IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING FATTY AND
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
PILLANS WILSON, of Belmont, Vauxhall, in the County of Surrey, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-ninth day of August, in the eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said James Pillans Wilson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, Her
especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
James Pillans Wilson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said James Pillans Wilson, my executors, administrators, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed, should and law-
fully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey,
Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING FATTY AND

page_text: OILY MATTERS, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso requiring me, the said James Pillans
Wilson, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and scal, and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Pillans Wilson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same to be performed, are fully and particu-
larly described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that
is to say:
According to the ordinary practice of treating fatty and oily matters, in
order to separate the more liquid part from the more solid part thereof, the
operation is in many cases liable to be greatly prejudiced by the variations in
the temperature of the air; for when the weather is too warm or the tempera-
ture is not perfectly regulated, it often happens that a considerable portion of
the harder part of the fatty or oily matter operated upon escapes in a fluid
state with the oil, which both diminishes the quantity of harder matter obtained,
and also injures the oil by making it liable to solidify. Now I have discovered
that these inconveniences may be in a great measure avoided by the application
of artificial cold, by means of which I am enabled to carry on the process of
separating the more liquid part from the more solid part of fatty and oily
matters in a cooled and well regulated atmosphere. And in order to give the
best information in my power for enabling a workman to carry out this part
my Invention, I will describe the means which I pursue for the purpose.
of
I use for this purpose a room of about eighteen feet high, fifty feet long, and
twenty feet broad, with treble walls, so as to interpose between the air of the
room and the external air three bodies of brick and two intervals of stagnant
air, also with a double ceiling and a roof over that, so that there may be three
solid bodies and two strata of air interposed. I have five windows in the
length of the room, but they are all double, and each of the two sashes is
double glazed, so that four sheets of glass and three strata of air are obtained.
and these are also to be provided with means of shutting out or shading the
sun from the room. I carefully putty up the sides of the sashes, and take
care in the whole extent of the building to leave no air hole whatever except
the door, which I make double and to fit very exactly. In one end of this

page_text: Toom place nive powerful hydraulic presses, which take up but a small part
of the area, the room being much larger than an ordinary press room for this
number of presses, the reason for this increased size being that the operations
preparatory to pressing as well as the pressing itself have to be carried on
therein. At the height of the top of the presses, namely, about nine feet from
the floor, very strong rafters cross the room at intervals throughout its whole
length, except six feet at one end. Upon these rafters are supported four
cast-iron cisterns, placed lengthways across the room side by side, each of which
is eighteen feet long, ten feet broad, and four fect deep. The first cistern
stands at six feet distance from the end wall of the room, and a space of one
foot is left also between each two cisterns, and between the last cistern and the
opposite end wall. The cisterns are all on a level, and from a little below
the top of the first a pipe of six inches diameter leads into the bottom of the
second, and a similar pipe from a little below the top of the second to the
bottom of the third, and again from a little below the top of the third to
the bottom of the fourth, and from a little below the top of the fourth on the
side nearest to the end wall a waste pipe leads away to a drain in the floor. In
the factory in which I have worked out my Invention is a well sunk through
the London blue clay, and a steam engine is constantly working night and
day in the factory. For processes not requiring a very low temperature, but
merely a moderation of the summer heat, I have found it a cheap and efficient
plan to attach a pump to the engine to be constantly pumping the very cold
water of this well into the first cistern, the supply pipe leading to the bottom of
the cistern. The water then passes off from the top of the first cistern slightly
warmed into the bottom of the second, then from its top rather more warmed
into the bottom of the third, and similarly into the fourth, whence it escapes.
But when I require a lower temperature than this, or in places not having the
conveniences of a cold well and steam engine, I put ice into the first cistern
from time to time in such quantities as may be necessary for lowering the
temperature of the room to the desired degree, and for a very low temperature
I find it necessary to put ice into all the cisterns; and for a lower temperature
still, to mix salt with the ice. In addition to the waste pipe from the last
cistern, I have a smaller one from the bottom of each cistern with a cock to
it, so as to give the power of draining each separately of waste water at plea-
sure. The ice is brought up through the space of six feet, above stated to be
left free of rafters and cisterns, and planks are placed across the top of the
cisterns for the workmen to walk upon in carrying it. I use the process of
artificial cooling produced by the above-mentioned or other suitable means in
the various processes for separating the more liquid part of cocoa-nut oil, palm
.

page_text: processes.
oil, lard, and other fatty and oily matters, and their respective acids, from the
more solid parts thereof, especially in the processes of pressing such substances
in coir mats, or other suitable woven fabrics, and in tiers with plates interposed,
and in the processes of cooling and granulating the above-mentioned matters,
and solidifying and repressing the liquid products thereof, aud in the processes
of bagging and pressing sperm, and other processes of treating fatty and oily
matters in order to obtain an eventual separation of the more liquid parts
thereof from the more solid parts thereof, wherever a greater degree of cold
than that of the then state of the atmosphere is required in such respective
I also apply an atmosphere artificially cooled in the room above
described (or for the sake of convenience in a smaller room, similarly cooled
in a sufficient degree by means of one or two or more cisterns, or by other
suitable means) to the making of candles when the weather is warm or
variable, the ordinary operation of mould candle making being, as is well
known, much affected by the state of the weather. And in using Morgan's
patent candle machine I make the railway on which the frames travel pass
through a room or space artificially cooled as above mentioned, taking care to
close the aperture immediately on the frames being admitted or removed.
I would here observe, that I am aware it has been proposed to cool the moulds
used in making candles by applying cold substances directly thereto, and also
that it has been proposed in using fixed moulds to counteract the heat occa-
sioned by the process of candle making by means of small chambers attached
to the moulds, the atmosphere contained in which is cooled by water; and I
mention these circumstances in order to observe that I lay no claim to the
application of cold substances direct to the moulds; nor do I claim the cooling
thereof by means of chambers attached thereto, where the atmosphere of such
chambers is cooled without ice, this part of my Invention having for its object
the use of an atmosphere of artificial cold when making candles. I have
found the process of artificial cooling particularly advantageous to the manu-
facture of composite candles (by which I mean candles composed of fatty acid
mixed with the stearine of cocoa-nut oil, or other unacidified fatty material),
for in manufacturing the stearine of cocoa-nut oil (which I believe to be the
best material for the purpose of making composite candles) the process is so
much dependent on temperature as to be almost impracticable in warm
weather, and the process of pressing cocoa-nut oil is for the most part dis-
continued in the summer.
My Invention also relates to certain other improvements in the manufacture
of composite candles, and also to the manufacture of fatty acids for making of
composite and other candles. The fatty acid which has been commonly

