AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR PRESERVING MILK, AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Amey, of Petersfield, Hampshire, Dairy
Farmer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR PRESERVING MILK,
AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH."
Sealed the 22nd March 1867, and dated the 26th September 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Amey at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 26th
September 1866.
I, THOMAS AMEY, of Petersfield, Hampshire, Dairy Farmer, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR
PRESERVING MILK, AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THERE WITH," to be as follows:-
I first put the milk mixed with sugar (in variable proportions) into a trough
or pan placed in a water bath, which I keep at a temperature of 175 degrees
or thereabout. In this trough dips a revolving cylinder, which at each revo-
tution carries a portion of the milk up to a blast of dry or heated air, and this
operation is continued until all the watery particles of the milk contained in
the trough have evaporated and nothing is left but a dry paste, which I then
remove and grind to powder between any suitable rollers.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Amey in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
23rd March 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
AMEY, of Petersfield, Hampshire, Dairy Farmer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the thirtieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Thomas Amey, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas Amey,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Thomas Amey, 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 "AN IMPROVED
PROCESS FOR PRESERVING MILK, AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Amey, 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 Thomas Amey, 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:-
My improved process for preserving milk consists in the evaporation of its
watery particles by exposing thin layers of the milk to the action of a dry or
heated blast of air or simply to the action of the atmosphere itself if dry on the
surface of a revolving or rotating cylinder, afterwards grinding the residuum to
powder, and is conducted as follows:-I put the milk mixed with sugar (in
variable proportions) into a trough or pan placed in a water bath, which
I keep at a temperature of 175 degrees or thereabout. In this trough dips a
revolving cylinder, which at each revolution carries a portion of the milk up
to a blast of dry or heated air, and this operation is continued until all the
watery particles of the milk contained in the trough have evaporated and
nothing is left but a dry paste, which I then remove and grind to powder

page_text: between any suitable rollers; I then place this powder in bottles or other
packages for store or exportation. The shaft of the revolving cylinder rotates
in bearings on the sides of the pan, or it may rotate on supports unconnected
therewith, but always so that a portion of the horizontal surface of the cylinder
dips in the fixed trough or pan. I use a metal cylinder with a plane surface,
and find that the simple centrifugal force of its rotation exposes at every
revolution a suitable layer of milk to the action of the atmosphere or of the
artificial blast, but the cylinder may be of other material, and it might be
corrugated or have an otherwise irregular surface, although I deem it less
advantageous. The cylinder is hollow, and may be heated internally; it may
be turned by hand, using a crank, or it may by means of suitable gearing be
driven by steam or any other available motor, the speed of its rotation being
regulated according to requirement. In certain states of the atmosphere I find
it necessary to use an artificial blast of dry or heated air, which I obtain and
direct on to the exposed parts of the cylinder by any of the usual and well-
known means by which blasts of air are obtained.
I find ordinary millstones very suitable for grinding into powder the
residuum which I remove from the pan, but I do not confine myself to the
use of any particular grinding apparatus.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the means by
which I carry it into practical effect; I desire it to be understood that I do
not confine myself to the use of any special material in the construction of
my apparatus, using that which I find most suitable and least likely to flavor
the milk, nor to any special dimensions of apparatus or parts of apparatus, or
to any precise mode of fixing or fitting the several parts of the apparatus and
driving the cylinder; but that I claim as forming the basis of my improved
process for preserving milk the exclusive use of a revolving cylinder dipping
in a fixed pan or trough, and exposing in its rotation successive layers of heated
milk to the action of the atmosphere or to an artificial blast of air in order to
accelerate the evaporation of the watery particles of the milk.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Amey, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
THOS. AMEY. (L.S.)