IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING GLYCERIIS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Fergusson Wilson, of Belmont, Vauxhall,
Managing Director of Price's Patent Candle Company, and George
Payne, of the same Place, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING
GLYCERIIS
Scaled the 17th April 1855, and dated the 8th February 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Fergusson Wilson
and Georgo Payne at the Offico of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 8th February 1855.
We, GEORGE FERGUSSON WILSON, of Belmont, Vauxhall, Managing Director
of Price's Patent Candle Company, and GEORGE PAYNE, of the same Place, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING
GLYCERINE" to be as follows:-
Heretofore glycerine has been for the most part obtained when manu-
facturing soap, but in modern times glycerine has been obtained by other
processes, amongst others by distilling it over with fat acids; but we have
found that glycerine even when distilling it over with fat acids is not so pure as
it is desirable to obtain glycerine, and glycerine obtained by other processes is
generally very impure..
Now, our Invention consists of distilling and redistilling glycerine after it has

page_text: been separated or for the most part separated from the fatty bodies previously
combined with it. We distill glycerine in stills, from which atmospheric nir
can be excluded, and we prefer to use superheated steam for the purpose of
excluding the air from glycerine, when and for aiding in distilling it. We also
use steam in driving off the more volatile impurities from glycerine.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Georgo Fergusson Wilson and George Payne in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 4th August 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, GEORGE
FERGUSSON WILSON, of Belimont, Vauxhall, Managing Director of Price's
Patent Candle Company, and GEORGE PAYNE, of the same Place, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of February, in the year of our Lord Ono
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
George Fergusson Wilson and George Payne, Her special licence that we, the
said George Fergusson Wilson and George Payne, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said George Fergusson Wilson
and George Payne, our 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 GLYCERINE," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
George Fergusson Wilson and George Payne, by an instrument in writing under
our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, should par-
ticularly 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 Offico within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said George Fergusson Wilson, and George
Payne, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what innumer
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
Heretofore glycerine has been for the most part obtained when manu-

page_text: facturing soap, but in modern times glycerine has been obtained by other
processes, amongst others by distilling it over with fat acids; but we havo
found that glycerine even when distilling it over with fat acids is not so pure as
it is desirable to obtain glycerine, and glycerine obtained by other processes is
generally very impure.
Now, our Invention consists of distilling and redistilling glycerine after it has
been separated, or for the most part separated from the fatty bodies previously
combined with it. We distill glycerine in stills, from which atmospheric air
can be excluded, and we prefer to use superheated steam for the purpose of
excluding the air from glycerine, when and for aiding in distilling it. We also
use steam in driving off the more volatile impurities from glycerine.
Having thus stated the nature of our said Invention, we will proceed to
describe the manuer of performing the same.
This Invention, as above stated, consists of purifying glycerine by distillation
after it has been separated or for the most part separated from the fatty bodies
previously combined with it, by which means we are enabled to produce
glycerine in a much higher state of purification than heretofore. And the
Invention also consists of separating the more volatile impurities from glycerine
by passing streams of steam through glycerine. In distilling glycerine, wo first
concentrate it in a still, or like description of close vessel, to about the specific
gravity of 1.15, conducting such concentration at as low a temperature as may
be, say, not exceeding 230° of Fahrenheit, the vapours passing from the still or
vessel to a condenser to be condensed. Then for several hours currents of
heated steam at a temperature of 212° to 230° of Fahrenheit are to be intro-
duced below the glycerine by a perforated pipe or other convenient means, till
the products passing over cease to indicate acid to test paper. The external
heat is then raised to a temperature of about 230° of Fahrenheit, when super-
heated steam is to be freely admitted, when it will be found that the glycerine
begins to distil at a temperature of about 340°, and we find the best results
are obtained by keeping the temperature of the glycerine in the still or vessel
at a temperature of about 370° Fahrenheit, and we prefer to keep the tem-
perature below 400° of Fahrenheit, as at that temperature, or slightly above,
glycerine appears partially to decompose..
By distilling glycerine after it has been separated from the fatty bodies with
which it had been previously combined, whether such separation has been
accomplished by distillation or otherwise, glycerine of a high degree of purity
is obtained. We would, however, state, that where so great a degree of purity
as that obtained by distillation and redistillation is not required, a considerable
degree of purity will be found to result from simply concentrating the glycerine,

page_text: and passing currents of steam through it for several hours, as above described,
and then filtering the glycerine through washed animal charcoal.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, we would have it understood that we do not confine
ourselves to the precise details herein described; but what we claim is, the
subjecting glycerine to a process of distillation after it has been separated from
the fatty matters previously combined with it; and we also claim. the subjecting
glycerine after it has been separated from the fatty bodies previously combined
with it to the action of streams of steam.
In witness whereof, we, the said George Fergusson Wilson and George
Payne, have hereunto set our hands and scals, this Fourth day of
August, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-five.
Witness,
B. GOBEY,
4, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn.
GEO. F. WILSON. (L.B.)
GEORGE PAYNE. (L.B.)