PRESERVING PROVISIONS AND VEGETABLES SUITABLE FOR ARMIES IN THE FIELD, FOR VESSELS ON LONG VOYAGES, AND OTHER PURPOSES; AND ALSO FOR THE NECESSARY APPARATUS FOR PRESERVING AND PREPARING THE SAME FOR FOOD
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Masta Joscelin Cooke, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
Gentleman, for the Invention of "PRESERVING PROVISIONS AND VEGETABLES
SUITABLE FOR ARMIES IN THE FIELD, FOR VESSELS ON LONG VOYAGES, AND OTHER
PURPOSES; AND ALSO FOR THE NECESSARY APPARATUS FOR PRESERVING AND
PREPARING THE SAME FOR FOOD."
Sealed the 20th November 1855, and dated the 9th June 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Masta Joscelin Cooke
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th June 1855.
I, MASTA JOSCELIN COOKE, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Gentleman, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "PRESERVING PROVISIONS AND
VEGETABLES SUITABLE FOR ARMIES IN THE FIELD, FOR VESSELS ON LONG VOYAGES,
AND OTHER PURPOSES; AND ALSO FOR THE NECESSARY APPARATUS FOR PRESERVING AND
PREPARING THE 'SAME FOR FOOD," to be as follows:-
My Invention for preserving provisions consists in taking meat of any kind
and placing it in steam vessels of iron, and there subjecting it to boiling under
pressure of from 5 to 15 lbs. per inch. After it has remained in the vessel
a sufficient time, I take it out, drain off the liquor, separate the tallow and
bones from the meat, and then put the bones in again with the liquor, and
boil until the bones are reduced to powder. The meat I take and pulp in a
pulping machine. The liquor drained from the-bones after boiling I concen=
trate to a strong jelly, and then make a mixture of the meat, jelly certain

page_text: quantities of vegetables and pepper," and add thereto as much flour as will
make the mixture into a paste. This paste I roll out and make it up into
cakelets, which I then bake in an oven. After they are baked I put them
into a desiccating machine, hereafter described, and thoroughly dry them at a
heat of from 100° to 150° Fahrenheit. When dry they are fit for use, and
only require to be broken up-and soaked in water; and-then-boiled or fried to
make a most wholesome and nourishing dish. The desiccating after baking
is a material point of this Invention, as otherwise the cakelets spoil. This
process is applicable to all kinds of meat and fish, the 'flavor of which is
preserved by the aforesaid treatment, as is also the flavor of the vegetables.
But the best meat for the purpose is the coarser parts of beef, which though
generally considered coarse are not so in reality, but are in fact the most
nutritious under proper treatment.
My Invention as respects vegetables consists in taking the ordinary ones
used for household purposes, such as onions, leeks, seullions, brocoli, cauliflowers,
turnips, potatoes, &c., which I grate and reduce to fine pieces or chop or
mince into small pieces. I then lay them on open frames, and dry them in my
desiccator at a temperature of from 90° to 110° until dry. I then take them
out, press and pack them in suitable packages. It must be observed that
nearly all vegetables after drying in this manner become deliquescent and
absorb moisture from the atmosphere. To prevent this, they should be covered
with thin sheet lead or tinfoil, or be soldered up in tin as soon after drying as
possible; or they may, however, be treated as follows, which method I prefer :-
They should be pressed into squares, and then covered closely with the water-
proof paper, herein-after described, or waterproofed in any suitable' manner,
and then they may be packed into ordinary casks or boxes. The waterproof
paper just referred to I prepare as follows: Dissolve shellac, say, 1 oz., in
borax and-water; dissolve oz. of alum in water. Take ordinary paper,
such as is used for packing, soak it in the solution of shellac, then let it dry;
then soak it in the alum solution and dry. The paper is now waterproof, and
will prevent moisture penetrating to the square cakes: This paper_has_no
offensive smell.
All the vegetables are dried in a raw state excepting potatoes, which to
preserve their colour and starch require to be steamed for 5 minutes, but not
more. Now, the novelty of this part of the. Invention! is in the mincing,
chopping, or grating, by..which the vegetables are brought into a uniform
state, and thus dry equally and retain their flavor; but if dried in .any other
manner, say, by slicing, or whole, or with the leaves pulled separate, then they
dry unequally and the flavor is destroyed. To bring out their flavor fully,

