AN IMPROVED PRAADSE PAR PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Farmerley Dickson, of Leicester, in the
County of Leicester, Chemist, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
PRAADSE PAR
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Farmerley Dickson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 29th October 1874.
I, JOHN FARMERLEY DICKSON, of Leicester, in the County of Leicester,
Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED PROCESS FOR THE PRESERVATION OF ANIMAL SUBSTANCES FROM DECAY,"
to be as follows, that is to say:
This Invention has for its object the preservation of meat so as to
enable it to be brought from distant countries or kept in a good and
wholesome condition at home.
My Invention consists essentially of three combined and successive

page_text: divided into joints, as soon as possible after killing, and place it in a
bath composed of a saturated solution of borax, to which has been added
one-fourth part by weight of sulphuric acid. I allow the meat to remain
in this solution from eighteen to twenty-four hours, the longer in
proportion to the heat of the weather. I then after washing the meat
place it from five to ten minutes, more or less, in another bath consisting
of one part of ordinary sulphuric acid diluted with ten parts of water.
On being taken out of this acid bath I place the peices of meat in a
third bath of the same composition as that described in the first part of
my process, videlicet, a saturated solution of commercial borax, to which
is added one-fourth its weight of sulphuric acid.
In practice I prefer to place the meat in the casks in which it is to be
preserved or transported instead of placing it in the third bath, and then
filling up the cask with the solution, taking care that the cask shall be
quite full and the meat completely covered.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Farmerley Dickson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 28th April 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
FARMERLEY DICKSON, of Leicester, in the County of Leicester, Chemist,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said John Farmerley Dickson, Her
special licence that I, the said John Farmerley Dickson, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Farmerley
Dickson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agrec with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great

page_text: Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention
for "AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR THE PRESERVATION OF ANIMAL SUBSTANCES FROM
DECAY," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John.
Farmerley Dickson, my executors or administrators, 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 John Farmerley Dickson, do hereby
declare the nature of my 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 the preservation of meat, game,
poultry, and all other edible animal substances for a limited period, so as
to cuable them to be brought from distant countries or to be kept in a
good or wholesome condition at home.
My Invention ossentially and substantially consists of three combined
and successive processes, which I carry out as follows:-I take the meat,
divided into joints, as soon as possible after being killed, and place it for
18 to 24 hours, according to the heat of the weather, in a bath composed.
of a saturated solution of hex-metaborate of soda or hex-borate of soda,:
“Na Hª Bª O¹‚” which I prepare by adding to a saturated solution of
commercial borax sulphuric acid, in the proportion of one atom of
sulphuric acid to three atoms of borax; or about one-fourth part by
weight of sulphuric acid in proportion to the weight of borax employed,
but care must be taken that the mixed solution be as nearly as possible
neutral to test paper, according to the following equation :
3 Na H B³ O' + H³ S O‘=Na H' Bº O + Na³ S O*.
Or in case of difficulty arising in the shipment of sulphuric acid abroad
boric or boracic acid may be employed in the place of sulphuric acid :
1
131
1:

page_text: in any convenient manner, whereby the solution may be forced into the
meat until saturated.
I then place the meat for about 5 minutes, more or less, in another
bath consisting of one part of ordinary sulphuric acid diluted with
10 parts of water. On being taken out of the acid bath I' place the t
pieces of meat or other animal substance in a third bath of the same
.composition as that I have described in the first part of my process,
videlicit, a concentrated solution of commercial borax, to which sulphuric
or boracic acid has been added in such proportions as to form hex-
metaborate of soda or hex-borate of soda.
In practice however I prefer to place the meat in the casks in which
it is intended to be preserved or transported, instead of placing it in
the third bath, and then filling up the cask with the described solution,
taking care the cask is completely filled and the meat covered.
If the meat is only intended to be kept a short time after taking out 1
of the third bath it may be hung up in a current of dry air, when it will
keep sound and good.
It will be obvious that in preserving game, poultry, and small animals
they must be skinned, plucked, and the entrails taken out before being
subjected to the preservative process.
-
When the meat is taken out of the casks or vessels in which it has
been preserved or transported the solution in which it was preserved may
be evaporated, and the preservative agents crystallized out.
1
2
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the
means whereby I carry out my Invention, I desire it to be understood 2
that I make no claim to the use of borax as a preservative agent (as it.
has been before proposed for that purpose) when used alone; neither do
I lay any claim to the use of a bath of sulphuric acid when used alone
for a similar reason; but what I do claim as my Invention, and as such
secured to me by the before in part recited Letters Patent is,—
First. The improved process herein-before described, in or by which
meat or animal substances can be preserved from decay.
Secondly. The combined and successive use of the three treatments.
forming the process herein described, or any modifications of them or it,
as and for the purposes set forth.
3
3

page_text: hex-borate of soda prepared in the manner and for the purposes herein
specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Farmerley Dickson, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twelveth day of April, One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.