IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF CARTILAGINOUS MATTER OF BONE FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF GELATINE, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLI- CABLE TO THE TREATMENT OF OTHER SUBSTANCES FROM WHICH GELATINE IS MANUFACTURED
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Cowdery Martin, of High Street, Barnes,
in the County of Surrey, Gelatine Maker, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF CARTILAGINOUS MATTER OF BONE
FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF GELATINE, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLI-
CABLE TO THE TREATMENT OF OTHER SUBSTANCES FROM WHICH GELATINE IS
MANUFACTURED."
Sealed the 16th February 1869, and dated the 1st September 1868..
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Cowdery Martin
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 1st September 1868.
I, JOHN COWDERY MARTIN, of High Street, Barnes, in the County of
Surrey, Gelatine Maker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF CARTILAGINOUS MATTER OF BONE
FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF GELATINE, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE
TO THE TREATMENT OF OTHER SUBSTANCES FROM WHICH GELATINE IS MANU
FACTURED," to be as follows:-..
The improvement relates to the manner of treating the cartilaginous
matter of bone from which the earthy phosphates have been, previously,

page_text: dissolved by an acid solution, which improvement is also applicable to
the treatment of hide pieces and skin cuttings from which gelatine is
usually made. Attempts have been made to utilize the cartilaginous
matter of bone or bone from which the earthy matters have been
removed, but hitherto owing to the imperfect mode of treatment
adopted have met with but partial success and the gelatine produced
has been inferior both in colour and strength to that made from skins.
My Invention consists in treating the cartilage after leaving the acid
solution in which the earthy matters have been dissolved out with
successive solutions of lime or lime and caustic soda, weak at the com-
mencement and of gradually increasing strength, alternating with
washings in water, causing a bleaching and softening of the material,
rendering it soluble when submitted to heat of a comparatively low
temperature, and producing a white strong and tenacious jelly; also
bleaching the material after treating with the lime solutions by means
of a salt of aluminum or salt of aluminum in combination with
sulphurous acid, producing a light coloured transparent and superior
description of gelatine.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Cowdery Martin in the Great Seal Patent
Office 'on the 25th February 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
COWDERY MARTIN, of High Street, Barnes, in the County of Surrey,
Gelatine Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most. Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said John Cowdery Martin, Her special licence
that I, the said John Cowdery Martin, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said John Cowdery Martin, my exe-
cutors, 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

page_text: Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE TREATMENT OF CARTILAGINOUS MATTER OF BONE FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF
GELATINE, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE TREATMENT OF
OTHER SUBSTANCES FROM WHICH GELATINE IS MANUFACTURED," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said John Cowdery Martin, my exe-
cutors 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 Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Cowdery Martin, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement:-
My Invention consists in treating the cartilaginous matter of bone
after leaving the acid solution in which the earthy matters have been
dissolved out with successive solutions of lime or lime and caustic
soda, weak at the commencement and of gradually increasing strength,
alternating with washings in water, causing a bleaching and softening
of the material, rendering it soluble when submitted to heat of a
comparatively low temperature, and producing a white, strong, and
tenacious jelly.
In carrying out my Invention I place in a suitable vat or vessel
the cartilage of the bone, after it has been freed from acid by washing
in water, or the hide, pieces or skin cuttings from which gelatine is
usually made, and after either material has been cut by means of a knife
or other instrument into small convenient pieces I treat such material
with a solution of about 14 lbs. of lime in 200 gallons of water, in
which solution the material is to remain from two to three days, at
the expiration of which time the lime is to be thoroughly or as much
as possible removed by washing in water, by preference in a vessel
having a false perforated bottom, upon which the material is to be placed,
being well stirred from time to time, and the water run off. and fresh
added every twelve hours or oftener. After the material under treat-
ment has been washed for about three days and the lime removed as
much as possible, which may be ascertained by testing with litmus paper,
it is again to be submitted to a lime solution of twenty-eight pounds

page_text: of lime in about two hundred gallons of water, in which it is to remain
for two or three days or longer, when it is again to be thoroughly
washed, changing the water every twelve hours and stirring frequently.
After having been well washed and freed from the lime as much as
possible the material is to be again treated with a solution of fifty-six
pounds of lime in about two hundred gallons of water, in which it is to
remain from two to three days or longer, when it is to be freed from
the lime by washing in water as before. If after these operations the
material is not sufficiently whitened or bleached for the purpose for
which it is intended, it may again be submitted to the lime bath and
again washed, and these operations are to be continued until the
requisite degree of whiteness is obtained, and the material is found to
yield on heating in water a sufficiently pure gelatine. If a very clear
product is required the material may previous to heating in water for
conversion be treated with a weak solution of sulphurous acid as is
ordinarily practised in the manufacture of gelatine. If a very strong
as well as light coloured gelatine is required to be produced from the
material, whether it be bone, cartilage, or hide pieces, it must after having
been treated with the solutions of lime alternating with the washings a
second or a third time, be submitted to a bath of caustic soda composed
of fifty-six pounds of soda crystals and fifty-six pounds or more of lime to
about two hundred gallons of water. The material is to remain in this
solution about two days when it is to be removed and well washed to free
it from the alkali, after which operation it must again be submitted
to the caustic soda solution, in which it is to remain until the smaller
pieces become sufficiently soft to be readily torn or separated with the
hands, when it must be again well washed to thoroughly free it from
the alkali. If after these operations it is not sufficiently white for
the purpose intended it should be submitted to a further bath of caustic
soda sufficiently strong to soften without destroying it, and to be further
washed, and so on until the requisite degree of whiteness is attained,
when it will be found on the application of heat for conversion into
gelatine in the usual manner that the material so treated, whether it
be the cartilaginous matter of bone or hide pieces or skin cuttings,
will readily dissolve at an unusually low temperature, and the gelatine
produced will be of an exceedingly light colour and of great purity
and strength. On the application of the water after the treatment with
cach succeeding bath of lime or caustic soda, whether the material
operated upon be the bone, cartilage, or hide pieces, it will become of a

page_text: lighter colour with each washing, and the bleaching action will be
further increased by washing the material between each successive
alkaline treatment for so long a time as it will keep fresh.
In operating upon hide pieces or skin cuttings by this Invention, as
they have generally in the state in which they are sold been previously
limed to preserve them, the weaker solutions of lime may if desired be
omitted, and after being thoroughly washed the stronger solutions of lime
may at once be applied and the application of the alkaline solutions,
whether of lime or caustic soda, must be repeated until they are
sufficiently purified and bleached or whitened.
Having now described and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I
would have it understood that I do not confine myself to any particular
strength of alkaline solution or the precise details above set forth; but
what I claim as my Invention for which the said Letters Patent are
granted is, treating the cartilaginous matter of bone, or hide pieces, or
skin cuttings with successive solutions of lime or limo and caustic soda
alternating with washings, as above described, for the purpose of
bleaching or whitening and purifying the same, and the manufacture
of gelatine from the materials so treated.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Cowdery Martin, have here-