IMPROVEMENTS IN PRE- SERVING POTATOES AND OTHER VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES
Year: 1840

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, DOWNES
EDWARDS, of Surbiton Hill, Kingston, in the County of Surrey, Farmer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Eighth day of August, in the fourth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Downes
Edwards, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Downes Edwards, my exors, adññors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Downes Edwards, my exors, adññiors, or 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 law-
fully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all Her said Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRE-
SERVING POTATOES AND OTHER VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said Downes Edwards, shall cause
a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and inmediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Downes Edwards, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention relates to a mode of preserving potatoes in a cooked or par-
tially cooked state, by means of obtaining the substance of potatoes in a
separated or finely divided and dried state. And, in order to give the best
information in my power, I will proceed to describe the means pursued by me
in carrying out my Invention, and which I have found fully to answer.
The potatoes are first well washed and cleansed from the dirt, and then
boiled or steamed till the skins just shew symptons of cracking; they are then
carefully taken out. The potatoes are then put into a cylinder, which I make
of iron plate, tinned on the inner surface, such cylinder being closely pierced
with small holes, about one eighth of an inch in diameter, and by the action of
a powerful screw or other proper press, a piston is caused to pass down in
the cylinder, and the potatoes are caused to pass out through the holes in the
form of small threads or fibres, which retain the form in which they pass from
the cylinder. The substance of potatoes thus separated is then spread evenly
and thinly on hollow tables, which I make of tinned iron, and heat the same
by steam to a-varying temperature of_from_one hundred to one hundred and
sixty degrees of Fahrenheit, the lower temperature being applied as the
substance of the potatoes approaches a state of dryness. This variation in the
temperature of the tables I obtain by regulating the supply cocks that connect
each table with the main or supply pipe from the boiler, the steam in the boiler
being at a pressure of about ten pounds to the square inch; thus, by increasing
or diminishing the quantity of steam in each table, I obtain the desired heat.
During the time the potatoe is on the tables it is constantly raked and moved
about till it is thoroughly dried, and it may immediately after getting cold be
packed in casks-or-otherwise.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the best manner I
am at present acquainted with for performing the same, I would have it under-
stood that I make no claim to any of the apparatus herein described, nor do I
confine myself thoreto, though I consider the means above described the most
simple and best for performing the Invention. But what I claim as my In-
vention is the mode of preserving potatoes in a cooked or partially cooked state
by means of obtaining the substance of potatoes in a separated or finely
divided and dried state as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Downes Edwards, have hereunto set my
hands and seals, this
day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-one.
DOWNES (L.B.) EDWARDS.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourth day of February, in the
year of our Lord 1841, the aforesaid Downes Edwards came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Sixth day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-one.

page_text: 64
In the latter or a latent granted to Downes awards, of Surbiton
Hill, Kingston, in the County of Surrey, Farmer, for his Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING POTATOES AND OTHER VEGETABLE
SUBSTANCES," bearing date at Westminster, the Eighth day of August,
One thousand eight hundred and forty.
DISCLAIMER AND MEMORANDUM OF ALTERATION proposed to be
entered by the said Downes Edwards with the Clerk of the Patents of
England, pursuant to an Act passed in the fifth and sixth year of the
Reign of His late Majesty King William the Fourth, entitled, "An Act
to amend the Law touching Letters Patent for Inventions."
I, the said Downes Edwards, do hereby declare that I have discovered that
the Invention which was intended to have been described under that part of
the title which is contained in the following words, "AND OTHER VEGETABLE SUB-
STANCES;" is not useful, for which reason I am desirous to disclaim, and do
hereby disclaim, all that part of the title which is contained in the-words- "-and
other Vegetable Substances." And since the inrolment of my said Specifica-
tion I have also discovered that in my said Specification certain words were
omitted as herein-after particularly mentioned, that is to say, in that part of the
said Specification which states, "The potatoes are first well washed and
"cleansed from the dirt, and then boiled or steamed till the skins just shew
symptons of cracking; they are then carefully taken out," the following words
are omitted, which should have come in next after the words they are then"
and next-before-the. words" carefully taken out," videlicet, "peeled or stripped
of their skins, and the eyes and specks are" and I, therefore; alter--the-said.
Specification, by introducing the said words "peeled or stripped of their skins,
and the eyes and specks are" between the last-mentioned word "then" and
the word "carefully" in the above sentence, and the said sentence as so altered
will stand thus, videlicet: "The potatoes are first well washed and cleansed.
"from the dirt, and then boiled or steamed till the skins just shew symptons of
cracking; they are then peeled or stripped of their skins, and the eyes and
" specks are carefully taken out."
66
"
In witness whereof, I, the said Downes Edwards, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-four.
DOWNES EDWARDS. (L.S.)

page_text: This is to certify that the above-named Downes Edwards has applied to me
for leave to enter the above written Disclaimer and Memorandum of Altera-
tion of part of the title and Specification of a certain Invention for which
Letters Patent were duly granted to him under the Great Seal of Great Britain,
bearing date at Westminster, the Eighth day of August, One thousand eight
hundred and forty, and the Specification of which was inrolled on the Sixth day
of February, One thousand eight hundred and forty-one; and having con-
sidered of the said application, and no objection having been made to the same,
I have accordingly granted leave to the said Downes Edwards to file his said
Disclaimer and Memorandum of Alteration, pursuant to the Statute passed in
the fifth and sixth year of the reign of His late Majesty King William the
Fourth, entitled "An Act to amend the Law touching Letters Patent for
Inventions."