IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING FATTY AND RESINOUS BODIES, EITHER IN A NEUTRAL OR ACID STATE
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Peter Armand le Comte de Fontainemoreau, of
No. 4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Patent Agent, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING FATTY AND RESINOUS BODIES, EITHER IN A
NEUTRAL OR ACID STATE."-A communication from Charles Moinier,
residing at St. Ouen, France.
Sealed the 20th June 1862, and dated the 27th December 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Armand le Comte
de Fontainemoreau at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 27th December 1861.
I, PETER ARMAND LE COMTE DE FONTAINE MOREAU, of No. 4, South Street,
Finsbury, London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING FATTY AND RESINOUS BODIES, EITHER IN A
NEUTRAL OR ACID STATE," to be as follows:-
The process consists in treating fatty or resinous bodies to be employed
for lighting by the nitramidine (a mixture of fecula and azotic acid) and I
operate as follows:-I melt the fatty or resinous bodies in a wooden vat
conveniently arranged and heated by steam circulating in a leaden worm. 1
maintain the temperature from 40° to 50° Centigrade during three or four

page_text: hours. I afterwards add about half a pound of nitramidine for every 100 lbs.
of the fatty or resinous bodies treated as above described, I then agitate the
whole for obtaining the complete combination until it becomes thick and quite
cool. I leave it at rest during three to four hours, the time required for the
action of the nitramidine. The bodies so treated can be either saponified or
acidified to be afterwards distilled. The nitramidine serving to form the
sebaic and elaidic acids, care must be taken for the success of the operation,
first, to prevent all contact of water with the body operated upon, as it dissolves
the sebaic acid while forming; secondly, to prevent the formation of nitrous
vapours (rutilantes) as they are more detrimental than useful for the formation
of the claidic acid.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontainemoreau in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 27th June 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PETER
ARMAND LE COMTE DE FONTAINEMOREAU, of No. 4, South Street, Finsbury,
London, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of December in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontainemoreau, Her special
licence that I, the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontainemoreau, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Peter
Armand le Comte de Fontainemoreau, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING FATTY AND RESINOUS BODIES, EITHER IN A NEUTRAL
OR ACID STATE," a communication from Charles Moinier, a person resident at
St. Ouen, France, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Peter
Armand le Comte de Fontainemoreau, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,

page_text: and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same
to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent..
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine-
moreau, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawing
hereto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to
say:
The improvements communicated to me consist in the treatment of fatty
and resinous bodies with nitramidine, being a substance composed of a mixture
of potato flour and nitric acid, in preference to any other compound capable
of forming nitrous vapors or gases, it having the property of hardening fatty
bodies without coloring them too much, and of disinfecting them, and especially
of favoring more than any other agent the production of elaidic acid.
These improvements do not necessitate any change in the usual mode of
preparing fatty matters to make them into candles, whether they are saponified
with lime, or acidified, and afterwards distilled, as the nitramidine is employed
during one or other of these processes in the manner herein-after described.
The fatty bodies to be used for making candles are melted in a wooden vessel
suitable for that purpose, and kept therein at a temperature of about forty degrees
Centigrade during the whole time the operation is taking place; quarter per
cent. of their weight of nitramidine previously prepared is then added, and
intimately mixed therewith, the mass being agitated until it has thickened and
cooled down. After three or four hours rest, being the time considered
necessary for the nitramidine to act on the fatty bodies; they are slightly
washed with salt water. After this first treatment with nitramidine, the
fatty bodies may be saponified with lime, or acidified ready to be distilled. If
the fatty bodies are to be saponified with lime, the saponifying process is
proceeded with in the usual way, and the fatty acids obtained by the decom-
position of lime soap, are treated with a quarter per cent. of their weight of
nitramidine, at a temperature of seventy degrees Centigrade, which temperature
is necessary to produce their decomposition and the developement of the
nitrous gases or vapours formed, and which the fatty matters take up until they
are completely saturated. If these improvements be applied to fatty bodies to
be distilled after acidification, they are placed in a boiler in which they are
heated to a temperature of one hundred and five degrees Centigrade, and their
acidification is produced by means of the apparatus herein-after described in

page_text: the following manner. The Drawing hereto annexed represents á sectional
elevation of the apparatus for acidifying fatty bodies and for treating them a
second time with nitramidine, simultaneously and in a continuous manner.
The following is a description of this apparatus and the mode of operation: :-
A is a wooden vessel, lined with lead, for containing the fatty bodies to be
acidified and heated by means of a metallic worm, in which steam circulates;
B is a leaden vat for containing sulphuric acid to acidify the fatty bodies, and
heated by steam circulating in a leaden worm; C is a small earthenware vessel
for containing the nitramidine; D is a cylindrical leaden vat provided with a
discharge pipe, and serving to receive the fatty bodies, sulphuric acid, and
nitramidine which arrive into it, at its lower part, separately and in a continuous
stream by means of the leaden pipe a, b, c, communicating with the vessels
A, B, C; E is a leaden vat, in the centre of which the vat D is placed and held.
The vat E should be constructed so as to be heated to one hundred degrees
Centigrade by means of water raised to ebullition by steam; F is a vessel lined
with lead for receiving the fatty matters running through the discharge pipe of
the vat D. This vessel F, in which the acidification of the fatty matters is
completed, is also heated by steam circulating in a leaden worm; a, leaden
pipe with tap communicating between the vessels A and D; b, leaden pipe
with tap communicating between the vats B and D; c, glass or earthenware
pipe with tap communicating between the small vessel C and the vat D.
To acidify one ton of fatty bodies, I place them in the vessel A, and heat
them to a temperature of one hundred and five degrees Centigrade; I then
pour about two hundredweight of concentrated sulphuric acid heated to ninety
degrees Centigrade into the vat B, and next pour into the small vessel Cabout
five and a half pounds of nitramidine, which should be kept at a temperature
not higher than twenty degrees Centigrade. All being thus arranged, the
egress of the various liquids is regulated by means of the taps, in such wise,
that the running of each commences and finishes at the same time as the two
others, so that the fatty bodies may be always equally in contact with the
sulphuric acid and the nitramidine. About two hours suffice to effect the
acidification of one ton of fatty bodies. The acidifying process being ended,
the fatty matters are washed and distilled by the ordinary method.
I do not confine myself to the precise details herein laid down; but what I
claim as new and intended to be protected by Letters Patent, is,-
First, the treatment of fatty bodies by nitramidine (whether intended to be
saponified or distilled) in the manner berein-before described.
Secondly, the general arrangement of the apparatus, to obtain by one and

page_text: the same operation, the acidification of fatty bodies, and their treatment by
nitrous gases, as herein-before described and represented in the Drawing.
Thirdly, the obtaining and regulating a continuous flow of fatty acids into
the vessel F, by means of the expansibility of the nitrous gases formed at the
bottom of the vessel D, as herein-before described and shown in the annexed
Drawing.
Fourthly, the mode by which the proportion of nitrous gases necessary for
the formation of elaidic acid is obtained, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine-
moreau, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day
of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-two.
A. DE FONTAINEMOREAU. (L.S.)