A NEW METHOD OF MAKING SOAP AND BLEACHING BY MEANS AND USE OF MINERAL AND VEGETABLE ALKALIS
Year: 1797

page_text: WHEREAS I did by my petition humbly represent unto his present most
Excellent Majesty King George the Third, that I had after much trouble,
labour, and expence found out and invented "A NEW METHOD OF MAKING SOAP
AND BLEACHING BY MEANS AND USE OF MINERAL AND VEGETABLE ALKALIS," and
therefore most humbly prayed His said Majesty that he would be graciously
pleased to grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His
Majesty's Royal Letters Patent under His Great Seal of Great Britain, for the
sole use, benefit, and advantage of my said Invention for the term of fourteen
years, and His said Majesty being willing to give encouragement to all arts
and inventions which might be for the public good, was graciously pleased to
condescend to my request; and therefore by His Majesty's Royal Letters
Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Twelfth day of December, in the
thirty-eighth year of His reign, of His especial grace, certain knowledge, and
mere motion, for Himself, His heirs, and successors, did give and grant unto
me, the said John Crooks, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His
special licence,, full power, sole privilege, and authority that I, the said John
Crooks, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and every of them, by myself
and themselves, or by my or their deputy or deputies, servants or agents,
or such others as I, the said John Crooks, my executors, administrators,
or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to

page_text: time, and at all times hereafter, during the term of-years-therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend my said Invention
within that part of His said Majesty's Kingdom of Great Britain called England,
His Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner
as to me, the said John Crooks, my exccutors, adniinistrators, and assigns, or
any of them, should in my or their discretion seem meet, and that I, the said
John Crooks, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should and lawfully
might have and enjoy the whole. profit, benefit, commodity, and advantage
from time to time coming, growing, accruing, and arising by reason of the
said Invention, for and during the term of years therein mentioned; to have,
hold, exercise, and enjoy the said licence, powers, privileges, and advantages
therein-before granted or mentioned to be granted. unto me, the said John
Crooks, my executors, administrators, or assigns, for and during and unto
the full end and term of fourteen-years- from the date of the said Letters
Patent next and immediately ensuing, and fully to be compleat and ended,
according to the form of the Statute in such case made and provided; in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that if I, the said John Crooks,
should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same- to be inrolled- in His
said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one-calendar, month next after
the date of the said Letters Patent, then the said Letters Patent, and all
liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly cease,
determine, and become void," "any thing therein-before contained to the
contrary, thereof in any wise notwithstanding, as in and by the said Letters
Patent, reference being thereunto had,' may more fully and at large appear..
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Crooks, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed (that is to
say):
In making the soft soap I use fish of any kinds, whether in their original
unmanufactured state or in a state of refuse, after they have been used in other
manufactures, such as, for example, after the oil has been boiled or taken
from them. When they are in their original state; I cut them across in two
or more places; according to their size; and I steep them in cold water, and
stir them about till' the blood is seperated from them, so that when the water
is let off it may carry off the bloody particles with it; the fish are then cut,
bruised, or mashed by means of any 'instrument by which other materials are
cut, bruised, or mashed. The intention of this is to accelerate the dissolution'