page_text: each vegetable requires a peculiar degree of heat, which ranges between the
degrees I have named, and each requires to be chopped or minced in a peculiar.
manner. Thus onions must be 'cut up finer than brocoli; turnips, carrots, and
parsnips should be grated, and so on.
The next part of this Invention relates to the desiccator, which consists of
glazed galleries having windows to open at all parts, with suitable guides for.
the trays containing the provisions to be dried. The trays are made of pierced
zinc, with nets over them. The galleries are heated by steam pipes traversing
the whole. These steam pipes at certain points pass through small fire-places
to keep up the temperature of the steam traversing the pipes. The galleries
are enclosed in, rooms, and each gallery is divided into compartments. The
top of the gallery is the hottest part, and as the compartments descend, so.
does the temperature. Each compartment is ventilated. The glazing of the
galleries allows of every part being examined. The temperature is regulated by
ventilators of pierced zinc at the bottom of each window, which can be closed
or opened as required.
Instead of using waterproof paper prepared with shell-lac for packing the
vegetables after drying, I also use waxed paper, prepared either by dipping the
paper in melted bees' wax or dissolving wax in caustic potash and water, and
soaking the paper in the solution, and afterwards in a solution of alum.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Masta Joscelin Cooke in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
5th December 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MASTA
JOSCELIN COOKE, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Masta Joscelin Cooke, Her special licence that I, the said Masta Joscelin
Cooke, my executors, administrators; and assigns, or-such-others-as--I,-the-
said Masta Joscelin Cooke, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
át 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 "PRESERVING

page_text: PROVISIONS AND VEGETABLES SUITABLE FOR ARMIES IN THE FIELD, FOR VESSELS ON
.LONG VOYAGES, AND OTHER PURPOSES; AND ALSO FOR THE NECESSARY APPARATUS FOR
PRESERVING AND PREPARING THE SAME FOR FOOD," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Masta Joscelin Cooke, by an instrument in writing
under my 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Masta Joscelin Cooke, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
that is to say:-
. The object of my Invention is to preserve provisions and vegetables from
decay, and to make them available as articles of food after having been kept a
considerable time.
The first part of my Invention relates to preparing certain meat, game,
fowl, and fish biscuits, which I do in manner herein-after described, some-
times adopting one method and sometimes another, according to the quality
of biscuit required and the peculiar meat I am operating upon. Taking,
however, those biscuits made from beef as a guide in the process to be
adopted for it and all the others, when I make according to what I call "the
boiling or steaming process," the only alteration required being, that for game,
fowl, and fish less boiling or steaming is required in the steam cylinders,
herein-after described, by one half than for beef, mutton, or veal, and that
game, fowl, or fish seasoning is used instead of the seasoning used for beef and
-the ordinary meats.
To make beef biscuits by what I call the boiling and steaming process, I
take, by preference, those parts of beef called houghs, knee pieces, ox heads,
tails, or neck pieces, being the parts usually selected for making soup, but any
other parts of beef will do as well, even the skin if necessary. I cut these up
into convenient sizes, and place them in closed steam cylinders, made of iron,
four feet high and three feet in diameter, fitted with safety valves and doors, or
man-holes and cocks. Steam pipes lead into the cylinders from a steam boiler,
loaded so as to give steam equal to 20 lbs. per inch. The safety valves of the
cylinders are loaded to 10 lbs. to the inch. In these cylinders the meat is steamed
for three quarters of an hour, and when this time has elapsed the steam
is shut off, and as soon as the contents have cooled down, the cocks at the
bottom of them are opened, and any liquor and fat formed during the steaming

