IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Michael Henry, of Fleet Chambers, 68, Fleet
Street, in the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP, AND IN APPARATUS
EMPLOYED THEREIN."-A communication from abroad by Jean Hector
Dostiho
1 Daulavant nint Martin Danie
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Michael Henry at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd December 1873.
I, MICHAEL HENRY, of Fleet Chambers, 68, Fleet Street, in the Oity
of London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP, AND IN APPARATUS
EMPLOYED THEREIN," communicated to me from abroad by Jean Hector
Destibeaux, of 17, Boulevart Saint Martin, Paris, France, to be as
follows:-
The Invention relates to the manufacture of soap in which concrete
fatty acids, stearic, margaric, palmitic, arachidic, oleic, or others are

page_text: According to this Invention stearic acid and oleine, or other oleic or
fatty body, are melted together or dissolved under a gentle heat, with or
without resinous substance; and to the mixture is added a quantity of
hydrate of caustic soda, or hydrated or hydrous caustic soda, containing
a proportion of anhydrous soda. The mass rapidly saponifies, and the
fluid soap may be drawn off or removed for solidification, and other
necessary treatment.
Instead of or with the stearic acid or oleine the ingredients used may
be margaric, palmitic, arachidic, and other concrete acids, cocoa-nut oil,
palm oil, and other oils or fats, and also resins.
I describe particularly one mode of carrying the process into effect.
Melt 56.25 parts by weight, say kilogrammes, stearic acid of commerce
with 43-75 kilogrammes oleine under a gentle heat in a boiler, or by
means of water bath or open fire, at from 60° to 75° Centigrade. Add to
these 100 kilogrammes of mixture, 250 kilogrammes of hydrated or
hydrous caustic soda at 8° Baumé, containing eleven per cent. anhydrous
soda by weight of the fatty body. Stir or agitate the mass while adding
the soda.
The warm liquid saponaceous mass is drawn off into double-bottom
frames or sesses of zinc or enamelled iron plate, one bottom being :
moveable, and connected with the fixed bottom by pins and nuts, so
that it can be readily removed with its contents. The soap is then cut
into bars or slabs of the required shape, and dried. Scenting materials
may be added, or the soap may be otherwise finished. 20 or 25 per cent.
of colophany or other resin may be substituted for such proportion of
the oleine for resinous soaps.
Instead of or with the oleine various mixtures of cocoa-nut oil, palm
oil, and tallows may be used with the stearine.
]

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Michael Henry, Her special
license that I, the said Michael Henry, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Michael Henry, 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 for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF SOAP, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN” (communicated
to me from abroad by Jean Hector Destibeaux, of 17, Boulevart Saint
Martin, Paris, France), upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Michael Henry, 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,
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

page_text: Instead of or with the stearic acid and oleine, margaric, palmitic,
arachidic, and other concrete fatty acids, cocoa-nut oil, palm oil, and
other oils or fats, and also resins may be used.
I proceed to describe one mode of carrying the process into effect.
Melt 56-25 parts by weight, say kilogrammes, of stearic acid of com-
merce with 43.75 parts by weight, say kilogrammes, of oleine under a
gentle heat in a boiler or by means of a water bath (bain marie), or
by means of an open fire at a temperature of from 60° to 75° Centigrade.
Add to these 100 parts by weight, say kilogrammes, of the mixture,
250 parts by weight (kilogrammes) of hydrated or hydrous caustic soda
at 8° Baumé, containing eleven per cent. of anhydrous soda of the
weight of the fatty body. Stir or agitate the mass while adding the
soda.
The warm liquid saponaceous mass is drawn off into double-bottomed
frames or sesses of zinc or enamelled iron plate, one of the two bottoms 1
being moveable, and connected with the fixed bottom by pins and nuts,
so that it can be readily removed therefrom with its-contents.
The soap
when ready is cut into bars or slabs of the required shape and dried.
Perfuming materials may be added, or the soap may be otherwise
finished. Twenty or twenty-five per cent, by weight of colophany may 2
be substituted for the like proportions of the oleine when it is desired to
produce a resinous soap.
Instead of or with the oleine various mixtures of cocoa-nut oil, palm
oil, and tallows, or other fatty matters, may be used with the stearic
acid.
Hitherto in manufacturing soap the fatty matters employed for the
purpose have been treated in order to extract the glycerine, and the
resultant fatty acids are separated into stearic acid and oleic acid, the
stearic acid being used for the manufacture of candles, and the olcic acid
for the manufacture of soap.
Now in order that the Invention may be well understood I may
mention that soap manufacturers have for some time sought to discover
rapid and economical means of combining oils, fatty matters, tallows,
and resins with alkalis, so as to produce soap; and the following two
well-known processes have been employed :-
The first, called in France "procedé Marseillais," consists in boiling
the fatty matters with lyes for seven or eight days almost uninterruptedly,
E
3

