IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- FACTURE OF SOAP
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical
Draughtsman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE
OF SOAP."--A communication from abroad by Gaetano
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 7th May 1874.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to economize time, fuel, labour, and
the preliminary expenses in the manufacture of soap; to render more
remunerative the capital invested in such manufacture; and to facilitate

page_text: the production of secondary useful substances, more especially of
glycerine.
To carry out the Invention take any convenient quantity of oil or suct
or other fatty matter, and place it in a flat bottomed boiler of iron con-
structed in the form of a truncated cone, together with double the
quantity of water, and a proportion of oxyde of calcium or quicklime,
rendered previously slack by means of a certain quantity of water equal
to 12 per cent. of the weight of the oil or fat. The whole must be boiled
and mixed by means of an agitator, a mechanical one by preference.
This will produce an insoluble hard lime soap and a solution of glycerine,
the latter of which may be separated by opening the top of the gauzed
or perforated pipe connected with the bottom of the boiler.
After having washed the lime soap slightly, and having closed the tap,
to the lime soap is added a certain quantity of water and a quantity of
commercial carbonate of soda equivalent to or rather in excess. of the
quantity of lime used.
When these ingredients are well mixed, and the mixture has been
boiled, the hard insoluble lime soap will be decomposed, and the lime
will be precipitated in the form of a granular carbonate, while a soluble
soda soap or potash soap (when potash is used for the purpose of making
soft soap) is produced, which floats in the shape of flakes on the top of
the water, more especially if sea salt has been added to provide for the
case of the soda not containing a sufficient quantity of salt. This is the
reason why the shape of a truncated cone is preferred for the boiler, and
its bottom is made flat, and the communication of heat only round the
boiler is used. It is in this way that it is possible to make good soap
when using fatty matter with membranes and very impure oils without
having to incur the expense for extracting the pure fat or oil. If cocoa-
nut oil or palm oil are to be saponified a quantity of lime equivalent to
the fifth of their weight can be used. These soaps being very soluble,
even in salt water, it is necessary to make use of tolerably pure carbonates
of the alkali.
Considering that lime so little soluble in cold water is far less soluble
in hot water, and that owing to this scarcely sensible alkalituity of it is
due the long period of eight hours which is required by the lime to
produce the desired saponification, a certain quantity of carbonate of soda
is used to give the liquid a density of 3 degrees, the carbonate of soda

page_text: soap
becomes at once hydrated, and acts upon the fat or oil, so that soda
is first formed and then is converted into lime soap. The liquid
remaining after the first saponification contains, in addition to hydrate
of soda, about 6 of glycerine, and by being used three or four times.
over, instead of plain water, the liquor will in the end become so charged
with glycerine that this latter useful product will be obtained with great
economy, in addition to the soda.
If instead of oxyde of calcium oxyde of lead in the state of fine powder
be used in a proportion four times the weight of the former, even taking.
into account the lime in excess mentioned, and the impurity on the
other hand of the commercial litharge, and that the action of the
oxyde of lead is assisted by that of the alkaline hydrate it is evident
that another secondary product, viz., white lead, could be cheaply
obtained.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent
filed by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 7th November 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of May, in the year.
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special
licence that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, admi-'
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alfred Vincent
Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at 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 Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP," being a communi- .
cation to me from abroad by Gaetano Tardani, of Rome, in the Kingdom
of Italy, Professor of Chemistry, upon the condition (amongst others)

page_text: that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement (that is to say) :-
The object of this Invention is to effect an economy in the manufac-
ture of soap.
This economy is duc, first, to the expediting of the
operation; and, secondly, to the obtaining of secondary or bi-products
in a simple and efficient manner.
The Invention may be described as consisting of two processes, by the
first of which the fatty matter under treatment is converted into a hard
lime soap, while by the second the lime soap is converted into a soda
soap or a potash soap, as may be desired.
The fatty substance employed in the manufacture may be tallow or
any of the equivalents therefor ordinarily used in the manufacture of
soap. Let us suppose that one thousand pounds weight of this material
is to be dealt with. The tallow is placed in a copper made by preference
in the form of a truncated cone. To the one thousand pounds of tallow
is added, say, two thousand pounds weight of water, and, say, twelve per
cent. or one hundred and twenty pounds weight of slacked lime. Steam
or other heat is then applied to the copper, and the mixture is boiled (a.
mechanical stirrer being kept in constant action) until the saponification
of the tallow is effected. In order however to expedite this operation a
small quantity of carbonate of soda, say, thirty pounds weight, is by
preference added to the mixture in the copper.
When the whole of the fatty matter has been converted into lime soap
the agitation is stopped, and the water containing glycerine in solution
is drawn off from the bottom of the copper. The lime soap thus obtained
is now ready for conversion into a soda or potash soap. Supposing it to a
be required to manufacture a soda soap the lime soap produced by the
.

page_text: saponification of the one thousand pounds of tallow is first washed, and
to it is added, say, twice its weight of water and some two hundred and
seventy pounds of commercial carbonate of soda. These ingredients are.
then to be well mixed and boiled as before, when the hard insoluble lime
soap will be decomposed, and the lime will be precipitated in the form
of a granular carbonate, leaving a soluble soda soap floating in the shape
of flakes on the top of the water, to ensure which result it is desirable to
add a small proportion of sea salt, as is commonly practised in the
manufacture of soap. When the conversion is completed the soap is
first removed from the copper, and the carbonate of lime is then taken
out. The soap may now be subjected to the ordinary finishing process
to render it fit for the market.
An important advantage incidental to the above described process is
that good soap may be made from fatty matters containing membranes,
and from very impure oils, without subjecting them to a preparatory
process of purification.
In order to obtain the glycerine from the first process or first stage of
the manufacture in the most economical manner it is preferred to use
again and again (say, three or four times) the water that is run off from
the copper after the manufacture of the lime soap. By this means the
water becomes so highly charged with glycerine that this product may
be recovered, and also the soda contained in the water at comparatively
little cost. For the manufacture of potash soap carbonate of potash will
be used for the decomposition of the lime soap instead of carbonate of
soda.
As a further improvement in the obtaining of bi-products it is proposed
to use in place of the lime oxide of lead in the state of fine powder in
the proportion of four times its weight to that of the line, as mentioned
above, the action of the oxide of lead being assisted by the carbonate of
soda. By this means white lead may be cheaply obtained as a bi-product
of the manufacture. It should however be remembered that clear oils
or pure grease will in this case be required to be used, and that a copper
vessel must be employed for boiling the ingredients to prevent the well
known action of iron on lead salts being set up.
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention of " Improvements
in the Manufacture of Soap," as communicated to me by my foreign
correspondent, and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect,

page_text: I wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters
Patent I claim, manufacturing soluble soap by the double process as and
for the purpose above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have here-
unto set my hand and scal, the Seventh day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.