IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Pascal Lombardon, of Forest Hill, in the County
of Kent, Soap Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP."
Sealed the 16th April 1875, and dated the 27th October 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Pascal Lombardon at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 27th October 1874.
I, PASCAL LOMBARDON, of Forest Hill, in the County of Kent, Soap
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP," to be as follows :-
-
The object of my Invention is to perfectly saponify all the fatty
matters contained in the grease of which the soap is made. This is
effected by means of a lye or alkaline compound consisting of carbonate
of soda, quicklime, common salt, and alum. These ingredients are
mixed in the following proportions, viz., subcarbonate of soda 10 parts,
quicklimo 10 parts, alum 1 part, common salt 1 part. These sub-

page_text: stances mixed with water are added to the grease, and the whole well
boiled, when the whole of the fatty matters will be found to be perfectly
saponified. The soap produced in this manner contains all the glycerine,
of a
which will be perfectly saponified, and the product is a hard soap
very fine character, and has no disagreeable smell, and can consequently 5
be used for toilet as well as ordinary washing purposes.
•
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Pascal Lombardon in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 27th April 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PASCAL 1
LOMBARDON, of Forest Hill, in the County of Kent, Soap Manufacturer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Lotters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Pascal Lombardon, Her
special licence, that I, the said Pascal Lombardon, my executors, atlmi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Pascal Lombartlon,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agrec
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 MANUFACTure of Soap,” upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Pascal Lombardon, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, 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.

page_text: be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, (that is to say):-
In the manufacture of soap by the ordinary processes a considerable
loss takes place, inasmuch as portions of the greasy matters become
separated from the others (which are saponified or converted into soap),
and such separated greasy matters (which consist mainly of glycerine)
become mixed with the waste water and spent lye, and are thrown
away as waste products. This waste of useful matters is a great loss
to the manufacturer, and sensibly increases the prime cost of the soap.
It is the object therefore of my present Invention to so conduct the
process of saponification, or the conversion of the greasy matters into
soap, that all the fatty or greasy matters employed in the manufacturo
shall be retained in the soap, thereby increasing it in quantity by pre-
venting loss by waste and also considerably improving the quality
of the soap.
The chemical ingredients employed for effecting the saponification of
the greasy or fatty matters do not very materially differ from those
heretofore employed for analogous purposes, but they are used in a
different manner and in different proportions. The heating or boiling of
the ingredients is also conducted in a different manner to that usually
adopted, and the result is a perfect conversion of all the fatty matters
into a soap of a superior quality.
In carrying out my Invention I take any given quantity, say, two
hundred pounds weight of soda ash, or subcarbonate of soda, and to this
I add one half of the quantity, or one hundred pounds weight of newly
slacked lime. These substances must be very intimately mixed together
and placed in a suitable vessel, and upon them is poured a sufficient
quantity of water to produce (after being allowed to stand twenty-four
hours) a lye which will mark from twenty-five degrees to twenty-six
degrees Beaumé. I then take the tallow, oil, or other fatty matter, and
to any convenient quantity thereof I add the same quantity, by measure,
of the above mentioned lye. A moderate heat is then carefully applied
to the mixture of fatty matters, and the alkaline lyc and the heat after a
short time is gradually raised to the boiling point, care being taken that
this is not done too suddenly, as it is upon the careful regulation of the
heat and the very gradual increase of the temperature that the
economical success of the process in some measure depends. As the
boiling operation proceeds, the conversion of the fatty matters into soap

page_text: gradually takes place by the formation of small grains of soap, and the
boiling is continued until all the fatty matters are converted by the
alkali into soap. The alkaline lye is sufficiently caustic to scize all the
molecules of glycerine contained in the fatty matters, and to prevent
them from uniting and forming a residue of glycerine in the spent lye.
The glycerine is retained in the mass of the soap and does not pass away,
as is usually the case when the lees and water are separated from the
mass and are drawn off from the soap.
The saponification or conversion of the entire mass of fatty or greasy
matters into soap having been effected, I pour into the boiler a quantity
of salt water, and boil up again for some hours in order to separate
and carry down any uncombined alkali and any impurities contained in
the soap. The whole mass is then left alone and allowed to cool
gradually, after which all the liquid matters, including the lees and salt
water, may be drawn off by a suitable cock, and the soap will remain in
the solid state. A quantity of pure soft water is then poured into the
boiler, and heat gradually applied up to the boiling point in order to
cause the separate grains of soap to melt and run together and form one
homogeneous mass. While this is going on I take five per cent., by
weight, of alum and an equal quantity of potash, or carbonate of potash,
or other suitable alkaline matter, and I dissolve them separately in a
portion of the soft water, and when the grains of soap have run together
I pour these two solutions into the liquid soap and then finish the soap
in the ordinary manner. The soap is then run out into frames and when
cold is cut up in the usual way.
Having now described my Invention of "Improvements in the Manu-
facture of Soap," and having explained the manner of carrying the
same into effect,. I would observe that I am aware that soda and lime
have been mixed with fatty matters for the purpose of producing soap,
I do not therefore mean to claim the exclusive right to use these
ingredients, except when they are employed in the manner and in the
proportions, substantially as herein set forth, but that which I consider
to be new in the above described improved process for making soap, and
therefore wish to claim as the Invention secured to me by Letters
Patent is, treating fatty or greasy matters with caustic alkalis in the
manner and mixed in the proportions substantially as and for the
purposes herein set forth, and then subjecting the fatty or greasy sub-
stances, combined with the caustic alkalis as hercin set forth, first to a

page_text: moderate degree of heat, and then gradually increasing the temperature
up to the boiling point, at which temperature the ingredients are kept
until all the fatty matters are completely saponified or converted into
soap, as herein set forth, so that the glycerine of such fatty matters is
fixed in and incorporated with the soap, of which it is rendered a sub-
stantive and useful component part.
In witness whereof, I, the said Pascal Lombardon, have herc-
unto set my hand and seal, the Twenty-seventh day of April,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.