IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING SOAP SUDS OR WASH WATERS IN WHICH SOAP HAS BEEN USED
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Birkett, of Manningham Mills,
Bradford, in the County of York, Chemist, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING SOAP SUDS OR WASH WATERS IN
WHICH SOAP HAS BEEN USED."
Scaled the 2nd August 1853, and dated the 9th February 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION. left by the said William Birkett
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 9th February.1853.
I, WILLIAM BIRKETT, of Manningham Mills, Bradford, in the
County of York, Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING SOAP SUDS OR WASH WATERS
IN WHICH SOAP HAS BEEN USED "Sto be as follows:
-
After goods have been washed, I allow. the waters to escape out of
the vat or vessel which contains them, through charcoal filters,
which will retain in the vat or vessel. the greater portion of the
component parts of soap; to these I: add a quantity of alkali, the
proportion of which varies with the nature of the matters' intercepted
by the filter water, and the goods to be washed are to be then
placed in the vat, and: the process repeated until the whole of the
cleansing properties of the soap are absorbed.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, filed by the said William Birkett in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 2nd August 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
WILLIAM BIRKETT, of Manningham Mills, Bradford, in the County of
York, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said William Birkett, Her
special licence that 1, the said William Birkett, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Birkett, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING SOAP SUDS OR WASH WATERS
IN WHICH SOAP HAS BEEN USED," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said William Birkett, 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 William Birkett, do hereby.
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained.
in and by the following statement, that is to say:
After wools or other similar goods have been washed, I allow the
waste waters to escape out of the vat or vessel which contains them,
through charcoal filters (preferring peat charcoal for the purpose)
into another vat or receiver. The waters will have become purified

page_text: after passing through the charcoal; and I add a quantity of alkali
to them, the proportion of which varies according to the goods to be
washed, when the waters will be again fit for washing. The process
is repeated until the whole of the cleansing properties of the soap
are absorbed.
Instead of filtering the soap suds or wash waters through peat
charcoal, the charcoal may be thrown into the waters, which should
be agitated, and then allowed to settle. The charcoal would carry
to the bottom of the vat the greater part of the dirt in the waters.
Alkali may then be added; the goods may be washed, and the
process repeated until all the cleansing properties of the soap are
absorbed.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim
the employment of peat or other charcoal to cleanse and purify
soap suds or wash waters, together with the addition of alkali to
such purified suds, in order to make them act again as a detergent.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Birkett, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of July, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
Witness,
R. A. BROOMAN,
Patent Agent,
166, Fleet Street.
WILLIAM BIRKETT. (L.S.)