AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR PRESERVING VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL SUBSTANCES
Year: 1875

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PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 19th January 1875.-A communication from abroad by
J. R. M'Clintock, of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of
America.
I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co,
Patent Agents, No. 8, Southampton Buildings, London, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR
PRESERVING VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL SUBSTANCES," a communication, to be
as follows:-
The chief object of my Invention is to provide cheap, simple, and
practicable means for preserving for any desired length of time, fruit,
vegetables, and the like, and all the finer qualities of berries. The fruits
and vegetables may be preserved in their natural state precisely as taken
from the tree or gathered from the garden or field.
This Invention relates to the dry fumigation of the article or articles
desired to be preserved by subjecting the same to the action of the gases

page_text: or fumes generated from a compound consisting of a powdered sulphur
and charcoal, the ingredients being thoroughly mixed before being
ignited. After the process of dry fumigation has been completed, the
said article or articles must be submerged in water thoroughly im-
pregnated with the gas or vapor generated from the same composition.
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I am aware that the fumes of sulphur have been already used as an
agent in the preservation of animal and vegetable substances, and that
sulphurous acid gas in conjunction with carbonic oxide gas has also
been used in a tight vessel containing charcoal, so that this gas may be
absorbed by the charcoal, and hence the imperative necessity of using a
tight vessel; but this does not complete the process, as nitrogen or other
gases have also to be employed in conjunction therewith. And I am
not aware of any instance where the ingredients or rather gases employed
in this last process have been used in addition to their action as dry
fumigating agents, or that they have also been employed to impregnate
water in which the articles arc to be kept. On the contrary in the only
instance with which I am familiar where this last process has been
employed no water whatever, whether impregnated or not is used, the
préservation of the substance, animal or vegetable, depending solely and
entirely on the dry fumigation thereof, and on its being packed and kept
in a perfectly air-tight jar or other vessel.
I will now proceed to state in what my improvements consist and what
are their advantages.
First. As to the chamber or vessel in which the fumigation is designed
to be carried on. In all former processes without a single exception,
the vessel to be used has been a tight vessel so closed as to positively
exclude all air. The vessel I use is purposely provided with vents or
other suitable openings designed, especially for the admission of air.
Again in all the processes where the fumes of sulphurous acid gas
have alone been used as the antiseptic agent, the same have been used
by burning sulphur alone, and that too in an air-tight vessel. I do not
pretend to burn the sulphur alone, but powdered sulphur thoroughly
mixed with powdered charcoal, and this too in a vessel having suitable
openings for the admission of a moderate current of air. Now apart
from the chemical action of the charcoal, although tho carbonic oxide
which it would necessarily eliminate is a strong antiseptic, and considered
purely in its mechanical nature when powdered and mixed with tho

page_text: sulphur would necessarily separate and divide the particles of sulphur,
and burning the composition as I contemplate doing in a moderate
current of air would of course greatly accelerate the combustion of the
sulphur, thus producing more sulphurous acid, and also an acid of a
purer quality.
In the only process used previous to my Invention, in which the use of
charcoal in any form has been suggested for this purpose, the sulphurous
acid in connection with other gases is to be poured into a vessel containing
charcoal. Thus it will be seen that the charcoal in no manner aids in
producing either more or a better quality of sulphurous acid gas, and all
its immense advantages mechanically considered, which I utilize, are
neglected now in this process, and as I have said the only one where the
use of charcoal is contemplated, even admitting that the sulphurous and
other gases would absorb from the charcoal a small per centage of carbonio
oxide, the only stage in my process where the same chemically considered
is of value, is one which this former process does not contemplate
using, that is in treating the water. In this respect the carbonic oxide
which I obtain is valuable, as it effectually in connection with the
sulphurous acid gas destroys all the animalculæ of the water, rendering
) the same purer and more free from any destructive element or any
element which will work decay than water can be rendered when
treated alone with the fumes of sulphur as in the latter instance, as
ascertained by practical experience, after a certain period a mildew is
clearly perceptible, which is not the case when the water is treated with
the combined fumes generated from the admixture of sulphur and
charcoal.
Again in this the only process previous to mine, where charcoal is used
owing to the fact that the article is not kept in prepared water as I
contemplate doing, an air-tight jar or other vessel for keeping or
O preserving the article is essential. The use of such a jar or vessel is in
no wise necessary with my process as the articles are kept securely in
any suitable vessel, it being closed at the top by any substance which
will exclude dirt and insects; thus the difference between my process
and those which have preceded me may be summed up as follows :—
5 First, I treat the article and water in a vessel purposely provided
with suitable vents for the admission of air, while heretofore air-tight
vessels have been invariably used. For the process both in my system
as well as in those which preceded it, wooden vessels are used,

page_text: Experience shews that when an air-tight vessel is used it soon becomes
valueless as the material owing to its porous nature soon becomes so
saturated with the sulphurous acid as to deoxidize the so air that the
-sulphur will no longer burn; with my vessel this is impossible.
I avail myself of the mechanical advantages of charcoal to aid in 5
producing the sulphurous oxide gas and of the chemical properties,
which charcoal is known to possess to assist in thoroughly destroying the
'animalculæ in the water. Furthermore, I keep the articles in water,
and I keep the treated articles in any suitable vessel, which is liquid
tight to prevent the leakage of the water from the same, while the other 1
process in which charcoal is used requires an air-tight vessel in which to
keep the articles.