IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF MEAT, AND IN COMPOUNDING THE SAME WITH OTHER INGREDIENTS, SO THAT IT MAY BE EASY OF TRANSPORT AND MAY BE KEPT FOR A LONG TIME WITHOUT CHANGE
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edmund Adolphus Kirby, of Kelsey Park, in the County
of Kent, Doctor of Medicine, for an Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
TREATMENT OF MEAT, AND IN COMPOUNDING THE SAME WITH OTHER
INGREDIENTS, SO THAT IT MAY BE EASY OF TRANSPORT AND MAY BE KEPT
FOR A LONG TIME WITHOUT CHANGE."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edmund Adolphus Kirby
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 30th June 1880.
EDMUND ADOLPHus Kirby, of Kelsey Park, in the County of Kent, Doctor of
Medicine. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF MEAT AND IN COMPOUNDING
THE SAME WITH OTHER INGREDIENTS, SO THAT IT MAY BE EASY OF TRANSPORT
AND MAY BE KEPT FOR A LONG TIME WITHOUT CHANGE."
This Invention has for its object improvements in the treatment of meat, and in
compounding the same with other ingredients, so that it may be easy of transport
and may be kept for a long time without change.
At the present time in various parts of the world where animals are slaughtered
for the sake of their skins, horns, and other parts, enormous quantities of meat are
wasted or have no useful application; now my object is to convert such meat, or
any good flesh or meat for which there is not an immediate demand, into forms
which are easy of transport and will keep for a long time without injury.
I take the Besh and cut it small by means of an apparatus in which knives are
carried upon a revolving axis. I mix the finely divided meat with the flour of
wheat or the farina of other grain or the like. 1 reduce this mixture to a
homogeneous paste, and for this purpose I employ rollers set close together and
revolving at different speeds, so that they have a frictional or grinding action upon
the material passed between them. When a perfect dough is obtained I roll it out
into very thin wafer like sheets, and these I dry rapidly in the air or by the aid of
a gentle heat, whereby I remove water, but without loss of any of the nutritive
constituents of the meat. When the wafer like sheets have been in this way
thoroughly dried, they are for convenience of packing roughly ground, and
the granular material thus obtained is packed in casks or otherwise. If care be
taken to excludo moisture the preparation will remain good for a long time. When
required for use the meat compound or preparation is cooked according to the taste
of the consumer, and the whole of the nutritive matter, both animal and vegetable,
becomes available as food.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Edmund Adolphus Kirby in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 30th
December 1880.
EDMUND ADOLPHUS KIRBY, of Kelsey Park, in the County of Kent, Doctor of
Medicine. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF MEAT, AND IN COMPOUNDING &
THE SAME WITH OTHER INGREDIENTS, SO THAT IT MAY BE EASY OF TRANSPORT
AND MAY BE KEPT FOR A LONG TIME WITHOUT CHANGE."
This Invention has for its object the preservation of the nutritious principles of
fresh meat of all kinds by the displacement of its water and the substitution of dry
nutritious substances in its place, by which means the meat is rendered non- 1
putrescent and capable of being kept a long time without change, and is easily
transported.
In various parts of the world animals are slaughtered for the sake of their skins,
horns, and other parts, and enormous quantities of meat are wasted in consequence
of putrescence taking place before profitable transport can be effected; now my 1
object is to convert such meat or any good flesh into compounds with various kinds
of farina and other dry nutritious materials, and to manufacture various kinds of
animal foods which are easy of transport and will keep an indefinite time without
injury if only protected from moisturo or heat.
For this purpose I take the flesh of a recently killed animal, free from bone, s
superimposed fat, skin, tendons, and such like tissues, and mince it and convert it
into a fine pulp by means of an ordinary mincing or sausage machine. To this pulp
I add the flour of wheat or the farina or starch of any other grain, or the meal of
beans or peas or other leguminous substances, according to the nature of the food to
be manufactured, and this mixture I convert into a homogeneous pasto or dough by
means of a properly constructed kneading machine, such as is used for making bread.
The dough being thus prepared, and consisting of four parts of fresh meat with
three of "dry material," I now pass the dough through a mill constructed of steel or
porcelain rollers; these rollers revolve at different speeds, and are set close together,
so that they have frictional and grinding action upon the dough, which is delivered
in thin sheets or flakes from the thirty second of an inch to one eighth in thickness.
The rollers may conveniently be about 5 and 6 inches in diameter and 18 inches in
length, and driven, the former at a speed of fourteen revolutions per minute, whilst
the other is driven at fifteen revolutions per minute. These thin sheets of dough or
flakes are then laid out on perforated trays and placed in a drying chamber (which
may or may not be heated artificially), and exposed to a temperature not exceeding
ninety degrees Fahrenheit. Much of the water is dissipated during the process
of kneading and rolling, and it is sometimes desirable to pass the dough a second
and even a third time through the rollers in order to the more rapidly dissipate the
water and the more thoroughly disintegrate and pulverise the meat. By the operation
above described the whole of the water of the meat is driven off without injuring
any of its nutritious constituents. The dough after it has been acted upon by the
rollers may also, if desired, be in some cases moulded into the form of maccaroni or
vermicelli prior to its being dried. By substituting wheat flour or oatmeal in exactly.
the same proportions that water is found in meat, namely, seventy five per cent., the
meat becomes converted without losing or gaining weight into an organic compound,
chemically and physiologically equivalent to bread and meat in the proportions of
four to three. For transport and other purposes I can use a smaller proportion of
farina and a larger proportion of meat. The dry product obtained as above described
may be mixed with a further quantity of fresh meat, and with it be made into a
dough and submitted to the action of the grinding rollers, and subsequently dried as
already described. The product may be packed in casks or tins, or in other ways,
to exclude inoisture from it. The method of cooking this food may be that commonly

page_text: adopted in preparing wheat flour and oatmeal, namely, it may be made into porridge,
or with the addition of fresh or dried vegetables into thick soups, also with certain
proportions of flour into biscuits, bread, &c. The soluble constituents may be
obtained by infusing or boiling the compound in water and served as beef ten or a
clear soup, to which vegetables of various kinds may be added.
'
The process herinbefore described is applicable to the treatment and preservation
of all sorts of fresh animal matter which may be suitable for the food of man or of
nnimals.
What I claim is, the treatment of meat by converting it, together with flour or
other vegitable absorbent, into a smooth and homogeneous dough, and reducing the
said dough into thin sheets, tubes, or other forms, and afterwards drying the same,
substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edmund Adolphus Kirby, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty fourth day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighty.