A DISCOVERED EARTH OF PECULIAR PROPERTIES, WHICH BY CERTAIN NEW PROCESSES OF MANUFACTURE IS CAPABLE OF BEING RENDERED A SUBSTITUTE FOR SOAP
Year: 1802

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
VANCOUVER, of Tachbrook House, in the County of Warwick, Esquire, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-third day of
July, in the forty-second year of His reign, give and grant to me, the said
John Vancouver, His especial licence that I, the said John Vancouver, during
the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "A DISCOVERED EARTH OF PECULIAR PROPERTIES, WHICH BY CERTAIN
NEW PROCESSES OF MANUFACTURE IS CAPABLE OF BEING RENDERED A SUBSTITUTE
FOR SOAP; in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said John Vancouver, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months after the
date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation being
thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Vancouver, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are herein-after particu-
larly described and ascertained as follows (that is to say):-

page_text: In the first place I do proceed to describe the circumstances relating to the
said earth of peculiar properties, by means of which the said earth may
hereafter be distinguished and known.
And in the next place I proceed to describe the manufacturing processes
by which the general properties, particularly the firmness and cohesion of the
said earth, are improved, so as to render the same avaluable substitute for
soap in the various uses of the arts and of domestic life. The said earth is
found in the Parish of Tachbrook, near Warwick, on an estate belonging to
the Right Honorable the Earl of Warwick, at the depth of from four. to ten
feet below the surface of the earth. It is not distinguished by any particular
name, and is disposed or situated in the ground in three different strata or layers.
The first or uppermost layer is of a greenish or greyish colour, and the second
layer is of a beautiful lilac or light purple colour, and the third or undermost is
generally white, although sometimes the white is found intermixed with the
purple. The stratum upon which the said earth lies is an indurated red marl,
and it is superinduced by a bed of gravel. The thickness of the entire stratum
of the said earth is from four inches to one foot, and its general position is very
even, regular, and level. When first taken out of the earth its colours are very
fine, particularly the lilac, which on exposure to the sun's rays, or to the
influence of frost, soon becomes white. It has considerable weight, part of
which it loses by drying, but in the manufacturing state it's weight is very
Dearly that of the crude earth. Very little symmetry appears in its form or
fracture. It's texture is very fine, with scarcely any exhibition of sandy or
siliceous matter when pressed between the teeth. The chemical examination
to which it has hitherto been subjected has shewn that it contains clay,
siliceous sand, and the oxide of iron, but a more studied examination would
no doubt shew the existence of certain peculiarities in its component parts,
or in the order of their combination, or the minuteness of its integrant parts,
from which the detergent property of this earth might be found to arise.
The processes for manufacturing the said earth are performed. as follow:-
After digging it out of the vein it is dried by means of stoves or otherwise, then
pulverized and sifted through fine sieves or such other apparatus_as_is_com-
monly used for sifting meal or other powders. A size is then prepared (in
preference) from the white shreds of leather, and the dry sifted earth is
beaten up or pounded or kneaded together with the said size, either by hand
or by rammers, rollers, or such other machines or apparatus as are commonly
used for the like purposes; after which operation it is formed into convenient
parcels or cakes, resembling those of soap, and of such sizes, figures, and
dimensions as are best adapted to the purposes of its intended application.

page_text: The use of the size is to keep the parts of the earth together and to moderate
the effect of its absorbent quality, which is so extreme as to cause it to
become pulverulent like quick lime when water is added to the dried earth,
and accordingly I do not confine myself in the said manufacturing processes
to the use of size made of leather, but I do apply other animal and vegetable
mucileges to the same purpose, giving the preference to such as by their
cheapness and adhesive quality are best adapted to the purposes of the
manufacture, and I consider the present instruction with regard to the use
of one of the said mucilages as sufficient to enable any person to execute any
processes in that respect.
Lastly, I do observe, that the leading and most distinctive property of the
said earth is that of cleansing wool in a manner much superior to soap, because
it makes it equally white and clean without robbing it of what manufacturers
call its nature, as soap does. To explain these effects I must state the well-
known fact that when wool is washed with coarse soap it undergoes some
change, either in the polish of its surface, or in the elasticity of its fibres, or
in some other respects, which causes it to feel less full in the hand, so that it
will not rise and spring up after pressure in the same manner as it did before
such washing; whereas on the contrary, wool when trealed with the washing
earth becomes equally white and clean at the same time that it remains in
possession of all its original fullness and elasticity, which are of great conse-
quence and value in the manufacture of this important article of national
produce.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Vancouver, have hereunto set my.
hand and and seal, this Fourteenth day of January, in the year of
L.S.J
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Fourteenth day of
January, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid John Vancouver came
before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifi-
cation aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute in that case made and provided.