IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OR PROCESS FOR EXTRACTING, REFINING, AND HARDENING PARAFFINE WAX
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Otto Herrlich, of the Firm of Rud: Tietz and Company,
Old Broad Street, in the City of London and County of Middlesex, for an
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OR PROCESS FOR EXTRACTING,
REFINING, AND HARDENING PARAFFINE WAX." A communication from
abroad by Heinrich Ujhely, of Vienna, in the Empire of Austria.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Otto Herrlich at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 25th August 1881.
OTTO HERRLICH, of the Firm of Rud: Tietz and Company, Old Broad Street, in
the City of London and County of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OR
PROCESS FOR EXTRACTING, REFINING, AND HARDENING PARAFFINE WAX." A com-
munication from abroad by Heinrich Ujhely, of Vienna, in the Empire of
Austria.
The essential features of this Invention are as follows :-
In a suitable vessel is placed the crude paraffine or material containing the
paraffine, such for instance as earth wax, scales, shale oil, or the residuum of
petroleum, where it is mixed with alcohol (or fusel oil), methyl, amnyl, or buttyl
spirits and petroleum, either if desired, the whole being then passed on to a filter.
The alcohol absorbs the oil and carries it with it through the filter, leaving the
paraffine behind. This paraffine, which is already fairly pure, is further purified by
the addition of a powder, which is nearly or quite a waste product from the
manufacture of ferrocyanide of potassium (" ferra cyankalium "), and is then again
filtered.
The alcohol and oil is placed in a steam heated still, when the spirit separates
from the oil and passes through suitable pipes back to the original container ready
for re-use. It may be repeatedly re-used, as the loss is scarcely perceptible. The
oil remaining in the still can be drawn off and used as wanted.'
The powder also can be re-used many times.
By this process a better quality of paraffine is produced and at a cheaper rate
than is attainable by the usual process

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Otto Herrlich, in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 24th
February 1882.
OTTO HERRLICH, of the Firm of Rud. Tietz and Company, Old Broad Street,
in the City of London and County of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
METHOD OR PROCESS FOR EXTRACTING, REFINING, AND HARDENING, PARaffine
WAX." A communication from abroad by Heinrich Ujhely, of Vienna, in the
Empire of Austria.
In a suitable enclosed vessel, the precise construction of which is not material to
the carrying out of this Invention, is placed the crude paraffine or scales, together
with the solvents. The solvents consist of a mixture of
a). Petroleum, either (benzine, gasoline, or naphtha), and
b). Alcohol (this may be either pure, ethyl, methyl or amyl alcohol, or a mixture
of two or all of these different kinds of alcohol).
The proportional quantity of the solvents a and b is variable, depending upon
the quality of the crude material to be worked up, and must be regulated in each.
case according to the requirements of that particular case. This will be well
understood by chemists and others skilled in this subject.
To insure the complete dissolving of the crude material, heat may be applied to
the vessel so as to raise the temperature at any rate above the melting point of the
crude material, after which it is allowed to cool down.
As this solution cools, the paraffine crystallizes, thus separating itself from the
oils contained in the crude inaterial, which remain in a dissolved state in the
solvents.
The paraffine thus recovered by crystallization is as much as possible freed from
the solvents which it still contains by passing it through a filter press or hydraulic
press, and the last traces of the solvents are removed by evaporation, the solvents
being recovered if desired by condensation.
The heavy mineral oils which formed part of the raw material are contained in a
dissolved state in the solvents (which have been separated from the paraffine by
crystallization and the presses, as already described), and in order to separate these
oils from the solvents, the solution is distilled in the wellknown manner, which is
all the easier, as the boiling point of the solvents is considerably lower than that
of the mineral oils.
The paraffine is bleached by being melted and digested with the powder, which
is a residue from the manufacture of the ferrocyanide of potassium, and finally the
paraffine is filtered through filtering paper.
Having now described this Invention as communicated to me by my foreign
correspondent, I wish it to be understood that what I claim and desire to protect
under the hereinbefore in part recited Letters Patent is,-
.
First. The dissolving of the crude paraffine or scales in the solvents, substantially
as set forth for the purpose of separating the pure paraffine from the heavy mineral
oils contained iu the crude material.
Second. In combination with the herein described process for separating the pure
paraffine from the heavy mineral oils, the bleaching of the thus obtained paraffine
by means of the residual product from the manufacture of ferrocyanide of
potassium, substantially as set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Otto Herrlich, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty third day of February, in the year of Our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sighter A