AN IMPROVED METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRESERVING MEAT FOR TRANSPORTATION AND STORAGE
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Kennard Knott, of Upper Bedford Place, Russell Square,
in the County of Middlesex, Contractor, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRESERVING MEAT FOR TRANSPORTATION AND
STORAGE"
Sealed the 30th June 1876, and dated the 8th May 1876.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Kennard Knott at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th May 1876.
KENNARD KNOTT, of Upper Bedford Place, Russell Square, in the County of
Middlesex, Contractor. "AN IMPROVED METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRESERVING
MEAT FOR TRANSPORTATION AND STORAGE."
The object of my Invention is to effect improvements in means for preserving
fresh meat, fish, and other alimentary substances, either for storing or for transport
by land or sea in temperate and torrid climates, and the Invention consists in
improvements in that class of refrigerating apparatus in. which a fan blower or
equivalent device is arranged in a closed chamber, and the body of air within the
chamber is circulated through a freezing coil or box, and distributed by means of
perforated pipes so as to reduce and equalize the temperaturo throughout the
chamber.
The apparatus I employ consists of an air-tight packing room or chamber,
having hollow walls provided with air spaces and non-conducting, filling, and one
or more fan blowers placed within the packing room, also a freezing box containing
one or more coils of air pipe, and provided with an air chest, from which the air
driven through the coil or coils is distributed to a series of perforated pipes
extending along the top and sides of the packing room, so that cold air is
constantly discharged directly downward, and also from the sides, the whole length
of the packing room, the warmer air of the same naturally rising and being drawn
through the open spaces at the top of the tank to the blower or blowers in the rear
of the tank, through and by which it is again passed into the packing room..
I also
employ flanged uprights or columns and horizontal bars or bearers attached thereto
by means of bolts for the purpose of supporting slatted shelves, upon which the
meat is placed in tiers or layers.
My Invention is applicable to railway trucks and ships, and also for storing. In
the one case I propose that the packing room or case shall be itself the body of the
1

page_text: truck, and in the case of ships their sides may be constructed like those of the
packing room or case herein-after described, or such room or case may be separately
constructed in the hold or elsewhere.
To make my Invention better understood I will proceed to describe the same by
reference to the accompanying Drawing, in which Figure 1 is a sectional elevation
of my improved packing room and apparatus; Figures 2 and 3 are horizontal
sections at bottom and top respectively; Figure 4 is a detail enlarged section,
showing the construction of the wall of the packing room; Figures 5 and 6 are
respectively cross sections on lines, 2, and 3, y, Figure 1; Figure 7 is a detail
section of the freezing box and a fan blower; Figure 8 shows in plan the
construction and arrangement of uprights, bearers, and slats laid therein to support
the meat or other article to be preserved; Figure 9 is a section of Figure 8;
Figuro 10 represents in plan two different forms of flanged uprights.
I will first describe the construction of the packing room.
The inner and outer
walls A are of wood, and the middle wall C of iron; the space between the walls A
and C is filled with a suitablo non-conducting substance, such as charcoal or
sawdust, while a dead air space is formed between the walls C and B. The meat
or other substance packed in the chamber is supported upon a series of slatted
shelves resting upon bearers or cross bars E attached to uprights or columns F.
The uprights F are constructed of sheet or plate iron, and perforations are
formed in the flanges thereof to receive the screws by which the bearers are
attached.
The bearers have open slots in their ends to adapt them to receive or embrace
the flanges of the uprights, and screws or screw bolts G are inserted, as shown in
Figures 8 and 9, to hold them securely, and also to brace the uprights and tie them
all together throughout the packing room, thus enabling them to better withstand
the severe strain incident to the motion of a railway truck or ship, and the great
weight supported upon the slatted shelves.
The neat or other perishable article is so packed on the aforesaid shelves as to
prevent its being moved or displaced by the motion of the truck or ship, and the
air has free access to and circulation around every individual piece or parcel.
The meat is introduced into the packing chamber by means of a door, but it is
essential the same shall be constructed upon the non-conducting principle, and
shall form an air-tight joint with the wall of the packing room.
The main devices of my improved apparatus contained within the packing
chamber A are the fan blowers B, freezing box C, pipe coil or coils D, air chest E,
and distributing pipes F.
The fan blowers B are located at the end of the packing room near the bottoin
thereof, and enclosed by drums or cases with which the coils D connect, as shown.
The fan blowers are operated by belts from a shaft G arranged at the top, and
projecting laterally through the side of the packing chambers, the corner of which is
cut away at A, Figures 2 and 3, to accommodate the pulley on the shaft. The said
shaft G is suitably geared with the donkey or propelling engine of the ship. (In
the case of a railway truck the connection may be with one of the axles.)
The freezing box C is constructed of plate iron and located directly in front of
the fan blowers B, transversely of the packing room A. It is made of less height
than the latter in order to leave a space B above it, through which the air may
return to the blowers, as will be hercin-after described.
One or more tubes c extend from the top of the box C through the top of the
packing room, and are provided with removeable screw caps d. These tubes serve
for tho introduction of ice and salt in case these are employed, although it is to bo
understood that I may employ other suitable known means than ice and salt for
cooling the air to be employed, for instance suitable chemical agents or ice alone, in
which latter case I remove the coil of tubes D from the freezing box C.
The air chest E, formed on or attached to the front and upper portion of the
freezing box C, is provided with a series of short tubes, to which the pipes or
tubes are connected by screw joints or other suitable couplings. The said pipes F

page_text: extend along the top and sides of the packing room, and are provided with a series
of perforations through their length to allow of the dischargo of air into the packing
room.
The operation of the apparatus is as follows:-The packing room, having been
filled with meat and a suitable degree of cold having been attained in the freezing
box C, the fan blowers are set in motion and a blast is propelled through the
coils D, thence into the chest E and into the pipes F, by which it is distributed
through the packing room. This air, which is thus brought in contact with and
caused to circulate around the meats, is forced to return to the blowers through the
space 6 since the packing room is made air-tight, and the air supply of the blowers
can come from no other source.
When this apparatus is employed upon a ship or in a storehouse I do not in
most cases conteinplate the use of ice in the freezing box C, but prefer to make use
of the apparatus of Voss and Littman, or some other capable of like operation.
When the said apparatus is employed it will be connected with the box C by a
pipe i, Figure 2. Upon railway trucks it will be in general more convenient to
employ ice and salt in the box C, and to re-supply the same from time to time as
required. In any case the same body of air is used over and over again, and
continuously circulated from the beginning to the end of the journey of the truck or
ship; or if it be a stationary structure, as a storehouse, during the time the
preservation is desired. But in case of the use of the freezing apparatus above
referred to, when the due degree of cold has been once produced in the chamber, it
will not be necessary to keep up the operation of the said apparatus, and it will
only be applied from time to time, as conditions require.
What I claim is,―
First. The circulating apparatus composed of the fan blowers, the freezing box
having a space above it, the pipe coil or coils contained within it, and the
perforated air distributing pipes, in combination with a packing chamber, as shewn
and described, whereby a circulation of the same body of cold air is maintained
in the chamber without contact with the refrigerating agent as herein-before
described.
Secondly. The freezing box, provided with distributing air chest and a coil or
coils extending through the refrigerating agent connecting with the air chest, as
herein-before described and represented in the accompanying Drawing.
Thirdly. The combination of the slotted bearers and screws for securing the same
with the flanged columns, having a series of perforations, as herein-before described
and represented in the accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Kennard Knott, havo hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Sixth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-six
Witness,
G. F. REDFERN,
4, South Street,
Finsbury.
KENNARD KNOTT. (L.S.)