page_text: of the parts or substance of the fish, as hereafter mentioned; but if they are
not bruised the dessolution will take place, though it will be more slow. I'
then throw the fish by means of iron or wooden ladles or shovels into boiling
vegetable lees, very caustic, of the common strength of soap' boilers' original
(not waste) lees, and which lees should have been as lately 'made as possible,
or at least should be taken from cá vessel in which they have been carefully)
closed up; and which should not be above four or five days old. The propor-
tion of lees to fish is as six to ten 'parts in weight: The fish should be thrown'
into the lees gradually, according as what was before put in appears to be in*
a state of dissolution for tending to it; they will'dissolve slow or fast in pro-
portion to the strength of the lees: The fish and lees are then boiled together.
on a slow simmering 'fire until the fish is 'compleatly dissolved, which will be
in from three to six hours, in proportion to the quantity of fish! 'The point of
dissolution is known when the liquor, being saturated; refuses to dissolve more,
and when it has arrived at that point, no more fish should be added. "After
the fish has been dissolved, the solution ought to be passed through a strainer
Tallow or oil, such as whale, or fut, or any coarse oil; or indeed any; oil or
tallow in the proportion of one part in weight of tallow or oil, and eight parts
of fish, is then 'to be thrown into the boiling vessel;' in which the heat
should then be increased, and the whole continue to the boiled at a boiling
heat, till they are thoroughly united; but about an hour before they are
thoroughly incorporated I throw into the vessel common turpentine, by which
I do not mean oil of turpentine, but that substance known' by the"name
of common turpentine, which is thicker than common treacle (the intention'
of which is to prevent the fishy smell) in the proportion of one part weight of
turpentine to sixteen parts of the other materials;Itadd then palin oil in the
proportion of one part in weight of oil to thirty-six parts of the other materiāls ;
this is to improve the colour when needful, otherwise it is unnecessary; the soap
must then be spread about three inches "thick, in a cool place, and kept there
for a month before used, during which time it must be turiîed. 'every two or
three days with 'à shovel or hoe:
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39
To make hard soap:-Fish when compleatly dissolved with caustic vegetable
lees in the manner above mentioned, are to have tallow thrown into them in
equal parts with the fish; and both to be boiled at a boiling heat until 'they
are thoroughly united; the vessel is then to stand till cool'd, in order to avoid
the danger of its being cracked; and then mineral lees, or mineral and vegetable
lees together, both caustic," added to rósin, are to be 'to be thrown into the
vessel; the lees in the proportion of six parts in weight to twenty parts of fisli
and tallow joined together, and the rosin in' the proportion of five parts' in

page_text: weight to twenty-parts-of-fish and tallow joined together; the whole is to, be.
boiled, and in about an hour after the strongest waste salt lees from the soap
works (not original lees) to be added in the proportion of two parts in weight
to twenty-five parts. The whole must then be boiled the ordinary time, as
already mentioned, till the power of the lees are spent, and then these powerless
(commonly called waste) salt. lees are to be pumped up, and fresh caustic
mineral (not vegetable) lees are to be added in the proportion of six parts in
weight to twenty-five parts, and the whole boiled till they become hard soap,
which should then be melted in water in the usual mode, and then put into
frames and cut into wedges in the common way. If a better colour is wanted,
palm oil in the proportion above mentioned may be added at the last boiling.
In the different operations of dissolving and boiling, above mentioned, the
liquor should be stirred about every ten or fifteen minutes with an iron
rake or other instrument. And as fish are often driven on shore in
such vast quantities that they are either not used at all, or used only for
manure; now, to prevent this public waste, I put them into receivers,
and by pouring over them strong lees sufficient, to cover them within
two
or three days after the fish are taken, or within such other time as
fish will commonly bear to be salted, I preserve them for being afterwards
at leisure manufactured into saponaceous matter, or soap, or oil. As to
bleaching, I take either soap boilers' waste lees or bleachers' waste lees, the
last of which are got either from the boiling vessel, called the bucking vessel,
or from the whitening vessel, called the gas liquor vessel, and I put them into
a cask or other vessel of wood or plate iron, which has two bottoms separate
from each other about one inch and a half; the upper one is perforated with a
number of small holes; the under one has only one hole of about an inch or
more diameter, according to the size of the vessel. The interval between the
two is filled with straw matts, small pebbles, or other substances pervious to
water; the cask or vessel is then filled with the lees, the pure parts of which
filtrate through the holes of the upper bottom, the substances between the two
bottoms and the hole in the under bottom, from which last they are received
into a separate vessel, whilst the impurities remain behind. From this receiver
they are conducted or pumped up into a shallow pan or boiler, or more than
one of plate iron, of whatever length and breadth is needed. The most com-
modious method for expediting much work seems to be two boilers, placed by
the side of each other, divided by a common wall, each ten feet long, seven
feet broad, by fifteen inches deep, of which six inches to be of plate iron, and
nine inches to be of a crib of wood, but slanting outwards to contain the more
lees, and prevent them from, boiling over. Here the lees are boiled and

