IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING OR PREVENTING DECOMPOSITION IN VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Edward Dering, of Lockleys, in
the County of Hertford, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PRESERVING OR PREVENTING DECOMPOSITION IN VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL
Scaled the 31st May 1853, and dated the 28th March 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Edward
Dering at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 28th March 1853.
I, GEORGE EDWARD DERING, of Lockleys, in the County of Hertford,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN PRESERVING OR PREVENTING DECOMPOSITION IN VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL
SUBSTANCES AND MATTERS " to be as follows:
This Invention consists of applying the salts and matters produced in
the working of galvanic batteries to the purpose of preserving or
preventing decomposition in vegetable and animal substances and
matters, in place of using the metallic salts usually employed dissolved
for these purposes.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Edward Dering, in the Great Seal Patent
Oflice, on the 28th September 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
GEORGE EDWARD DERING, of Lockleys, in the County of Hertford, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me. the said George Edward Dering, Her special
licence that I, the said George Edward Dering, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as 1, the said George Edward
Dering, 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 OR PREVENTING DECOMPOSITION IN VEGE-
TABLE AND ANIMAL SUBSTANCES AND MATTERS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that 1, the said George Edward Dering, by an in-
strument 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 George Edward Dering, 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):
This Invention consists of applying the salts and matters produced in
the working of galvanic batteries to the purpose of preserving or
preventing decomposition in vegetable and animal substances and
matters, in place of using the metallic salts usually employed dissolved
for these purposes.

page_text: My improvements are applicable to preserving or preventing decay
in timber, and most vegetable and animal matters, and the same treat-
ment, in some cases, also answers the secondary purpose of improving
or altering the quality of fabrics and substances subjected to it, of
preparing them for some after treatment, as in dyeing processes, and of
rendering them uninflammable. And my improvements also relate to
disinfecting and deodorizing fecal and other matters, in order to prevent
the emission of effluvia from them, and to render them serviceable as
manure.
I am aware that it has long been known that various salts of metals
in state of solution or otherwise are effectual for these several purposes.
But what I have discovered is, that the solutions containing salts of
metals which necessarily result from the working of different kinds of
galvanic batteries, and which have generally been considered as refuse
and thrown away, may be advantageously applied to these purposes.
It is well known to persons acquainted with the working of galvanic
batteries, that it is always customary and advisable to stop their action
before the solution has become saturated with the metal in course of
combination with it, in consequence of which the resulting liquids will
contain an amount of free acid, or of acid in combination with other
matters, as in the case of salts being employed as exciting liquids; and
in this respect the processes to which I apply them differ from those
in ordinary use for similar purposes. I do not find that this admixture
is in general disadvantageous, and in some cases it is even preferable;
should it, however, in any case be advisable to purify the solutions or
matters, or to neutralize the free acid which they contain, this may be
readily effected by some of the processes described in the specification
of my patent for "Improvements in the manufacture of certain salts
and oxides of metals," dated the twenty-eighth day of March, One
thousand eight hundred and and fifty-three.
The salts which I prefer to all others for the purposes of my present
Invention are the sulphate of zinc and chloride of zinc, which result
from the working of batteries in which zinc is employed as the positive
element, and in the former case sulphuric acid or any suitable sulphate

page_text: as an exciting liquid, and in the latter case hydrochloric acid or any
suitable chloride or muriate. The zinc may be amalgamated with
mercury, as is well understood, in order to prevent local action. But
my Invention is not confined to the use of these particular compounds,
since the various salts of all the different metals that can be employed
as positive elements in batteries are more or less applicable for the
purposes referred to. The salt solutions from galvanic batteries are to
be used in like manner to what has heretofore been practised when
using prepared solutions of salts of like metals, all which is well under-
stood. The solutions obtained may require to be reduced in strength
by the addition of water, or to be increased in strength by evaporating
a portion of the liquid, or to have their qualities altered by the
admixture of ingredients suited to improve their efficacy for the
particular purpose to which it is intended to apply them. And in some
cases it is advisable to reduce the salts to a solid consistency, as
described in the specification of my patent for "Improvements in the
manufacture of certain salts and oxides of metals," before referred to,
and to employ them in this conditiou, or re-dissolve them for use; all
of which will be readily understood by persons acquainted with the
processes to which my Invention applies.
From the foregoing description it will be understood that the pur-
poses of my Invention are effected by the use of solutions, which ne-
cessarily result from the working of different kinds of galvanic batteries,
and which have generally been considered as refuse, and thrown away.
And since the batteries from which they are derived may all the time be
employed in producing motive power, light, heat, or chemical action
(such as electro plating or gilding), or other valuable effects, as is well
understood, it is obvious that the purposes to which my Invention applies
may be effected at a much cheaper rate by employing these refuse
matters, than by employing solutions made from salts produced by the
ordinary process of manufacture. And the working of galvanic batteries
will become highly remunerative, as supplying matters fit for consump-
tion on a large scale for the purposes which I have described, in addition
to the ordinary supply of electrical fluid, which may be employed to

page_text: produce motive power for land or water locomotion or stationary use,
or any such purposes as steam power is now applied to, or other effects
such as those above mentioned.
I wish it to be understood that I do not confine myself to the details
of the description which I have given. But what I claim as my
Invention is, the employment for the purposes which I have stated of
the solutions and matters resulting from the working of galvanic
batteries, whether in the condition in which they came from the battery,
or subjected to some after treatment.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Edward Dering, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this twenty-sixth day of Sep-
tember, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-three.
5 Witness, THOMAS G. ROACH,
Donegall Pass, Belfast.
GEORGE E. DERING. (L.S.)