AN IMPROVED MODE OF DESICCATING EGGS, BEARING THE SAME MATO ARFALLABR
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS. PATENT to Charles Augustus La Mont, of New York City, in
the County and State of New York,. and United States of America;.
Gentleman, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF DESICCATING EGGS,
BEARING THE SAME
MATO
ARFALLABR
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Augustus La
Mont at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition;
on the 16th June 1865.
I, CHARLES AUGUSTUS LA MONT; of New York City, in the County and State-
of New York, and United States of America, Gentleman, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MODE OF DESICCATING EGGS,
AND APPARATUS FOR EFFECTING THE SAME," to be as follows:-
The nature of my Invention consists, first, in an improved method of
desiccating eggs by rapidly drying the substance of the egg in very thin coats-
or layers upon thin metallic plates; second, in imparting a rotary motion to
the metalic plates upon which the egg is to be dried in order to secure an
even and uniform coating of the fresh egg thereon; third, in dipping the
metallic plates into the fresh egg a second time after the first coating has
hardened thereon, and in repeating the operation until the successive layers of
eggy substance thus collected and dried upon the plates acquires a tendency
to break and peel off in scales...

page_text: In the ordinary process of desiccating eggs, the substance of the egg is
placed in shallow pans and exposed therein to currents of beated air. In this
process a high temperature is required in order to dry the thick mass of egg
necessarily placed in each pan; the mass dries and hardens very slowly, and
when finished is turned out in hard cakes or lumps which require to be ground
or broken up before use, and the desiccated egg thus prepared dissolves very
slowly in water, has a peculiar unpleasant flavour, and is of a dark dull color.
As an even thickness of depth of egg in the pan cannot be secured it is
impossible to obtain good results and uniform quality, and the high temperature
required in the process unless managed and controlled with exceeding care
will entirely spoil the egg under treatment by cooking it or so hardening it as
that it will not dissolve in water at all. All these difficulties and disadvantages in
the ordinary process are obviated by dipping plates of metal in a vat or trough
containing the fresh egg and then rapidly drying the extremely thin coating
of egg thereupon... By reason of the thinness of the layer of egg upon each
plate it may be dried very quickly at a temperature so moderate as to avoid all
danger of cooking it, and after a few coatings have been successively applied
one upon another and thus dried the desiccated egg will peel and drop off
from the plates in small scales of a lively bright color, and which will readily
dissolve in water without the necessity of being first ground or broken into
finer pieces. The simplest form of apparatus embraced in this Invention con-
sists of two or more horizontal shafts placed parallel to each other within a
suitable, hot, air chamber, and, upon each of which are secured at narrow
regular intervals apart a series of thin circular metallic plates of a diameter
about two-thirds greater than that of the shaft. These shafts and plates are
made to revolve within the chamber by any suitable mechanism; in the lower
part of the chamber beneath the shafts, and parallel therewith, I introduce a
trough or vat of a semicircular section, slightly larger in diameter than the
circular plates, and of such a length as that when it is placed beneath any one
of the shafts all the plates thereon may dip into it. This trough is made to
run upon ways which may be inclined in either direction, and catches are
airanged to arrest it at pleasure immediately beneath each shaft; the ways
are suspended at each end. by ropes so connected with a windlass as that they
can be readily raised up, and the vat or trough be thus elevated under each
shaft until the plates thereon dip fully into the same. The ways extend out
through a door in the front of the chamber so that when the plates have all
been dipped and coated the trough may be entirely removed therefrom whilst
the coatings are drying. When the egg coating upon the revolving drying
plates has hardened sufficiently it is removed by.a series of thin straight blades,

page_text: each equal in width to the intervals between the plates, and of such a length
as to extend to the shaft. These scraping blades are secured to a rocker shaft
placed above each of the revolving shafts, and are elevated thereby out of the
reach of the plates when not used to clean them. The desiccating chamber is
fitted with a sliding double bottom to facilitate the removal of the desiccated
egg falling thereon from the drying plates.
I contemplate other forms of apparatus in which the circular. drying
plates shall be secured upon each revolving shaft in a position inclined to its
axis, and also various means of raising and lowering the yat to dip the plates.
Instead of dipping the plates in vats they may be sprinkled with the fresh or
fluid egg from suitable conduits, in which case I will cause the shafts to revolve
in an inclined or vertical rather than in a horizontal position. I do not limit
the application of my Invention to the use of circular revolving plates arranged
around a shaft as the plates may be placed longitudinally upon the shaft, in
the form of paddles, or spirally like the threads of a screw. The revolving
shafts may be made hollow, and be heated by currents of hot air or steam
passing through the same, and hollow discs be substituted for circular plates
thereon in drying the egg.
I consider, however, the main and important features of my Invention to be
the desiccation of eggs at a comparatively low temperature in thin layers
successively, applied to metallic plates placed in any position, but so kept in
movement as to cause each fresh layer of egg to be evenly diffused thereon
before hardening.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Augustus La Mont in the Great Seal Patent Office
ou the 15th December 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
AUGUSTUS LA MONT, of New York City, in the County and State of New
York, and United States of America, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the, said, Charles Augustus La Mont, Her special license that I, the said
Charles Augustus La Mont, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Charles Augustus La Mont, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others
1 "

