IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING AN OIL, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE CANDLES AND NIGHT LIGHTS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Fergusson Wilson, of Belmont, Vauxhall,
Managing Director of Price's Patent Candle Company, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING AN OIL, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE
CANDLES AND NIGHT LIGHTS."
Sealed the 21st April 1854, and dated the 15th February 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Fergusson Wilson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
15th February 1854.
I, GEORGE FERGUSSON WILSON, of Belmont, Vauxhall, Managing Director
of Price's Patent Candle Company, do hereby declare the nature of the In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING AN OIL, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
CANDLES AND NIGHT LIGHTS," to be as follows:-
There has for some time been brought into this country an offensively
smelling oil from the East Indies, and known and sold as "East India fish
oil;" and my Invention consists of means of preparing such oil and in
applying the same in the manufacture of candles and night lights. For
.

page_text: this purpose I cause heated steam to be passed through it, and I acidify, distil,
and subject such oil to pressure or not, according to the degree of hardness
desired.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Fergusson Wilson in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 11th August 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
FERGUSSON WILSON, of Belmont, Vauxhall, Managing Director of Price's
Patent Candle Company, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of February in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said George Fergusson Wilson, Her special licence that I, the said George
Fergusson Wilson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said George Fergusson Wilson, my executors, 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 Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN PREPARING AN OIL, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES AND NIGHT
LIGHTS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said George Fer-
gusson Wilson, 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 George Fergusson Wilson, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof (that is to say) :-
:-
There has for some time been brought into this country an offensively
smelling oil from the East Indies, and known and sold as "East India fish
oil;" and my Invention consists of means of preparing such oil and in
applying the same in the manufacture of candles and night lights. For this

page_text: purpose I cause heated steam to be passed through it, and I acidify, distill,
and subject such oil to pressure or not, according to the degree of hardness
desired. And the means I employ for carrying out my Invention are as
follows I heat, say, six tons of the East India fish oil, to about two
hundred and twelve degrees of Fahrenheit, by preference in a copper vessel,
and this I do by means of heated steam passed through it; I then introduce a
quantity of a solution of alum, or of a metallic sulphate, preferring iron; the
solution is composed of 250 lbs. of the salt. to half a ton of water; and I raise
the temperature of the whole to two hundred and twelve degrees, and I cause
the matters to be stirred up together by means of the free steam for half
an hour, and then allow them to repose for four hours; the oil is then drawn
off and is ready for use. When a higher degree of purity and freedom from
offensive smell is wished for, I subsequently heat the purified oil by means of
heated steam up to five hundred and twenty degrees of Fahrenheit, and continue
it at that heat for about two hours, and then cool it down to two-hundred-and
twelve degrees by the very gradual admission of cold water.
When the India fish oil is intended to be used in the manufacture of candles
and night lights, I prefer to acidify the same, and the process I prefer to use
for this purpose is as follows, but I would have it understood that I do not
confine myself to such process, as the material may be converted into acids by
other means.
After it has been purified by the process first described, I carry the heat up
by means of the heated steam to three hundred and fifty degrees, and then
add gradually seven hundred and eighty lbs. concentrated sulphuric acid,
specific gravity 1.8. At the end of about three hours the oily matter is to be
pumped into a vessel containing water slightly acidulated with sulphuric acid,
and agitated by means of free steam passing through it for two hours; the
oily matter now in the state of fat acids is allowed to repose for about six
hours. The vessel should have a cover with means of conveying away gases
and vapours evolved into a chimney. I then distill such purified oil in such
manner that the atmosphere may be excluded, and this is best done by the
use of steam, though other means may be resorted to, and I prefer to employ
for this purpose highly heated steam conducted into the still, and in such
manner that the same may be divided into numerous jets or streams below
the fatty materials in the still, and thus to cause the oil to be distilled by the
action of such heated steam, so that the steam is not only the means (assisted
by a fire under the still) of distilling and carrying over the matter, but also
the means of excluding the atmosphere from the still as the steam itself

page_text: pervades the still. The steam as heretofore (when used for distilling fatty
matters) is generated in an ordinary boiler or generator, and then in its
passage to the still is highly heated by passing through pipes or apparatus
highly heated, as when obtaining hot blast of air for the manufacture of iron.
The distilled products as they come over are received in a condenser.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Fergusson Wilson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
B. GOBEY,
12, Cursitor Street,
Chancery Lane.
GEO. F. WILSON. (L.S.)