IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Julius Jeffreys, of Upper Norwood, in the County
of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING ANIMAL
AND VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 22nd January 1869, and dated the 29th July 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Julius Jeffreys at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 29th July 1868.
I, JULIUS JEFFREYS, of Upper Norwood, in the County of Surrey,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN PRESERVING ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:-
Whatever may be the chilling matter employed I give it a maximum
effect by the following means:-I construct a long quadrangular tube or
trunk on a steep inclination, and divide it by longitudinal and upright
metallic partitions into passages alternately narrow and broad. Up
the narrow passages I convey the chilling current. Down all the
broader passages, and filling them from top to bottom, flat oblong cases
charged with the matter to be frozen slide edge forward on rollers let
into the bottom of the passages, thus pressing each other onwards..

page_text: of cases.
The lowermost row of cases forming the front ones of each long tier
are, when hard frozen, let out of their passages by a trap door under the
trunk, which in falling raises its hinge end to stop the descent of the
tiers behind, and is closed instantly that the front row of cases is
discharged. The tiers then slide down a stage, the foremost cases
occupying the position of those discharged. A fresh set is then introduced
into the furthest and upper extremity of the trunk. Thus the chilling
currents as they ascend draw heat from the cases in succession and
before leaving the trunk become nearly as warm as the uppermost row
At the same time the cases in descending fall in temperature
gradatively until the lowermost verge in coldness towards the chilling
current when in its nascent state. Thus the two important principles of
gradative heat, conduction and continuous operation, are effectively
established. To promote the chilling and check subsequent heating of
the cases I make their four narrow sides of thick boarding and their
broad sides of sheet iron, which sides press against the metallic partitions
Where the primary chiller,
of the trunk as the cases descend in it.
whether it be air, ether, ammonia, or other gas or vapor escaping from
condensation, is not applied directly, but acts through a liquid medium,
as brine, cooled by it, I cause the chilling of such medium to be also
effected by gradative heat conduction. As the best means I cause
it to either descend through a deep vat divided horizontally into
numerous compartments by perforated or gauze partitions while the
primary chiller ascends through a system of fluted sheet copper
conductors lodged in the several compartments of the vat, or the
medium for chilling is syphoned through a horizontal system of vats
in succession, in each of which is a fluted sheet conductor pervaded
by the primary chiller in an opposite direction. While condensing
the primary chiller for abstracting heat from it, I employ the same
gradative heat-conducting apparatus, but both the currents are then
reversed where an upright vat is employed. Where a liquid medium
chiller as brine is employed it may be convenient for the main trunk to
lie horizontal, not inclined. The tiers of cases will then be forcibly drawn
forwards by endless bands traversing the bottom of the passages and return-
ing external to and below the trunk, the band being furnished with equi-
distant catches to bring on the cases. Directly a transverse row of cases is
discharged they are pressed metal sides together into one cubical package
having all its surface of wood, the outer flat sides of the outer cases being
of board instead of sheet iron. I use copper or an alloy of copper for the

