AN IMPROVED MODE OF EXPELLING THE AIR FROM CERTAIN CASES OR VESSELS USED FOR THE PRESERVATION OF VARIOUS ARTICLES OF FOOD
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BEVAN, of No. 15, Whitehead's Grove, Chelsea, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, 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 Sixth day of April, in the fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself,
Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Bevan, Her
especial licence that I, the said John Bevan, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said John Bevan, my executors, administrators,
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
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey,
Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all the Colonies and Plantations abroad,
my Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF EXPELLING THE AIR FROM CERTAIN
CASES OR VESSELS USED FOR THE PRESERVATION OF VARIOUS ARTICLES OF FOOD;"
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said John
Bevan, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to
describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her said

page_text: Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, referenco being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Bevan do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to consist in
expelling the air from cases in which various articles of food are placed for
preservation, by connecting the said cases with a vacuum chamber or other
exhausting apparatus on the one hand, and with a vessel containing gelatine or
other suitable material or materials in a fluid stato on the other hand, in such
manner that by opening the communications the air escapes into the exhaust-
ing apparatus, while the gelatine succeeds to supply its place; and in further
compliance with the said proviso, I, the said John Bevan, do hereby describo
the manner in which my said Invention is to be performed, by the following
statement thereof, referenco being had to the Drawings annexed, and to the
letters marked thereon (that is to say):-
- J
And first, I would premise that, so far as I am informed on the subject, up
to the time of granting my said Letters Patent, by the then methods in use it
was considered essentially necessary to drive the atmospheric air out of such
cases or vessels by the application of external heat at a very high temperature,
and a Patent was obtained for the use of a bath wherein, by the, use of chemical
mixtures, a beat was obtained so high as two hundred and- eighty degrees
Fahrenheit and this. high temperature it was shewn was essentially necessary
(for the
e preservation of animal substances) to maintain for a considerable length
of f time; to: the great detriment of the articles of food exposed to the said
high temperature, which my said Invention not only renders unnecessary, but
procures for me the power of cooking the articles of food at a very low tem-
perature, by enabling me to cook them in almost a perfect vacuum.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
P
A is a vessel open at the top, and, filled to the line i with gelatine in a fluid
state, having a pipe j and a stopcock e firmly attached to it. Bis a sphere of
metal, wherein a vacuum is obtained when required by the condensation of the
steam therein (the jet of water at m performing this office), having the pipe j
and stopcock f firmly and securely attached to it: The stop cock & is for the
passage of steam previous to the condensation of the steam in vessel B, and
the pipe and stopcock! is for the admission of steam into the sphere or vessel
B. I first place the substance to be preserved in the vessel C, of tin, of, a
.

page_text: cylindrical or other convenient form, and having, by soldering, closed it therein,
I attach to the case two small metal tubes or pipes, d and c, by firmly soldering
them to the case, as shewn at a and b; these pipes or tubes are then attached
by soldering or other convenient means to the ends of the pipes ; and ; at the
points h and h.. Having now the substance to be preserved enclosed in the
air-tight vessel or case C, with communications where required by means of the
tubes c and d with the vessels A and B, I place the case in the bath of water
N, at a temperature of one hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit, or
thereabouts, and by turning the cock fopen the communication with the
sphere or vacuum chamber B; the air in the case C becomes. exceedingly
rarified, and the temperature of one hundred and twenty degrees, or thereabouts,
is sufficient to cook and throw off the fixed air contained in the animal or
vegetable substances enclosed therein. Having maintained this temperature for
a short time, say about fifteen minutes for a fowl, I turn the cock e, and opening
the communication with the gelatine contained in the vessel A, which is kept in a
warm and fluid state by being in the warm bath.P, the atmospheric.or. any other
convenient pressure on the surface of the gelatinous or other suitable fluid
forces it through the pipe and tube'e into the case C, the pressure of this
fluid expels the small remainder of rarified air contained in case C, through the
tube d and pipe j, into the exhausted or vacuum chamber or vessel B; I then
hermetically close the case C by cutting and pressing or nipping the tubes d
and c at the points 9, g; I then submit the case for a few minutes to boiling
water, according to its size, if for a fowl say thirty minutes, and then allow it
to cool, when the process is completed.
Having thus described my mode of expelling air, I hereby claim as my
Invention the use of an exhausted or vacuum chamber for the purpose of ex-
pelling the air in cases used for the preservation of animal and vegetable sub-
stances to be used as articles of food, and where the articles are such as will
admit of it, the introduction of gelatine or other like substance into the said
cases, as previously described; and such my Invention being, to the best of my
knowledge and belief, entirely new, and never before used within that part of
Her said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called
England, Her said Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, nor
the said Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, nor in any of
the said Colonies or Plantations abroad, I do hereby declare this to be my
Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe this my said Specification
doth comply in all respects, fully and without reserve or disguise, with the
proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters contained; where-

page_text: fore I do hereby claim to maintain.exclusive right and privilege to my said
invention..
In witness whereof, I, the said John Bevan, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-two.
Taken and acknowledged by the within-
named John Bevan, before me, at my
Office, Inns Quay, City of Dublin,
this 3rd day of October 1842.
JOHN (L.S.). BEVAN..
THO. GOULIE,
Master in Chancery.
Inrolled the Fifth day of October, in the year above written.