page_text: warm.
is run off. The lower man-holes of the cylinders are then opened and the
meat and bones taken out. The meat now looks like well-boiled beef, and is
in such a state as readily to strip from the bones, which is done while still
The fibrinous, albuminous, and hæmatoginous parts of the meat are
now carefully separated from any gelatinous, fatty, or skinny parts not suffi-
ciently steamed, as well as from the bones, and these four latter are again
placed in the steam cylinders together with the liquor that had previously
run off, but which is deprived of the fat by skimming, and the whole is again
steamed from the boiler for nine hours longer. During the time the last-
named steaming is going on, the fibrinous, albuminous, and hæmatoginous
parts of the beef are taken and cut up in a mincing machine, (those mincing
machines made by Lyon, and by Gilbert. and Nye, answer well for the
purpose,) together with ten per cent. of raw onions and half per cent. of
ground. pepper, and the whole set aside until the last-named steaming is
finished. As soon as the nine hours' steaming aforesaid has elapsed, the steam
is shut off, the cylinders are again emptied of their contents, and the liquor
and other matters they contain separated from the bones. The bones are then
washed with warm water, which is added to the aforesaid liquor, and the bones
are placed on one side as refuse. The liquors last obtained are now allowed
to settle and cool for a short time, so that the fat may rise and be taken off,
after which the aforesaid minced fibrinous, albuminous and hæmatogenous
parts of the meat with the onions and pepper are added to it, and the whole
is placed in evaporating steam pans, which I prefer to have made of tin or
iron enamelled in the inside, and the whole is concentrated by high-pressure
steam, the steam traversing the pans by means of proper connecting pipes
and outer steam jackets. In about forty-eight hours the whole will have
assumed a sufficiently concentrated state to mix with flour, meal, or potatoes,
with which it is to be made into biscuits, as herein-after explained. The
point to which I generally concentrate is determined by taking a pint measure
of the concentrating beef and weighing it, and when it weighs from 1 lb. 5 oz.
to 1 lb. 10 oz. to the pint, it is then fit for the use to which I apply it. To
make the compound thus obtained into, biscuits, I proceed thus:-I take a
given weight of this concentrated meat and add thereto an equal quantity by
weight of wheat.or.indian corn flour, or of peas.meal, or rice flour,-(or-potatoe--
flour, as dried and ground by my process, herein-after described,) and I mix
them well together, so as to make a paste sufficiently stiff to form into
biscuits in the usual way, adding a little more flour or meal if I find the
mixture too soft, or taking off a little if I find it too stiff. The mass is then
formed into biscuits and rapidly baked brown in an oven.
When baked the

page_text: any other suitable drying apparatus; in which they are exposed to a tempera-
ture of from 105 to 110 degrees of Fahrenheit (which is the temperature I
work to.in my,driers) until they are dry; a sign of their being sufficiently dry 5
is a particular sound they give on being struck with a hammer, a. sound easily
ascertained with a little practice. The biscuits are now fit for use. If desired
to make soup with them, they should be reduced or ground in any suitable
mill to powder, or otherwise. broken up, and then. boiled with water. They
may be made into various other dishes by soaking in water, and. adding 1
various condiments or vegetables either fresh or dried, and other et ceteras;
well known to cooks.
To make those containing peas meal into soup, I prefer to add to the
biscuit when reduced to powder as follows, as it makes. a thicker soup, and one
much liked. To make two gallons take,
lbs. Oz.
1
5 biscuit powder.
lbs.
4 potatoes.
1
4 rice.
- 2 peas meal.
-
3.. split peas.
1 celery.
-
2 carrots.
2 turnips.
2 cabbage.
1 onions.
2
1 pepper.
suet or butter.
2 gallons water.
The vegetables' here used are fresh vegetables; but suppose a party to be at
sea and none to be obtained, then take of my preserved vegetables instead, to 2
make the same quantity, as follows:-
oz.
celery.
1 carrots.
1 potatoes.
oz.
1. turnips.
cabbage.
1 onions.
Another part of my Invention relates not only to making meat biscuits, but,
in conjunction with the same or not, as may be required, to the preserving of
beef and of all eatable flesh, as well as fowls and all eatable game, and fish.
I proceed as follows, taking beef as the example, as aforesaid, and paying the
same attention to the times of steaming or boiling with respect to the articles
used as aforesaid :-The beef and other articles here used should, by preference,
be the superior parts of the same; but the coarser parts will also do where
cheaper articles are required. Taking beef as the guide, I select the best.and
most meaty parts; I cut these up into narrow parts or strips, and divest