page_text: evaporated down to the thickness of treacle. Adjoining to this boiling vessel, or.
these two boiling vessels, and connected with it or them by a pipe or funnel, or
by two pipes and funnels (if two evaporating vessels are used), each one foot long,
and nine inches diameter, there is an oblong vaulted kiln or oven about ten feet
long, six feet wide, and two and a half feet high, all built of brick, in which the
lees that have already been evaporated to the thickness of treacle are calcined.
If there be only one evaporating vessel, the pipe or funnel from the evaporating
vessel into the calcining furnace will be in the middle of both; but if there be
two evaporating vessels separated by a mid wall, then the two funnels will be
placed near the common wall and pointing obliquely into the calcining furnace,
so that they may meet in one stream at a point in order to increase, as in a
focus, the power of the heat. I prefer two evaporating vessels to one, because
a much longer time would be required to evaporate a certain quantity of
liquid lees into a substance as thick as treacle, than to calcine that substance.
into a black salt, as hereafter mentioned; whereas if the calcining kiln be,
supplied only by one evaporating vessel it will frequently stop, and consequently
cool for want of work. However, manufacturers may vary their forms and
dimensions at pleasure, because it will be easy to find out by experience the
quantity of lees which can be evaporated with most advantage to the
manufacturer in one vessel of a certain size, and calcined in another furnace
of a certain size, and consequently to proceed upon the proper proportions; in
forming their works the same fire or fires thus passing from the evaporating.
vessel or vessels into the calcining kiln, will act as an air or reverberatory
furnace with the flame playing over the evaporated lees. Into this calcining
furnace there is to be thrown charcoal, but first broke into the size of small
musquet shot, whether made of coal, wood, peat, or other combustible matter.
or peat or small coal uncharred; the proportion is one-sixth as near as may
(for a small variation will not be material) of the weight of the evaporated lees,
by this means the combustible material will unite itself to the acid contained
0. in the alkali of the waste lees of the bleacher, and to the acid contained in the
be
commen salt in the waste lees of the soap boiler in the calcining furnace, and
thus form a sulphur with it, which will be dissipated in the operation of
calcination, and part of it will become hepar-sulphur; there is also to be thrown
into the calcining furnace new burnt marble, as hot as can be drawn from the
5 kiln, in the proportion of about one pound and a half new burnt marble to
eight pounds of evaporated lees, but which new burnt marble must be broke
down or pounded to the size of a common bazle nut, and the marble must be
compleatly free of any irony, clayey, or sandy particles or any other impurities.
The reason for using the calcined marble when quite hot from the kiln is, that

