel
without contact with the top, bottom, or sides of the same, forcing through the said
can a current of hot calcined air and then hermetically closing the can, as herein
described.
3. The process of preserving raw meat in closed vessels, which consists in coating
the interior of said cain, and the article to be preserved therein with a gummy or
adhesive substance, as herein set forth, placing the meat in saiḍ vessel without con-

page_text: tact with the top, bottom, or sides of said vessel, hermetically closing said vessel
and allowing the same to remain motionless for a certain time, as herein described.
5th December. A.D. 1878.