page_text: ถ
them of all skin, muscle, and bone, and sometimes of the fat, which I set-aside,
to be used as hereafter described. Having cut them into strips or small pieces
(if the weather is hot, and sometimes when cold, judging by the state of the
meat, which nothing but practical experience with the article can determine,
except that it may be taken as a rule that if the meat shews symptoms of
tainting or becoming fusty it must be instantly used, I dip the meat into a
coagulating or preserving fluid, herein-after described), I then hang the strips
or small pieces on.hooks, and place the same into my drier or other suitably
drying apparatus or chamber to dry, under a temperature of from 105 to
110 degrees. Fowl, game, and fish are treated in a similar manner; but with
respect to fish, if I do not intend to make it into biscuits or otherwise use it
in its plain state, after drying I sometimes 'smoke it, to give the fish the,
peculiar flavor so much admired; but it must be understood the smoking adds
nothing to the preservative process, as before the fish is subject to the smoke
it is fully preserved. After drying as aforesaid any of the articles last named,
they may be enclosed in tin canisters and soldered up as in other suitable
packages, when they are fit for use, as they may be made into biscuits or
otherwise used, as hereafter described. If they a are not made into biscuits, but
used just as dried, then they must be cut up or minced and soaked three or four
hours in water, and then boiled, hashed, fried, or cooked in any manner ap-
proved of; but if it is intended to make them into biscuits or otherwise employ
them, then I proceed as follows to make them into biscuits, and as herein-
after described, to otherwise use them: If into biscuits, I call this for 'dis-
tinction the boiling and.steam drying process." To make them into biscuits,
I take the skin, bone; muscle, fat, and other parts I had previously separated
from the meat, and I place these in the steam cylinders aforesaid, and I boil
or steam the same for ten hours, having added to the same about six inches in
depth of water in each steam cylinder before I begin to boil. As soon as the
boiling or steaming is done, I run off the liquor and skim off the fat; I then
open the cylinders and take out the contents, and I separate any meat
remaining from the bones; I then mince the last-named meat in a mincing
machine, and add it with seasoning or without to the liquor in which it was
steamed or boiled; I place the whole in the evaporating pans, before described,
and I evaporate all down 'to the density aforesaid in the first-named process,
and when this is. done I' take sufficient flour, meal, rice, or potatoes to make
the mass into biscuits. And if I wish to make them of extra strength, I take
any given quantity, according to the quality of biscuits, required of the meat,
game, fowl, &c., previously dried in strips or small pieces in "the drier, and
after having passed them through the mincing machine, herein-before described,

page_text: I mix them with seasoning or not with such paste, and work the whole well
up together, and then make, bake, and dry into biscuits, precisely as before
described. If I wish, however, to convert the dried strips or small pieces of
meat herein-before described into other articles of food than biscuits, then I
proceed as follows:-I cut them up into small pieces with or without the fat,
or mince them in a mincing machine with or without the fat. They can then
be soaked in water and boiled, hashed, or fried, or the dried or minced meat
may be by themselves; or, what I prefer, if the meat is beef, mutton, pork, or
veal, mixed with all or any of the vegetables prepared by my or any other
similar process, and when mixed the whole put into moulds and tightly pressed
in any suitable press into cakes, or taken and pressed tightly into tin or other
suitable air-tight packages, which should afterwards be soldered or otherwise
carefully closed up air-tight. If pressed into cakes, these must also be placed
into similar air-tight cases or boxes, and be fastened up as aforesaid. If
required for quick consumption, waterproof paper or skin may be used as a
package, but I do not recommend the same when tin cases can be obtained.
The waterproof paper is prepared by dipping paper into equal parts of bees'
wax and tallow, and then pressing the same with hot irons on a hot plate
to take out any excess imbibed. When it is required to use any of these
last-named mixed with vegetables, they must be soaked in water until the
vegetables swell out, which they generally do in about two hours, and then
the lot may be boiled as meat and vegetables generally are. It is necessary for
me here shortly to point out the advantages of these processes over others
heretofore made known. They are these:-I bring into use a much greater
amount of nutritive matter from the meat used, and in a more portable,
nutritious, and digestable state; for as all meat is a compound substance, con-
sisting of soluble and insoluble matter, the soluble parts being called gelatine,
soluble albumen, fat, osmazome, and other compounds unknown to chemists;
and the insoluble fibrin, insoluble albumen, hæmatosin, and bones, it follows
when beef or meat is boiled as directed in processes heretofore made -known,
and only the soluble parts or juices (as they are sometimes called) taken, that
the least nourishing parts are used, and the most nourishing parts rejected.
Now, my processes convert all parts of the meat except the bones into soluble
matter, and more than that, I get the fibrin, albumen, and hæmatosin in a
state nearly the same as it is obtained in ordinary boiled beef or meat. As I
am the first to discover that game, fowl, fish, and potatoes can be converted
into meat biscuits, and that they as well as all eatable meats can be dried and
made use of as articles of food in manner herein-before described, and that
.meat, such as beef, mutton, veal, &c., can be mixed with dried vegetables,

