IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING FRESH . UNCOOKED MEAT AND OTHER ANIMAL FOOD, AND ANTISEPTIC MIXTURES FOR THAT PURPOSE
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Herzen, of Florence, Italy, Doctor of
Medicine, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING FRESH
. UNCOOKED MEAT AND OTHER ANIMAL FOOD, AND ANTISEPTIC MIXTURES FOR
THAT PURPOSE."
Sealed the 6th November 1874, and dated the 11tli June 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Herzen at
'
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 11th June 1874.
I, ALEXANDER HERZEN, of Florence, Italy, Doctor of Medicine, do
"IMPROVEMENTS IN
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
PRESERVING FRESH UNCOOKED MEAT AND OTHER ANIMAL FOOD, AND ANTISEPTIC
MIXTURES FOR THAT PURPOSE," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the preservation of fresh uncooked meat and
other animal food, such as fowl, game, and fish, in its natural condition,
without change of colour or flavour, and to the application of inex-
pensive materials for that purpose; borax and boracic acid have been
applied, either alone or in combination with other materials to the pre-

page_text: servation of meat, but with little success, owing partly to the inability of
these antiseptics, as they have hitherto been applied to preserve the meat
under high temperatures, and partly to the high price of those materials
when refined or chemically pure, as they have been hitherto used.
According to my Invention I employ a mixture of these substances in
their native, crude, and consequently cheapest form, with a little salt
and saltpetre, whereby the natural colour of the meat is retained.
The proportions in which these substances are mixed may be some-
what varied, but about 150 parts by weight of boracic acid with 30
parts of borax, 15 parts of common salt, and 5 parts of saltpetre, form
a mixture well adapted for the purpose. This mixture I dissolve in
about 10 times its weight of hot water and allow the solution to cool.
I then throw the joints or parts of the animals to be preserved into the
cold solution and allow them to remain therein from 24 to 36 hours,
after which they are taken out and closely packed for transport in barrels
or cases. I prefer to bed the meat in melted fat of the same kind, so
that it is covered thereby.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alexander Herzen in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 9th November 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
HERZEN, of Florence, Italy, Doctor of Medicine, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Alexander Herzen,
Her special license that I, the said Alexander Herzen, my exc-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Alexander Herzen, 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

page_text: Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING FRESH UNCOOKED MEAT AND OTHER
ANIMAL FOOD, AND ANTISEPTIC MIXTURES FOR THAT PURPOSE," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Alexander Herzen, my exe-
cutors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and scals, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alexander Herzen, 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 relates to the preservation of fresh uncooked meat and
other animal food, such as fowl, game, and fish, in its natural condition
without change of colour or flavour, and to the application of inex-
pensive materials for that purpose; borax and boracic acid have been
applied either alone or in combination with other materials, to the pre-
servation of meat, but with little success, owing partly to the inability of
these antiseptics, as they have hitherto been applied to preserve the meat
under high temperatures, and partly to the high price of those materials
when refined or chemically pure, as they have been hitherto used.
According to my Invention I employ a mixture of these substances in
their native, crude, and consequently cheapest form, with a little salt
and saltpetre, whereby the natural colour of the meat is retained.
The proportions in which these substances are mixed may be some-
what varied, but about 150 parts by weight of boracic acid, with 30
parts of borax, 15 parts of common salt, and 5 parts of saltpetre, form
a mixture well adapted for the purpose. This mixture I dissolve in
about 10 times its weight of hot water, and allow the solution to cool.
I then throw the joints or parts of the animals to be preserved into the
cold solution and allow them to remain therein from 24 to 36 hours,
after which they are taken out and closely packed for transport in barrels
or cases. I prefer to bed the meat in melted fat of the same kind, so
that it is covered thereby.

page_text: When the meat thus preserved is to be used it is rapidly washed
with cold water and wiped before cooking. The very small quantity of
the antiseptic ingredients remaining in the meat has no effect upon its
flavor, nor do these ingredients affect the health of the consumer, as
they are of a perfectly inocuous character, even when taken in 'con-
siderable quantity.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I hereby declare that I make no
general claim to the use of borax or boracic acid as antiseptics, but I
claim, preserving fresh uncooked meat by soaking it in a solution of an
antiseptic mixture consisting of crude boracic acid and borax with salt
and saltpetre, substantially as herein described.
'
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Herzen, have here.
unto set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of October, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.