page_text: partitions of the trunk to ensure a quick conduct of heat, and I cast
them with studs, or I cast frames of studs to prop them apart against
the atmospheric pressure where the chilling currents need vacuous
passages to be maintained. Where compressed atmospheric air is the
chilling agent there are no partitions in the trunk, but it is divided
by the tiers of cases into air passages lined above and below by flanges
to guide the tiers in their descent. The air blasts are guided into
the passages by wedge-shaped stanchions which protect the lower row
of cases from their force. Along each air passage is a double row of
upright flat iron standards inclined towards the tiers of cases like louvre
boards, so as to compel the chilling currents to impinge against their
metal sides with force. Whether for maintaining a vacuum or condensing
vapor or air I use a double pump formed of two radial pistons fixed on
opposite sides of one axis and each forced by it to sweep the concave face
of a radial section of a cylinder, being a third of its area, there being
valves in the radial faces which form the flat sides of the pump and in
some cases in the piston. In condensing vapor or air I convey it through
a succession of pumps decreasing in size and through alternating cooling
apparatus, the tubes of which form the receivers of the compressed gas
where the pressure is extreme. For preserving frozen stores of packages
in bulk I encompass the mass with three layers of straw or other slow
conductor kept apart by two wooden casings containing air in which lie
a copper tubular system for the circulation of a chilling current first
throughout the inner casing and then through a similar tubular system
pervading the outer casing. Revolving spiral fans keep the air in the
casings in motion over the chilling tubular system or apparatus. This
system is formed of fluted sheet copper lying against flat sheets stretched
in a frame, the sheets being soldered together down their long edges, and
if necessary along the flutes also, thus semicircular tubes are formed for
the passage of the chilling current.
In these several improvements, which I claim as original, the employ-
ment of gradative heat conduction in any way and of a continuous
operation involving the removal of the completed work at one end of the
series, and the addition of fresh matter at the other, I claim as of
essential importance.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Julius Jeffreys in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 29th January 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JULIUS
JEFFREYS, of Upper Norwood, in the County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Julius Jeffreys, Her special licence
that I, the said Julius Jeffreys, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Julius Jeffreys, 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 Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN PRESERVING ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Julius Jeffreys, 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 Julius Jeffreys, 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 :-
Whatever may be the chilling matter employed I give it a maximum
effect by the following means:-I construct a long rectangular tube or
trunk on a steep inclination and divide it by longitudinal and upright
metallic partitions into passages alternately narrow and broad. Up the
Larrow passages I convey the chilling current down all the broader
passages and filling them from top to bottom; flat oblong cases
charged with the matter to be frozen slide edge forward on rollers let

page_text: into the bottom of the passages, thus pressing each other onwards. The
lowermost row of cases forming the front ones of each long tier are
when hard frozen let out of their passages by a trap door under the
trunk, which in falling raises its hinge end to stop the descent of the
tiers behind, and is closed instantly that the front row of cases is dis-
charged. The tiers then slide down a stage, the foremost cases occupy-
ing the position of those discharged. A fresh set is then introduced
into the furthest and upper extremity of the trunk. Thus the chilling
currents as they ascend draw heat from the cases in succession and
before leaving the trunk become nearly as warm as the uppermost row
of cases. At the same time the cases in descending fall in temperature
gradatively until the lowermost verge in coldness towards the chilling
current when in its nascent state. Thus the two important principles of
gradative heat, conduction and continuous operation, are effectively
established. To promote the chilling and check subsequent heating of the
cases I make their four narrow sides of thick boarding and their broad
sides of sheet iron, which sides press against the metallic partitions of
the trunk as the cases descend in it. Where the primary chiller,
whether it be air, ether, ammonia, or other gas or vapor escaping from
condensation, is not applied directly, but acts through a liquid medium, as
brine, cooled by it, I cause the chilling of such medium to be also effected
by gradative heat conduction. As the best means I cause it to cither.
descend through a deep vat divided horizontally into numerous compart-
ments by perforated or gauze partitions while the primary chiller ascends
through a system of fluted sheet copper conductors lodged in the several
compartments of the vat, or the medium for chilling is syphoned through
a horizontal system of vats in succession, in each of which is a fluted
sheet conductor pervaded by the primary chiller passing in an opposite
direction. While condensing the primary chiller for abstracting heat
from it I employ the same gradative heat conducting apparatus, but
both the currents are thus reversed where an upright vat is employed.
Where a liquid medium chiller, as brine, is employed it may be convenient
for the main trunk to lie horizontal, not inclined. The tiers of cases
will then be forcibly drawn forwards by endless bands traversing the
3 bottom of the passages and returning external to and below the trunk,
the band being furnished with equidistant catches to bring on the cases..
Directly a transverse row of cases is discharged they are pressed metal
sides together into one cubical package, having all its surface of wood, the
outer flat sides of the outer cases being of board instead of sheet iron. I