page_text: thereby putting all in the most concentrated and portable states they can be
obtained, I claim the same as part and parcel of my said Invention.
The second part of my said Invention relates to preserving vegetables, which
are as necessary to the sustenance of man and to his existence in a healthy state
as meat. To do this I proceed as follows:-It is well known that certain
parties have long dried certain herbs and vegetables, such as mint, thyme,
parsley, and the like by hanging them to dry in kitchens. Now, although I
prepare all these, yet I consider my Invention has nothing new respecting
them other than I find them to dry of much better color and more flavor in
my driers or other suitable drying apparatuses exposed to a temperature of from
105 to 110 degrees; but with respect to other vegetables herein-after described
I proceed as follows:-I first make what I call a coagulating fluid, which
is composed of from 100 to 240 grains of alum or sulphate of alumina to
every gallon of cold or hot water. When these are dissolved the solution is
fit for use.
This solution is nearly tasteless, and in no way prejudicial to any
article of food dipped into it, while it possesses the properties either in the coll
or hot state of coagulating albumen and gluten, and rendering them nearly
insoluble in water. Taking therefore cabbage, peas, carrots, turnips, onions,
parsnips, kidney beans, and celery, I first clean them or pod them, and then
cut or mince up cabbage, onions, and celery to pass through an inch sieve, and
the others, except peas, which are kept whole, through a half inch sieve. When
cut up they are dipped for five minutes in the coagulating fluid before described,
which I sometimes use cold and sometimes boiling hot, which has the effect of
instantly converting the albuminous or gelatinous matter present on the cut
surfaces and in the interior of the vegetables into an insoluble state, and
consequently, if they are quickly removed from the solution, of sealing up in
the other parts of the vegetables their peculiar aromatic odour and flavor.
After being dipped as aforesaid they are drained quickly, and immediately
remoyed to my drier or other suitable drying apparatus, where they are placed
thinly on open trays, and then dried at from 105 to 110 degrees. When
sufficiently dry they are removed and packed for use in any suitable package,
by preference tin, or in waterproof paper prepared as herein-before described.
When used they must be soaked in cold water until they swell out well, which
takes from one to eighteen hours, according to the vegetables used. With
respect to potatoes, these require to be treated in a different manner:-Take
potatoes,-wash and peel them, place-them instantly under cold water, or they
will discolor; cut, mince, or slice them up in a slicing or dicing machine under
water, remove them into the coagulating fluid aforesaid at about 212° Fahren-
heit. After remaining in it about seven minutes, take. them out-and drain

page_text: them on a sieve, spread them out thin on trays to cool for about one hour, and
when cool place them in a suitable drying apparatus, and dry at from 105 to
110 degrees. Another method I sometimes adopt is this:--Wash and peel
the potatoes, place them instantly under water, or take them in their jackets
and wash them; then, place them in a steamer and steam them until soft,
which takes about 25 minutes turn them out, and if unpeeled peel whilst
hot let them then stand well spread out on tables for 12 or 18 hours, then
put them into a sieve of inch gauge, and place this sieve on a sliding
rack, under which place the drying trays, and with the hand gently break the
potatoes through the meshes of the sieve evenly and thinly over the tray,
which when full remove to the drier, and allow them to remain at from
105 to 110 degrees until dry. Instead of breaking them up, as last described,
they may be treated in another manner, if preferred. After they have stood
the 12 or 18 hours, place them in a tub (similar to what is well known in the
North of England as a possing tub), and with a possing stick mash them up,
or pass them between fluted wooden rollers to mash them, and when mashed
add to them one pint of new milk to every 20 lbs. weight, or one pint to every
10 lbs. weight, according to the quality required; add also, or not, according
to taste, one half 'per cent. of pepper, stir the mass well up, and then place it
in a sieve as aforesaid, rub.on to the drier tray, and place in the drier as
before described; or take the potatoes' as soon as mashed, and with or without
milk press them into squares of wood, similar to those used by brickmakers,
then take a board with a handle and press them well; they will now have the
shape of square cakes; cut up these cakes with a thin sharp knife into thin
slices, and lay the slices on a tray of the drier, and place the same into the
drier or other suitable drying apparatus, and dry as before described. In
drying, the slices break themselves up into small pieces, which may be further
reduced if necessary by the hand. After drying I sometimes bleach the
potatoes, which I do by spreading them very thinly on trays and subjecting
them to the action of light, by which their color is bleached and improved.
I also sometimes grind them in a mill to powder, and use them for biscuits
and other purposes.
The third part of my Invention relates to preserving various miscellaneous
articles of food; mushrooms, for example, after being skinned and cleaned, I
dip into the coagulating fluid boiling hot for five minutes, and then place them
into the drier, and allow them to remain there at the temperatures aforesaid
until dry. Shell fish, such as oysters, lobsters, crabs, shrimps, and prawns, are
taken out of their shells, drained, and at once placed on the trays of the drier
or in a drying apparatus, and dried at the temperature aforesaid. Plum and

