IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF TREATING LINSEED AND OTHER SEED AND VEGETABLE OILS SO AS THE BETTER TO FIT THEM FOR EMPLOYMENT IN THE 'ARTS AND Manufactures.
Year: 1872

page_text: 66
LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Ford, of No. 21, Elgin Crescent, Notting
Hill, in the Coy. of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF TREATING LINSEED AND OTHER SEED AND
VEGETABLE OILS SO AS THE BETTER TO FIT THEM FOR EMPLOYMENT IN THE
'ARTS AND Manufactures.'
دو
.
Sealed the 30th April 1872, and dated the 24th January 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Ford at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th January 1872.
I, ALFRED FORD, of No., 21, Elgin Crescent, Notting Hill, in the
Coy, of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for, "IMPROVEMENTS IN, THE. MODE OF TREATING LINSEED AND
OTHER SEED, AND VEGETABLE OILS SO AS THE BETTER TO FIT THEM FOR EMPLOYMENT
IN THE ARTS AND MANUFACTURES," to be as follows :-
.
'

page_text: unnecessary the objectionable process of boiling at present resorted to,
which is dangerous to the operator and injurious to the oils.
The advantages of this Invention are, first, its great simplicity, and
the facility with which it can be carried out; second, that the oils after
having been treated as hereinafter described acquire the increased
consistence and drying powers obtained by boiling without suffering the
impairment of their other properties always consequent upon the
employment of of a very high temperature such as that necessary for
boiling oil. The oils moreover instead of being darkened as by boiling
are made lighter in colour and better fitted for painting white panels,
which ordinary boiled oil is not; they are also more tough and flexible
when dry, and are thus rendered more useful as waterproofing agents..
This Invention consists in subjecting linseed or other seed and
vegetable oils to the action of an aqueous solution of the subacetate of lead
or of some other preperation of that metal, or to an aqueous solution of
some other metallic oxide or salt capable of precipitating the non-drying
properties of such oils and of imparting to them drying powers. I prefer
a solution of subacetate of lead made as follows, but I do not bind
myself to any particular form or mode of making this solution, or to any
particular preparation of lead:-Acetate of lead, five ounces; oxide of
lead, three and a half ounces; distilled water, one pound; boil for half an
hour or more if necessary and decant. I mix this solution at the
ordinary temperature of the atmosphere with the oil I design to treat in
the proportion of about half a pound of the solution to one galon of the
oil more or less, and having agitated them together in some suitable
vessell after the manner of a stirrer or churn to be hereafter fully
described in my Complete Specification, for a few hours more or less, I
leave the mixture to deposit its foots. This operation does away with
the necessity of long exposure of the oil to air and other oxidizing
influences as at present in use, the operation being equally successful in a
closed vessel as in an open one; when the precipitation is complete, or in
some cases before it is quite complete, I pour off the supernatant oil, and
if I wish to clear it more perfectly or to increase its drying powers I add
to it a mixture of the oxide and acetate of lead ground in oil, and having
stirred or shaken this mixture for a short time I leave it at rest to settle.
I do not confine myself to this particular mixture or to preparations
of lead for this purpose of fining, but may possibly employ preparations
of other metallic oxides or salts, only I prefer this mixture; neither do I

page_text: confine myself to carrying out my process at the ordinary temperature of .
the atmosphere, should I require a higher temperature to expedite or
improve the result I require to obtain, only at present I prefer the
ordinary temperature. I may find it desirable to filter the oil treated as
5 herein described.
the 24th July 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED.
FORD, of 21, Elgin Crescent, Notting Hill, in the County of Middlesex.
Gentleman, send greeting.
}
1
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Alfred Ford, Her special license that
I, the said Alfred Ford, my executors, administrators, and assigns,.
or such others as I, 'the said Alfred Ford, 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 THE MODE.
OF TREATING LINSEED AND OTHER SEED AND VEGETABLE OILS SO AS THE BETTER TO
FIT THEM FOR EMPLOYMENT IN THE ARTS AND MANUFACTURES," upon the
condition, amongst others, that I, the said Alfred Ford, by an instru- ;
ment 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters, Patent.
}
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Ford, do hereby declare,
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be.

page_text: performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, that is to say :-
It is well known that in the preparation of linseed and other vegetable
oils for use in arts and manufactures they are subjected to a process
of boiling which necessarily involves the condition of a very high
temperature which is dangerous to the operator and injurious to the oils,
and the object of my Invention is to avoid the said process of boiling and
to obtain similar or better results by conducting the preparation at a
much lower or at the natural temperature of the atmosphere.
My Invention for attaining this object consists in subjecting the 1
vegetable oils to the action of a solution of a salt or salts of lead capable
of precipitating the non-drying properties of such oils and of imparting
to them drying powers.
:
In my Provisional Specification I stated that I preferred to conduct
the process at the natural temperature of the atmosphere although 1
artificial heat might be used, but I now find that the latter method is
somewhat the better, and shall therefore describe the operation in
connection therewith.
In carrying out my Invention I transfer the oil from the vessels in
which it arrives into a suitable tank lined with lead and supplied with 2
any convenient stirring apparatus as used for similar purposes, and also
with the means of imparting heat by steam pipes, jackets, or other such
ordinary arrangement, by means of which the oil may be heated to about
180° Fahreneit, the stirrer being kept at work during the said heating.
While the temperature of the oil is being raised to the desired point I 2
prepare the chemical agent I use for precipitating the non-drying
constituents of the oil and in the following manner so as to produce a
subacetate of lead:-I take of acetate of lead ten parts; seven parts of
oxide of lead of commerce, or as it is usually called litharge, and forty
parts of water distilled if found necessary. These substances I boil 3
together for half an hour keeping the mixture stirred, and any water
which may be evaporated I make up again so as to maintain the same
relative proportions, and I then have a solution of subacetate of lead
which by being allowed to rest becomes clear; this solution may however
I now transfer this solution 3
be produced in any other suitable manner.
of the subacetate to the oil in the proportion of four fluid ounces of the
former to every gallon of the latter; a great portion of this solution

page_text: however falls to the bottom, and may be subsequently separated from the
"foots" and used again. The subacetate having been added to the oil
as above mentioned the whole is kept actively agitated for four or five
hours more or less as experience may direct, and it is then run off into
another tank, also supplied with heating apparatus and allowed to settle,
being kept at a temperature of about 120° Fahreneit for six or eight
hours, and it will then have deposited the "foots." I now draw off the
clear oil by a syphon or by similar means, and transfer it to a vessel
similar to that first mentioned, and the stirrer is immediately set in
motion and heat applied.
When the temperature is raised to about 120° Fahreneit, I throw in
finings consisting of seven parts of oxide of lead to ten parts of the
acetate ground in oil consisting of ten parts, and of this mixture I use
one ounce to every ten gallons of oil to be fined, and the whole is kept
agitated for an hour or so. The oil is now run off into another vessel
also supplied with heating apparatus and allowed to settle at a
temperature of about 100° Fahreneit, after which it is run off in any
convenient manner and is ready for use.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, I desire it to be under-
stood that I do not confine myself to the proportions named or to the
precise modus operandi above described, as modifications may of course
be made therein, and I would also observe that if desired the process
may
be effected at the natural temperature of the atmosphere, but in
such case a much longer time will be required and the result may not be
so good. I claim as secured to me under the above in part recited
Letters Patent and for the purpose above set forth, treating linseed and
other vegetable oils with a solution of a salt or salts of lead substantially
as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Ford, have hereunto sct
my hand and seal this Twenty-third day of July in the year of
ALFRED FORD. (L.S.)