IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF AND APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING SOAP
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
RANSOM ST. JOHN, of the City and State of New York, in the United States
of America, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-first day of January, in the fourteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Ransom St. John, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said John Ransom St. John, my exors, admors, and
assigns, and such others as I, the said Jolin Ransom St. John, my exors,
admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey,
Alderney, Sark, and Man, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF AND APPARATUS FOR
MANUFACTURING SOAP," being partly a communication from a foreigner residing"
abroad; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the
said John Ransom St. John, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal; particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be
inrolled in. Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters, Patent,

page_text: 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
John Ransom St. John, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures
marked thereon (that is to say):
:-
This Invention of improvements in the process of and apparatus for manu-
facturing soap, relates, first, to the employment of certain new materials or a
new combination of materials in the manufacture of soap, whereby this article is
produced at much less cost than when made according to any of the ordinary pro-
cesses, and is moreover much improved in quality and rendered suitable for using
with hard or soft water, as well as with soft and fresh water. The second part
of the Invention consists of an improved construction of apparatus to be used
in the manufacture of soap for boiling, stirring, or mixing the ingredients.
In the improved process for manufacturing soap, I first obtain a lye from
soda ash and quick lime, by putting them together in a vessel in the following
proportions, or nearly so (namely), forty pounds of lime to one hundred
pounds of soda ash. The lye that is obtained from this mixture should be
brought to a density of ten degrees proof, and to one pound of this lye made
hot, I then add six pounds of tallow or lard, stearine or its equivalent, in cocoa-
nut oil, palm oil, or lard, and boil the mixture well slowly, after which I skim
off the upper portion, and thereby obtain the article known as Fuller's soap.
Or, instead of this process, I take the article known in the market as "Fuller's
soap," and to one hundred pounds thereof made hot I add fifty pounds of
Paris white or common whiting, or a similar quantity of silicate of magnesia
mixed well with fifteen gallons of cold water. This mixture of whiting or other
matter and water is to be gradually added to the hot Fuller's soap, and the
ingredients are to be boiled and stirred until they are well mixed. To this
hot mixture I then add twelve pounds of common rosin, and incorporate them
together by constant stirring until the rosin is completely dissolved, or the
rosin may, if preferred, be added to the Fuller's soap as the last ingredient in
its preparation. To assist in dissolving the rosin heat must be employed, but
care must be taken that the mixture of ingredients is not allowed to boil after
the addition of the rosin, otherwise the mass will become frothy. The perfect
admixture of all the ingredients will take from ten to fifteen minutes, and when
they are perfectly amalgamated the stirring should be continued, and about four-
teen pounds of pulverized sal soda added; the whole mass is still to be kept hot

page_text: and the stirring continued for about a quarter of an hour, after which I add
two pounds of the biborate of soda or borax, or its equivalent in tincal, or the
product of any of its conditions. After the Fuller's soap and whiting have
been added as above explained, a mixture composed of three pounds common
starch or boiled potatoes washed and mixed with one pound of water may
added to the other ingredients in the proportion of twenty pounds of the above
mixture to every one hundred pounds of Fuller's soap. In place of the
starch or potatoes any other albuminous substance may be added. When
the whole of the foregoing ingredients have been added, and the stirring
operation continued for ten or fifteen minutes longer, or until the mass is well
mixed, it will be as well to try a small quantity in a shallow tin plate, which
must be placed in cold water, and if the mixture hardens or sets quickly it
will indicate that the operation is complete, and the materials ready to be run
off into coolers. When this is the case the soap is conducted or allowed to run
into the coolers by opening a cock in the main soap pipe beneath the kettle,
when the soap or materials in the vessel above will enter the conducting pipes
and pass down thence at pleasure through the cocks in the pipes below, and be
conveyed to the coolers by troughs, pipes, buckets, or otherwise. If the soap
is to be cooled in small quantities, it may be conveyed at once to the coolers
and left to cool without further trouble; but if it is left to cool in large quan-
tities, it is best to "crotch" or stir it for a little time to prevent any degree of
separation. When it is required to harden the soap quickly, a small propor-
tion (say one pound) of rice flour to one hundred of the other ingredients of
which the soap is composed may be added as a last addition; this addition of
rice flour to assist in hardening the soap is, however, not essentially necessary.
When the silicate of magnesia is employed in place of whiting, as above
explained, the silicate of magnesia itself possesses the property of quickly
hardening the soap.
The mixtures in the order above set forth are all made in the boiling or
soap kettle, and may be mixed in any convenient quantities in or about the
above proportions; these proportions may, however, be varied according to the
results required in the quantity and quality of the soap.
The apparatus which I employ for mixing and stirring the ingredients as
above described is shewn in the accompanying Drawing, in which Fig.1 repre-
sents a longitudinal vertical section of the apparatus. It will be seen that the
kettle or vessel a, a, which contains the ingredients of which the soap is com-
posed, has an outside casing or jacket b, b, made steam-tight, and the heat for
boiling the materials is obtained from steam which is admitted into the space
c, c, between the soap kettle and jacket by a pipe k, which communicates

