AN IMPROVED FERMENTING AGENT
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of No. 166, Fleet:
Street, in the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "AN
IMPROVED FERMENTING AGENT."-A communication.
Sealed the 3rd February 1857, and dated the 11th August 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald Brooman
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th August 1856.
1
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.
"AN IMPROVED FERMENTING AGENT," (communicated to me by a foreigner.
residing abroad,) to be as follows:-
The nature of this Invention consists in making use of the investing matter
or covering of the cereal grains, which, when ground, is called bran, instead
of the materials usually employed in making yeast, some of which I find to be
positively injurious.
This Invention is based on the well-known fact that if we take a kernel
of a cereal grain, the delicately balanced matter known as albuminous matter;

page_text: the protein compounds allied to flesh and the grain, exist in the largest pro-
portion in and next the covering. When such grain is ground and bolted,
the covering and contiguous are rejected as articles of food under the form
of bran. As all diseases and chemical changes proceed from this covering
towards the centre of the grain, it occurred to the Inventor that the bran of
the cereals would ferment sooner than any other part of the grain, and
experiments fully proved that such a change is more easily induced and
proceeds with more regularity than when we use flour free from bran, or in
part mixed with it. The bran, after the action of fermentation has com-
menced, becomes broken up by new chemical arrangements, and the true
vinous fermentation proceeds for several days. The addition of flour, and
especially impure gluten, to the bran retards the fermentation, and tends to
produce putrefaction or animal matter fermentation, while the vinous fer-
mentation of the pure bran shews no such tendency, the final result being the
acetous fermentation only. When we use pure bran, fermentation commences
after twenty-four to thirty hours, while ordinary flour by the same treatment
requires one hundred and sixty-eight to one hundred and ninety-two hours'
time before it reaches the same stage. The spores of the yeast plant existing
in the covering of the grain are retained by the bran, very few passing into
the flour. The yeast, therefore, changes grape or sugar uniformly into
alcohol without risk of the acetous or putrefactive fermentation, and the mash
for beer or spirits thus affords more alcohol than is usually obtained.
To enable others to make this improved fermenting agent or improved
yeast, I proceed to describe the method of making it. I take bran of wheat,
as rejected by the bolting machine, and having placed it in a warm room at
85° to 90° Fahrenheit, I mix it uniformly, so as to dampen it to a thick paste
with water at 85° to 90° Fahrenheit, and cover the vessel close. After
the lapse of 30 hours, or generally after 24 hours, the bran is converted into
this improved fermenting agent or improved yeast. I use and prefer the bran
of wheat in all cases when, as in beer making and in manufacturing spirits,
a continuous pure vinous fermentation is desirable; and when the fermenting
agent is added to the mash, a mixture of sugar and water, I advise the fer-
menting agent to be stirred in frequently during the 24 hours. In bread.
making and other cases, bran of rye or maize may be substituted for wheat
bran.
I am aware that barm and yeast have been rendered dry and portable by
the use of bran and sawdust mixed with the fluid yeast, and also that yeast
and dry flour have been mixed to retard fermentation. Both these results

page_text: I disclaim, and confine this Invention to the use of pure bran for obtaining
a better agent for the vinous fermentation at a lower cost than has been
obtained heretofore.
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 10th February 1857.
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 Eleventh day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth 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 J, 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 Kingdoin
of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "AN IMPROVED FERMENTING AGENT," communicated to me by
a foreigner residing abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said. Richard Archibald 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
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
The nature of this Invention consists in making use of the investing matter
or covering of the cereal grains, which, when ground, is called bran, instead

page_text: of the materials usually employed in making yeast, some of which the Inventor
bas found to be positively injurious.
This Invention is based on the well-known fact that if we take a kernel
of a cereal grain, the delicately balanced matter known as albuminous matter,
the protein compound allied to flesh and the grain, exists in the largest pro-
portion in and next the covering. When such grain is ground and bolted,
the covering and contiguous are rejected as articles of food under the form of
bran. As all diseases and chemical changes proceed from this covering
towards the centre of the grain, it occurred to the Inventor that the bran of
the cereals would ferment sooner than any other part of the grain would do,
and experiments fully proved that such a change is more easily induced and
proceeds with more regularity than when we use flour free from bran, or in
part mixed with it. The bran, after the action of fermentation has com-
menced, becomes broken up by new chemical arrangements, and the true
vinous fermentation proceeds for several days. The addition of flour, and
especially impure gluten, to the bran retards fermentation, and tends to
produce putrefaction or animal matter fermentation, while the vinous fer-
mentation of the pure bran shews no such tendency, the final result being
the acetous fermentation only. When we use pure bran, fermentation com-
mences after twenty-four to thirty hours, while ordinary flour by the same
treatment requires one bundred and sixty-eight to one hundred and ninety-two
hours' time before it reaches the same stage. The spores of the yeast plant
existing in the covering of the grain are retained by the bran, very few
passing in to the flour. The yeast, therefore, changes grape or sugar uniformly
into alcohol without risk of the acetous or putrefactive fermentation, and the
inash for beer or spirits thus affords more alcohol than is usually obtained.
:
I proceed to describe the method of making this improved fermenting
agent or yeast. I take bran of wheat, as rejected by the bolting machine, and
having placed it in a warm room at 85° Fahrenheit, I mix it uniformly to a
thick paste with water at 85° or 90° Fahrenheit, and cover the vessel close.
After the lapse of thirty hours, or generally after twenty-four hours, the bran
is converted into yeast. I use and prefer the bran of wheat in all cases.
When, as in beer making, and in manufacturing spirits, a continuous pure
vinous fermentation is desirable, and when the yeast is added to the mash or
mixture of sugar and water, I advise the yeast to be stirred in frequently
during the twenty-four hours. In bread making, and other cases, bran of rye
or maize may be substituted for wheat bran.
The Inventor is aware that barm and yeast have been rendered dry and

page_text: portable by the use of bran and sawdust mixed with the fluid yeast, and also
that yeast and dry flour have been mixed to retard fermentation. Both these
results I disclaim, and confine this Invention to the use of pure bran for
obtaining a better fermenting agent or yeast for the vinous fermentation at
a lower cost than heretofore.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is the
employment of bran of the cereal grain for producing a fermenting agent or
yeast without the aid of the flour as usually obtained from such grains.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Sixth day of February, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-seven.
R. A. BROOMAN. (L.S.)