IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO PACKAGES OF CAUSTIC SODA MANUFACTURED SO AS TO BE APPLICABLE FOR GENERAL HOUSEHOLD USE
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Jones Menzies at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 7th January 1880.
WILLIAM JONES MENZIES, of St. Helen's, in the County of Lancaster.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO PACKAGES OF CAUSTIC SODA MANUFACTURED
SO AS TO BE APPLICABLE FOR GENERAL HOUSEHOLD USE."
Hitherto soda crystals or some form of carbonate of soda has been almost
exclusively used for washing, scouring, and cleansing for general household use.
It is a fact however that for all such purposes caustic soda is much better and
more effective, if no considerable excess is used; it cleanses more quickly, and as
compared with soda crystals proportionably a very much less quantity will do the
same work. So far however it has been found almost impossible to use caustic soda
in general household use for two reasons. First. If any considerable excess is used
it destroys the fabric which it is employed to cleanse.
Secondly. It is so powerful a form of alkali as to render it difficult to handle,
besides if generally left about in a household in an opened package, either as a solid
caustic or in a bottle as a liquid lye, it is a dangerous article, as being highly caustic
it burns or acts as a poison if taken internally. In practice about one ounce of
pure caustic soda is equivalent for ordinary household purposes to one pound of
ordinary soda crystals, causing a saving of more than fifty per cent. in first cost,
besides the saving in carriage, labour in handling, etcetera. If however a package
of caustic soda, either solid lumps, in a fine powder, or in a liquid form as a strong
caustic lye, is put into the hands of an ordinary washer woman, with instructions
to use not more than a certain quantity at a time, it will be found in practice that
a great excess is used with very deleterious effect upon the articles required to be
cleansed. If the package when opened is upset or gets in the way of animals or
children, the effects will be disastrous. None of these difficulties are met with in the
ordinary washing soda; much more than is necessary is used as a rule, but such excess
beyond the waste is not otherwise injurious. Now I have discovered that all these
difficulties can be obviated by my improved packages. Instead of the cumbersome
metal drums in which caustic is at present sold in a compact solid form, I use small
These boxes are
boxes containing from half an ounce to two ounces at most.
preferably stamped out of thin sheet iron, such as "taggers" iron, the box and the
lid each stamped out of a single piece. The caustic, preferably that ground in my
improved caustic grinding mill, is packed in these small packages, preferably in the

page_text: granular or pulverulent form; the joint between the lid and box is then made air
tight by pasting paper round. It is not absolutely necessary to use iron, other
material not acted on by caustic or water will do (thus paper boxes, for instance,
saturated with parafine are equally efficaceous), especially as the caustic being put
up in the pulverulent form, needs not to be packed at a high temperature, and being
dry can only deliquesce by receiving damp from without. One main point in
putting up the caustic for any special purpose is to make the package of just
sufficient size to contain the amount required for one operation.
In this manner,-First. Any deleterious excess is avoided, as the whole contents
of the package are not sufficient to do any damage. Second. The difficulty of having
a highly corrosive alkali lying about in an opened package in an ordinary household,
or a bottle of strong burning lye which may be upset or broken is also avoided, as
cach small package is securely fastened and only opened just before use, when the
whole contents are necessarily used.