IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF STEAM FOR COOKING FOOD."
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alphonse René Le Mire Normandy, of 67, Judd
Street, Brunswick Square, London, Analytical Chemist, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF STEAM FOR COOKING FOOD."
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF STEAM FOR COOKING FOOD."
Sealed the 23rd March 1860, and dated the 24th September 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alphonse René Le Mire
Normandy at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 24th September 1859.
I, ALPHONSE RENÉ LE MIRE NORMANDY, of 67, Judd Street, Brunswick
Square, London, Analytical Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF STEAM FOR COOKING FOOD,"
to be as follows:-
My improvements consist in connecting by means of a pipe a boiler under
pressure, with a frame containing a chamber or chambers, in which cooking
vessels or utensils of suitable dimensions may be partly or wholy immersed, so
that on charging the said vessels with the food to be cooked, the said food
may be cooked by the pressure steam admitted round the said vessels, the
quantity of which steam admitted in the space above alluded to being re-
gulated by a stop-cock, which may be open or shut as occassion may require;
in order, however, to perform the operation economically, I put the space into
which the steam is admitted in communication with a steam trap, so that

page_text: practically speaking no steam is suffered to escape, except it have previously
been condensed, the said steam trap allowing nothing, or almost nothing, else
to escape but the water resulting from the condensation of the steam after it
has been employed in cooking the victuals put in the vessels above alluded to.
On board ships, or in places where fresh water is deficient, this mode of
cooking food is of great value, since by collecting the condensed steam a
supply of fresh water can thus be obtained; and by connecting the steam trap
above alluded to with the refrigerator of one of my machines, for obtaining
fresh water from sea water when in operation, the condensed steam issuing
from the said steam trap being superadded to that produced by my distilling
apparatus, is thereby ultimately converted into aërated fresh water of excellent
quality.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alphonse René Le Mire Normandy in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 24th March 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALPHONSE
RENÉ LE MIRE NORMANDY, of 67, Judd Street, Brunswick Square, London,
Analytical Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Alphonse René Le Mire Normandy, Her special licence that I,
the said Alphonse René Le Mire Normandy, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alphonse René Le Mire Normandy,
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 THE APPLI-
CATION OF STEAM FOR COOKING FOOD," upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Alphonse René Le Mire Normandy, my executors or adminis
trators, 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

page_text: calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW. KNOW YE, that I, the said Alphonse René Le Mire Normandy,
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 and accompanying Drawings (that is to say):
My improvements consist in connecting a boiler under pressure with a
chamber or chambers, into which utensils may be partly or wholly immersed,
so that on admitting the steam from the said boiler into the chamber or
chambers round the said vessels, the food which is to be put into them may be
cooked by it in such a way that, practically speaking, by means of an instru-
ment called a steam trap, no steam is allowed to escape from the chambers
containing the cooking vessels, except it have been previously condensed, the
steam trap allowing nothing to escape but the water resulting from the con-
densation of the steam round the cooking utensils. This condensed water
may then be put in communication with the condenser or with the refrigerator
(or both) of one of my machines, known as Normandy's patent fresh water
distilling apparatus, and it will be thereby converted into aërated fresh water
of excellent quality. The arrangement which I prefer, but to which I do not
confine myself, is represented in the annexed Drawings, in which the same
letters represent the same organs.
Fig. 1, front end elevation; Fig. 2, side elevation; Fig. 3, .transverse
section; Fig. 4, longitudinal section; Fig. 5, sectional plan of boiler;
Fig. 6, plan.
+
Description of Fig. 1.-A, boiler; B; cooking apparatus; C, front oven;
D, fire door; E, front soot door for cleaning the tubes of the boiler; F, ash-
pit; G, chimney.
Description of Fig. 2.-H, door of front oven C; I, bracket supporting the
front oven C; J, cooking vessels provided with their covers, and plunging in
chambers in which the steam is to be admitted; K, bakers' oven; L, cooks'
oven; M, steam pipes supplying steam from the boiler to the cooking apparatus
by means of the branch cocks N; N, branch cocks supplying steam to each
compartment of the cooking apparatus; O, pipes leading the condensed water
from each compartment into the general pipe P by means of the branch cocks
Q; P, general pipe leading the condensed water from each steam cooking com-
partment into the steam trap R; Q, cocks connected with a pipe issuing from
each steam cooking compartment, and allowing the condensed water to pass
therefrom into the general pipe P; R, steam trap; S, condenser of the still,
known as Normandy's patent distilling apparatus, into which the condensed

page_text: water of the cooking apparatus is admittted; T, cock for drawing off the
water from one of the large vessels J.
Description of Fig. 3.-U, fire-bars; V, bridge of furnace; V¹, level of
water in boiler; W, tubes of the boiler.
Description of Fig. 4.-X, steam dome; Y, steam spaces or chambers
surrounding the cooking utensils J; Z, flues going round the ovens L and K,
thence through the tubes W, and thence round the oven C into the chimney
G, as indicated by the arrows.
Description of Fig. 5.-All the letters of this Fig. have been already
described.
Description of Fig. 6.-Z, damper, which, when open, allows the flame or
products of combustion to pass directly into the tubes W, without going round
the baker's oven; Z", safety valves put upon each compartment and loaded at
the desired pressure; Z¹¹¹, vacuum valves.
Having thus described my improvements, I wish it to be understood that I
do not claim as my Invention the cooking by means of steam, nor the baking
by means of ovens; but what I claim is,-
First, the boiler and the steam cooking arrangement represented in the
Drawings, or any other boiler or arrangement substantially the same as
herein-before described.
Secondly, the use of a steam trap in connection therewith.
Thirdly, the adaptation of the still known as Normandy's patent fresh water
distilling apparatus for aërating the condensed water from the steam cooking
compartments, and converting it thereby into fresh water of excellent quality.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alphonse René Le Mire Normandy,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of March,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
A. NORMANDY. (L.S.)