IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES
Year: 1855

page_text: Sealed the 4th March 1856, and dated the 19th September 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald Brooman
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
19th September 1855.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES," (com-
municated to me by a foreigner residing abroad,) to be as follows:-
The Invention consists in the following process:-The substances to be
treated are first deprived of the blood, serosity, and superfluous natural
humidity which they may contain, and are then cut into pieces and hung up,
each piece apart, so as not to come in contact in an air-tight vessel, in which
they are subjected to the action of sulphurous acid gas for from 20 to 25
minutes, more or less. The pieces are next exposed to the air for a few
minutes, and are then coated with a thin layer of a composition consisting of
animal albumen, a decoction of mallow root, with a small quantity of syrup
of molasses. When this coating is dry, the substances may be hung up in the

page_text: open air, where they will keep a long time. If intended for exportation, the
substances should be packed in substantial air and water tight casks, and the
spaces between and over the pieces filled up with melted fat. Before cook-
ing, the melted fat must of course be taken away, and the substances plunged
in warm water in order to remove the coating.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 18th March 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Richard Archibald Brooman, Her special licence that I, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, 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," communicated to me by a foreigner residing
abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard Archi-
bald Brooman, 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 Richard Archibald Brooman, 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

page_text: following statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say:―
The Invention consists in preserving animal and vegetable substances by
treating them in the following manner-They are first deprived of the blood,
serosity, and superfluous natural humidity which they may contain, and then
subjected to the action of sulphuric acid gas in an air-tight vessel, in which
they are suspended, in such manner that the separate pieces may not come in
contact with each other, nor with the sides and bottom of the apparatus; and
then after exposing them to the air, they are coated with a thin layer of a
composition consisting of animal albumen, with a decoction of mallows root,
with a small quantity of syrup of molasses. When this coating is dry, the
substance may be hung up in the air or packed in cases, and will keep
for some time.
The Invention is carried into effect in the following manner:-In the
case of meat, care must be taken to select such only as is not tainted; it
must be deprived of its blood and serosity, and cut up, but the larger the
The substances
portions the better for the purposes of this Invention.
(animal or vegetable, as the case may be,) are deprived of their superfluous
natural humidity by a current of air from a fan blower or otherwise, and are
next dried in the open air; they are then suspended in an air-tight vessel or
chamber in such manner that each separate piece may hang apart, and not
come in contact with that next it, nor with the bottom or sides of the vessel,
so that the pieces may be exposed to the gas on all sides. The vessel, if
required to be of large dimensions, may be made of brickwork, papered or
boarded on the inside, with strips of felt or india-rubber at the entrances to
exclude the air. A leaden pipe or passage leads out of the top of the vessel,
and another out of the bottom, for the escape and admission of air when
required. Both passages are furnished with stop-cocks. The sulphurous acid
gas, (generated by igniting a sulphurised wick, or by passing a current of air
from a blowing apparatus over burning sulphur in a closed vessel, or by any
other known method,) is admitted into the lower part of the air-tight vessel,
and the cock in the upper passage is opened to allow atmospheric air to escape
from the apparatus as the gas enters; when the gas begins to escape in con-
siderable quantities through the upper passage, the cock should then be closed.
An apparatus well adapted for this part of the process is represented in
Figures 1 and 2 of the annexed Drawings; Figure 1 being a vertical section;
and Figure 2, a plan. a, a, is an air-tight chamber or vessel, in which the
pieces of meat or other substances to be treated are suspended; 9, pipe and

page_text: stop-cock near the top of the vessel for the escape of atmospheric air; h, pipe
and stop-cock in the bottom of the vessel through which air is admitted or
forced into the chamber. In this chamber is a set. of compartments c, c, C,
fitted in a frame b, mounted on a vertical shaft l; in each of these compart-
ments is a sulphurised wick d, tipped with some substance capable of ignition
on coming in contact with a roughened or rubbing surface f, placed on an
arm g', supported in the vessel. The wicks may be prepared by adding to
the sulphur a mixture of lamp black, saltpetre, and sulphate of iron, which is
a good combustible composition. Rotary motion is communicated to the
vertical shaft by means of a bevil toothed wheel k, in gear with a second
bevil toothed wheel k', mounted on a horizontal shaft e, worked by manual
power or otherwise, and connected with a ratchet and pall p, so contrived that
at every revolution of the vertical shaft one compartment c is brought up to
the roughened surface, and the wick contained in the compartment being
ignited by friction against f, sulphurous acid gas is generated at every turn of
the shaft, and so on, till all the compartments have been successively brought
up to the roughened surface and all the wicks ignited. If a greater quantity
of gas is required, the set of compartments may be removed, and another set
similarly provided with wicks mounted on the shaft. The length of time for
keeping the substances subjected to the action of the gas should be regulated
by the size or weight of the pieces: thus, for example, pieces weighing 4 to
7 lbs. require about ten minutes; pieces weighing 2 cwt., twenty to twenty-
five minutes. The substances are then exposed to the open air and left to
dry and harden.
The next part of the process is to coat the substances with a very thin layer
of a mixture, composed of animal albumen, dissolved at a gentle heat in a
strong decoction of mallow root, together with a small quantity of molasses.
The composition is thinly laid on over all parts of the pieces of meat or other
substances, under treatment, particular care being taken to lay it on the parts
divided by the knife or other cutting instrument used, and also in the holes
and cavities. The following has been found to be a good proportion: about
2lbs. albumen to a quart of the decoction of mallow root. The compo-
sition may be laid on with a brush; it dries rapidly in the open air, and
leaves no disagreeable odour or taste. As soon as the coating is quite dry
the substances are ready for storing or exportation. They may either be
hung up in the open air, covered or not, or packed in cases or barrels. After
the lapse of several months the substances would be found fresh and good.
If intended for exportation, meat (for example) thus preserved may be packed

page_text: in substantial air and water tight casks, and the spaces between and over
the pieces filled up with melted fat or grease, which before cooking must
of course be removed, and the meat plunged in warm water to dissolve the
coating.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I do not claim the employ-
ment of sulphurous acid gas, when used alone, for preserving animal and
vegetable substances; but I claim, as constituting the said Invention, the
preserving of animal and vegetable substances by exposing them to sulphurous
acid gas, to air, and then coating them with the preserving composition herein-
before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of March, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.