Preserving Meat by the Help of Electricity.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 30th Jan., 1896-Accepted, 9th May, 1896
Preserving Meat by the Help of Electricity.
I, ADEL BARRETO PINTO of No. 11 Rue Voluntarios da Patria Rio de Janeiro,
United States of Brazil, Civil Engineer. do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
The salting of meat, as at present carried on, is very expensive as regards
labour, and requires large quantities of salt, whilst even so the preservation of the
meat is subject to the reigning atmospheric variations.
In damp, rainy and cool weather, the meat decomposes rapidly, as it is difficult
to dry the same, and this can only be avoided by the employment of extraordinary
large quantities of salt.
As a natural consequence, salt meat is frequently so dear as to be beyond the
reach of consumers.
To avoid these difficulties, I have carried out a series of experiments, submerging
the meat, and submitting the same to the action of a solution of common salt in
the proportion of thirty per cent., without contact with the air, and removing it
after a few days to dry it in the sun or in the open air. Not only had this meat an
offensive smell, such as is characteristic of decomposition, but it is also beyond a
doubt that it would be impossible to guarantee the absence of parasitical growth,
which would be highly injurious to the health of those consuming the meat in that
condition.
I then proceeded to try again, under the same conditions, as regards saline conceu-
tration, time, and the rest, but I sent through the brinc a continuous electrical current,
this being an industrial discovery, made by myself, and of the highest importance.
As a result of this discovery, I have observed that not only did the brine
penetrate freely and at once into the centre of the meat, but also that no sign of
decomposition appeared, which is readily explained by the fact that the chlorine
evolved by the decomposition of the salt acts as a powerful antiseptic, destroying
all the germs of the microbes of decomposition, as also all others that night be
contained in the molecular mass of the meat.
Salting by this method takes place in an average time of from ten to twenty
hours, according to temperature, during which time every kilo. of meat under
treatment receives nearly fifty grammes of chloride of sodium.
When the meat is removed from the brine it should be hung up, for the saline
solution to drain off, this latter being again used after being exposed, in the absence
of sunshine, to a current of dry air heated up to 60° Centigrade.
For the application of this process on a large scale, I use wooden troughs, lined
with asphalt or cement, and covered with a resinous varnish. These troughs are
filled with a 30% solution of common salt, the meat to be salted is immerged in
the same, and a continuous electrical current is passed through the solution during
the whole of the time that the meat is in the solution. There may be added to the
brine halt per cent. of saltpetre or of sulphate of magnesia, as auxiliary agents in
the preservation of the incat. The electrical current to introduce the salt in the
meat by the help of electricity should be continuous, and produced by a dynamo
electrical machine of low tension and great intensity.
Alternating currents cannot be applied to the electrolyzing of meat.
The electromotive force (voltage) and the intensity (amperage) should be more
or less in the following proportions, which are mentioned as an example for the
better illustration of the process.

page_text: In operating on a bath of 3000 litres of brine of a strength of 18° more or less,
for the treatment of 1000 kilos. of meat, the forces would be divided as follows:
An intensity of 100 amperes, by a potential difference of 8 volts, to communicate
respectively with the electrodes of the receptacle containing the meat submerged
in the saline solution.
These electrodes may receive, during the electrolytic operation, an intensity of
4 amperes per square centimetre of surface at the positive pole, and 2.5 amperes
at the negative pole. The motive power necessary for working the dynamo would
be as per the formula-
eliminated.
An essential condition in this process, in which electricity is the main factor, is
that the electrodes should be of platium, since otherwise they may spoil the meat
by saline poisons, such as are set free when employing electrodes of zinc, copper
and the like.
The features and advantages of this discovery are:-The production of antiseptic
agents that form a guarantee against every description of parasitical growth in the
meat.
The facility of salting, through the rapid penetration of the salt.
The great economy in labour and in the salt with a probable reduction of
some 60% on the general cost of the process.
Having now particularly described and explained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
The application of electricity to the preservation of meat, by means of the
introduction of a continuous electrical current in a saline solution in which fresh
meat is submerged; this electrical current being in constant activity during the
whole time that the meat remains in the solution, for the purpose of producing
in the same an absolute saturation by the saline liquid, and of giving rise to
antiseptic elements that kill any parasitical germs that might prevent the
preservation of the meat as herein described and specified, and for the purpose
mentioned.
Dated this 30th day of January 1896.
S. S. BROMHEAD,
97 Newgate Street, London, Patent Agent.