page_text: readily carried
employed in the manufacture of composite candles is the stearic acid of tallow,
in making which considerable expense is incurred, and the product of avail-
able acid matter diminished by processes of cold-pressing and hot-pressing
for the purpose of removing the dark-colored liquid acid, known in its expressed
form by the name of tallow oil. Now, I have discovered that if distilled fatty
acids are used in the manufacture of composite candles, either in combination
with or in substitution for the undistilled fatty acids hitherto employed, the
necessary degree of whiteness and hardness in the fatty acids used can be
obtained at a diminished expence, the operation of distillation having a very
powerful bleaching effect upon the fatty acids subjected thereto. And in order
that this part of my Invention may be clearly understood and
into effect, I will proceed to describe the means which I pursue. I take any
convenient quantity of palm oil, when that is the matter to be used, and
convert it into fatty acids by the ordinary process of saponification, and then
distil the fatty acids so obtained, and granulate and cold press the product of
distillation, by which processes I obtain a stearic acid and a light colored oil,
but to which processes I make no claim. The stearic acid having been washed
in the ordinary way is used in the manufacture of composite candles in a
manner similar to that in which the stearic acid of tallow has been hitherto
employed, that is, by mixing it with stearine of cocoa-nut oil, or other suitable
unacidified fatty material, and moulding the same into candles; or if a cheaper
fatty acid is required when making composite candles, I use for mixing with
unacidified fatty material, as above mentioned, a compound fatty acid con-
sisting of the entire product of the above distillation mixed with half its
weight of distilled and cold-pressed stearic acid of tallow. Or in place of
palm oil I take any convenient quantity of tallow and deprive if of its oleine,
or a considerable portion thereof, by subjecting it to a process of pressure, or
by other suitable means (using a process of artificial cold when necessary),
and I obtain further hard matter from the said oleine by cooling it down and
repressing or bagging it with artificial cold, as above mentioned, and then I
mix together the two harder products and convert the aggregate into fatty
acids, and distil the same and use the entire distilled product in the manu-
facture of composite candles, as above mentioned, it being rendered by the
distillation sufficiently white for the purpose, which it would not otherwise be.
Or if a greater degree of hardness is required, I press the product of distilla-
tion and obtain thereby a harder fatty acid (which may be either used in the
manufacture of composite candles or made into candles by itself), and a light
colored oily acid. In obtaining distilled fatty acids from other fatty or oily
matters (not being palm oil or tallow) for the manufacture of composite

page_text: candles or other purposes, I either convert the entire substance of the fatty
or oily matter into distilled fatty acids in a manner similar to that above
described with reference to palm oil, or I commence by extracting an
unacidified oil in a manner similar to that described with reference to
tallow, selecting the one process or the other according as it is desired to
obtain the liquid matter in the form of a distilled oily acid, or of an undis-
tilled unacidified oil. I would observe, that having found distilled stearic
acid more crystalline than the undistilled stearic acid, I add to the mixed
material used in making composite candles from two to four per cent.
by weight of wax to assist the amalgamation of the fatty acid with the
unacidified fat.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the best means I
am acquainted with for carrying it into effect, I would have it understood that
my Invention consists in the following particulars (that is to say) :-
First, I claim the using of artificial cold in the processes of treating fatty
and oily matters, in order to obtain an eventual separation of the more liquid
parts thereof from the more solid parts thereof. And I claim the using of
ice in such processes, and the using therein of an artificially cooled atmo-
sphere. And I claim the application to the manufacture of candles of
products obtained from fatty and oily matters, by treating the same when
subjected to artificial cold.
Secondly, I claim the using of an atmosphere of artificial cold in the making
of candles, as above described.
Thirdly, I claim the manufacture of fatty acids from the harder part of
fatty or oily matters when artificial cold has been used in the process of
abstracting the liquid part thereof; and I claim the application of fatty acids
so obtained in the manufacture of candles.
Fourthly, I claim the distillation of fatty and oily acids obtained from
fatty or oily matters, previously treated by pressure or other suitable means, in
order to extract the more liquid part thereof; and I claim the application to s
the manufacture of candles of the product of such distillation.
And,
Fifthly, I claim the using of distilled fatty acids in the manufacture of
composite candles.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Pillans Wilson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of February, in the year s
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-five.
J. P. (L.S.) WILSON.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-eighth day of
February, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid James Pillans Wilson
came before our Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged
the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in
form above written. And also the Specification was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Twenty-eighth day of February, in the year above
written.