IM- PROVEMENTS IN TREATING FATTY AND OILY MATTERS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Gwynne, of Hyde Park Square, in
the County of Middlesex, Esquire, and George Fergusson Wilson,
of Belmont, Vauxhall, in the County of Surrey, Managing Direc-
tor of Price's Patent Candle Company, for the Invention of " IM-
PROVEMENTS IN TREATING FATTY AND OILY MATTERS."
Scaled the 1st July 1853, and dated the 4th January 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Gwynne
and George Fergusson Wilson at the Office of the Commissioners
of Patents, with their Petition, on the 4th January 1858.
We, GEORGE GWYNNE, of Hyde Park Square, in the County of
Middlesex, Esquire, and GEORGE FERGUSSON WILSON, of Belmont,
Vauxhall, in the County of Surrey, Managing Director of Price's
Patent Candle Company, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING FATTY AND OILY MATTERS"
to be as follows:-
We have found that fatty and oily matters which have been treated
with powerful acids do not burn well or distill freely, owing, we believe,
so far as we can form a judgment from the experiments made by us, to

page_text: a combination or intimate mixture of the acid with the fatty or oily
matter. Our Invention consists of operating on fatty and oily matters,
which have been subjected to the action of powerful acid, by boiling
such matters in water, or in water mixed with acid, or by steam or
watery vapour, combined or free.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Gwynne and George Fergusson Wilson
in the Great Seal Patent Office, on the 4th July 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, . we,
GEORGE GWYNNE, of Hyde Park Square, in the County of Middlesex,
Esquire, and GEORGE FERGUSSON WILSON, of Belmont, Vauxhall, in
the County of Surrey, Managing Director of Price's Patent Candle
Company, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the sixteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said George Gwynne and George Fergusson Wilson, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, Her special license that we, the said George
Gwynne and George Fergusson Wilson, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said George Gwynne and George
Fergusson Wilson, our 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 Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING FATTY AND OILY MATTERS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that we, the said George Gwynne and
George Fergusson Wilson, or one of us, by an instrument in writing
under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said In-
vention, and in what manuer the same was to be performed, and

page_text: 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 George Gwynne, on behalf of
myself and the said George Fergusson Wilson, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to he
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statenient thereof, that is to say:
We have found that fatty and oily matters which have been treated
with powerful acids do not burn well or distil freely, owing, we believe,
so far as we can form a judgment from the experiments made by us,
to a combination or intimate mixture of the acid with the fatty or oily
matter. Our present Invention has for its object the decomposition,
separation, or removal of the above-mentioned combination or intimate
mixture, which decomposition, separation, or removal we have disco-
vered may be effected by operating on fatty and oily matters, which have
been subjected to the action of powerful acids, by boiling such matters
in water, or water mixed with acid, or by steam or watery vapour, con-
bined or free. And in order that our said Invention may be most fully
understood, and readily carried into effect, we will proceed to describe
the means we recommend to be pursued.
We shall suppose that palm oil is the material to be operated upon,
and that the agent to operate with is sulphuric acid. The palm oil is to be
kept at the temperature of about 150°, until the impuritics mechanically
mixed with it have subsided; it is then to be pumped up into large
copper vessels similar in shape (only much larger and without the
condensing apparatus) to the 'stills described in the Specification of a
Patent for England for "Improvements in the Manufacture of Candles
and in Apparatus for and Processes of Treating Fatty and other Sub-
stances for the Making of Candles and other uses," which we obtained in
November One thousand eight hundred and forty-three. These vessels,
which we call acidifiers, arc to be connected together in pairs in such
manner that the steam may be turned from the one acidifier to the
other when required. By this means a considerable economy of fuel
will be obtained. When the temperature in one acidifier attains about