page_text: use copper or an alloy of copper for the partitions of the trunk to ensure
a quick conduct of heat, and I cast them with studs, or I cast frames of
studs to prop them apart against the atmospheric pressure, where the
chilling currents need vacuous passage to be maintained. Where com-
pressed atmospheric air is the chilling agent there are no partitions in
the trunk, but it is divided by the tiers of cases into air passages lined
above and below by flanges to guide the tiers in their descent. The air
blasts are guided into the passages by wedge-shaped stanchions which
protect the lower row of cases from their force. Along each air passage
is a double row of upright flat iron standards inclined towards the tiers
of cases like louvre boards, so as to compel the chilling currents to
impinge against their metal sides with force. For preserving frozen
stores of packages in bulk I encompass the mass with three layers of
straw or other slow conductor kept apart by two wooden casings con-
taining air in which lie a copper tubular system for the circulation of a
chilling current first throughout the inner oasing and then through a
similar tubular system pervading the outer casing. Revolving spiral
fans keep the air in the casings in motion over the chilling tubular
system or apparatus. This system is formed of fluted sheet copper lying
against flat sheets stretched in a frame, the sheets being soldered
together down their long edges, and if necessary along the flutes
also, thus semicircular tubes are formed for the passage of the chilling
current.
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood
and readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the Drawings
hereunto annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is an elevation, and Figure 2 a transverse vertical section of
the rectangular tube or trunk in which the freezing will be effected of
the organic matter to be protected, which matter will be mainly animal
flesh. Where the scale of the operation requires a great length of trunk
space I increase its height to two or even four stories, the boxes
traversing them all from the uppermost backwards and forwards to the
lowermost. The exit from the upper story of the freezing current
returning to be chilled is then equally near to the source of chill at its
entrance into the lowest story of the trunk directly below.
The break Z, Z, Figure 1, shows that only the two end portions of the
trunk are delineated, as the whole length would commonly extend to

page_text: 50 yards or more. The bore of this trunk is just high enough to receive
the flat boxes or cases (head F. and II.) which I propose to make a yard
square inside and say 9 inches deep. Their four narrow (or 9 inch)
sides are of wood (deal plank) 1½ inches thick, and their broad yard
square sides of thin sheet iron, Figure 3 being a box with its bottom
sheet nailed on, and Figure 3¹ its lid sheet separate to be nailed on
when it is filled with joints &c. of meat, Figure 4 being the edge view
of a box packed showing the sheet iron edges turned over the wooden
sides and nailed down. The transverse section of this freezing trunk
(Figure 2) near to its nether end shows it open with the four boxes
(a, a, a, a) of the last row in their grooves and with intermediate
spaces (b, b, b, b). Where the freezing current is a liquid and is not
made to flow against the boxes themselves it is conveyed along narrow
copper tubes equalling the boxes in height and conducting away their
heat as herein-before described and shown in a section of the trunk
(Figure 5, b, b, b, b). But where the freezing current is gaseous, whether
it be air expanding from compression (which I name only as being
capable of employment though the least available agent, owing to its
adverse physical properties in relation to heat) or whether it be air
chilled by traversing a properly constructed ether engine, in such
case, since the air current flows against the metallic surfaces of the boxes
themselves no tubular passage is required to receive it, but passages
are formed for it by the boxes being kept apart with flanges or frets
at bottom and as shown in Figures 1 and 2, c, c, c, and herein-before
mentioned. Figure 1 has the side wall D, D, removed to show the
longitudinal position of the boxes as a, a, a, a, following each other,
and the rollers e, e, e, e, on which they travel; but these are dispensed
with if the freezing fluid flowing by the boxes and in which they aro
immersed is not gaseous but liquid, as in this case the boxes will tend
to float in the liquid while kept and guided in line by the groove ways.
The boxes must be proof against soaking in of the freezing liquids.
The narrow metallic channels for conveying the liquid current and
shown in section (b, b, b, Figure 5) will of course not be needed if the
box surfaces are themselves to be exposed to the action of the freezing
fluid. The freezing current proceeding in a tube from the source of chill
enters the near end of the trunk horizontally as shown by arrows
(Figure 1, F, F) and makes its exit at the nether end of the trunk
from the top of it, as at G, G, which is the commencement of the tube

