IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF FATTY MATTERS IN ORDER TO HARDEN THEM AND APPLY THEM TO THE MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES, SOAP, AND OTHER USES
Year: 1868

page_text: ETTERS PATENT to Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, of the Firm of
Robertson, Brooman, and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the
City of London, Patent Agents, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF FATTY MATTERS IN ORDER TO HARDEN THEM
AND APPLY THEM TO THE MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES, SOAP, AND OTHER
USES." A communication from abroad by Mathias Paraf-Javal and
Eugene Paraf-Javal, both of Thann, France.
Sealed the 25th March 1869, and dated the 2nd October 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Clinton Edgcumbe
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 2nd October 1868.
I, CLINTON EDGCUMBE BROOMAN, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman,
and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agents, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "In-
PROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF FATTY MATTERS IN ORDER TO HARDEN THEM
AND APPLY THEM TO THE MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES, SOAP, AND OTHER USES," to
be as follows:-
In the Specification of Letters Patent granted to me on the 15th
December 1866, No. 3307, for an Invention communicated to me by
the inventors of the present improvements, I described various processes

page_text: and improvements by means of which the hardening of certain fatty
matters was effected, and I described the modes of applying these
hardened fatty bodies to various uses.
Now this Invention consists in improvements in the treatment of the
fatty bodies, and in applying them to various uses. I proceed to describe
these improvements.
It is not absolutely indispensable to effect the hardening of the whole
of the fatty body under treatment. If a small quantity of the fatty acid
remains unhardened the final pressing (in the manner ordinarily followed
by stearine makers) or purifying in a close vessel with alcohol or other
solvent of the fatty matter will overcome it. One of the chief features
of this mode of working consists in the certainty of destroying less fatty
matter, and this is important with inexperienced operators. Although
the oils or fatty acids such as are met with in commerce are those
usually acted upon, yet these oils or acids may first be purified, and as
much as possible of the less fusible fatty matters which they hold in
solution separated from them. For this purpose they are filtered,
pressed, or submitted to the action of centrifugal force. These operations
should be effected more or less completely according to the temperature
or season and according to the expense of artificial cooling, for the colder
the oils are the more will the hard fatty matters be separated. By
calculating the cost of the cooling with the greater value of the hard
separated matters and with the greater value of the hardened acids
arising from the oils submitted to purification by the cooling it will
easily be ascertained if it will be advantageous to incur the expense of
cooling. The solid matters in solution or in suspension in the oil or
oleic acid have a commercial value greater than that of these oils, and,
besides, the fatty body hardened artificially will be the less fusible as it
is the more pure, and as it has been produced with an oily fatty matter
containing the less stearine. A more regular and better result is
obtained by continually stirring or working up the mixture of alkali
and fatty matter under treatment, the temperature is more uniformly
distributed, much less matter is destroyed. It is an important feature
in the treatment that the mixing is not interrupted. Although this
mixing may be effected by hand with suitable tools it is preferred to
employ mechanical mixers or agitators, which are more economical and
more regular, and work at the speed desired. It is by thus continually
stirring that great excess of lye is avoided; it is found advantageous to

page_text: reduce these quantities, to take quantities of lyes such that they can in
the course of the operation become incorporated with the hardened soap
formed, and this hardened soap will not in the present process be seen
swimming or floating in an excess of melted caustic alkalies. For one
part of fatty matter to be treated it is found convenient to take 2
parts of caustic lyes of a density of about 1.525, composed of potass
alone or containing from 5 to 50 per cent. of soda. Instead of 2
parts of lyes they can be increased without much harm, but I avoid
reaching the excessive proportions of 4 to 5 volumes of lye boiling at
572° Fahrenheit (300° centigrade) to one volume of oil to be hardened.
It has been found that losses of fatty matter are experienced by
volatilization and by carbonization by adding the fatty matter to a lye
at 572°; it is preferred to make the mixture at a much lower tempera-
ture and with less concentrated lyes. One can succeed very well with
lyes having a density of only 1.525, and heated to 212° Fahrenheit or a
little less; and it is only when the incorporation of the fat seems to be
complete in consequence of the mixing or agitation that the heat-should
be made more vigorous. When the fatty matter has been thus incor-
porated the heat is accelerated, and the reaction commences as soon as
the excess of water has evaporated. Much hydrogen or other gas is
then disengaged; when the disengagement ceases the operation is
finished; but practice will be the best guide to the operator. I heat
until the disengagement of the hydrogen ceases, and I then mix the
hardened soap formed with 3 to 5 parts of water to 1 part of the fat
employed. I either withdraw the soap quickly from the heating vessel
and throw it into the water, or, by preference, I add the water in the
heating vessel containing the hardened soap. I continue to work the
mechanical agitator, and I heat if necessary.
The hardened soap
becomes hydrated, and yields to the water the greater part of the excess
of lye and of foreign salts which it contains. When the hydration is
terminated the whole is put hot into vessels in which by the cooling the
soap floats on a lye rich in carbonates and salts of organic acids. It is
well to allow the cooling to take place slowly, and even to keep up the
heat for some time in order to facilitate the more complete separation
of the hardened soap. After complete cooling the hardened soap is
removed to be treated, as hereafter stated, and the impure lye is
evaporated, then calcined to destroy all the organic matters (when it is
not found advantageous to remove the organic acids which it contains),
then I recaustify it by the usual processes, and obtain a lye fit for new