page_text: 300°; the steam which issues from it is to be let into the adjoining
vessel, also containing palm oil. Instead of the condensing apparatus,
Figure 3, of the stills of our Patent of November One thousand eight
hundred and forty-three, there is to be substituted a simple pipe.with a
jet of water playing in it when at work, and the acidified matter is to
be withdrawn from the vessels by means of large valves in the bottoms
of the vessels, instead of through the discharge pipe c. When the
acidifiers are charged the temperature of the oil is to be raised to about
470° Fahrenheit by means of "heated" steam (that is, steam which
has attained a high temperature by passing through red hot pipes after
it has left the steam boiler). The steam is then to be shut off, and the
necessary quantity of sulphuric acid, say about 6 lbs. (s. g. 1-80) to the
cwt. of palm oil, is to be added gradually.
About two hours after the whole of the acid is added, communication
with the steam boiler is to be opened, and steam of the ordinary temn-
perature is to be admitted, and to be continued for the space of about
one hour, when the "acidified matter" is to be cautiously let down into
a large wooden vessel lined with thick sheet lead, and containing." a free
steam worm," where it is to be boiled for about the space of one hour in
its own bulk of a mixture of sulphuric acid and water, in the proportions
say of 2lbs. acid to one gallon water. (Note.-As the temperature
of the acidified matter will be very high, the acid mixture should be in
a state of thorough ebullition before any acidified matter is admitted.)
The quantity of acid here recommended may appear very large, but
this is not the case in reality, for the same acid mixture may be used a
very great many times over again. We believe that it might be used
for years without any diminution of its active properties. This arises
from the fact that the whole of the organic matter produced from the
fatty material, and soluble in water, is totally destroyed at the tempera-
ture of 450°, whereas such is not the case where the acidification has
been performed at 350° Fahrenheit. (Note.-The mixture of sulphuric
acid and water is to be occasionally examined, in order that it may be
kept at about the strength above recommended. If it should become
too acid a little water may from time to time be added. 'If, on the con-
trary, it should become too much diluted, it may be concentrated by

page_text: means of heated" steam without being removed from the wooden
vessel).
"
When the acid mixture and the black dregs have "settled well
down," the clear acidified matter is to be drawn off into another vessel
and boiled with "frce steam for about an hour in its own bulk of
water, slightly acidulated by means of sulphuric acid. When the acidi-
fied matter has become "bright" it will be fit for use, and it will be
found much improved in its burning qualities; and will distil more freely
and with less loss than ordinarily prepared acidified matter.
Although we prefer to heat the palm oil by means of heated steam,
this part of the process might be modified in the following manner:-
The palm oil, after the impurities contained in it have subsided, is to
be let into a copper vessel placed over the naked fire. This vessel is to
contain a free steam worm communicating with an ordinary steam
hoiler. The temperature of the oil to be raised to 500° Fahrenheit,
steam being admitted during the heating up. When this temperature is
attained, the oil to be admitted into the acidifier, and the remainder of
the operation to be performed in the manner before described.
During the course of our experiments we discovered that ordinarily
acidified matter may be much improved in quality by boiling it five or
six times in its own bulk of plain water, and afterwards once in water
acidulated with sulphuric acid.
.
When fatty and oily matters have been treated with other powerful
acids, as, for example, with nitric, nitrous, or hyponitrous acid, we prefer
to pursue the following method for purifying them:-We shall suppose
a quantity of the crude material to have been already subjected to the
action of the acid, and to be at the temperature of about 120° Fahren-
heit, and we shall farther suppose that a wooden vessel is provided con-
taining a free steam worm, communicating not only with an ordinary
steam boiler, but also with a set of condensing pumps, by which latter
means a current of air can be forced along with steam into the matter
under process. Into this vessel is to be let a quantity of plain water equal
in bulk to the fatty matter, and the temperature is to be raised to 212°
Fahrenheit. The fatty matter is then to be run in, and the boiling to
be continued for thirty minutes, a current of air at the same time being

page_text: forced in by means of the condensing pumps. This operation of wash-
ing with plain water in conjunction with a current of air is to be
repeated five or six times, when the fatty material is to be finally washed
in its own bulk of water acidulated by means of nitric acid, when it will
be fit for use.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Gwynne, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this First day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
Witness,
JNO. COOK.
GEORGE GWYNNE. (L.S.) *