AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PREPARING TALLOW, FATS, AND Ors POR VARIOUS USES, BY PURIFYING THEM AND DEPRIVING THEM OF OFFENSIVE SMELL, AND BY SOLIDIFYING SUCH AS ARE FLUID AND GIVING ADDITIONAL HARDNESS AND SOLIDITY TO SUCH AS ARE SOLID, AND ALSO BY A NEW PROCESS OF SEPARATING STEARING OR STEARIC ACID FROM THE ELAINE IN SUCH SUBSTANCES
Year: 1840

page_text: CLARK'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
DELIANSON CLARK, of No. 198, Strand, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fifth day of November, in the fourth year of Her reign;
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
George Delianson Clark, Her especial licence that I, the said George
Delianson Clark, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said George Delianson Clark, my executors, administrators, and
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, and also Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations, my
Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PREPARING TALLOW, FATS, AND Ors
POR VARIOUS USES, BY PURIFYING THEM AND DEPRIVING THEM OF OFFENSIVE SMELL,
AND BY SOLIDIFYING SUCH AS ARE FLUID AND GIVING ADDITIONAL HARDNESS AND
SOLIDITY TO SUCH AS ARE SOLID, AND ALSO BY A NEW PROCESS OF SEPARATING
STEARING OR STEARIC ACID FROM THE ELAINE IN SUCH SUBSTANCES;" in which'
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said George
Delianson Clark, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled

page_text: in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said 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
George Delianson Clark, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are
described by the words following, that is to say:
If the fatty substances are already. in the state of soft solids, as grease, or
lard, or congealed oil, they are to be heated so as to render them fluid, and
kept at such a temperature as to maintain them in a fluid state, but if already
fluid, as oils usually are at common temperatures, the application of heat to
them is not necessary; and in their liquid state a quantity of concentrated
sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol), equal to 20 or from 20 to 25 per cent. by weight
(which will vary according to the nature of the fatty or oily matter to be acted
on), is to be mixed with the oil of fatty matter by rapid agitation, in a vessel
of lead or wood or any other kind of vessel on which the sulphuric acid will
have no action, which vessel is to be kept covered the whole of the time; and
after the fatty or oily matter has been well incorporated with the sulphuric
acid as much nitric acid of specific gravity 445 as is equal to 30th to 10th of
the sulphuric acid employed is to be added, and the agitation continued until
the whole is completely mixed; the mixture is then to remain at rest for at
least 24 hours. It is to be remarked that it is only when the fatty or oily
matters are impure, by which I mean that when they contain substances such
as albumen, gelatine, or other (common or usual) impurities of animal or
vegetable origin, that it is necessary to employ the nitric acid. The mixture or
compound of fatty or oily matters with the sulphuric acid by this time will be
found to have acquired increased hardness, and will require the assistance of
heat to detach it from the bottom and sides of the vessel; for this purpose
heat may be applied either externally to the vessel, or steam may be intro-
duced into the interior, when water equal to about half the bulk of the mixture
is to be added and the agitation of the materials renewed till perfect.
incorporation is effected. After reposing a sufficient time the acid water is to
be drawn off by a suitable aperture at the bottom of the vessel, and this
operation of adding water and drawing it off at the bottom is to be repeated.
until the water drawn off loses its acid taste or ceases to act on vegetable
blues. The first portions of acid water that are drawn off contain a very large
quantity of sulphuric acid and may be retained either to be employed in this
state in subsequent parts of the process, or be concentrated to its original.

