A NEW OR IMPROVED DETERGENT MATERIAL APPLICABLE TO THE CLEANSING OF WOOL AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES, AND TO ALL PURPOSES WHERE COARSE SOAP IS USED
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Mitchell, of Wellington Chemical Works,
Musselburgh, in the County of Mid Lothian, Manufacturing Chemist, and
William Cumming Laird, of Leith, in the same County, Merchant, for
the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED DETERGENT MATERIAL APPLICABLE
TO THE CLEANSING OF WOOL AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES, AND TO ALL
PURPOSES WHERE COARSE SOAP IS USED."
Sealed the 21st May 1867, and dated the 24th November 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Mitchell and William
Cumming Laird at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 24th November 1866.
We, JAMES MITCHELL, of Wellington Chemical Works, Musselburgh, in
the County of Mid Lothian, Manufacturing Chemist, and WILLIAM CUMMING
LAIRD, of Leith, in the same County, Merchaut, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED DETERGENT MATERIAL
APPLICABLE TO THE CLEANSING OF WOOL AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES, AND TO
ALL PURPOSES WHERE COARSE SOAP IS USED," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a novel detergent material applicable to the

page_text: cleansing of wool in the fleece and in the yarn, and also cotton, hemp, jute,
and other fibrous substances, and indeed for all purposes where coarse soap
has heretofore been employed. In preparing or manufacturing this detergent
material we make use of the residual material known as the ley, which is
composed of silicious, oily, and resinous matters combined with soda, and
which is obtained after boiling rags, esparto grass, straw, or other materials
used in the manufacture of paper with a solution of soda. The proportion of
soda with these ingredients will of course vary according to the nature of the
ley employed. This colored liquid is to be evaporated to the consistency of a
thick paste, which becomes semi-solid on cooling, and to which we add
various preparations of carbonate of soda, soda ash, or caustic soda, or sulphide
of sodium, potashes, or carbonate of potash, or urine, either separately or mixed
together, as occasion may require. The above-described chemicals are to be
added in different proportions to suit the peculiar nature or properties of the
articles or substances to be cleansed or operated upon.
We do not confine ourselves to the use of the said evaporated ley mixed
with the herein-before mentioned materials, as in some cases the evaporated
ley alone is sufficient to cleanse the materials to be operated upon. The
essential components of this novel detergent material are caustic soda, silica,
and organic mucilage.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Mitchell and William Cumming Laird in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 22nd May 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
MITCHELL, of Wellington Chemical Works, Musselburgh, in the County of
Mid Lothian, Manufacturing Chemist, and WILLIAM CUMMING LAIRD, of Leith,
in the same County, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the thirtieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her beirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said James Mitchell and William Cumming Laird, Her special license that,
we, the said James Mitchell and William Cumming Laird, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said James Mitchell and
William Cumming Laird, our executors, administrators, or assigns, should at

page_text: any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "A NEW OR IMPROVED
DETERGENT MATERIAL APPLICABLE TO THE CLEANSING OF WOOL AND OTHER FIBROUS
SUBSTANCES, AND TO ALL PURPOSES WHERE COARSE SOAP IS USED," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said. James Mitchell and William Cumming
Laird, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our
hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, 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 we, the said James Mitchell and William Cumming
Laird, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and.
acertained in and by the following statement, that is to say:
Our said Invention relates to a novel detergent material applicable to the
cleansing of wool in the fleece and in the yarn, and also cotton; hemp, jute,
and other fibrous substances, and indeed for all purposes where coarse soap
has heretofore been employed. In preparing or manufacturing this detergent
material we make use of the residual material known as the ley, which is
composed of silicicus, oily, & resinous matters combined with soda, and
which is obtained after boiling rags, esparto grass, straw, or other materials
used in the manufacture of paper with a solution of a soda. The proportions of
soda with these ingredients will of course vary accordingly to the nature of the
ley employed. This colored liquid is to be evaporated to the consistency of a
thick paste, which becomes semi-solid on cooling, and to which we add
various preparations of carbonate of soda, soda ash, or caustic soda, or sulphide
of sodium, potashes, or carbonate of potash, or caustic potash, or urine, either
separately or mixed together, as occasion may require. The above-described
chemicals are to be added in different proportions to suit the peculiar nature
or properties of the articles or substances to be cleansed or operated upon.
We do not confine ourselves to the use of the said evaporated ley mixed
with the herein-before mentioned materials, as in some cases the evaporated
ley alone is sufficient to cleanse the materials to be operated upon. The
essential components of this novel detergent material are caustic soda, silica,
and organic mucilage.

page_text: We do not confine ourselves, however, to these or any other proportions of
the said ingredients.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of our said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, we would observe in conclusion that what we consider to be novel
and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to us by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,--
First, the application and use as a detergent material of the ley obtained by
boiling rags, esparto grass, straw, or other similar materials employed in the
manufacture of paper pulp, whether such ley be used in the state it comes
from the boilers or be concentrated either by itself or compounded with the
herein-before mentioned materials, substantially as herein-before described.
Second, the application and use to and in the cleansing of wool and other
fibrous substances, and for other purposes where coarse soap has hitherto been
employed, of the peculiar detergent material herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Mitchell, on behalf of myself and
the said William Cumming Laird, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, the Twentieth day of May, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
seven.
JAMES MITCHELL. (L.S.)