IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING SEEDS, POTATOES, AND OTHER ROOTS
Year: 1853

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Scott
Jackson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 12th October 1853.
I, CHARLES SCOTT JACKSON, of Cannon Street, City, do hereby declare
the nature of my Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING SEEDS,
POTATOES, AND OTHER ROOTS" to be as follows:-
The object of this. Invention is to preserve seeds, potatoes, and other
roots from mildew, rot, fungus, and worms, and consists. of subjecting
them to or applying to their surfaces salts of zinc. For this purpose
salts of zinc are.by preference dissolved, and the seeds, potatoes, and
roots are steeped therein..

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Scott Jackson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 10th April 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
CHARLES SCOTT JACKSON, of Cannon Street, City, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the seven-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Charles Scott Jackson, Her special
licence that I, the said Charles Scott Jackson, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Scott
Jackson, 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 SEEDS, POTATOES, AND
OTHER ROOTS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Charles Scott Jackson, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, 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 Charles Scott Jackson, 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):
The object of this Invention is to preserve seeds, potatoes, and other
roots from mildew, rot, fungus, and worms, and consists of subjecting
them to or applying to their surfaces salts of zinc. For this purpose

page_text: salts of zinc are by preference dissolved, and the seeds, potatoes, and
other roots steeped therein.
In carrying out my Invention I employ principally the sulphate
of zinc, but any of the salts of zine may be used, though not, I
believe, so advantageously. Before preparing potatoes, for seed I
wash them clean, and then cut them in the usual manner if too large,
and I immerse them in a solution of sulphate of zinc mixed in the
proportion of one pound of the dry salt to twenty pints of cold water.
I allow them to remain in this solution from eight to twelve hours,
according to the size of the cuttings (large or small), or I mix the
sulphate of zine with boiling or very hot water in the same pro-
portions, and when the solution is cooled down to one hundred
degrees Fahrenheit I immerse the potatoes or cuttings for seed,
and allow them to remain therein, according to their size, an hour
and a half or two hours. I then take them out for planting. If
I wish to preserve potatoes from one season to another I prepare
them in a solution mixed in the proportion of one pound of the
sulphate of zinc to twenty pints of water, in which I allow them to
steep four hours. They should then be carefully dried, and then
stored in the usual manner. If kept all through the winter, and
required for seed in the spring, they should be cut and steeped one
hour in the solution, treated and mixed as before directed. Wheat,
barley, and oats, and other such grain, should be steeped four hours
in a cold solution of the sulphate or other salt of zinc mixed in
the proportion of one pound of the salt to thirty pints of water.
Clover, turnip, potato, and other small seeds should be prepared
and dried in the same way, except that three hours steeping in a
cold solution, mixed in the proportion of one pound of the sulphate of
zinc to forty pints of water, will be sufficient.
Although I have mentioned the sulphate of zinc I do not confine
myself to the use of that salt, as any of the soluble salts of zinc may be
employed, though I consider the sulphate the best; neither do I con-
fine myself to the proportion of salt to water mentioned above, as other
preparations may be employed. But under ordinary circumstances I

page_text: •
consider the above proportions as most useful: I find by experience
that rats, mice, and other vermin will not eat seeds prepared as above.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Scott Jackson, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
JNO ALCOCK.
CHA. S. JACKSON. (L.S.)