IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF CERTAIN SUBSTANCES FOR FOOD AND FOR MANURE
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Dewar, Doctor of Medicine, residing in
Kirkcaldy, in the County of Fife, North Britain, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF CERTAIN SUBSTANCES FOR FOOD
AND FOR MANURE.”
Sealed the 22nd April 1870, and dated the 28th January 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Dewar at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
28th January 1870.
I, JAMES DEWAR, Doctor of Medicine, residing in Kirkcaldy, in the
County of Fife, North Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF CERTAIN SUBSTANCES FOR
FOOD AND FOR MANURE," to be as follows:-
Dreg, which is the liquid refuse of grain used in the processes of
brewing and distilling, has been long used for feeding cattle, but the
quantity of fluid which is imbibed in order to get any appreciable
nutrition from it is too great. By my mode of treating it herein-after

page_text: mentioned this disadvantage is got rid of in a manner simple and
comparatively inexpensive.
I take dreg and I reduce it to a dense and viscous consistency by
draining off the more liquid portion thereof by means of bags or filters
or other straining apparatus. For example, I pour the dreg in its
ordinary liquid state into sacks or bags or other strainer and allow the
more watery portion of the dreg to percolate or escape through the bag
or other strainer. After an interval of about forty-eight hours (when
sacks or bags are used) I take out what remains in the bag in a dense
and viscous condition. When the filter or other strainer employed
enables the more liquid portion of the dreg to be drawn off more rapidly
than in the case of sacks or bags the viscous residuum of the dreg can
be obtained in a shorter space of time than that above mentioned. The
dreg so reduced by filtration or straining to a viscous state may be used
for food for cattle and other animals, or for manure; or it may be mixed
with husks and seeds or other vegetable substances. The dreg so treated
may be used as food or manure in a moist state. The mixture above
described or the viscous dreg unmixed may be desiccated either by the
action of heat applied directly or by the use of hot or dry air not
artificially heated, and then used for food or for manure.
The viscous dreg mixed or unmixed with the other vegetable sub-
stances above referred to forms a moist food, which however except in
cold weather would keep fresh for only a short time, but if mixed with
sulphurous acid either in solution or with a sulphite or bisulphite will
keep good and wholesome for a much longer period.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Dewar in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 27th July 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
DEWAR, Doctor of Medicine, residing in Kirkcaldy, in the County of a
Fife, North Britain, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the

page_text: .
thirty-third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said James Dewar, Her special licence that
I, the said James Dewar, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said James Dewar, my 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT
OF CERTAIN SUBSTANCES FOR FOOD AND FOR MANURE," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said James Dewar, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or
ono of their hands and seals, 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 I, the said James Dewar, 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:
Dreg, which is the liquid refuse of grain used in the processes of
brewing and distilling, has been long used for feeding cattle and for
manure, but the quantity of fluid imbibed in order to get nutrition from
the dreg is so great as to interfere with its practical utility, and for
the purposes of manure the proportion of liquid contained in the dreg is
also excessive.
In the Specification dated Sixth October One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-nine, filed by me in relation to Letters Patent granted to me
by Her Majesty, and dated the Ninth day of April One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-nine, and sealed the Fifteenth day of June One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, I have explained a mode of treating
dreg so as to render it more available for food or for manure, and more
particularly I explain therein that I evaporate the dreg by exposing it
to the action of heat applied directly or by the medium of hot air until
I obtain the residuum thereof in a dry state, or until it is reduced to a
dense or viscous consistency, and then use it in the manner therein

page_text: mentioned. Since that Specification was lodged I have discovered
certain improvements in the treatment of dreg by which the superfluous
liquid in the dreg is got rid of without evaporation by the application of
heat. These improvements constitute my present Invention, and the
nature of that Invention consists in separating the more liquid portion 5
of the dreg from its more solid constituents in the manner and by the-
appliances herein-after described for the purpose of rendering it more
suitable for food and for manure.
The manner in which my Invention is to be performed is as follows:
-I take the dreg and place it in bags or filters or other straining 1
apparatus, and allow the liquid portion of the dreg to escape or drain
away until the dreg is reduced to a dense and viscous consistency.
The bags, filters, or strainers may be formed of any substance com-
bining sufficient density to retain the more solid constituents of the
dreg with sufficient porousness or interstices to allow of the easy 1
percolation of the watery portion thereof.
Bags made of jute, hemp, or flax are very suitable for the purpose,
and with such bags without artificial pressure the liquid portion of the
dreg will pass away sufficiently in about forty-eight hours, leaving the
dreg in a conveniently dense viscous condition.
2
The dreg reduced by filtration or straining to a dense or viscous
condition as above described may be used for food for cattle or other
animals, or it may be employed as manure. When it is used as food I
prefer to mix it with husks, seeds, or other matters forming the food of
the animals. It may be used for food or manure in the moist state 2
in which it is found after being treated by my Invention as above
described; or it may be desiccated by the action of heat, as described in
the Specification dated the Sixth day of October One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-nine herein-before mentioned.
The viscous dreg (mixed or unmixed with other substances suitable a
for food) forms a moist food, which except in cold weather would keep
fresh only for a short time, but if mixed with sulphurous acid either in
solution or in the shape of a sulphite or bisulphite it will keep good
and wholesome for a much longer period.
Having thus particularly described the nature of my Invention, and 3
the manner in which it is to be performed, I wish it to be understood

page_text: that I do not claim as my Invention the use of dreg for food or for
manure, excepting as and when treated as herein-before directed; what
I do claim as my Invention is, the treatment herein-before specified of
the dreg for the purposes of food and manure, by which treatment the
more liquid portion of the dreg is by filtration or straining drained off
or separated from the more solid and valuable constituents.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Dewar, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.