AN IMPROVED ANTISEPTIC AND DISINFECTING COMBINATION; AND IN THE MODE OF APPLYING THE SAME FOR USE.
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Francis Thomas Bond at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th June 1877.
FRANCIS THOMAS BOND, of Gloucester; in the County of Gloucester, Doctor öf
Medicine. "AN IMPROVED ANTISEPTIC AND DISINFECTING COMBINATION; AND IN
THE MODE OF APPLYING THE SAME FOR USE.
The utility of sulphurous acid gas as an antiseptic and disinfectant, especially in
the form of a solution of the gas, has been long recognised; but hitherto this agent.
has been readily accessible to the public for antiseptic purposes only in the form of
a solution obtained by saturating water or a solution of some salt with the gas,
which has been led into it after being produced in a separate vessel by any of the
methods described in ordinary chemical works.
The disadvantage of this form of the agent is that the cost is rendered unduly
large, and the convenience of transport is diminished by the large bulk of water
with which the gas is thus unavoidably combined.
In order to remedy this disadvantage I avail myself of the property possessed by
certain acids, and acid salts, of decomposing the salts of sulphurous and hyposul-
phurous acids when mixed in solution with them, thus forming a solution of sul-
phurous acid in combination with the saline elements of these salts.
For the purposes of my Invention I prefer to take oxalic acid and the bisulphite
of sodium in the form of crystals, which may, if considered desirable, be reduced to
powder to facilitate their solution. If these two substances are introduced into
water together they will, as they dissolve, act upon one another, the oxalic acid
attacking the bisulphite and liberating sulphurous acid. In this way a solution of
sulphurous acid may be obtained of any required strength up to saturation, according .
to the amount of the above materials which may be employed. This effect is still
further increased by exposing the saline inixture to heat, which promotes the dis-
engagement of the sulphurous acid gas.
As it is impossible to keep the oxalic acid & the bisulphite in a mixed con-
dition, even if they be both in the solid form, without their acting upon one anotlier,
I supply them to the public in the form of powders or crystals, which are either
packed together in vessels so divided that though the powders or crystals are kept
ID 11

page_text: separate they can be easily extracted or discharged in the proportions which are
necessary to obtain the most satisfactory results, or in separate parcels of duly pro-
portioned amounts, wrapped in paper or other similar fabric, and stored in boxes or
other convenient vessels.
I do not limit the method which I have thus described for the convenient pro-
duction of sulphurous acid to the use of the two substances which I have specified
above. Any alkaline or earthy bisulphite, sulphite, or hyposulphite, in the solid
form, may be used in the place of the bisulphite of sodium; and instead of oxalic
acid I may use any other suitable acid or acid salt. Where the solution thus formed
is intended to be used for the preservation of food, I combine with or substitute for
a portion of the acid or acid salt used to decompose the bisulphite, sulphite, or hy-
posulphite, a certain amount of salicylic or boracic acids.
The proportions in which I prefer to use the ingredients to which I have above
referred for the preparation of a solution of sulphurous acid, or of the gas itself in
the free state, are those in which the acid or acid salt, as the case may be, will
completely decompose the sulphite, hyposulphite, or bisulphite which may be
selected for use, and which proportions may be easily learned from ordinary works
on chemistry. As an illustration of such proportions I will take the very con-
venient combination of the sulphite of sodium with oxalic acid, for which purpose
200 parts by weight of the said acid in its crystallized form will be found necessary
to decompose 480 parts by weight of the sulphite in its crystallized form, and thus
decomposition may be conveniently effected in 7680 parts by weight of pure water
at ordinary temperatures.
In order to intensify the antiseptic power which sulphurous acid possesses, both
in the form of the sulphite and in its free form, when the sulphite has been acted
upon by an acid or acid salt, I combine with it either salicylic or boracic acids, or
both of these acids together. The proportions in which I prefer to make such com-
bination are as follows:-To 480 parts by weight of the sulphite of sodium I add
200 parts by weight of boracic acid, these being the proportions which, when dis-
solved in 1980 parts by weight or thereabout of water at ordinary temperatures,
make a saturated solution. To this solution may be added for the purpose of still
further intensifying its antiseptic powers, 80 parts by weight of salicylic acid, that
being about the quantity of the said acid which is dissolved by the said amount of
sulphite of sodium when dissolved in 1920 parts by weight of water.
The solution of combined sulphite of sodium and boracic and salicylic acids
thus obtained will be found to possess very high antiseptic powers, but these powers
will be considerably increased by dissolving the said ingredients in 7680 parts by
weight of water, instead of in 1920 parts, as above specified, and then adding
200 parts of oxalic acid, by which means a saturated solution of sulphurous salicylic
& boracic acids in oxalate of sodium will be obtained.