page_text: 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 MODE OF DESICCATING EGGS, AND APPARATUS FOR
EFFECTING THE SAME," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Charles Augustus La Mont, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, or under the hand and seal of one of them,
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.
NOW KNOW YE, that 1, the said Charles Augustus La Mont, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
The nature of my Invention consists, first, in an improved method of
desiccating eggs by rapidly drying the substance of the egg in very thin coats
or layers upon thin metallic plates; second, in imparting a rotary motion to
the metallic plates upon which the egg is to be dried in order to secure an
even and uniform coating of the fresh egg thereon; third in dipping the
metallic plates into the fresh egg a second time after the first coating has
hardened thereon, and in repeating the operation until the successive layers
of eggy substance thus collected and dried upon the plates acquires a
tendency to break and peel off in scales.
The usual form of apparatus which I use in carrying into effect my Inven-
tion is that illustrated in Figures 1, 2, and 3 of the accompanying Drawings,
of which Figure 1 is a front view of the apparatus with the sliding door raised;
Figure 2 a vertical section in the line X, X, of Figure 1, showing the door
closed, and the dipping vat under the first series of drying plates; and Figure 3
a similar section illustrating the position of the vat when elevated so that the
plates may dip therein. This form of apparatus consists of one or more hori-
zontal shafts A, A, placed side by side in the same plane within a chamber B,
through which a current of warm dry air is made to pass. The ends of these
shafts extend through suitable bearings so that they may freely revolve, and are
fitted with pulleys C, Figure 1, or other mechanism to receive motion from any
suitable driving machinery. Upon these revolving shafts A are secured at
regular, equal, but narrow intervals a number of thin circular metallic plates
a, a, of a diameter three or four times greater than that of the shaft. A vat
or trough D of a semicircular section slightly larger in diameter than the

page_text: .
circular plates a, a, and of such a length as that when placed beneath any one
of the shafts A in the desiccating chamber B, all the plates on the shaft may
dip therein at once, is supported upon small wheels running in ways c, c, sus-
pended in the lower part of the desiccating chamber. These ways are upheld
at each end by ropes or cords W, W, which pass up through the top of the
chamber over suitable pulleys. The two cords W & W upholding each way
are secured together upon the perimeter of a small drum S, upon a shaft
operated by a crank t, so that by turning the crank and winding the cords
upon the drums S, S, at each end of the shaft the ways will be elevated,
carrying with them the vat D. By this means the vat may be raised up under
each revolving shaft far enough to permit the thin metallic plates thereon to
dip therein, as illustrated in Figure 3 of the Drawings. As both ropes from
each way on either side of the chamber are secured to the same drum at the
same point thereon, it is evident that by turning the crank the ways c, c, will
be slightly more elevated at one end than at the other; the front end or the
rear end being highest according to the direction in which the crank is turned.
Thus by turning the crank t in the direction shown by the arrow in Figure 2
the rear end of the ways c will be first elevated, and the ways made to incline
to the front in a suitable manner to facilitate running the vat forward under
the front shaft and entirely out of the chamber; whereas by turning the crank
in the opposite direction, as indicated the arrow in Figure 3, the front ends
are first acted upon and the ways thus made to incline to the rear end of the
chamber. The front of the desiccating chamber B is closed by a sliding door
E, large enough to admit of the withdrawal of the vat D therefrom. A per-
manent way is arranged outside of the chamber to connect with the suspended
way c, so that when the latter is let down, as seen in Figures 1 and 2, the vat
may be run out of the chamber upon this way d.
The operation of this apparatus is easily understood. The vat D being run
out upon the permanent way d, outside of the chamber B is filled with eggs
properly beaten up; in the meantime the shafts A, with their thin metallic
plates a, a, are made to revolve by machinery with which they are connected.
The vat D when filled is run back into the chamber on to the suspended ways
c, c, which are inclined to the rear to facilitate the operation, and carried
down until it is immediately beneath the rearmos shaft; here it is elevated
(by means of the cords W, W, wound upon the drums S, S, from which the
ways are suspended) until the plates upon the shaft dip in their revolutions
fully into its contents (as seen in Figure 3) and become coated therewith.
The vat is then lowered and the inclination of the ways changed so that it
may run back under the next shaft, as seen in Figure 2, when it is again raised