page_text: with a steam generator of any of the usual constructions. For the purpose of
diffusing the heat more quickly through the mass in the kettle, I adapt a
number of vertical pipes p to the bottom of the kettle, and as these pipes com-
municate with the steam space c, c, steam will enter the pipes and the
heat will be thereby more quickly and uniformly diffused through the mass.
The water of condensation can be blown off from the steam space c, c, when
required by means of the pipe n, which is furnished with a stop-cock for the
purpose. The stirring operation is effected by a revolving horizontal arm d, d,
mounted upon a perpendicular shaft e in the soap kettle. This arm d, d, is
furnished with perpendicular teeth or stirrers f, f, ff, which reach to near the
bottom of the kettle, and work between the vertical heating pipes. The
stirring apparatus is actuated by gearing in connection with bands and pullies.
In the Drawing a bevil wheel g is mounted horizontally on the vertical
shaft e, and gears into a similar wheel h on the horizontal shaft i, on the other
end of which is mounted a pulley j, which is driven by a band or strap in
connection with any convenient motive agent. When the admixture of the
materials has been effected, and the manufacture of the soap is completed,
the ingredients are run off, as before stated, out of the vessel, and are by
means of the pipe l, which is furnished with cocks, conveyed by the branch.
pipes m, m, to suitable coolers.
It is scarcely necessary to say that any number of these boiling, stirring,
and mixing apparatus may be employed side by side when large quantities of
ingredients are required to be operated upon; and I would observe that if
thought desirable the boiling vessel may be furnished with a cover, due pro-
vision being of course made for the convenient introduction of the materials
from time to time to the vessel.
Having now described this Invention, and the best means with which I am
at present acquainted for carrying the same into effect, I would here remark,
that although I have given certain definite proportions in which the said
several ingredients should be mixed, such proportions having been found. by
experience to produce the most satisfactory results, yet I do not by any means
intend to confine myself thereto, as in order to produce soap of a certain
quality, and specially adapted for a peculiar purpose, I have sometimes found
it necessary to vary the proportions. by increasing the quantity of one material
and diminishing that of another; it will therefore be evident that the propor-
tions above mentioned may be considerably varied without departing from the
nature and object of these improvements. I would also remark that some of
the materials above.mentioned have heretofore been used for similar purposes.
I do not, therefore, intend to claim the exclusive use of such materials, except

page_text: when combined and used in the manner herein set forth. What I consider to
be new in the process and apparatus above described, and therefore wish to
claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent, is, first, the combination of the materials above set forth for
the purpose of producing soap that may be used in hard, or soft, fresh, or
salt water.
I particularly claim the use in the manufacture of soap of the biborate of
soda or borax, or tincal, or any material containing its elements, whether the
same is used with the materials above mentioned or others to make soap.
I also claim the use of the apparatus above described and shewn in the
Drawing when the same is employed in the manufacture of soap.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Ransom St. John, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.
JOHN RANSOM (L.s.) ST. JOHN.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventeenth day of July, in the
year of our Lord 1851, the aforesaid John Ransom St. John came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.