IMPROVE- MENTS IN TREATING CERTAIN FATTY BODIES
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Fergusson Wilson, of Belmont,
Vauxhall, in the County of Surrey, Managing Director of
Price's Patent Candle Company, for the Invention of " IMPROVE-
MENTS IN TREATING CERTAIN FATTY BODIES."
Sealed the 28th March 1853, and dated the 27th December 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Fergusson
Wilson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 27th December 1852.
I, GEORGE FERGUSSON WILSON, of Belmont, Vauxhall, in the
County of Surrey, Managing Director of Price's Patent Candle
Company, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING CERTAIN FATTY BODIES" to be as follows:-
A Patent granted to Samuel Childs on the 27th day of October,
One thousand eight hundred and forty-five, and belonging to the
above named Company, comprises an Invention relating to a vege-
table material described in the Specification thereof as "a vegetable
material resembling tallow known in China," and which the patentee
therefore called "Chinese Vegetable Tallow." The material so

page_text: described by Mr Childs is, as I am informed, produced from a tree
called by botanists the "Stillingia Sebifera." Another vegetable
material recently imported, resembling tallow, but differing from the
vegetable tallow referred to by Mr. Childs, is produced in Borneo,
and varieties of the same material may be produced in the adjacent
islands. Having been unable to learn its proper botanical name
or names, I call the above material, for the sake of distinction,
"Bornean Vegetable Tallow." My Invention consists in acting on
Bornean Vegetable Tallow" and on nutmeg butter, by powerful
acids; also in distilling such matters after being acted upon by
powerful acids, by which means valuable products are obtained
suitable for the manufacture of candles and night lights.
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 27th June 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
GEORGE FERGUSSON WILSON, of Belmont, Vauxhall, in the County
of Surrey, Managing Director of Price's Patent Candle Company,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the 27th day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the six-
teenth 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, adininistrators, 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 nake, 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

page_text: CERTAIN FATTY BODIES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said George Fergusson Wilson, by an instrument in writing
under iny 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 immc-
diately 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 ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof (that is to say):
A Patent granted to Samuel Childs on the twenty-seventh day of
October One thousand eight hundred and forty-five, and belonging
to the above named company, comprises an Invention relating to a
vegetable material described in the Specification thereof as "a vege-
table material resembling tallow known in China," and which the
Patentee therefore called "Chinese Vegetable Tallow." The material
so described by Mr. Childs is, as I am informed, produced from a tree
called by botanists the Stillingia Sebifera. Another vegetable mate-
rial recently imported, resembling tallow, but differing from the
vegetable tallow referred to by Mr. Childs, is produced in Borneo,
and varieties of the same inaterial may be produced in the adjacent
islands. Having been unable to learn its proper botanical name or
names, I call the above material, for the sake of distinction, "Bornean
Vegetable Tallow."
My Invention consists in acting on Bornean vegetable tallow and
on nutmeg butter by powerful acids; in distilling such matters after
being acted upon by powerful acids, by which means valuable
ducts are obtained suitable for the manufacture of candles and night
lights.
pro-
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully under-
stood and readily carried into effect, 1 will proceed to describe the
means pursued by mc.
.
I cause Bornean tallow and nutmeg butter to be acted upon
by acid in the following manner: Into a suitable vessel capable of

page_text: containing about nine tons, made by preference of copper or of wood,
lined with stout sheet lead, I put about six tons of Bornean vege-
table tallow or of nutmeg butter, which I heat up to 350 degrees of
Fahrenheit. I then add gradually seven hundred and twenty pounds
of concentrated sulphuric acid. At the end of about three hours the
tallow is to be pumped into a vessel containing water slightly acidu-
lated with sulphuric acid, and agitated by free steam passing through
it for two hours; the matters are then allowed to repose for six hours.
Both the vessels above mentioned should have covers, with ineans of
conveying away gases evolved into a chimney.
Or I place six tons of Bornean vegetable tallow or of nutmeg
butter heated up to 120° Fahrenheit into a suitable vessel, preferring
a wooden one lined with stout shect lead. I then run in very slowly,
keeping the material constantly stirred, a ton and a half of concen-
trated sulphuric acid, and allow the fatty material and acid to
remain in contact (stirring being constantly kept up for twelve
hours). I then run in hot water equal to half the bulk of the fatty
material, stir up well, and allow the mixture to repose for four
hours.
I distil the Bornean vegetable tallow or nutmeg butter after it
has been subjected to either of the above treatments, in such
manner that the atmosphere may be excluded; and this is best done
by the use of steam, or by the use of a vapour or product not con-
taining oxygen, 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 nume-
rous jets or streams below the fatty material in the still, and thus to
cause the vegetable tallow 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 of the matter,
but also the means of excluding the atmosphere from the still as the
steam itself 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

page_text: a hot blast of air for the manufacture of iron. The distilled pro-
ducts, as they come over, are received into condensers. Distilled
products of Bornean vegetable tallow and of nutmeg butter may be
used alone, and will be found very useful, pressed or unpressed, for
mixing with other candle making material in the manufacture of the
better class of candles and night lights, or undistilled for coarser
candles and night lights.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Fergusson Wilson,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day
of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-three.
Witness,
JNO. ALCOCK.
GEO. F. WILSON. (L.S.)