THE TREATMENT OF VEGETABLE AND OTHER SUBSTANCES
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edgar Heale and Mary Ann Heale, of Albion
Terrace, Hatfield New Town, Hertfordshire, for the Invention of "THE
TREATMENT OF VEGETABLE AND OTHER SUBSTANCES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edgar Heale and Mary
Ann Heale at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 28th February 1857.
We, EDGAR HEALE and MARY ANN HEALE, of Albion Terrace, Hatfield
New Town, Hertfordshire, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "THE TREATMENT OF VEGETABLE AND OTHER SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:-
It consists of a method of drying vegetable matters by first placing them in
an exhausted vessel or vacuum, and then introducing rarefied air for the
purpose of desicention.
All green crops, as hay, clover, hops, &c. will be much improved by being
dried in the dark, as their phosphates are not acted upon by the sun's rays,
whereby they retain their color and aroma, as also their nutritious properties
to a much greater extent than heretofore.
Wheat, when intended to be treated by this process, may be cut immediately
the transition from lactic to farina takes place; consequently, the yield would
be greater, not being allowed to remain long enough for the bran to thicken
and new wheat would be rendered at once equal to old. Moreover, all insects
or other impurities would be destroyed by the process.
The apparatus consists of an air-tight vessel or chamber for the reception
of the materials or substances to be treated. This vessel or chamber is, after
being charged or filled, to be exhausted by an air pump worked by steam or
other power; and after this process has been continued sufficiently long, tho

page_text: vessel or chamber is then filled with air, rarefied by passing it through heated
tubes.
The chamber should be so constructed as to give ready access through an
opening, which may be closely covered in or made air-tight after the materials
or substances are put in. It should be fitted with a perforated floor and
ceiling, for the 'equalization of the temperature. In shape the vessel may
be cylindrical or of an egg shape, so constructed as to resist collapse; and
when required for the purpose of locomotion, the vessel or chamber should
be placed on a frame or cradle having wheels, and the steam engine may be
upon a platform on the same frame or otherwise. The vegetable matters to
be treated may be placed in bags or otherwise.
-SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edgar Heale and Mary Ann Heale in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 27th August 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, EDGAR
HEALE and MARY ANN HEALE, of Albion Terrace, Hatfield New Town,
Hertfordshire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the
year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Edgar Heale and Mary Ann Heale, Her special licence that we, the
said Edgar Heale and Mary Ann Heale, executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Edgar Heale and Mary Ann Heale,
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 "THE TREATMENT OF VEGETABLE AND OTHER
SUBSTANCES," upon the condition (amongst others) that tho said Edgar
Heale and Mary Ann Heale, by an instrument in writing under our, or
their, or one of their hand and seal, 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 we, the said Edgar Heale and Mary Ann Heale,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement:-
This Invention consists in a novel mode or method of treating vegetable
and other matters, by subjecting them, after being gathered or collected, to
certain processes, herein-after described, they being introduced into certain
chambers or vessels constructed according to this Invention.
The drying of hops, and other similar processes, have heretofore generally
been conducted by the application of a moderate temperature, produced by
artificial means, by exposing the materials to be treated upon a perforated or
solid floor within a kiln or other building to which the light has free access;
or when such materials are dried by sun heat alone they are more directly
subjected to the action of light.
By this Invention vegetable matters aro treated, for the purpose of drying,
preparing, or perfecting them for sale, for storeage, or for use, by placing
them in an exhausted vessel or chamber, and effecting their desiccation by
first exhausting the air from such vessel or chamber to a suitable degree and
afterwards admitting rarified air, which, upon coming in contact with the
plants or vegetable matter, causes the samo to become rigid and crisp, being
thoroughly desicated, and at a much lower temperature than would otherwise
be possible. This operation being so conducted the aroma and essences of
the plants, particularly in the case of the hop and such like plants, remain
fixed, thereby materially increasing their value; whilst the process being con-
ducted in the dark the phosphates contained will not be acted upon by the
sun's rays or light, thus insuring the preservation of the color as well as
the aroma and essences.
By this process agriculturalists will to a great extent be rendered almost
entirely independant of the state of the weather during harvest, by enabling
him to get in his crops with equal facility, and in as fino a condition in wet
as in fine weather, and many vegetable productions, more especially those
recognized under "farm crops," would be much improved by the treatment;
thus, for instance, wheat might be cut immediately the transition from the
lactae to farina takes place, thereby considerably increasing the yield from
not being allowed to remain long enough for the bran to thicken, and new
wheat would thus be rendered at once equalled to old. Moreover all insects
and other impurities would be destroyed by the process.
The apparatus consists of an air-tight vessel or chamber for the reception
of the materials or substances to be treated. This vessel or chamber is, after

page_text: being charged or filled, to be exhausted by an air pump worked by steam
or other power. And after this process has been continued sufficiently long
.the vessel or chamber is then filled with air, rarified by passing it through
heated tubes, or otherwise. The chamber should be so constructed as to give
ready access through openings, which may be closely covered in or made air-
tight after the materials or substances aro put in. It should be fitted with
a perforated floor and ceiling, for the equalization of the temperature. In
shape the vessel may be cylindrical or of an egg shape, so constructed as to
resist collapse; and when required for the purpose of locomotion, the vessel
or chamber should be placed on a frame or cradle having wheels, and the
steam engine may be upon a platform on the same frame or otherwise.
The vegetable matters to be treated may be placed in bags or otherwise;
within the cylinders or chamber constructed according to this Invention they
may be so arranged loosely over the floor as to expose the greatest amount
of surface to the action of the heated air, after the exhaustion of the cylinders,
vessels, or chambers have been effected.
Wo wish it to be understood that we do not make any claim for treating
vegetable or other similar substances by driving hot air amongst or in contact
with such materials, when contained within tight closed vessels, for the purpose
of desiccation; but what we do claim is,―
1st, the treatment of vegetablo and other materials, in the manner herein
described, in air-tight cylinders, chambers, or vessels constructed according to
this Invention, which, previously to being charged with hot air, have been
first exhausted in manner described, and applicable to animal and mineral
as well as vegetable substances.
2nd, the machinery or apparatus, as herein described, for the purposes
herein described and set forth.
In witness 'whereof, I, Mary Ann Heale, have, on behalf of myself and
Edgar Heale, hereunto set my hand and scal, this Twenty-seventh
day of August, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
: GEORGE CHURCHILL,
10, Salisbury Street, Adelphi.
MARY ANN HEALE. (L.B.)