page_text: operations. I have thus the advantage of obtaining a pure lye, which
is not the case when one, works with a great excess of lye; for in the
latter case, the hardened soap floating on the surface, only this hardened
soap is removed, and the lye contains carbonates and organic acids,
bodies which render the operations more and more defective. The soap
hardened and thus washed contains only a little lye in excess or foreign
salts, and without excluding the present process from a second or a third
hot treatment with caustic or carbonated alkaline water, I will say that
its purity is sufficient for the ulterior treatments. For this purpose I
separate from it by draining, by pressing, or by centrifugal force as
much as possible of the adherent lye, and I dissolve it in 500 to 700
parts of water at ebullition to 100 parts of the fatty matters employed,.
and I add the lime necessary to remove all the fatty acid in the form of..
soap of lime.
A milk of lime containing 15 to 20 parts of quicklime.
suffices. In this manner the alkalies are revivified to the caustic state
without recourse to. the usual and well-known Leblanc process, and I
thus effect a great economy as it is only necessary to evaporate, these
alkalies in order to employ them again. Besides, if the alkalies, con-.
tained at the beginning salts such as sulphates and chlorides, these will
accumulate in the first lye (that which undergoes calcination), and the
other lye will be, so to speak, deprived. of them. In this manner, by.
preserving these purer lyes separately I finish by obtaining a quantity:
of desulphated and dechloruretted lyes fit for numerous uses, and. of
superior quality for the hardening of fats. The separation, of the
calcareous hardened soap is not always effected easily; it has been found
that by heating the calcareous pulpy mass. in a boiler under pressure a
neat separation is obtained. With regard to the purification of the
hardened fatty acid, besides the process with alcohol and analogous.
processes in close vessels, I apply to these hardened bodies distillation,
especially under the influence of superheated steam, pressings, and.
generally all the means usually employed by stearine makers..
It is found that the residues of impure lyes may be employed for
the manufacture of soft soaps in which their impurities will not be
obstacles.
The hardened soap of lime well washed is decomposed by an acid, in,
the manner in which soaps of lime are usually decomposed; by stearine,
makers, and. afterwards the purification of the fatty acid, is effected as
before described; or I profit by the richness in lime of the soaps, oft

page_text: lime to employ them in place of lime in the calcareous saponification of
greases and fats, and I thus effect a fresh economy, although at the
expense of quality.
The important parts or characteristic features of this Invention are:
-The hardening of the fatty body incompletely; the hardening of fatty
matters which have first been more or less deprived of solid fatty
matters; the uninterrupted stirring or working up of the fatty matters
to be hardened, and of the alkaline lyes until the end of the reaction;
the manner of making the reaction with quantities of lyes less than
4 volumes lyes boiling at 572° to one volume of fat; the mixing of
the fatty matter and the lyes at a temperature lower than 572°; the
heating of the mixture until the disengagement of hydrogen ceases or
until this disengagement is nearly terminated; the destruction by calcina-
tion of the organic bodies contained in the lyes which have been used,
and afterwards recaustifying them for use 'again (a good purification is
considered indispensable to the success of the operations); the regenera-
tion by means of lime of the alkalies contained in the soap in place of
regenerating them by their previous conversion into sulphates or
chlorides following the Leblanc process; the transformation of the
soluble soaps into calcareous soaps under the influence of heat and under
pressure to facilitate the formation and the separation of the calcareous
soap (whatever be the soap to be transformed, and whatever be the
object of the transformation, it forms part of this Invention, if it be
effected under pressure); the employment of the residues of impure
lyes for the manufacture of soft soaps; the employment of the cal-
careous hardened soap for the calcareous saponification of greases and
fats; and the application to the manufacture of candles, soaps, and
colors of the fatty acids hardened and produced by the means herein-
before described.
O SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 2nd April 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CLINTON.
EDGCUMBE BROOMAN, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and
5 Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents,
send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in
the thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Clinton Edgcumbe
Brooman, Her special licence that I, the said Clinton Edgcumbe
Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, 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 FATTY MATTERS IN ORDER TO HARDEN THEM AND APPLY THEM TO
THE MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES, SOAP, AND OTHER USES," (communicated to me
from abroad by Mathias Paraf-Javal and Eugene Paraf-Javal, both of
Thann, France), upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one 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 Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to
say:
In the Specification of Letters Patent granted to me on the 15th
December 1866, No. 3307, for an Invention communicated to me by the
inventors of the present improvements I described various processes
and improvements by means of which the hardening of certain fatty
matters was effected, and I described the modes of applying these
hardened fatty bodies to various uses.
Now this Invention consists in improvements in the treatment of
the fatty bodies and in applying them to various uses. I proceed to
describe these improvements.