page_text: spice puddings are made in the usual way, and boiled, and then cut into slices,
laid on the trays, and dried as aforesaid: Milk or cream is treated: as follows:
Take two quarts of fresh milk or cream, and add thereto one ounce of gelatine
or 'isinglass, or of a cencentrated solution prepared from the moss.commonly
called Carrigaæn moss, or, Irish moss. I also sometimes:add, according to the
quality of the milk, one ounce of loaf sugar to the same quantity; the whole
is then placed in a steami-evaporating pan, and concentrated down with con-
stant stirring to half, its bulk it is then placed in square moulds of glass
or-earthenware and allowed to cool, and when cold it is tremulously solid; it
is then turned out on a plate of glass, and cut into slices with a thin silver or
platina wire. The slices are next placed on one of the drier trays, and placed
in the drier or other suitable drying apparatus until dry at the temperature
aforesaid; when dry it is cut up into thin shreds for use. Blanc mange and
custards are prepared in precisely the same manner; only the usual spices and
flavoring for such.articles are added; and to custards; eggs beaten up áre also
added in the usual proportions. All these last named are made ready for use
by soaking in-cold or hot water until soft, when they are fit. för use, and can
be cooked in the ordinary way:
The fourth and last part of my Invention' consists in the construction of a
drying apparatus particularly suitable for drying articles of food treated in the
manner herein before set forth, and to which I have already alluded as my
drier: I call the driers crystal driers, and the Drawings annexed (Figures 1.
and 2) shew their construction.
Figure is a front view; Figure 25 a section taken on the line A, B,
Figure 1. These driers when used are erected in any suitable dry room or
gallery, and may be of any length required; one. of 25 feet long, 14 feet broad,
and 10 feet high, is a very useful size. The bottom of these driers I prefer
to lay with 3 lbs. sheet lead, as well as the ante-rooms adjoining. The frames
and other solid parts of the drier I prefer to make of cast or wrought iron,
galvanised or painted, or well-dried wood; which I glaze with glass, as well as
the divisions or compartments of the same. The compartments may be of
any convenient size, and divided with doors: if required. They are fitted up
with slides, on which are placed trays, the bottom of which is covered with
net wire or split cane. C, C, C, Figure 1, shew the windows to the drier;
these lift up and down and are hinged at the top; D, D, D, represent-the-
steam pipes traversing the same from end to end. These pipes are best set four.
inches from the top for the first set, three feet for the second, and six feet for
the third set traversing same. The pipes are continuous, and are made of
iron galvanised, of or 1 inch bore. The end of the pipes.return along the

page_text: bottom of the drier to any convenient cistern, and are ended by a small copper
pipe of of an inch bore. The steam traversing them is condensed in this
cistern, and the water from the boilers working them is thus made hot. When
the pipes have to traverse very long driers at certain intervals from 500 to 700
feet apart, the pipes are formed into coils enclosed in sheet iron cases, and
passed over jets of lighted gas burning in the cases; the steam passing through
them is thus re-heated, and a uniform temperature maintained from end to end.
G, G, G, shew the spaces where air enters the drier from the ante-rooms E, E;
and B, B, Figure 2, shew the hollow space by which the air and moisture pass
out of the drier after traversing over the trays; E, E, the ante-rooms on both
sides of the drier are usually made 6 to 7 feet broad. These should have
windows in them to admit light and air. Their temperature is from 80 to 90
degrees. The temperature of the driers is constantly maintained at from 105
to 110 degrees; never higher or lower. The pressure of steam necessary to
work them is from 20 to 30 lbs. per inch. The partitions at F, F, may be
glazed or made of lath and plaster. These driers when properly worked
maintain a uniform temperature for months at a time. They present a very
large drying surface, and any articles placed therein are rapidly dried and
retain all their flavor. They can be used for drying corn or malt, and turn
out five times more than any ordinary kiln.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I declare that I do not confine myself strictly to
the precise proportions and details before given, as they may be and it is some-
times necessary to slightly vary them, according to the state and nature of the
provisions and vegetables operated upon; but I claim,-
First, the preserving meat, vegetables, and provisions in the manner herein-
before separately described for the various descriptions of provisions herein
named.
And, second, I claim the construction of a drying apparatus for drying articles
of food in the manner herein-before described, and represented in the Drawings
hereunto annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Masta Joscelin Cooke, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourth day of December, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-five
M. JOSCELIN COOKE. (L.S.)