IMPROVEMENTS IN TREAT- ING WASH WATERS CONTAINING SOAP, OILS, SAPONIFIED OR SAPONIFIABLE MATERIALS, AND IN OBTAINING PRODUCTS THEREFROM
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Astley Paston Price, of Margate, in the County
of Kent, Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREAT-
ING WASH WATERS CONTAINING SOAP, OILS, SAPONIFIED OR SAPONIFIABLE
MATERIALS, AND IN OBTAINING PRODUCTS THEREFROM"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Astley Paston
Price at the Office of thic Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 31st August 1853.
I, ASTLEY PASTON PRICE, of Margate, in the County of Kent,
Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "In-
PROVEMENTS IN TREATING WASH WATERS CONTAINING SOAP, OILS, SAPONIFIED
OR SAPONIFIABLE MATERIALS, AND IN OBTAINING PRODUCTS THEREFROM," to
be as follows:-
These improvements consist in the treatment of waters which have
previously been used in the washing or scouring of cotton, wool, silk,
linen, or other materials, and in which soap, oils, saponified or saponi-
fiable materials are contained with sulphurous acid, alone, or in combi-
nation with acid sulphites, in order to obtain the fatty acids and other
products contained therein.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Astley Paston Price in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 28th February 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
ASTLEY PASTON PRICE, of Margate, in the County of Kent, Chemist,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the seven-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Astley Paston Price, Her special
licence that, the said Astley Paston Price, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Astley Paston Price, my
time
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
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 Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN TREATING WASH WATERS CONTAINING SOAP, OILS, SAPONIFIED OR SAPO-
upon the
NIFIABLE MATERIALS, AND IN OBTAINING PRODUCTS THEREFROM,"
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Astley Paston Price, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Astley Paston Price, lo 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, that is to say:
My Invention has for its object the employment of sulphurous acid
as a substitute, in part or entirely, for the more expensive acids
videlicet, sulphuric and hydrochloric acids, now used for effecting the
separation of fatty and other products from wash-waters containing soap
oils, saponified or saponifiable materials.

page_text: My Invention may be carried into effect in manner following:-
Having obtained wash-waters resulting from the cleansing of wool
or from. other processes, and containing the before- mentioned sub-
stances, or the scums or deposits resulting from the same, and
containing any saponified or saponifiable materials, I place the same
in a convenient and suitable vessel, such as will hereafter be described,
and pass through the said wash-waters, sulphurous acid gas, or I add
a solution of sulphurous acid in water, or a solution of an acid sulphitė
may be employed, until the entire or partial separation of the fatty
and other matters has been effected, or until the waters have acquired
an acid reaction of the desired intensity. Should, as will.sometimes
occur, that the perfect separation of the fatty and other products be
not effected by the employment of sulphurous acid, or a solution of
an acid sulphite, then the required amount of either sulphuric or
hydrochloric acids may be added until separation be effected. The
fatty and other matters so separated are to be allowed to collect so as
to form a scum or deposit, and after the acidified mixed solutions have
been allowed to remain undisturbed until such a result has been
obtained. The magma may be removed in a manner similar to that
now adopted in those works where such maginas are obtained and sepa-
rated from wash-waters resulting from the cleansing of wool and from
other processes, by the employment of sulphuric or hydrochloric acids.
And the said magma, after having been drained and pressed, as is
how done in the aforesaid or similar works, may be applied to any
useful purpose. The apparatus which may be employed in the opera-
tion of gasing or acidifying the said wash-waters with and in the
production of sulphurous acids, may consist of suitable tanks or cisterns,
open or closed, and when closed, furnished with an exit pipe through
which the gases evolved may be conducted. The apparatus employed
for and in the production of sulphurous acid, and for passing the same
through the wash-waters contained in the before-mentioned cisterns or
fanks, or in any convenient apparatus, may be similarly constructed to
the apparatus employed in certain known processes for the refining of
sugar by the employment of and for generating sulphurous acid, and
passing the same through saccharine solutions. The preparation of the
acid sulphites which may be employed in the treatment of these

page_text: waters is well known to chemists, and is described in known che-
mical works, and the preparation of the acid sulphites of lime and
alumina may be obtained, either by the modes described in the Speci-
fication of certain Letters Patent granted to me in conjunction with
Rees Reece, on or about the Twenty-fourth day of May, One thousand
eight hundred and forty-nine, for improvements in the manufacture or
refining of sugar and saccharine matters, or otherwise. Those acid.
sulphites which I prefer employing for effecting the separation of the
fatty and other bodies from wash-waters, as described, are the soluble.
acid sulphites of the alkalies or alkaline carths, lime and magnesia, and
of alumina. Some of the soluble acid sulphites of the metallic oxides may
also be employed, but I prefer the before-mentioned acid sulphites of
the alkalies and alkaline earths. In the treatment of wash-waters
with sulphuric or hydrochloric acids, a considerable economy is effected
by allowing wash-waters resulting from the washing or scouring of
wool, &c. to remain for some days to ferment or to undergo a certain
decomposition, when it is found that the amount of acid requisite to
effect the separation of the fatty and other matters is very considerably
diminished. Now after such fermentation the waters acquire a very
offensive character, and in addition to the nuisance thus created con-
siderable delay occurs in obtaining the grease from the fresh wash-
waters. It will be found that by acidifying the fresh wash-waters with
sulphurous acid, or by the employment of a solution of an acid sulphite,
a corresponding or even a much greater economy, not only in the sub-
sequent employment of sulphuric or hydrochloric acids will be effected,
but a great saving of time is also attained. As wash-waters resulting
from the washing of wool, silk, cotton, and linen, and the several fabrics
made therefrom, are not always of the same composition, the method to
be adopted for the treatment of the same may occasionally differ, but
the following may be taken as one generally applicable:-Having placed
a wash-water, or mixtures of two or more of these waters, in a suitable
vessel, sulphurous acid is to be passed through or into the said wash
waters, or a solution of sulphurous acid or of an acid sulphite is to be
added, until the waters have acquired a strongly acid reaction; should
the complete separation of the fatty and other matters be effected, the
waters are allowed to remain undisturbed, in order that the fatty and

page_text: other matters thus separated may collect as a scum or deposit, which
may then be removed and be subsequently treated as herein mentioned.
Should, however, the fatty and other matters be not completely or
entirely separated by the employment of sulphurous acid, or of a solu-
tion of an acid sulphite, then to the wash-waters so acidifyed either
sulphuric or hydrochloric acids may be added, until the separation of
the fatty and other matters be effected. The matters thus separated
are to be allowed to collect, and the scum or deposit thus formed may
be removed, and be subjected to processes similar to those now em-
ployed for rendering available the grease and other matters obtained
by the employment of sulphuric or hydrochloric acids, or by the em-
ployment of salts of the alkaline earths, from wash-waters resulting
from the washing of wool or scouring of cloth, &c., by which, or
similar processes, the fatty and other matters thus obtained may be
converted into useful purposes.
Having now described the object of my Invention, and the manner
in which the same may be used or carried into effect, I would observe,
in conclusion, that I do not confine or restrict myself to the precise
details or arrangements which I have had occasion to describe or refer
to, as many variations may be made therefrom without deviating from
the principles or mains features of my said Invention; but what I con-
sider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention
secured to me by the said herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent, is,-
The employment of sulphurous acid or of soluble acid sulphites in
order to obtain certain useful products from wash-waters.
In witness whereof, I, the said Astley Paston Price, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of February,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-
four.
ASTLEY PASTON PRICE. (L.S.)