IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES AND SOAP, AND IN TREATING A CERTAIN VEGETABLE MATTER FOR SUCH MANUFACTURE,. AND OTHER USES
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
POWER, of Threadneedle Street, in the City of London, Merchant, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twelfth day of September, in the eighth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
James Power, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said James Power, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said James Power, my exors, adiñiors, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,.
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES AND
SOAP, AND IN TREATING A CERTAIN VEGETABLE MATTER FOR SUCH MANUFACTURE,.
AND OTHER USES," communicated to me by a certain Foreigner residing abroad;
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said James
Power, shall cause a particular description of the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in.
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Power, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
The nature of this Invention consists in rendering products obtained from
olive oil available for the manufacture of candles, soap, and other uses, and in
treating olive oil and the constituents, margarine, oleine, and stearine, derived
therefrom, so as to convert such constituents into acids, to separate the con-
crete fat acids from the liquid acids, and to purify them separately for their
respective uses. The manner in which I perforin the said Invention is as
follows: Into a vat or chest lined with lead put any quantity of olive oil, and
for every one hundred pounds of it introduce fourteen pounds of slaked and
sifted quick lime, previously mixed with water to the consistence of cream.
Into the said mixture admit steam through pipes laid at the bottom of the vat,
which are perforated with holes; cause the mixture to boil, stirring it occasion-
ally, and maintain the boiling heat for some time, say, from twelve to twenty
hours; then cover up the vat and leave the contents of it to settle. The
substance which subsides should have a granular appearance if the boiling bas
been sufficient to produce the combinations called by chemists margarate,
oleate, and stearate of lime. Having taken out these compounds of oil and
lime and dried them, they are to be crushed and sifted if need be to make
them into a powder, and the finer the better. Into a second vat, made of
white wood, introduce as much sulphuric, nitric, or hydrochloric acid as will
serve to saturate the lime, which has been used in the former operation or first
process, and whichever acid is used it should be diluted with seven or eight
times its weight of water. Sulphuric acid will probably be preferred as being
the most economical, and of it about eighteen pounds and a half will saturate
fourteen pounds of the slaked quick lime. The relative proportions of the
other two acids, the nitric and muriatic, depend upon their strength or specific
gravity, as is well known to chemists. To the dilute acid in the vat, made
boiling hot by steam pipes, add the powdered compound of lime with the fat
acids, and continue the heat till the lime is chemically combined with the
mineral acid, and the fat acids are thereby disengaged or eliminated, and float
on the surface of the water, while the lime falls to the bottom of the vat in the
state of sulphate of lime. When the whole have been left at rest for some
time (by turning off the steam), then ladle or draw off by a side pipe or other-
wise the supernatant fat acids, and wash them well with abundance of water in
the progress of their cooling. This washing is best performed in a leaden
vessel. Then set a number of porcelain, glass or stone ware vessels on a

page_text: steam bath, put into each a quantity of the above washed fat acids, and after
they are melted add for every one hundred and twelve pounds of them four
ounces of nitric acid, of specific gravity 1,30, along with some small pieces of
zinc and water, to dilute the acid to about three degrees or four degrees of
Baume, which is from 1,020 to 1,027 specific gravity. Stir the said mixture
with a white wood rod or spatula during five or six minutes, during which
fumes of nitrous gas will be evolved by the action of the zinc upon the nitric
acid. Continue the heat with occasional stirring for about two hours, and
then remove the vessels from the steam, wash their contents well with abun-
dance of water, and let them cool in wooden vessels. The acid fat will have at
the end of about thirty hours the appearance of tallow when quite cold. The
cold acid fat is placed in flat bags of hair cloth or twilled woollen cloth, or
between layers of cloth made from the fibres of the cocoa nut, and these bags
or cloths being interstratified with wicker plates and plates of iron, are piled
up on the sill of a screw or hydraulic press, and exposed to a gradually
increased pressure till the oleic acid has been expelled in a liquid state. The
pressed cakes removed from the press will generally be found to have lost
about twenty-five per cent. of their weight. They are next thrown into a
boiler heated by steam or otherwise, and when melted twenty per cent. of
alcohol, of about forty-eight degrees over proof, or wood spirit, commonly
called wood naptha, is mixed with the melted fat well incorporated by
agitation, and the mixture is then drawn off into a vat and left to cool and
crystallize during fifteen or twenty hours, the vessel being carefully covered all
this time. The solid fat acids then obtained I subject to pressure in a similar
manner as before described. A thin oily-looking liquid will run off along
with the spirits, and is to be received in proper vessels, from which it is to be
taken afterwards and subjected to distillation, in order to recover the spirits
for future use. The cakes now obtained in the press will consist of a mixture
of margaric and stearic acids. These cakes are melted in a shallow leaden
vessel along with water, and keeping the contents boiling by means of steam,
while the surface of the melted fat acids is exposed freely to the air and sun-
shine (if practicable) during from fifteen to twenty hours. The concrete fat
acids are bleached by subjecting each one hundredweight of them to the action
of two pounds of sulphuric acid diluted with eight pounds of water, mixed
with four ounces of peroxide of manganese in fine powder. These substances,
mixed in a vat, are steamed by means of a perforated lead pipe, in connection
with a steam boiler. By this process the acid fats will be much whitened in
the course of two hours. In making mould candles I prefer glass moulds,
and I expose the candles in these transparent moulds to bright daylight,

page_text: which produces a bleaching effect on the surfaces. The candles may be made
wholly from the above products of olive oil, or they may be mixed with wax or
other material.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I make no claim
to the processes herein described, except as applied to olive oil, similar pro-
cesses having been before resorted to when treating other vegetable and
animal matters; nor do I confine myself to the precise details above described.
I would also remark that the oleic acid may be used for the manufacture of
soap in the same manner as oleic acid from tallow and other substances have
before been used in the manufacture of soap. The oleic acid may also be used
in substitution of other oils in the manufacture of wool.
In conclusion, I would have it understood that what I claim is, the manu-
facture of candles by applying stearic and margaric acid of olive oil, and the
treating of olive oil in the manner. herein described for obtaining such acids
for the manufacture of candles, soap, and other uses.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Power, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twelfth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-five