AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PRESERVING MEAT, FISH, AND OTHER ALIMENTARY SUBSTANCES
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Highton, M.A., of Putney, in the County
of Surrey, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PRESERVING
MEAT, FISH, AND OTHER ALIMENTARY SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 7th March 1871, and dated the 26th September 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Highton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
26th September 1870.
I, Henry HigHTON, M.A., of. Putney, in the County of Surrey, do
5 hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF PRESERVING MEAT, FISH, AND OTHER ALIMENTARY SUBSTANCES," to be
as follows:
My Invention consists in subjecting meat, fish, and other alimentary
substances to the action, first, of muriatic acid in a state of vapour or solu-
O tion, and afterwards, before they are required for use, to that of soda or its

page_text: carbonates till the acid is neutralized. A small portion of nitric acid
may be combined with the muriatic acid.
Or the order of the process may be reversed, and the substances first
treated with soda, its carbonates or silicates, and afterwards neutralized
by the action of muriatic or muriatic and nitric acids.
Or if silicate of soda be used it will not be necessary to do more than
wash it well with pure water. In this case silicate of potash may be
substituted for silicate of soda.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry Highton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 24th March 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
HIGHTON, M.A., of Putney, in the County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Henry Highton, Her special license, that
I, the said Henry Highton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Henry Highton, 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 "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PRESERVING
MEAT, FISH, AND OTHER ALIMENTARY SUBSTANCES, upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Henry Highton, 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.
"

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Highton, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-
The general principle of my Invention is to preserve articles of food
by the application of muriatic acid, and afterwards to render them fit
for consumption by neutralizing the muriatic acid by soda, and thus
changing it into common salt.
The precise method of applying my Invention must of course depend
upon circumstances, as the kind of food to be preserved, the length of
time for which it is intended to be kept, and other such like circum-
stances; thus meat or fish may be dipped once or oftener at intervals in
dilute muriatic acid, then exposed to the air to dry, and before it is
cooked be steeped in a solution of soda or its carbonates, which is best to
be very dilute till the acid is thoroughly neutralized. Any excess of
soda or its carbonates may be got rid of by washing in pure water, or
after being dipped in dilute muriatic acid it may be placed in a barrel
or other close vessel constructed so as to be not injured by the acid, and
in order to keep the air in the vessel saturated with muriatic acid some
porous substance not affected by muriatic acid, as charcoal, or a porous
silicious stone, may be placed in the vessel with it. Butter may be
placed in a vessel filled up with dilute muriatic acid. Liquids or sub-
stances partly liquid, such as soup, wine, oysters in their liquor, may
have a certain quantity of muriatic acid mixed with them, and so with
other substances, the variety of substances not admitting of universal
rule. The acid is subsequently neutralized by the addition of soda or its
carbonates previous to their being used. In the same way the strength
of the muriatic acid must be varied according to circumstances. In
general it is not advisable to use acid stronger than about ten parts of
the ordinary commercial acid to one hundred parts of water, nor weaker
than one of acid to one hundred of water. It should not be so strong
as to disintegrate the substance of the food, nor to make it too salt in
its ultimate condition, nor so weak as to allow of the corruption of the
substance within the time during which it is desired to keep it. In
some cases it may be useful to mix with the muriatic acid in the first
instance some substance which will moderate the decomposing power
of the acid and ultimately will not injure the flavor of the substance
any

page_text: submitted to its action, as, for instance, silica dissolved in the acid, or
alumina. But in general the simple acid in a proper state of dilution
will be found cheapest and best.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Highton, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.