AN IMPROVEMENT IN MAKING BREAD
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I; HERBERT
GEORGE JAMES, of Lower Thames Street, in the City of London, Wine
Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS I did by petition represent unto Her most Gracious Majesty
Queen Victoria that, I, in consequence of a communication from a foreigner
residing abroad, was in possession of an Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN
MAKING BREAD," and Her said Majesty being willing to encourage all useful
Inventions did issue Her Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great
Britain, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-third day of January, in
the first year of Her reign, whereby Her said Majesty did, for Herself, Her
heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Herbert George James,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Herbert George James, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Herbert
George James, my executors, administrators, and 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,
and also within all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, the
said Invention; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging
me, the said Herbert George James, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause
the same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters

page_text: Patent, as in and by the said Letters Patent, reference being thereunto nad,
will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Herbert George James, do declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and ascertained
in the manner following (that is to say) :-
--
In order to produce the best possible bread, namely, that which shall be
most nutritive, and at the same time the most easy of digestion, the following
conditions ought to be strictly observed (that is to say) :-
First, that the flour used in the process should be rich in gelatine and not
changed by incipient fermentation; second, that the dough should be per-
fectly combined with the water and not compact or close; third, that tho
bread should be well risen or leavened, that is to say, that the panary fer-
mentation should have been well performed; fourth, that the bread should
not be sour and not overbaked. Now, it has been proved that bakers do not
cause the water used in making bread to combine with the flour in a proper
or suitable manner, and this defect in the process renders the bread much less
nourishing and more difficult of digestion. Bread made according to tho
usual method does not retain a sufficient quantity of water in it, as a great
portion of this fluid, so useful in digestion, evaporates by the action of the
oven or furnace by reason of its not forming an integral part of the flour, and
accordingly the nature of this Invention of an improvement in making
bread, mentioned in the said Letters Patent granted to me, consists in
previously combining with the water used in making the bread a portion of
any flour; I prefer it to be of the first quality of wheaten flour, by causing
it to undergo the process of boiling or ebullition; and in using the mixture or
composition thus produced in lieu of pure water, for by the process the water
becomes so completely combined and incorporated with the flour that the heat
of the oven will cause but a very small portion of it to evaporate, and the bread
produced is of a more nutritive quality and at the same time of casier digestion.
The best manner in which the said Invention can be performed is to the
best of my knowledge the following (that is to sny):-For one sack of flour
weighing two hundred and eighty pounds, take ten pounds of flour, which I
prefer to bo of the first quality, which is to be diluted in twenty quarts of cold
water, then boil in a steam cauldron (which is the best utensil for the purpose)
fifty-five to sixty quarts of pure water, and when the fifty-five to sixty quarts
of pure water are in a perfectly boiling, or what is termed bubbling state,
add thereto and by small portions at a time the diluted flour, being very
careful to stir without ceasing the boiling liquid. When all the diluted flour

page_text: has been so added, the boiling of the entire mixture must be continued during
a quarter of an hour at least, or in other words till the flour is thoroughly
and completely combined with the water, forming a gelatinous size or starch,
the entire mixture must then be taken off the fire and strained through a
sieve in order to free it from any particles of flour which may have formed
into lumps. By using this mixture (which has the appearance of thin starch),
cooled to seventy-five degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer, instead of pure
water, bread of a finer appearance and lighter quality, more nourishing, and
of easier digestion will be produced than that obtained from flour of the same
quality where the method in ordinary use with bakers has been followed; to
which may be added that the proceeds will be more abundant, inasmuch as
from one hundred and six to one hundred and seven baked loaves each of
four pounds weight may be produced by this process from the before-named
quantity of two hundred and ninety pounds of flour. In other respects the
bread is to be made in the usual way, except that it will be proper to add to
it a rather large portion of salt, say, twelve ounces, to the hydrated flour.
And I hereby declare that my claim to the said Invention of an improve-
ment in making bread is limited to the preliminary combination of flour
with water in the manner herein-before described, and to the application of
the diluted or hydrated flour so produced instead of pure water in the process
of making bread.
In witness whereof, I, the said Herbert George James, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of July, One thousand eight
H. G. (Ls.) JAMES.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twentieth day of July, in tho
second year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said Herbert
George James came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and
acknowledged the instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein con-
tained and specified, in form above written. And also the instrument afore-
said was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-fifth
year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
T