page_text: no time will be given for fixt air to get into it, and thereby weaken its power
but it is carefully to be attended to that the evaporated lees, charcoal, o
other above-mentioned fuel and calcined, marble must be thrown, into the
calcining furnace altogether at one time, and frequently stirred in the furnace
to make them-unite, such as once, every-ten or fifteen minutes; here the whole
are-to be calcined into a black salt. When this black salt is formed and
cooled, it is to be thrown into a hogshead' or other wooden or iron plate-vessel,
having a double bottom perforated with small holes in the upper, and with a
large one in the under-bottom; and the interval between the two stuffed with
straw, or matts, or pebbles; as, above described; and upon the upper bottom
the black salts are to be laid to the amount or quantity of two-thirds of the
depth of the vessel, and the remaining third to be filled with water, which is to
be allowed to stand upon them twelve hours. During the four first of these
twelve hours thé black salts are to be stirred about every ten or fifteen minutes,
and during all the time the hole in the under bottom of the vessel is to be kept
shut that the water may not escape. Lastly, this bole, is opened, and then the
pure solution of the-black salt will pass through it into a separate vessel, while
the impurities remain behind in the interval between the two bottoms; the
solution is-to-be evaporated in one of the evaporating vessels, where it will be
converted into grey salts fit for bleaching, dying, or rectifying. In this state
the grey salts may in-bleacliing be used with greater advantage than any other
alkaline. salt for two reasons; the first is, that its power will be increased in
proportion to the power of the calcined marble in solution that is in it;
secondly, as the acid of these lees are decomposed into a hepar-sulphur, and by
the calcination mostly thrown off; they becoine more powerful solvents and are
inore fit to take off the original vegetable oil of the cloth or yarn in bucking
than cominon vegetable alkalis (which contain no hepar-sulphur) can be.
Having thus obtained-an improved material for boiling the cloth or yarn in
order to take the vegetable oils from them in the bucking vessel, I. next
proceed to apply and make it effectual in the whitening of then in the
bleaching vessel by another improvement: For this purpose I throw one pound
of calcined marble, quite hot from 'the kiln, into any kind of vessel containing
ten pounds of soft water; where after being once stirred-about; it must remain
close covered up for seven hours, or until the water has imbibed as much of
tlie marble as it' can, and then both are to be strained through a vessel with
two such bottoms as above described. After which I impregnate this solution
with the common materials of what is commonly called gas or, chemical
liquor, till' the solution be fully saturated, the effect of which is that the marble
solution will imbibe far more gas than common water can, for as it is certain

page_text: that the more alkali there is in water, the more gas will be imbibed in it.;..so
the solution of calcined marble operating as alkali, and being a substitute for
it, will imbibe 'far more gas than simple water by itself can, and. the, effect
again of this complication. by the addition of the power contained in the
calcined marble,, and of the power obtained by the increased. quantity of, gas,.
will be that this bleaching liquor will go further in work by admitting a
greater quantity of water to be mixt with it in, bleaching, and will, moreover,
make that work better. This is not all. I plunge the-cloth or yarn from the
bucking vessel directly and immediately into the vessel in which the bleaching
liquor, made as before mentioned, is contained, but without adding any new
alkali to it, the effects of which are, first, that the yarn or cloth when taken
from: the blicking vessel living imbibed' and 'been drenched with my.improved
material, which has all the effect" and "more than the effect of simple alkali;
will save the expence of new alkali being put into the whitening vessel;
secondly, the improved material thus imbibed in the cloth or "yarn will. in the
same manner as if it was common alkali (for which it is a substitute)
destroy any acid, and consequently prevent the cloth or yarn being hurt by
any acid which in making the gas liquor may have-got over from the
retort which contained the gas materials into the receiver which contained
the solution of marble; but, thirdly, it will make perfectly unnecessary the
circuitous mode of bleaching used in most parts of Europe and in too
of Britain and Ireland of taking the cloth or yarn from the bucking
vessel and spreading them in the fields to get the advantage of sun and air
(but by which they often expose them to the dangers of both), and of boiling
and re-boiling them with a new charge of new alkali each time. And
as some persons may not like the trouble or risque of combining either grey
salts or other alkaline salts with calcined marble, I calcine either the one or
the other with hot new burnt marble, and put them in a dry state into stone
vessels closely corked, and sealed with rosin to prevent fixt air from entering,
and thereby weakening their causticity, so that these persons will have no
trouble but afterwards to dissolve them in water, as above mentioned, and to
add the gas to the solution in the common way. And as in great towns or
populous manufacturing neighbourhoods the carriage of a bleaching material
even in a liquid state (which I call bleaching liquor), composed of the solution
of marble and of gas, is of little consequence in comparison of the risque,
danger, and loss of making such liquor improperly, and of spoiling goods with
it (which sometimes happens to a very great amount); I make the bleaching
material in a liquid state, which, composed of those two articles well corked
up, may be transported from place to place, and from time to time, during the
many