IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE SUB- STANCES
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BARON
CHARLES WETTERSTEDT, of Grosvenor Street, Commercial Road, in the County
of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fourth day of September,
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, in the fifteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Ier heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Baron Charles Wetterstedt, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority that I, the said Baron Charles
Wetterstedt, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Baron Charles Wetterstedt, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE SUB-
STANCES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said
Baron Charles Wetterstedt, shall cause a particular description of the nature
of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
Instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Baron Charles Wetterstedt, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof; that is
to say:-
My Invention consists of causing animal and vegetable substances to be
mixed with flour of corn or of potatoes, or of other edible matters, and then
dried, and enclosing such dried matters in vessels so as to exclude the atmo-
sphere. And in order that my Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the means pursued by
me. I cause the beef or mutton to be freed from fat and bones, and then
to be cut or chopped into small pieces which I mix with flour, and the mixture
I spread in a thin layer on shelves or trays composed of wire cloth, or other
reticulate surface, so that air may pass freely through them to act on all parts
of the meat to be dried. The shelves or trays are placed into a chamber,
into and through which I cause dry heated air to pass freely; and I find it
desirable to commence the process of drying at about seventy degrees of
Fahrenheit, and progressively raise the temperature of the air up to one hun-
dred and twenty degrees of Fahrenheit. By this means may meat be completely
freed from moisture, and thereby preserved, if packed in vessels so as to exclude
the atmosphere; and in like manner may vegetables, such as cabbage, spinach,
and others, be preserved by cutting them into small pieces and mixing them
with flour, drying and packing them in vessels so as to exclude the air.
I would state that in the process of drying, the matters are to be turned
from time to time, and opened out or separated so that there should be no
large masses remaining. When the drying is perfected, which will readily
be judged of by workmen after a little practice by observing when vapour is
no longer coming off from the chamber wherein the drying is being carried on,
the matters thus dried are to be packed or filled with suitable vessels
capable of being closed so as to exclude the air; those I prefer are earthenware
bottles or jars, glazed inside and out with any suitable glaze which does not
contain lead. If cork stoppers be used, I dip them in melted bees wax before
applying them, and I coat the outside of the stopper, when in the jar or bottle,
with pitch mixed with powdered coke; and when I pack such dried materials
as above described in wood casks, I cause the whole of the outside to be well
coated with pitch combined with the powder of coke, and I have found that
powdered coke may be used with great advantage interior of the packages or
vessels in which dried meats or vegetable are enclosed. Thus when a bottle
or jar is used, and the same has been nearly filled with dried meat or

page_text: vegetable, I cover the same with paper or fabric, and I fill the remainder
of the space with dry powder of coke, and where other forms of vessels
are used, the powdered coke may be caused to surround the meat or vegeta-
bles, taking care to use means to keep the coke from getting to the meat or
vegetable.
Another part of my Invention consists of preserving sail cloth or such like
fabrics by employing a combination of materials, and applied thereto as here-
after described. I take burnt lime of the best quality, and slack it immediately
after burning to such a degree that it will fall into powder, which I sift through
a very fine sieve. I also pulverize and sift resin, and using the same with the
lime in the proportions of ten parts of lime to one part of resin, these mate-
rials I combine with hot water at the rate of three gallons to one of the mix-
ture, and having spread out the said cloth on a clean surface, I run the fluid
mixture through a finc sieve on to the sail cloth, and sprinkle the oil hereafter
mentioned over the canvas, and at the same time use a brush to spread the
matters, and to rub them well into the canvas. The oil I employ is linseed
mixed with about ten per cent. of sperm. I have found that a thousand feet
of sail cloth require about sixteen pounds of the combined powder and two
gallons of oil. The sail cloth thus treated soon becomes dry.
In witness whereof, I, the said Baron Charles Wetterstedt, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Third day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.
DA
HARLES (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Third day of March, in the
year of our Lord 1852, the aforesaid Baron Charles Wetterstedt came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Eurolled the Third day of March, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-two.