page_text: It is not absolutely indispensable to effect the hardening of the
whole of the fatty body under treatment. If a small quantity of the
fatty acid remains unhardened, the final pressing (in the manner
ordinarily followed by stearine makers) or purifying in a close vessel
with alcohol or other solvent of the fatty matter will overcome it.
One of the chief features of this mode of working consists in the
certainty of destroying less fatty matter, and this is important with.
inexperienced operators. Although the oils or fatty acids such as are
met with in commerce are those usually acted upon, yet these oils or
acids may first be purified, and as much as possible of the less fusible.
fatty matters which they hold in solution separated from them. For
this purpose they are filtered, pressed, or submitted to the action of
centrifugal force; these operations should be effected more or less
completely according to the temperature or season, and according to the
expense of artificial cooling, for the colder the oils are the more will.
the hard fatty matters be separated. By calculating the cost of the
cooling with the greater value of the hard separated matters and with:
the greater value of the hardened acids arising from the oils submitted to
purification by the cooling, it will easily be ascertained if it will be
advantageous to incur the expense of cooling. The solid matters in
solution or in suspension in the oil or oleic acid have a commercial
value greater than that of these oils, and besides the fatty body hardened
artificially will be the less fusible as it is the more pure, and as it has
been produced with an oily fatty matter containing the less stearine. A
more regular and better result is obtained by continually stirring. or
working up the mixture of alkali and fatty matter under treatment. The
temperature is more uniformly distributed, much less matter is destroyed.
It is an important feature in the treatment that the mixing is not
interrupted. Although this mixing may be effected by hand with
suitable tools it is preferred to employ mechanical mixers or agitators,
which are more economical and more regular and work at the speed
desired. It is by thus continually stirring that great excess of lye is
avoided; it is found advantageous to reduce these quantities, to take
quantities of lyes such that they can in the course of the operation
become incorporated with the hardened soap formed, and this hardened soap
will not in the present process be seen swimming or floating in an excess
of melted caustic alkalies. For one part of fatty matter to be treated
it is found convenient to take two parts of caustic lyes of a density of
about 1525 composed of potass alone or containing from 5 to 50 per

page_text: ccnt. of soda. Instead of 2 parts of lyes they can be increased without
much harm, but I avoid reaching the excessive proportions of 4 to 5
volumes of lye boiling at 572° Fahrenheit, (300° centigrade) to one
volume of oil to be hardened. It has been found that losses of fatty
matter are experienced by volatilization and by carbonization by adding
the fatty matter to a lye at 572°, it is preferred to make the mixture at a
much lower temperature and with less concentrated lyes. One can succeed
very well with lyes having a density of only 1.525 and heated to 212°
Fahrenheit or a little less, and it is only when the incorporation of the
fat seems to be complete in consequence of the mixing or agitation
that the heat should be made more vigorous. When the fatty matter
has been thus incorporated the heat is accelerated, and the reaction
commences as soon as the excess of water has evaporated, much
hydrogen or other gas is then disengaged. When the disengagement
ceases the operation is finished, but practice will be the best guide to
the operator, I heat until the disengagement of the hydrogen ceases,
and I then mix the hardened soap formed with 3 to 5 parts of water
to 1 part of the fat employed; I either withdraw the soap quickly from
the heating vessel and throw it into the water, or by preference I add
the water in the heating vessel containing the hardened soap; I continue
to work the mechanical agitator, and I heat if necessary. The hardened
soap becomes hydrated and yields to the water the greater part of the
excess of lye and of foreign salts which it contains. When the hydration
is terminated the whole is put hot into vessels, in which by the cooling
the soap floats on a lye rich in carbonates and salts of organic acids.
It is well to allow the cooling to take place slowly, and even to keep
up the heat for some time in order to facilitate the more complete
separation of the hardened soap. After complete cooling the hardened
soap is removed to be treated as hereafter stated, and the impure lye
is evaporated, then calcined to destroy all the organic matters (when it
is not found advantageous to remove the organic acids which it contains),
then I recaustify it by the usual processes and obtain a lye fit for new
operations. I have thus the advantage of obtaining a pure lye, which
is not the case when one works with a great excess of lye, for in the
latter case the hardened soap floating on the surface, only this hardened
soap is removed and the lye contains carbonates and organic acids,
bodies which render the operations more and more defective. The soap
hardened and thus washed contains only a little lye in excess or foreign
salts, and without excluding the present process from a second or a

