IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING CERTAIN SUBSTANCES FOR FOOD AND FOR MANURE
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Dewar, residing at Kirkcaldy, in the
County of Fife, Doctor of Medicine, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
Sealed the 15th June 1869, and dated the 9th April 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Dewar at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th April 1869.
I, JAMES DEWAR, residing at Kirkcaldy, in the County of Fife,
Doctor of Medicine, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING CERTAIN SUBSTANCES FOR FOOD AND FOR
MANURE," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in rendering more available for food and for
manure certain vegetable substances, some already used and others
hitherto generally disregarded or wasted as being little suitable for food
or for manure; the utilizing these substances is at all times desirable,
but more particularly so when the better descriptions of fodder or other
food are scarce.

page_text: My Invention also secures the preservation of such substances for
food and for manure in a wholesome and inoffensive state for a long
period of time. I mix vegetable matters hitherto comparatively little
used for food with dreg (the liquid refuse from breweries and distilleries),
and I find that when so mixed they afford by their combination an
excellent diet capable of being easily digested and at the same time
highly nutritious. I also mix other vegetable matters suitable for food
with dreg, and thereby increase their original nutritive properties. The
vegetable substances having been steeped in the dreg so as to absorb
it should then be desiccated, and as it is of consequence that the fluid
matters in which the vegetable substances are to be steeped should be
absorbed to as great an extent as possible, I find it advantageous to
desiccate the vegetable substances before immersion, so as to expel
their normal moisture; and in the case of vegetable substances already
comparatively dry, such as husks and seeds, I desiccate them still
further before immersion, so as to render them as nearly as may be
anhydrous and capable of greater absorption. This desiccation I effect
by exposure to the action of a dry temperature of from one hundred
to two hundred and twelve degrees of Fahrenheit.
I also take dreg and by evaporation reduce it to a dense or viscous
consistency, and then mix it with vegetable substances previously
rendered anhydrous in manner above described and then desiccate the
mixture.
I also evaporate dreg until I obtain the residuum thereof in a dry
state. This I find a valuable improvement upon the manner of using
dreg for food heretofore adopted. In the dry state this residuum may
be preserved for a long time in a wholesome and inoffensive condition,
and it forms not only a suitable food for cattle and other animals, but
also an excellent manure.
According to my Invention the vegetable substances may also after
desiccation as above described be mixed with dreg previously desiccated
in manner aforesaid; or the several vegetable substances may be mixed
together, first with the dreg either in its viscous or its liquid state, and
then desiccated in combination, or they may be mixed with the dreg in
its dried state and used together.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Dewar in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 8th October 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
DEWAR, residing at Kirkcaldy, in the County of Fife, Doctor of
Medicine, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of April, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said James Dewar, Her special licence
that I, the said James Dewar, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said James Dewar, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING
CERTAIN SUBSTANCES FOR FOOD AND FOR MANURE, upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said James Dewar, my executors or
administrators, 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 James Dewar, 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 :-
My Invention consists in rendering more available for food and for
manure certain vegetable substances, some already used, and others
hitherto generally or comparatively disregarded or wasted as being little
suitable for food or for manure. The utilizing these substances is at all
times desirable, but more particularly so when the ordinary descriptions
of fodder or other food are scarce.

page_text: My Invention also secures the preservation of such substances for
food and for manure in a wholesome and inoffensive state for a long
period of time. The substances which are treated by my Invention
are,-
First. Dreg, which is the liquid refuse of grain used in the processes
of brewing and distilling. Dreg has been long used for feeding cattle,
but the quantity of fluid which must be imbibed in order to get any
appreciable nutrition from it is too great. By my mode of treating it
this disadvantage is got rid of, and the dreg is made more suitable and
available for food.
Secondly. Vegetable substances already commonly used as articles of
food, such as corn and other grain, beans, peas, potatoes, turnips, meal,
flour, and hay.
Thirdly. Vegetable substances not generally used as food, and con-
taining in themselves comparatively little nutritious matter, such as
straw, chaff, husks, draff (being the solid refuse of grain used in the
processes of brewing and distilling), thistles, furze tops, nettles, and
other wholesome weeds, and also the straw or herbaceous portions of
beans, peas, tares, and other leguminous plants; as also potato haulms,
turnip tops, cabbage leaves and stalks, and other such nutritious
vegetable substances.
By my Invention these substances are all rendered more available and
useful for food for cattle and other animals than they have heretofore
been, while the dreg is also made available as an excellent manure.
The manner in which my Invention is to be performed is as follows:-
I take dreg and evaporate it by exposing it to the action of heat applied
directly or through the medium of hot air until I obtain the residuum
thereof in a dry state. This residuum may be used either broken into
pieces or reduced to meal or powder, and may be given for food either
alone or mixed with other vegetable matters, as after-mentioned, and I
find it when so treated and used to form a very nutritious article of food.
The foresaid dry residuum of dreg may be preserved for a long time
in a wholesome and inoffensive condition, and it forms not only a
suitable food for cattle and other animals, but also an excellent manure.
When I wish to use it for the latter purpose I grind or break it down,
and either apply it to the soil by itself, or mix it with other manure,
and apply the compound.

page_text: I also take dreg, and by evaporation produced by the action of heat,
as above mentioned, reduce it to a dense or viscous consistency, and
then mix it with vegetable substances previously desiccated or rendered
anhydrous, as herein-after mentioned; and after such mixing the com-
pound may either be used in that state for food, or the compound may
be desiccated by the action of heat, after which it will remain in a
wholesome condition and suitable for food for a long period of time.
I also (after rendering them anhydrous, as berein-after mentioned)
take the vegetable substances, herein-before secondly and thirdly above
enumerated, and steep them in, or mix, or knead them with dreg, so as
to allow them to absorb it thoroughly. In this state they may be used
for food, but I prefer to desiccate them by exposure to dry heat pre-
viously to use, in which condition they will remain fit for use for a
length of time.
As it is of consequence that as much as possible of the fluid dreg
should be absorbed, I find it advantageous that the vegetable substances
should, before immersion therein, be desiccated and deprived of their
normal moisture. I therefore chop, pulp, bruise, or grind, and there-
after desiccate the substances to be so immersed, and even in the case of
vegetable substances already comparatively dry, such as husks and
seeds, I desiccate them still further before immersion, so as to render
them as nearly as may be anhydrous and capable of greater absorption.
This desiccation I effect by exposing the substances to be operated upon
to the action of dry heat for such time as is necessary to make them
effectually dry.
I also mix the vegetable substances, secondly and thirdly above
described, after desiccation with dreg, which has been previously desic-
cated and reduced to meal or power, in manner before specified. I find
a mixture of one part by weight of the dried dreg with three parts by
weight of the other substances makes a good food.
I also mix the said substances in their natural condition with dreg in
the dense or viscous state, herein-before described, and then desiccate
this combination by exposure to the action of dry heat.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be preformed, I wish it to be understood that I
do not claim as my Invention the use of any of the vegetable sub-
stances above mentioned as food or manure (these substances being

page_text: known to be more or less suitable for those purposes), excepting as and
when treated as herein-before directed; but I claim as my Invention, the
treatment by desiccation of dreg for the purposes of food and of manure,
and the preparation and combination with dreg of the substances
secondly and thirdly herein-before enumerated for food, as above
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Dewar, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
JAMES DEWAR. (L.S.)