ARTICLES OF HOME GROWTH AND PRODUCE, BY THE USE OF WHICH, IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP, TAKING THE QUANTITY OF PRODUCE INTO VIEW, THERE WILL BE A GREAT SAVING IN PRICE; THE NECESSITY OF GOING TO A FOREIGN MARKET WILL BE NEARLY, PERHAPS ENTIRELY, SUPERSEDED,, AND THE, QUALITY OF THE. SOAP WILL BE EQUAL, IP NOT SUPERIOR, TO THAT USUALLY MANUFACTURED FROM, FOREIGN MATERIALS
Year: 1813

page_text: MITCHELL'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MITCHELL, Surgeon, late in Ayr, now in Edinburgh, send greeting.
1
1.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Third day of March, in the fifty-third year of His reign, did,
for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Mitchell, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His special
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said William
Mitchell, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and every of them, by myself
or themselves, or by my and their deputy, or deputys, servants or agents, or such
others as I, the said William Mitchell, my executors, administrators, or assigns,
should at any time, agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times, during the term of, fourteen years, from the date of said Letters Patent,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention, of "ARTICLES
OF HOME GROWTH AND PRODUCE, BY THE USE OF WHICH, IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
SOAP, TAKING THE QUANTITY OF PRODUCE INTO VIEW, THERE WILL BE A GREAT
SAVING IN PRICE; THE NECESSITY OF GOING TO A FOREIGN MARKET WILL BE NEARLY,
PERHAPS ENTIRELY, SUPERSEDED,, AND THE, QUALITY OF THE. SOAP WILL BE EQUAL, IP
NOT SUPERIOR, TO THAT USUALLY MANUFACTURED FROM, FOREIGN MATERIALS;" in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, that if I, the said
William Mitchell, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
.
• thing
t .
"
T...
"
137

page_text: my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be
enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters
Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages
whatsoever thereby granted shall utterly cease, and determine and become
void, 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
William Mitchell, do hereby declare that the nature of my Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are described and ascertained
in the following explanation thereof, that is to say":
It is a strong jelly, preparable from from the skins and coverings of all
animals, but more particularly the offal of skins after they are limed, com-
monly called screws, to which is added corbonate of soda. It is prepared and
used in the following manner, viz:-Take any given quantity of screws, lay
them asteep in cold water for two days; after that, put them into a boiler with
five or six times their weight of cold water; boil them with a slow fire until
all the skins are dissolved, place a cask upon the side of your boiler, which has
a cock fixed four inches from the bottom of the cask, at the height that the
liquor will run into the boiler, over which place a search or strainer, made
with a piece of thin cloth fastened to a square frame of wood; run your
solution into the cask through the strainer and allow it to remain in the cask
five or six hours, in order to let the sediment fall below the cock, after that
run it into the boiler, and boil it slowly till it comes to be a strong jelly, which
may be ascertained by taking out a small quantity and cooling it, or in the
proportion of three parts of water to one of screws, or stronger in proportion
as you mean to use it in larger or lesser quantity among the soap; to which
solution add from two to ten per cent. of the carbonate of soda. The solution
being thus prepared, and the soap, upon which you are to operate, being ready
for casting, you proceed to use your solution in the way here directed; you
have a measure that will hold the quantity that you mean to put into the
frame; if only one hundredweight into the frame of forty-five inches, take
a tub, into which you put a small quantity of your solution, to be mixed with
a little soap, so as to make it as thick as will prevent it from running out at
the joinings of the frame, which being done, pour it into the frame and so on
with the rest till you have the whole in the frame, then fill up the frame with
the soap, and mix or crutch it well till it is pretty cold and stiff'; or after the
soap is finished and ready for casting, the niger or refuse might be completely
you

page_text: pumped off; the mixture might be put into the pan, and well mixed with the
soap, and cast in the ordinary way, but the mixing in the frames is the pre-
ferable way; from ten to twenty-five per cent. may be used, according to the
quality of the soap used. From the hardening quality of this saponaceous
jelly, whale oil and palm oil may be substituted in the room of tallow, and
good hard soap made at much less expense.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Mitchell, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirteen.
ALEX. GRANT.
Sworn at the Chancery Public Office, this
6th day of April 1813, before
R. STEELE.
Inrolled the same Sixth day of April, in the year above written.