IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BARKER ANDERSON, of Great Suffolk Street, Surrey, 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-fifth day of November, in the Eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Barker Anderson, Her especial licence, full power, sole pri-
vilege and authority, that I, the said John Barker Anderson, my exors,
adñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Barker Anderson,
my exors, adiñors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said John Barker Anderson, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, 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
John Barker Anderson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,

page_text: and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof (that is to say) :-
In making common yellow or resin soap, the process followed is to boil the
goods upon successive portions of alkaline ley until they become "strength,"
after which the curd so produced is subjected to a purifying process or operation,
called by the London soapmakers "fitting," which is thus performed:-The ley
used in boiling to strength is carefully pumped off from the saponaceous paste,
and the latter is diluted with weak ley or water and boiled until of a certain
consistence well known to soapboilers; after which it is suffered to stand for
two or three days, and there settles out of the perfect soap, and is found below
it, a certain substance called " niger" or " nigre." The perfect soap is
cleansed off this "niger or "nigre" into the soap frames; the niger itself
being added to the next operation, or made into an inferior yellow soap. The
process followed in making curd soap is to boil the goods upon successive
leys until they become " strength," after which, and when the curd is of a
certain consistence, well known to soapboilers, it is cleansed off into the soap
frames without further treatment. In making curd soap no fitting process has
hitherto been practised.
I find it necessary to enter into these details to facilitate the subsequent
description of my Invention, and I have used, and shall use, those terms com-
monly employed by soapboilers, and which they perfectly understand.
Now my Invention is this: I find that when curd soap is boiled to strength
and subjected to a fitting process, somewhat similar to the fitting process
used in making yellow soap, there separates from it a peculiar substance
analagous to the niger or nigre of yellow soap; and that by removing this
niger (as I shall hereafter call it), and boiling the remainder of the goods into
curd soap, I obtain a curd soap of better quality than the original charge of
goods would yield without this operation. I also find the niger which I remove
eminently adapted for making a mottled soap, to which purpose I apply it
accordingly.
In carrying my Invention into operation I proceed in all respects in the
manner commonly practised by soap boilers, up to a certain point; that is, I
add in the copper the ordinary materials for making curd soap to the ordinary
leys, and boil them together until the goods are "to strength," and "ribbon
out" well on the finger; but at this stage, instead of boiling out the head
and finishing, as heretofore practised, I commence the performance of my
process. I pump out the strong ley on which the goods have been boiled, and
treat the goods with successive portions of weak ley or water, and boil them
together until they assume the appearance of the goods of a fitting yellow

page_text: copper; this condition being arrived at, I stop the operation and allow time
for the niger to be deposited, which may require from twenty-four to thirty-six
hours. I now proceed to separate this niger, which I either pump out from
under the purified goods to an adjacent copper, or I remove the purified goods
from above the niger to an adjacent copper, as I find most convenient; but in
either case the said goods, being thus deprived of the niger, I add to them the
proper finishing ley for curd soap and boil to a suitable curd, or until the
soap is found to be in a condition for cleansing off into the frames. When I
operate upon a charge of very impure materials, or when, from any circum-
stance, I consider it of advantage, I repeat this purifying or fitting process one
or more times, in which case or cases, after separating the niger from the goods
as described, I add to the residual partially-purified goods a ley of moderate
strength only (instead of the finishing ley for curd soap), and boil, taking care
no "head" is formed. I then pump out this ley, and again treat the goods
with weak ley or water until sufficiently diluted, so as to perform the fitting
process, after which I allow time for subsidence, separate the niger, add the.
finishing ley, and boil to a curd, as before described.
I now proceed to explain my treatment of the niger, and my mode of con-
verting it into mottled soap. As above stated, I pump it from under the
purified goods to an adjacent copper, or remove the purified goods from it,
suffering it to remain in the copper which has been employed for its separa-
tion; in either case, I add to it the ordinary ley used for finishing a mottled
soap, and boil until the soap is fit for cleansing off into the frames. The
quantity of niger obtained from one purifying or fitting operation is not large
enough to be boiled conveniently by itself; I therefore, in general, pump four,
six, or more of the said nigers together, and finish them as one boiling, in the
manner above described. I also occasionally add to the nigers a portion of
tallow, bone, fat, melted stuff, or other suitable material, and afterwards pro-
ceed and finish as with an ordinary charge for mottled soap.
Having thus fully described the nature of my Invention, and the mode of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I do not confine
myself to the precise details herein described, so long as the peculiar character
of the Invention be retained; but what I claim is,―
First, the manufacture of a curd soap, by separating from the materials
originally put into the copper the niger or nigre substance already fully alluded
to, and boiling the remainder of the materials into curd soap, by which I pro-
duce a purer and better soap than the said materials would yield without this
treatment. And,

page_text: Secondly, I claim the making of this niger or nigre substance into a
mottled soap, with or without the addition of other materials, as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Barker Anderson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-five.