page_text: third hot treatment with caustic or carbonated alkaline water, I will
say that its purity is sufficient for the ulterior treatments. For this
purpose I separate from it by draining, by pressing, or by centrifugal,
force as much as possible of the adherent lye, and I dissolve it in 500:
to 700 parts of water at ebullition to 100 parts of the fatty matters
employed, and I add the lime necessary to remove all the fatty acid in,
the form of soap of lime. A milk of lime containing 15 to 20 parts of.
quicklime suffices. In this manner the alkalies are revivified to the
caustic state without recourse to the usual and well-known Leblanc,
process, and I thus effect a great economy as it is only necessary to:
evaporate these alkalies in order to employ them again. Besides if the:
alkalies contained at the beginning salts such as sulphates and chlorides
these will accumulate in the first lye (that which undergoes calcination),
and the other lye will be so to speak deprived of them. In this manner,
by preserving these purer lyes separately; I finish, by obtaining a
quantity of desulphated and dechloruretted lyes fit for numerous usesr
and of superior quality for the hardening of fats. The separation of the
calcareous hardened soap is not always effected easily, it has been.
found that by heating the calcareous pulpy mass in a boiler under,
pressure a neat separation is obtained. With regard to the purification,
of the hardened fatty acid, besides the process with alcohol and analogous
processes in close vessels I apply to these hardened bodies distillation,
especially under the influence of superheated steam, pressings, and
generally all the means usually employed by stearine makers.. It is
found that the residues of impure lyes may be employed for the manu-
facture of soft soaps in which their impurities will not be obstacles.
The hardened soap of lime well washed is decomposed. by an acid. in.
the manner in which soaps of lime are usually decomposed by stearine
makers, and afterwards the purification of the fatty acid is effected as
before described; or I profit by the richness in lime of the soaps of
lime to employ them in place of lime in the calcareous saponification
of greases and fats, and I thus effect a fresh economy, although at the
expense of quality.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim
(all substantially as described) the hardening of the fatty body
incompletely; the hardening of fatty matters which have first been
more or less deprived of solid fatty matters; the uninterrupted stirring
or working up of the fatty matters to be hardened and of the alkaline

page_text: lyes until the end of the reaction; the manner of making the reaction
with quantities of lyes less than 4 volumes, lyes boiling at 572° to one
volume of fat; the mixing of the fatty matter and the lyes at a temperature
lower than 572°, the heating of the mixture until the disengagement of
hydrogen ceases or until this disengagement is nearly terminated; the
destruction by calcination of the organic bodies contained in the lyes
which have been used, and afterwards recaustifying them for use again
(a good purification is considered indispensable to the success of the
operations); the regeneration by means of lime of the alkalies contained
in the soap in place of regenerating them by their previous conversion
into sulphates or chlorides, following the Leblanc process; the trans-
formation of the soluble soaps into calcareous soaps under the influence
of heat and under pressure to facilitate the formation and the separation
of the calcareous soap (whatever be the soap to be transformed, and
whatever be the object of the transformation, it forms part of this
Invention if it be effected under pressure); the employment of the
residues of impure lyes for the manufacture of soft soaps; the employ-
ment of the calcareous hardened soap for the calcareous saponification
of greases and fats; and the application to the manufacture of candles,
soaps, and colors of the fatty acids hardened and produced by the means
herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Second day of April, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.