AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PRESERVING CEREALS AND ARATE DATE VARIE AND ANIMAT
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Aimé Etienne Blavier, Engineer of the Mines at
Angers, in the Department of Maine and Loire (Empire of France)
for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PRESERVING CEREALS AND
ARATE DATE VARIE AND ANIMAT,"
Sealed the 31st January 1867, and dated the 17th November 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Aimé Etienne Blavier
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 17th November 1866.
I, AIMÉ ETIENNE BLAVIER, Engineer of the Mines at Angers, in the
Department of Maine and Loire (Empire of France), do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PRESERVING
CEREALS AND OTHER ALIMENTARY SUBSTANCES, BOTH VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL," to
be as follows:-
The preservation of cereals and other vegetable substances fit for human
food has been the object of numerous researches and inventions. Every
method proposed has been based on the principle advanced by che:nists that
the fermentation and the germination cannot take place without the simul-
taneous concurrence of heat, humidity, and oxygen.

page_text: My method consists in making use of carbonic acid pure and dry, and I am
astonished that this was not thought of at first, because of all the incombustible
gasses it is the most economically produced, and presents, firstly, the double
advantage of being incombustible and of a density considerably greater than
that of atmospheric air, so that its use would appear to remove all the
practical difficulties which have prevented the application on a large scale of
the other processes; in fact it would be sufficient to construct vast chambers,
either of metal or more economically of ordinary brickwork or masonry with
an inner coating of cement, which chambers would be hermetically closed,
excepting at top and bottom, where care would be taken to leave one or
several openings for the introduction and the exit of the substances to be
preserved, whether vegetable or animal. The openings must be provided
with means of hermetically closing, consisting of india-rubber washers, the
arrangement of which may be easily conceived. The carbonic gas produced
either by the combustion of some calcareous substance in a closed vessel or by
passing through this calcareous substance an acid spread according to well-
known processes disengaging itself with pressure and previously dried would
be directed into the preserving chambers by means of metal pipes; by reason
of its density it would displace the atmospheric air escaping by the upper
openings combined so as to open under the influence of a very slight excess
of interior pressure and the complete filling of the chambers with carbonic
acid will be ascertained by ordinary and elementary processes.
It is evident that the shape of the chambers may be infinitely varied, as
also their construction, their size, the method of opening for the introduction
of the substances to be preserved and their withdrawal, and the method of
manufacturing the carbonic acid, and I have therefore deemed it unnecessary
to add to this general description of the object of my Invention any special
plan of details which can be usefully-fixed by practice alone.
For wheat accumulated in large masses I calculate that the cost of apply-
ing my proposed method may be estimated at 2½ yearly for every 22 imperial
allone
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Aimé Etienne Blavier in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
9th February 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AIMÉ !
ETIENNE BLAVIER, Engineer of the Mines at Agners, in the Department of
Maine and Loire (Empire of France), send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the thirtieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Aimé Etienne Blavier, Her special licence that I, the said Aimé
Etienne Blavier, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Aimé Etienne Blavier,. 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 "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PRESERVING CEREALS AND OTHER
ALIMENTARY SUBSTANCES, BOTH VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Aimé Etienne Blavier, my executors or ad-
ministrators, 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 Aimé Etienne Blavier, 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:
The preservation of cereals and other vegetable substances fit for human
food has been the object of numerous researches and inventions. Every
method proposed has been based on the principle advanced by chemists that
the fermentation and the germination cannot take place without the simul-
taneous concurrence of heat, humidity, and oxygen.
My method consists in making use of carbonic acid pure and dry, and I
am astonished that this was not thought of at first, because of all the incom-
bustible gases it is the most economically produced, and presents, firstly, the
double advantage of being incombustible and of a density considerably greater
than that of atmospheric air, so that its use would appear to remove all the
practical difficulties which have prevented the application on a large scale
of the other processes. In fact, it would be sufficient to construct vast
chambers, either of metal, or more economically of ordinary brickwork or
masonry, with an inner coating of cement, which chambers would be
hermetically closed excepting at top and bottom, where care would be taken to
0

page_text: leave one or several openings for the introduction and the exit of the sub-
stances to be preserved, whether vegetable or animal. The openings must be
provided with a means of hermetically closing, consisting of india-rubber
washers, the arrangement of which may be easily conceived. The carbonic
gas, produced either by the combustion of some calcareous substance in a
closed vessel or by passing through this calcareous substance an acid spread
according to well-known processes, disengaging itself with pressure and
previously dried would be directed into the preserving chambers by means of
metal pipes. By reason of its density it would displace the atmospheric air,
causing it to escape by.the upper openings combined so as to open under the
influence of a very slight excess of interior pressure, and the complete filling
of the chambers with carbonic acid will be ascertained by ordinary and
elementary processes.
It is evident that the shape of the chambers may be infinitely varied, as
also. their construction, their size, the method of opening for the introduction
of the substances to be preserved and their withdrawal, and. the method of
manufacturing the carbonic acid, and I have therefore deemed it unnecessary
to add to this general description of the object of my Invention any special
plan of details, which can be usefully fixed by practice alone.
For wheat accumulated in large masses I calculate that the cost of
applying my proposed method may be estimated at two and a half pence
("25 centimes "French") yearly for every twenty-two imperial gallons
("hectolitre ").
In witness whereof, I, the said Aimé Etienne Blavier, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Second day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
A. BLAVIER. (L.S.)