IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- FACTURE OF BREAD
Year: 1845

page_text: MEADE'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRÉSENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
MANDEVILLE MEADE, of the City of New York, in the United States of
America, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by
Her Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twentieth day of December, in the ninth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Henry Mandeville Meade, my exors, adñññors, and assigns, Her
especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Henry Mandeville Meade, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Henry Mandeville Meade, my exors, adñors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF BREAD," communicated to me by a certain Foreigner residing
abroad; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said
Henry Mandeville Meade, shall cause a particular description of the nature of
my said. Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Mandeville Meade, do hereby declare that the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof (that
is to say)-
The Invention relates to improvements in the manufacture of bread where
the flour (sometimes called the meal) of maize or Indian corn is employed.
And the Invention consists,―
First, of improvements in the mode of making bread when wheaten or rye
flour and the meal or flour of Indian corn are combined in the making of
bread. And,
Secondly, the Invention consists of improvements in the mannfacture of
bread by employing a ferment prepared from the meal or flour of Indian corn.
And in order that the Invention may be most fully understood and readily
carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the means pursued by me.
In making bread when the flour or meal of Indian corn is used in com-
bination with the flour of wheat or rye, it is important that a sponge should
first be prepared of wheaten or rye flour, and that the meal of Indian corn
properly scalded should be mixed with such sponge, together with the re-
mainder of the wheaten or rye flour in place of mixing the flour or meal of
Indian corn with the wheaten or rye flour to be used, and then making bread
from the mixture in the ordinary manner of bread making from wheaten or
rye flour.
I believe that from one third to one half by weight of Indian corn
meal or flour with from two thirds to one half of wheaten or rye flour will be
found to produce the best effects; but I do not confine myself to those quantities.
I scald the meal or flour of Indian corn with boiling water until it is wet, and
I allow the same to cool, spreading it out to facilitate the cooling. I prepare
a sponge from wheaten or rye flour, using either brewer's yeast or baker's
yeast; but if brewer's yeast be employed I apply about twice as much warm
water as when baker's yeast is used. But the using of yeast by bakers, what-
ever kind may be employed, is well understood, and does not require any
further description in this my Specification; and having made a batter of part
of the wheaten or rye flour by the yeast and water, I mix in further quantities
of wheaten or rye flour to make it thick enough to rise. When the sponge
is light I beat it together and mix in the scalded and cooled Indian corn
flour, and then mix in the remainder of the wheaten or rye flour, when the
whole is covered up and allowed to rise until perfectly light, when it is to be
divided into loaves and baked in tins.
I have thus far described the process of making bread combined of Indian

page_text: corn and wheaten or rye flour without using any ferment, but I prefer to
employ a potato ferment, or a ferment prepared from Indian corn. The
making of potato ferment when for preparing dough from wheaten or rye flour
is well understood, and therefore does not require to be described in this my
Specification; and in using such a description of ferment, it having been
prepared, risen and fallen, it is strained through a cullender and added to the
sponge, and then the scalded Indian corn flour or meal and the remainder of
the wheaten or rye flour mixed as before described; and I use about twenty
pounds or more potatoes in making this ferment for a batch of ten bushels.
The bread thus made by combining Indian corn and wheaten or rye flour I
call "Union Bread." .I have not thought it necessary to describe the using
of salt or matters to flavor the bread. These are matters which are well
understood and form no part of the Invention.
When I use a ferment prepared from Indian corn, and which constitutes
the second part of the Invention, I proceed as follows:-Supposing the batch
to be of ten bushels, I first make malt and hop liquor in the same manner
as if for a potato ferment, and I employ about one and a half gallons in a
cold state, which I mix with water of from eighty degrees to one hundred
degrees of Fahrenheit, the higher temperatures being required when the weather
is cold. Into this I stir five and three quarter pounds of Indian corn meal
mixed with two and a quarter pounds of rye flour, and rather more than one
pound of bean flour, and I prefer that these matters or articles should have
been well mixed and then sifted together before so using them. After these
have been well stirred for ten minutes in the water and liquor above men-
tioned, two pounds of wheaten flour are to be added and stirred in. When
this has been well done the tub is to be covered over with a sack or cloth in
a warm situation and allowed to stand till it rises, which it will do slowly in
about eight hours, when it will sink or fall. It is then ready for mixing into
a sponge in the same manner as a potato ferment has been before used; and
such ferment is applicable in the making the union bread before described,
and also when making wheaten and other bread.
Having now described the nature of the Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I would have it understood that I do not
claim the use of Indian corn (maize) generally in the manufacture of bread,
as Indian corn has before been used in this country for that purpose, nor do
I confine myself to the precise details herein described, so long as the peculiar
character of either part of the Invention be retained; but what I claim is,―
First, the mode herein described of manufacturing bread from Indian corn
and wheat or rye, by first producing a sponge with wheaten or rye flour, and

page_text: combining the meal or flour of Indian corn therewith; and I also claim the
combining the use of a potato ferment with Indian corn and wheaten or rye
flour for making bread. And,
Secondly, I claim the applying a ferment of Indian corn in the manufacture
of bread.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Mandeville Meade, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-six.
H. M. (L.s.) MEADE.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventh day of April, in the
year of our Lord 1846, the aforesaid Henry Mandeville Meade came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifica-
tion aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in
form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twentieth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-six.