page_text: conveying the current back to the ether engine. The boxes enter the
trunk at its nether end and they make their exit at the bottom of the
near end as at (a', a', a¹) where a transverse row of boxes is descending.
But where the freezing fluid is a liquid filling the trunk the entering
boxes have to be let down into it above and the departing boxes are
lifted out through the roof of the trunk at the near end. At each
discharge the four or more boxes are immediately banded together into
one cubical package (Figure 6) having all the metal surfaces facing
each other inwards and all its outer surface of thick boarding for
excluding heat.
Figure 7 represents a sheet of copper, say 4 to 6 feet long and 3 feet
wide, stamped into semicircular flutes; and Figure 8 shows many such
sheets facing each other and forming a block containing numerous rows
of tubes with spaces (L, L, L, L,) between them through which the
current to be chilled flows; Figure 9 is a side view of the block standing
upright. Each end of a system of these tubes must of course be united
into a head with a strong partition to enable it to be connected with the
next system or with the ether vessel or the exhausting pump. Several
of these systems are connected one above another and are enclosed in
a rectangular case or vat (H, H, I, I, Figures 8 and 9) nearly touching
them on two sides but spacious on the two opposite sides. The lines
delineate the case where it surrounds that block of tubes. A current
descending the case to be chilled is made by partitions in the case as
at N, Figure 9, showing one of them to flow backwards and forwards
through the successive systems of tubes. It is plain that a vaporous
chilling current ascending within the tubes will by gradative conduction
draw heat effectually from the descending currents. Highly rarefied
ether vapour, together with its generating liquid ether, I prefer to use as
the cooling medium. For preserving stores of meat the course adopted
in Australia and France, and recently again proposed in England, has
been to place the store in packages stowed apart from cach other on
all sides and included in a chamber filled with a freezing atmosphere
constantly renewed and intended to pervade equally the spaces between
all the packages; I hold it to be necessary, in obedience to the dictates
of science, to adopt the very opposite plan, I stow rectangular packages
uniform in size so blocked together into one mass as to have no
interstices whatever between them and the smallest superficies possible.

page_text: Then having enclosed the mass with tarpaulin or other tight covering
I convey over its whole surface on every side currents of air rendered
intensely cold either through the medium of chilled brine or by
conveying the protecting air itself over the tubes of an ether engine.
In this Patent I claim as original the employment for freezing meat
and other animal and vegetable substances of a long rectangular tube or
trunk enclosed on all sides by thick non-conducting walls, and receiving
edgeways flat boxes kept in parallel rows by narrow tubes or frets forming
longitudinal passages for a freezing current, the boxes of meat travelling
in an opposite direction to the freezing current so as to lose their heat
effectually through the principle of gradative heat conduction.
I do not claim the employment of this principle excepting in connec-
tion with this apparatus for meat, &c., the principle having been intro-
duced by myself in climatic instruments 33 years ago. It operates also
in all properly constructed stills and in making ether itself. It is
likewise mentioned as applicable, but not included, in Harrison's very
ingenious Patent of 1857 for making ice and cooling buildings, and
enters in a particular form into Siebe's Patent of 1862. The employ-
ment of chilled brine as a refrigerating medium is of long standing,
and it constitutes in a particular application the substance of Harrison's
Patent of 1857 for making ice, cooling fluids, for ventilation, &c. The
boxes of combined wood and sheet iron and the compacting of them
together when frozen, all essential (as I believe) to the purpose in view,
are quite original. The fluted sheet tubing both for chilling the freezing
current and condensing the ether vapour are an original application of a
dropped Patent of my own.
Also, I claim the drawing by gradative conduction a powerful heat-
absorbing effect from the vapour of ether by conveying it after leaving
the ether chamber through a long tubiferous channel down which
descends the current to be chilled.
I claim this tubular system and this application of it both direct
and indirectly in refrigerating or congealing animal and vegetable
substances.
Lastly, I claim the blocking into an impervious mass any number of
frozen packages forming a store or cargo, and protecting the mass from

page_text: external warmth by means of chilled air currents flowing circumambient
over its whole surface.
In witness whereof, I, the said Julius Jeffreys, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.