Improvements in the reservation of fruit.
Year: 1885

page_text: Improvements in the reservation of fruit.
I JOHN ELLOR TAYLOR of Stanley House, Ipswich in the County of Suffolk
Doctor of Science do hereby declare the nature of this invention (communicated to
me from abroad by William Peacock of South Melbourne in the Colony of Victoria
Australia, Manufacturer) and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention consists of a peculiar process of preserving fruit and of a new
article of manufacture produced thereby and is useful principally for jam manu-
facturers. Hitherto it has been necessary to manufacture jams and jellies during
or immediately after the time when the fruit of which it is composed is in season
the only alternative having been to boil or partially boil the fruit.
Either of these methods imposes a great strain upon the resources of an establish-
ment which it is very desirable to avoid. Now this invention has been devised
with a view to obviating this difficulty and enabling jam manufacturers or fruit
growers to keep the fruit, without its being boiled, for subsequent manufacture
into jam or jelly when it may suit their convenience whether in season or out of
season.
This it is evident must be a great convenience, as the factory can thus be kept
in regular work from one year's end to another it being supplied under the best
conditions and no special manufactory being required for working the peculiar
process which can be carried out by growers upon the ground thereby avoiding the
immense loss usually incurred on account of the perishable nature of most fruits
and enabling all glutting of markets and consequent sacrificing of crops to be
avoided.
The said invention was suggested by the scientific discoveries of Pasteur who
ascertained that the bloom on fruit was the cause of its fermentation and that if it
were wiped off, the fruit could be easily preserved.
Now it is commercially impracticable to do this, but I have found that by
permeating fruit with Sulphurous acid the same effect is produced, that is to say
it can be kept for any length of time till required for use the taste and smell of the
acid entirely disappearing by the application of heat.

page_text: In practice I take a fruit package which must be fairly airtight. In this vessel
I place the fruit to be preserved, say for instance apples, peaches, quinces, or Rasp-
berries and I then replace the air in the vessel with sulphurous acid using any
convenient means for that purpose.
This should be discharged into the lower part of the vessel so as to spread
through the whole.
After the fruit has become saturated with the acid which will be accomplished
in a few minutes, varying according to the size of the package, the supply of
Sulphurous Acid is cut off and the package is closed when the process is complete.
The package can be stored in any suitable place and when required its contents
can be taken out and boiled like fresh fruit from which it cannot be distinguished
except by the smell and this as I have already stated wholly disappears by the
application of heat.
It is obvious that the method of applying the sulphurous acid may be varied
without departing from the nature of the said invention, thus-the vessel may be
first charged with the acid and the fruit then put in and the acid may be allowed
to displace the atmospheric air without any previous exhaustion.
I am aware that the attempt to use sulphurous acid has been already made for
the preservation of meat and fish as food though hitherto all such attempts have
been commercial failures; its use has also been proposed for the preservation of
vegetables but I am not aware that any record exists of its having actually been
so used. But it has never been used or even proposed to be used in the prescrvation
of fruit-I therefore disclaim its use for any other purpose whatever than that of
preserving raw fruit.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
1. The process of preserving fruit by saturating it with Sulphurous Acid sub-
stantially as specified.
2. As a new article of manufacture I also claim fruit saturated with Sulphurous
Acid substantially as specified.