page_text: 'to dip that series of plates. After all the plates have thus been dipped and
coated the vat is drawn out of the chamber and the door E closed until the
plates have been thoroughly dried by the warm air passing through the chamber.
This will be accomplished in a few minutes when the vat may be carried back
to the plates and these be again dipped and suffered to dry a second time, and
the process of dipping and drying repeated until the thin coating of egg thus
collected and hardened upon the plates begins to crack and peel off therefrom
in thin scales of a lively bright yellow color. To facilitate the removal of these
scales of desiccated egg from the plates a horizontal rocker 'shaft F is placed
between each of the revolving shafts A, A, having a number of thin metallic
blades f,f, equal in width to the intervals between the metallic plates a, a,
secured thereto so as to project therefrom between said plates far enough to
reach the centre thereof, as seen in Figure 2 of the Drawings. When the
plates are being coated these blades f,f, are thrown up into a vertical position,
'as seen in Figure 3, and are thus kept from contact therewith. The rocker
shaft F, with its scraping blades f, f, is operated by a small crank U placed
outside of the chamber (as seen in Figure 1, and illustrated by the dotted lines
in Figure 3). Its position midway between the two desiccating shafts A, A,
permits its use in cleaning the plates on each. The revolution of the plates
will prevent the fresh egg from dropping therefrom before hardening after
each dipping, and causes the thin layers of egg to spread uniformly and evenly
upon their surfaces. The desiccating chamber B may be provided with a
double floor or bottom to facilitate the removal of the desiccated egg falling
thereon. The advantage of this my new process of desiccating eggs over that
heretofore pursued is easily stated. By spreading the egg in an extremely
thin layer or coat upon a revolving surface it may be dried very quickly at a
low temperature, without danger of a chemical change, and will become desic-
'cated in thin small cakes of a bright color without losing its natural flavor
or acquiring any unpleasant taste; whereas in drying eggs in pans the layer
'of
egg is necessarily so thick as to require a high temperature to dry. it, which
if not managed with care will cook and thus entirely spoil the egg; at the
same time it is impossible to have a perfectly uniform depth in each pan, con-
sequently the egg dries unevenly, some of it becoming harder and darker than
the rest, whilst it all requires to be finally ground and broken into fine pieces
to be ready for market, and has when finished for market a dull color, and to a
greater or less extent an unpleasant flavor. Not only is, the desiccated egg
obtained by my improved process superior in quality and appearance, but it is
found to dissolve very much more quickly and readily than when manufactured

page_text: I consider the novel and important principle. of my Invention to be the
desiccation of eggs at a comparatively low temperature, in thin layers suces-
sively applied to metallic plates placed in any position, but so kept in
movement as to cause each fresh layer of egg to be evenly diffused thereon
before hardening; hence I do not limit myself to the form of apparatus just
described in putting my process into practical operation, but contemplate
securing the circular drying plates upon the revolving shaft in positions in-
clined to its axis, as also any desirable mode of raising the vat to dip the plates
other than that described.
Figures 4 and 6 illustrate different forms of shafts, and drying surfaces which
may be substituted for the simple circular plates a, a; Figure 4, representing
a series of paddles H, H, arranged upon the shaft K (as seen in the cross
section, Figure 5), and which may be dipped in the fresh egg and then dried
in the manner herein-before described; Figure 6 represents a thin metallic
plate M arranged spirally along the shaft N for the same purpose.
Figure 7 represents my form of desiccating apparatus designed to obviate
the necessity of a dipping vat (D, Figures 1, 2, and 3). In this apparatus an
upright shaft O is made to revolve in a vertical position within the desiccating
chamber B¹, and a series of thin annular plates or collars P, P, are secured
around it at regular intervals as seen in the Drawings, Figure 7, the lower
part, of which is represented as in section. These annular plates embracing
the shaft may be inclined therefrom as seen in Figure 7, or inclined thereto
as shown in the detached view Figure 8, or else placed horizontally so that
their surfaces shall be level and at right angles to the vertical shaft O.
A series of tubes R, R, connecting with an outer reservoir Q filled with the
beaten egg, projects into the chamber over each plate or collar P, and termi-
nates in a series of dripping apertures through which the egg may drop gently
upon the upper surface of each plate as illustrated in the Drawing. The
supply of egg is regulated by means of a suitable cock V at the reservoir.
The revolution of the plates will ensure the uniform thickness of the egg
coatings, which when dried are removed by a series of scraping blades L, L,
hinged to the side of the chamber in such a manner as that they may
drop upon and coincide with the surface of the revolving plates P, P; their
movements are controlled by a rack Y, whose teeth engage with toothed
sectors at the pivotted base of each scraper, as seen in the Drawing, so that
these scrapers may be readily dropped upon the plates to scrape them or
elevated clear of contact therewith. As the centrifugal force resulting from
the revolution of the plates will naturally cause the egg to flow outwardly
thereon from the central vertical shaft O, it will doubtless be found more

page_text: advantageous to arrange the drying plates upon the shaft in the manner
illustrated by Figure 8, rather than inclining outwardly as shown in Figure 7.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this First
day of August. A.D. 1865.
CHARLES A. LA MONT. (L.S.)
Witnesses,
DAVID A. BURR, Counsellor-at-Law,
Washington City, D.C.
DAVID M. BARNES, Editor,
New York City.