page_text: so as to eliminate the non-saponifiable glycerine, which all fatty bodies
contain. This process is based on the law of chemical affinity.
The second, called the cold process (fabrication à froid), consists in
boiling the fatty matters with alkaline lyes for a few hours only, and
5 without eliminating the glycerine.
Now the process of manufacturing soap according to this Invention is
free from the disadvantages of the two well-known processes just
described, from which it differs materially.
According to this Invention the concrete fatty acids containing stearic
acid and oleic acid are treated by hydrato of soda without any pre-
liminary operation of separation or preparation. Or the stearic acid may
first be separated from the oleic acid, and then taken and mixed with
the oleic acid and other fatty acids, and treated in the manner above
described. The fatty acids, as found in commerce, may be thus treated
without subjecting them to a preliminary process of separation.
Concrete fatty acids, such as stearic acids, margaric acids, palmitic
acids, arachidic acids, oleic acids, either separately or mixed with other
fatty or resinous bodies are saponified by the means above described.
Stearic acid is the compound on which the Inventor chiefly relies, but
other concrete fatty acids, as margaric, palmitic, and arachidic acids
used therewith or not, may be acted upon in manner above described.
The processes and apparatus preferred may be described in greater
detail as follows:-56 kilogrammes and 250 grammes of the stearic acid
of commerce are poured into a boiler or vessel, and melted at a gentle
heat with 43 kilogrammes and 750 grammes of oleine. To this melted
mixture are added 250 kilogrammes of caustic hydrate of soda at
8 degrees of Baumé's areometer, and containing eleven per cent. of
anhydrous soda, that is to say, 11 per cent. of the weight of the fatty
body. This caustic soda is added a little at a time, stirring by hand (or
by mechanical agitation if larger quantities of material are operated on).
As soon as the 250 kilogrammes of hydrate of soda are poured into the
boiler or vessel containing the 100 kilogrammes of the fatty matter (that
is to say the mixed oleine and stearic acid) their combination at once
takes place, and the soap is produced. The process may be conducted in
a water bath (bain marie), that is to say, vessel containing boiling water

page_text: in which the vessel holding the material is placed), or over an open
fire at a heat of from 60° to 70° Centigrade. .
The presence of stearic acid (in solution) in fatty bodies, oleine, tallows,
fats, oils, and resins causes the mixture when placed in contact with the
hydrated caustic soda to result in saponification in such a rapid and
energetic manner that a drop of the liquid paste or semi-fluid mass dropt
on a sheet of glass will coagulate thereon instantaneously like a bead of
hard soap.
The soap produced, as described, is drawn off in a warm or liquid
state by opening a cock at the bottom of the boiler or vessel, and it is
received into double-bottomed rectangular sesses of zinc or enamelled iron
plate. Each sess should contain from 10 to 50 kilogrammes of soap.
These sesses are placed one over another, so as to take up little space.
The upper bottom of the two bottoms of each sess is removeable, and
two iron pins soldered thereon take into and project from two corre-
sponding openings in the fixed bottom of the sess. Nuts are screwed
on the projecting parts of these pins, so as to hold the upper bottom to
the lower bottom; and the former is removed by unscrewing the nuts
when the slab or cake of soap is to be removed, which is done after the
soap has become crystallized by cooling.
The soap may be conveniently cut into bars, say of two to four
kilogrammes cach, and can be delivered to the market in this form, or
divided into cakes of various sizes. If these are to be moulded they
are subjected for some hours to the action of a current of hot air in a
drying stove. Any desirable perfume may be added to the soap in its
pasty and warm state.
A kilogramme is equal to about 2 lbs., 3 ounces, 4 drachms avoir-
dupois, English weight; 60° to 70° Centrigrade is equal to 140 to 158
Fahrenheit.
Thus, according to the process, not only concrete fatty acids can be
used for the manufacture of soap without preliminary separation, but
also
puro stearic acid may be taken and mixed with other fatty bodies
for the purpose. Thus stearic acid mixed with oleine is saponified for
producing marketablo soap.

page_text: Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same may be performed, I declare that I claim,—
First. The manufacture of soap in the manner herein-before
described.
Second. The arrangement and combination of parts constituting the
improved sess, frame, or apparatus herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Michael Henry, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of June, in the year
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.
Witness,
E. DE PASS,
68, Fleet Street,
London.
M. HENRY. (L.S.)