Improvements relating to the Manufacture of Soaps.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 9th Aug., 1894-Accepted, 13th Oct., 1894
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements relating to the Manufacture of Soaps.
I, Dr. JOSEF OSKAR KLIMSCH, of 22 Schlossgasse, Vienna V, in the Empire of
Austria, Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
My invention relates to the manufacture of soaps.
The methods of manufacturing soaps as heretofore practiced consist chiefly in
causing caustic alkaline solutions or liquors to act upon fatty acids alone or upon
fat in combination with resinic acids, and further in producing the various soaps
by a boiling or hot process. In the methods of saponification hitherto used the
alkalies are always in the dissolved form, whereas the fatty acids, oleic acids and
resinic acids, according to their nature, are in the liquid or molten state for their
mutual action and they give hard soaps when caustic soda is employed. The
resinic acids (colophony, pine-resin and the like), when undergoing saponification
alone, give however by all these methods only soft viscous soaps.
By my improved method of manufacture I can obtain resin soaps possessing any
desired degree of hardness and which may be quite free from water; with the
modifications in this method due to certain additions the soaps produced may be
used either for industrial, domestic, toilet, or medicinal purposes.
This rapid manufacture of resin soaps consists in bringing the two chief con-
stituents, namely the resins, resinic acids, for instance colophony, pine-resin, and
the necessary alkaline carbonates, for instance calcined ammonia crystal soda, in
the most finely pulverized or ground state in intimate union, these constituents
being pulverized in proper proportions by weight beforehand either separately or
together, and combined say by mixing them with a suitable binding agent, or at
the same time with a filling material and subsequently grinding or kneading them
by means of well-known machines to produce a uniform material which is finished
by successive pressing, moulding, cutting and stamping. After these several
operations I obtain compounds which behave in almost every respect similarly to
fatty acid salts (soaps) and constitute in this case resin soaps.
According as use is made of binding agents, solutions, filling materials or the
like, for example alcohol benzene, petroleum, glycerine, water-glass, starch, glue
or agar-agar jelly, lime, magnesite or the like, or additions in general, for instance
colours or perfumes to obtain soap of a certain property and which have either
only a binding action or also a partial dissolving action upon the alkaline carbonate
or the resinic acid, I obtain by a successive grinding or kneading and moulding or
pressing operation hard resin soaps of various qualities.
This method of rapidly manufacturing hard resin soaps may however also be
used for manufacturing mixed soaps, such as resin-fatty and like soaps, either in
order to obtain more cheaply certain commercial soaps, or in order to impart to
the hard resin soaps thus manufactured a specially desired quality by admixing
commercial soaps.
The manufacture of such mixed soaps then takes place in such a manner that
the resin alkali mixture already produced according to the before-described method
is combined either at the same time with a fat or like soap (commercial soap) by
means of mixing and grinding machines and is finished in the described manner, or
that the finished resin soap is introduced into a molten fat or like soap (commercial
soap), in this manner producing any desired mixed soap (resin-fat or like soap).

page_text: I employ for instance for about 100 kilogrammes of resin such as colophony or
pine-resin, 120 kilogrammes of sodium carbonate, for example ammonia-soda, more
or less according to the quality of the resin or the like, use being made of one or
more of the before-mentioned binding agents, solvents, filling materials, for instance
benzene, glycerine, soda water-glass or the like. The resin and the alkaline
carbonate are pulverized either separately or together, then moistened simul-
taneously with the binding agent, and may be coloured, perfumed and intimately
united by the customary soap grinding machines, that is to say transformed into a
more or less moist material in order to obtain finally the desired soap by further
pressing and moulding.
With regard to this practical example it should be observed in the first place
that use may be made, if desired, of small quantities of suitable fatty or oleic acids
with the resins employed, but only such as are even in the cold state pretty soluble
in aqueous alkaline carbonates, that is to say will easily form emulsions.
In the second place more alkali is employed in this rapid method of saponification
in order to obtain in use no sticky but likewise slippery and hard soap. In practice
the use of alkaline carbonates can only be an advantage, as I obtain a greater
solubility even in cold water, therefore also a greater cleaning property of the
resin soaps produced, without these having a caustic action.
In the third place it may be stated that in my improved method of manu-
facturing soap the longer the grinding or kneading, or the better the several
ingredients of the resin soap are mixed and pressed, the less will be required of
the before-mentioned binding agents and the like, for during the mixing and
grinding of the several ingredients a spontaneous heating of the material occurs
which favours the union and enables excellent hard resin soaps to be obtained.
As special advantages of the before-described manufacture of resin soaps I obtain
amongst others :
(1) The suppression of every kind of boiling and the customary preparation of
liquer.
(2) An almost dry, odourless, easy and rapid operation which has no deleterious
effect upon the workpeople or the vicinity of the works.
(3) Possibility of producing on a large scale cheap, white and coloured hard
resin soaps of any kind and for any uses.
(4) Easy production of soaps which may be quite free from water, therefore
unchangeable during transport and storage, economic in use and effective, and
which dissolve well even in cold water.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
1 claim is :-
First. The method of manufacturing hard resin soaps which may be quite free
from water without the use of any alkaline liquor and without boiling with the
latter, in such a manner that the two chief constituents, namely a resinic acid, for
instance colophony, "pine-resin or the like, and further the necessary alkaline
carbonate [soda (Na,CO₂) and if desired potash (K,CO₂)], for instance ammonia-
soda or the like, are mixed after each of the chief constituents has been separately
pulverized or ground, or that the two chief constituents are pulverized or ground
together at the same time; it being expedient to effect a uniform moistening of this
previously pulverized mixture of resin and alkali with one or more suitable binding
agents, solutions, filling materials, for instance alcohol, benzene, glycerine, water-
glass, starch, glue, agar-agar, lime, magnesite or the like, which have either only a
binding action or also a partial dissolving action upon the alkali or the resin, and
furthermore with colouring agents, perfumes or the like, the mixture of resin and
alkali moistened or united in this manner being finally transformed directly by a
successive grinding and mixing or kneading, pressing or moulding, cutting and
stamping process by means of well-known machines, according to the several

page_text: binding agents or the like which are used, into resin soap for industrial, domestic,
toilet or medicinal purposes.
Second. The combination of hard resin soaps produced as hereinbefore set forth
with other soaps of commerce, for the purpose of utilizing this method of rapid
5 saponification for the special production of various mixed soaps (resin fat soaps).
Dated this 9th day of August 1894.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.