IMPROVEMENTS, IN AND RELATING TO THE MANU- FACTURE OR PURIFICATION OF ALBUMEN
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Phillips Thompson, of the Agency for Foreign
Patent Solicitors, 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster,
and of 323, High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer,
for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS, IN AND RELATING TO THE MANU-
FACTURE OR PURIFICATION OF ALBUMEN." A communication from abroad
by Uno Harold Hillman, of the City and State of New York, United States
of America, Gentleman.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Phillips Thompson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 10th September 1881.
WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, of the Agency for Foreign Patent Solicitors,
6, Lord Street, Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, and of 323, High
Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND
RELATING TO THE MANUFACTURE OR PURIFICATION OF ALBUMEN." A cominuni-
cation from abroad by Uno Harold Hillman, of the City and State of New York,
United States of America, Gentleman.
This Invention has for its primary object a new and improved process for the
manufacture of albumen from the spawn or ova of fish, and incidentally an
improvement in the manufacture of albumen from any other source, as from hens'
eggs, the blood of animals, or any other substance containing albumen, and as the
process does not involve any special form of apparatus this application is unaccom-
panied by any Drawing.
In the manufacture of albumen and its commercial handling afterwards serious
difficulties are encountered. In the process of manufacture the albumen is
extremely liable to decomposition, as it is also after the packages are once opened
for use, unless it be at once consumed, and in certain kinds of albumen iron and
other impurities exist, which are deleterious.
This Invention has for its object the avoidance of these difficulties, first, by
manufacturing the albumen by a process so rapid and efficient that there is no

page_text: chance for chemical change; and, secondly, by the addition of an antiseptic which
will prevent the change while the article is in stock or in process of use, and will
at the same time neutralize the iron, et cetera, present in some kinds of albumen, so
as to greatly improve the albumen in quality.
The process of manufacture is as follows:-The spawn bags are carefully opened,
and the spawn separated from the enclosing membrane, after which the spawn is
crushed by suitable machinery. The crushed mass is then treated with a sufficient
quantity of water to dissolve all the albumen. The albuminous water is then
separated, preferably either by filtering or pressing, the latter process being
preferable, and the clear solution placed in a vacuum pan and brought to a boil
under such a vacuum that the temperature shall not impare the coagulative power
or the ready solubility of the albumen. The process of evaporation may be carried
to perfect dryness in the pan, or the thickened mass may be removed and evaporated
to dryness in an ordinary drying room.
This process is rapid and efficient, and fully accomplishes the object in view of
preventing the possibility of chemical change during manufacture. To avoid
change while in stock or during use an antiseptic is employed, and for this purpose
no substance with which trials or experiments have been made gives so good a
result as salicylic acid. In the first place it combines with the iron of the albumen,
an element especially present in blood albumen, to form a neutral soluble salt,
thereby removing this element of disadvantage to the use of this albumen as a
colour. fixer in calico printing, and, secondly, it perfectly preserves the albumen
from chemical change.
Many other antiseptics would perform the latter office nearly as well as salicylic
acid, and may under certain circumstances be used with advantage.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said William Phillips Thompson in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 10th March 1882.
WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, of the Agency for Foreign Patent Solicitors,
6, Lord Street, Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, and of 323, High
Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND
RELATING TO THE MANUFACEURE OR PURIFICATION OF ALBUMEN." A communi-
cation from abroad by Uno Harold Hillman, of the City and State of New York,
United States of America, Gentleman.
This Invention has for its primary object a new and improved process for the
manufacture of albumen from the spawn or ova of fish, and incidentally an
improvement in the manufacture of albumen from any other source, as from hens'
eggs, the blood of animals, or any other substance containing albumen, and as the
process does not involve any special form of apparatus this application is unaccom-
panied by any Drawing.
In the manufacture of albumen and its commercial handling afterwards serious
difficulties are encountered. In the process of manufacture the albumen is
extremely liable to decomposition, as it is also after the packages are once opened
for use, unless it be at once consumed, and in certain kinds of albumen iron and
other impurities exist, which are deleterious.
This Invention has for its object the avoidance of these difficulties, first, by
manufacturing the albumen by a process so rapid and efficient that there is no
chance for chemical change; and, secondly, by the addition of an antiseptic which
will prevent the change while the article is in stock or in process of use, and will
at the same time neutralize the iron, et cetera, present in some kinds of albumen,
so as to greatly improve the albumen in quality.
The process of manufacture is as follows:-The spawn bags are carefully opened,
and the spawn separated from the enclosing membrane, after which the spawn is
crushed by suitable machinery. The crushed mass is then treated with a sufficient
quantity of water to dissolve all the albumen. The albuminous water is then
separated, preferably either by filtering or pressing, the latter process being
preferable, and the clear solution placed in a vacuum pan and brought to a boil
under such a vacuum that the temperature shall not impair the coagulative power
or the ready solubility of the albumen. The process of evaporation may be carried
to perfect dryness in the pan, or the thickened mass may be removed and
evaporated to dryness in an ordinary drying room.
This process is rapid and efficient, and fully accomplishes the object in view of
preventing the possibility of chemical change during manufacture. To avoid change
while in stock or during use an antiseptic is employed, and for this purpose no
substance with which trials or experiments have been made gives so good a result
as salicylic acid. In the first place it combines with the iron of the albumen, an
element especially present in blood albumen, to form a neutral soluble salt, thereby
removing this element of disadvantage to the use of this albumen as a colour fixer
in calico printing, and, secondly, it perfectly preserves the albumen from chemical
change. It is proposed to add the salicylic acid to the prepared albumen in the
proportion of about one part of the acid to twenty parts of the albumen.
Many other antiseptics would perform the latter office nearly as well as salicylic
acid, and may under certain circumstances be used with advantage.
I am aware that the use of antiseptics to prevent decomposition of animal

page_text: substances is not new, and I do not claim such broadly, but having thus described
this Invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is,―
1st. The herein described process of manufacturing albumen from fish spawn,
consisting in adding to the crushed spawn sufficient water to dissolve the albumen
and evaporating the albuminous water by boiling under a vacuum sufficiently low
to preserve the ready solubility and the coagulative power of the albumen, substan-
tially as described.
2nd. As a new article of manufacture, antiseptic albumen, substantially as
described.
3rd. The combination of albumen and salicylic acid, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Phillips Thompson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Ninth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty two.
W. P. THUMPSON,
(L.S.)