MENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF AN ARTIFICIAL VEGETABLE GUM TO BE USED AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR GUM SENEGAL
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
LOUIS MATTHURIN FOUQUET, of Jermyn Street, Haymarket, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, 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 Twenty-second day of April, in the eighth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said
Charles Louis Matthurin Fouquet, my exors, admors and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Charles Louis Matthurin Fouquet, my exors, admors, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Louis Matthurin Fouquet, my
exors, adñiors 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, my Invention of "IMPROVE
MENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF AN ARTIFICIAL VEGETABLE GUM TO BE USED AS A
SUBSTITUTE FOR GUM SENEGAL;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso that I, the said Charles Louis Matthurin Fouquet, shall cause a par-
ticular description of the nature of my 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
Charles Louis Matthurin Fouquet, do hereby declare that the nature of
the said Invention, and the manner of performing the same, is fully described
and ascertained by the following description (that is to say):-
My Invention consists in preparing certain vegetable substances into a
substance to be used as a substitute for gum senegal. The materials of which
this substance is composed are as follows:-The fecule of the potatoe, starch,
sago, and crushed malt; the proportion in which I prefer to use them is, to
every one hundred pounds of the fecule of the potatoe I add about twenty
pounds of starch, and about twenty pounds sago, twenty pounds of malt; these
materials are prepared by putting into a vessel a quantity of water equal to
about six times the weight of the fecule of the potatoe to be operated upon;
the water in this vessel is heated by a hot water bath to a temperature of
twenty-five or thirty degrees of the Centigrade thermometer. When the starch
is put in, and well mixed, the fecule of the potato and sago are to be added,
and the whole well stirred up together; the malt is now to be added and to
be well stirred up and heated until the matters are brought into a gummy
state, which is generally in about an hour after the malt has been added.
In order to ascertain whether the materials are properly prepared, I take
out a small quantity and put it upon a white plate and mix with it a little
tincture of iodine, which if the gum is not properly prepared the color will be
changed to a blue, but if it is changed to a reddish violet color the materials
have been sufficiently mixed together. At this stage the heat from the bath is
to be discontinued, and the materials are heated by steam passing through pipes
placed at the lower part of the vessel for that purpose, and the whole is to be
heated by the steam to a temperature of one hundred to one hundred and five
degrees of Centigrades, when the steam is to be shut off and the materials
allowed to remain for about an hour, when it is to be filtered by passing it
through woollen cloth or any other suitable material.
in
The gum is then to be concentrated, which is done by placing it into, another
vessel having a coil of pipe therein through which steam is passed, which heats
the material and drives off the water mixed with it. If the gum is required to
be brought into a dry state the moisture contained therein is to be evaporated
any I convenient manner, and the gum is afterwards divided into small pieces
and allowed to remain to dry; and in some cases when this gum is required to
be dried quickly I add a small quantity of the esscence of turpentine during the
time the evaporation is going on (about half an once to one hundred pounds
of the material, which facilitates it)..
Having thus described the nature of the Invention, and the manner of

page_text: performing the same, I would have it understood that I do not confine myself
to the precise proportions of the materials employed, although believe those
given to be the best for making the gum, nor do I confine myself to the mode
of heating the materials by the hot water bath as they may be heated in any
other manner; but what I claim is, the preparing vegetable materials into an
artifical gum by combining the, fecule of potatoes with malt, with or without
sago and starch, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Louis Matthurin Fouquit, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-five.
CHARLES LOUIS MATHURIN (L.S.) FOUQUET.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED that on the Eighteenth day of October, in the
year of our Lord, 1845, the aforesaid Charles Louis Matthurin Fouquet came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.