A NEW OR IMPROVED PROCESS OF PREPARING TALLOW AND STUFF FROM FATTY MATE- RIALS, AND REFINING THE SAME FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1832

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, GREETING,
I, CHARLES WATT, of Clapham, in the County of Surrey, Surgeon, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day of September, in the second year of His
reign, and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-two,
did give and grant unto me, the said Charles Watt, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Charles Watt, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Watt, my executors, admi-
nistrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times hereafter 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, my Invention of "A NEW
OR IMPROVED PROCESS OF PREPARING TALLOW AND STUFF FROM FATTY MATE-
RIALS, AND REFINING THE SAME FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES AND OTHER
PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me,
the said Charles Watt, 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
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters

page_text: 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
Charles Watt, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are. particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof (that is to say)':-
My said Invention consists in subjecting the rough fat, tallow, stuff, or
other fatty materials to a process of boiling with water containing a weak
solution of caustic alkali, simple or compounded with amonia, small quantities
of alkaline solution being occasionally added during such boiling, and great
care being taken to avoid saponification, and, after the tallow has been
liberated from the animal substances containing gellatin,-albumen, fibrin, and
colouring matter, allowing it to settle, and then submitting it to the action of
boiling water containing a weak solution of acids, and keeping it boiling by a
gentle heat (steam being preferred) until the scum on the top of the tallow
subsides, and, after settling a few minutes, boiling the tallow again in water to
wash out the acid. And in order that my process may be better understood, I
shall more minutely detail it, stating such proportions and quantities of water,
alkalis, and acids used to prepare and refine a given quantity of rough
material as I find best to answer the purpose; but I hereby declare that I do
not intend to confine myself to the precise quantities and proportions herein
stated, as it may be necessary to make some slight variation to suit the
different kinds and qualities of the raw material. But I declare that the
quantities and proportions herein stated are best suited to the average and
ordinary kinds and qualities of the raw materials.
. Having put into the vat or melting vessel a quantity of water, in the propor-
tion of about fifteen gallons to each hundred stone (of eight pounds per stone)
of rough materials to be prepared and refined, the water is brought to the
boiling point by the aid of steam, which may be admitted into the vat in any
convenient way, or by any other means of imparting heat (steam heat being
preferred, as it is not so likely to injure the body, texture, or colour of the
tallow as the direct action of fire). I then introduce into the water a quantity
of alkali, namely, potash, soda, &c., which I prefer to be caustic, and in a state
of solution, the quantity used being such as will make a solution containing
about one pound and a half of alkali to one hundred stone of fatty materials
intended to be prepared or refined; or, in lieu of such alkali in solution, I
introduce into the water in the vat or melting vessel a quantity of such
alkaline earth or earths, as lime, &c., as will answer the purpose, adding such
carths gradually during the process. The rough fat or fatty materials intended

page_text: to be prepared or refined, having been previously chopped into small lumps, is:
then let down into the vat or melting vessel, and the whole is made to boil,'
and during the time it is in a state of ebullition I add occasionally about as'
much alkaline solution as will contain about a pound of alkali in one gallon of
water at each time, and this is to be added at proper intervals, namely, about'
every fifteen or twenty minutes. This process is to be kept up until the whole-
of the gellatin, albumen, fibrin, and other animal matter is detached, and until
the lumps or dabs of fatty materials disappear, and the whole of the' tallow
rises to the surface of the water, taking great care that no saponification takes?
place during this process of boiling with the alkaline solution; but should this
happen, more chopped fat or fatty materials is to be added until the tallow
separates, as will be evinced by its rising again to the surface. The whole'
quantity of alkali required in this process to reduce and prepare a ton of fatty.
materials will not be more than about six or seven pounds. Sometimes,
particularly when the rough fatty materials are stale, I add about one pound
of subcarbonate of ammonia, or a pint of pure liquid ammonia, to the ton of
fat, during this process of boiling. After the rough materials are reduced to a
state of melted tallow, that is, when the tallow is liberated from the gellatin,
albumen, fibrin, or other gross materials, it is left to settle a short time, that
is, until it becomes clear, and is then removed to the refining yat or vessel,
which should be made of wood. or such other material as acids, simple or
compound, do not act upon. I previously. introduce, in the said vessel
sufficient water to cover the bottom of it to the depth of about two or three
inches, and then add some deluted acid, and boil the whole by steam or
otherwise until all the scum on the tallow subsides. The deluted acid which I
use to each ton of tallow is about three. pounds of sulphuric acid deluted
with three gallons of water. In the event of their being more rough mate-
rial to be melted or prepared, the water and alkali, which, from being
the heavier, will be found at the bottom of the vessel under the detached:
animal matter, are to be pumped or 'drawn off, leaving in the melting vat or
Ivessel the solid parts, lest they should contain some dabs or lumps of fat,
or should, from their being thick, retain some melted tallow among them."
Fresh water in quantities, as at first, and alkaline solution (or alkaline earth
or earths, as before mentioned), is then to be added, and the process to
be regulated precisely as before. When the whole quantity is completed, then
the under water is to be again pumped or drawn off, and if any dabs or lumps
remain, fresh water is to be added to them, and alkaline solution or alkaline
earths in half the quantity to that employed in the fresh vat, regulating that
quantity according to the amount of dabs or lumps remaining. The solid or
.

page_text: gross parts left after all the tallow is reduced and liberated therefrom may be
dried by a gentle heat, and pressed into greaves, or used for any other purpose
for which such animal matter is adapted. The scum being boiled down in the,
refining vat or vessel. in the.. second part of my improved process is a good
criterion that the tallow is.in a fit state to settle. When the tallow has been
boiled with the deluted acids in the second part of this precess, and has suffi-
ciently subsided, it is conveyed to another vessel, where it is submitted to the
action of boiling water for. a few minutes, which will wash the tallow free
from any acids which may be mixed up with it. The water in this vessel
is also boiled by steam, and if the ebullition should not be sufficient it may be
kept stirred up..during the time it is boiling, and when the tallow has suffi-.
ciently settled after this third boiling it is drawn off into the coolers, and when
properly reduced in temperature may be packed off in the usual manner.
Now whereas I claim as my Invention the boiling of the rough fat or fatty
materials in water containing such proportions of alkali as will, act upon
the gellatin, albumen, fibrin, or other animal matter, without producing
saponification, and afterwards. boiling the tallow produced by the first process
in water containing such proportions of acids. (as herein-before-stated) as will
precipitate or nutralize any extraneous animal or other matter.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Watt, have hereunto set my hand