page_text: 1.
strength for future operations. When by the repeated additions of water,: as
above stated, all traces of acid are removed, a large quantity more water is
to be stirred in until a complete incorporation of the water and oil or fatty
substance, is obtained, and until the mixture or compound, which will have
acquired a consistency like thick paste or bird lime, will imbibe no more. The
mixture is then to be put into a suitable air-tight apparatus, and steam at
a temperature of about 277° Fahrenheit is to be introduced. This part of the
process must be carefully attended or otherwise the fatty. matter will contain
portion of the acid, and, as far as I know at present, it requires to be subjected
to this high temperature in contact with water for the complete separation of
the acid. The boiling or heating of the materials or mixture is to be main-
tained at this temperature for at least half an hour. They are then left to
separate, and as much of the water as possible is to be drawn off by means of
a cock or other suitable contrivance placed at the bottom of this vessel, and
after the water has come away the fatty matter in a fluid state will remain to
be drawn off separately. The fatty matter thus, far purified, is to be put into
a'tub or other suitable vessel, to be covered over to retain the heat, and left
to rest, that the last portion of water and other impurities may separate from
the fluid fat, and when it has become clear it is to be drawn off or removed by
suitable stop-cocks or other contrivances in the side of the tub or vessel
placed at various heights for this purpose into another vessel, where it is to be
again agitated with a portion of magnesia, lime, or weak ley of soda, or potass,
or any other suitable alcaline substance, together with the chloride of soda or
potass or the chloride of any other base, until they are intimately blended, and
when it is perceived that the fatty matter has been divested of any noisome
smell that it may have possessed, steam is to be introduced again into the tub
and the agitation renewed, while a quantity of the weak acid obtained in the
earlier part of the process is to be added for the purpose of removing the alcaline
matters and displacing the chlorine from the chloride of potass, or soda, or other
base, after which a considerable quantity of water is to be added and the tem-
perature raised to the boiling point by applying steam internally, or heat exter-
nally, to the vessel, and when the fatty matter has again become clear it is to
be drawn off as before into a suitable vessel, and a quantity of oil cake, in fine
powder, is to be mixed with it, and also some finely powdered animal charcoal.
It may then be suffered to settle in order to get rid of the powdered oil-cake and
animal charcoal, and then filtered, if necessary, and run into moulds of any
kind whatsoever, when it will become solid on cooling, whether the operation.
as been performed on oil, grease, or soft fat. It should be remarked, that in.
order to carry on these operations successfully it is necessary that the. room or.

page_text: factory should be kept at a temperature of 60° or 70° Fahrenheit. I am fully
aware that sulphuric acid, and also nitric acid, have been employed by others
in simall quantities for a length of time for the purification of oils of various
kinds, and do not mean to claim the use of either or both of these in such
small quantities for that purpose.
But, what I do claim as my Invention or discovery is, the employment or
use of a larger quantity of sulphuric acid than has been heretofore used, by
nieans of which a chemical change is produced in the oily or fatty substances,
and by such chemical change, which the employment or use of such large
quantities of sulphuric acid produces, soft fatty substances are rendered more
hard and solid; and fluid oils are converted into hard fatty matters of the
consistence of tallow, and all of them are deprived of offensive smell.
And I also claim the employment of the chlorides of soda, or potass, or other
basis of chlorides in conjunction with the above as another method or as
another part of my process for disinfecting or rendering free from any
unpleasant taint or odour the most tainted fish oils and fats of every
denomination, and for converting them into hard substances, whereby their
value is materially enhanced.
And, I also claim the employment of a higher degree of heat than boiling
water for ensuring the more perfect separation of the last portion of sulphuric
acid, whether it be produced by the introduction of high pressure steam, as
above described, or by the application of heat externally to the vessel con-
taining the mixture of the materials, such vessel being constructed of proper
materials and capable of being rendered air-tight, and of sufficient strength to
resist the pressure to which it will be necessarily subjected.
My process for effecting the separation of the stearine from the ealine in
oils generally is as follows:-
The oil (for example, rape or colseed oil) is to be mixed rapidly with about
one-eighth of its bulk of strong sulphuric acid, and the agitation continued 'for
at least half an hour, the mixture must then be left at rest for about four or
five hours, after which it is to be put into about four or five times it's bulk of
water and well agitated; it will then curdle, and ultimately separate into
curd and dilute acid, when about 'double the quantity of water originally used
is to be added, and then left to repose for twelve or more hours, when the
stearine will be found to have separated from the elaine. If tallow or other
fatty substances not in the state of liquid oil have to be treated by 'this process
for the purpose of separating the stearine from the elaine, those substances
must be brought to a fluid state by the application of heat before the above-
-mentioned proportion of sulphuric acid be added to them, but in other

page_text: respects they are to be treated in the same way as the process for rape or
coleseed oil just described, and the mode of thus separating the stearine from
the elaine of oils and fatty matters from each other I claim as another part of
my Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Delianson Clark, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fifth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-one.