IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- FACTURE AND ORNAMENTATION OF POMFRET OR LIQUORICE CAKES, ROLLS, STICKS AND PIPES AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES OF CONFECTIONERY
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Wood, of Monkhill, near Pontefract, in
the County of York, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE AND ORNAMENTATION OF POMFRET OR LIQUORICE CAKES, ROLLS,
STICKS AND PIPES AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES OF CONFECTIONERY."
Sealed the 21st July 1868, and dated the 11th March 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left. by the said William Wood at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th March 1863.
I, WILLIAM WOOD, of Monkhill, near Pontefract, in the County of York,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE AND ORNAMENTATION OF POMFRET OR LIQUORICE CAKES, ROLLS,
STICKS, AND PIPES, AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES OF CONFECTIONERY," to be as
follows:-
Pomfret or liquorice cakes, rolls, sticks, and pipes have hitherto been made
black, except very rarely, when a few have been made white or nearly so by
scraping the bark or rind from the root of the liquorice and using therewith
white sugar.
Now, the object of the first part of my improvements is to make Pomfret or
liquorice cakes, rolls, sticks, and pipes colored and of various colors, instead of
making them black; this I effect either by making black or dark colored

page_text: liquorice paste or mixture lighter colored by repeated working, rolling, or
drawing it out, the color becoming lighter in proportion to the working of it,
and then adding to it, if desired to vary the color, suitable coloring matter; or I
make a white or light colored extract of liquorice by barking the root, and
make the paste or mixture white or as light colored as possible by repeated
working or otherwise, and then adding thereto suitable coloring matter.
My improvements also consist in the combining black, white, or colored
liquorice paste or dough with one another and with other suitable confectionery
material, which I effect in various modes. Liquorice cakes have hitherto been
figured by having a device formed thereon of the same color and material as the
cake itself, and by my Patent dated 21st February 1863, (No. 479,) liquorice
and other rolls, sticks, and pipes are figured by having a device or pattern or
letters formed thereon. These devices, figures, or letters I prefer to make of
one color or white, and the ground or body of another color or combination of
colors, or when the cakes are figured on both sides in accordance with my
Patent of the 11th February 1862, (No. 356,) I prefer to make the figure
on one side of a different color to the figure on the other side; or such figure,
or device, or lettering on one or both sides of cakes, and on the surfaces of rolls,
sticks, and pipes, may be made of some other confectionery material, and the
body of liquorice paste or dough, or vice versa. I also combine liquorice paste
or mixture by bringing together different colored sheets, bands, strips, or other
forms thereof of a suitable consistency, and use such combination of sheets,
bands, strips, or other forms; or I form them into compound sheets, bands, or
other shape as material wherewith to form cakes, rolls, sticks, pipes, or other
articles. Or I form rolls and hollow pipes as described in my Patent of
the 21st February 1863, (No. 479,) by making the outer part of the
rolls, pipes, or like articles of one color, and the inner part white or of
another color or combination of colors, or by otherwise combining or mixing
black, white, or colored liquorice paste or material of a suitable consistency
with one another or with other suitable confectionery material. I also form
rolls, sticks, and pipes by laying together strips or pipes of suitable liquorice
paste of any desired color or combination of colors, alone or combined with
other suitable confectionery material, either in straight lines side by side, or
by twisting or interlocking such strips or pipes together; I also use such
combined strips or pipes, or make sheets or bands therefrom, as material
wherewith to forin cakes, sticks, rolls, pipes, and other articles.
These processes of forming patterns or devices of one or various colored
material on a ground or body of another color or combination of colors, and
the combining sheets, bands, strips, or other forms of material of different colors

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Wood in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
4th September 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
WOOD, of Monkhill, near Pontefract, in the County of York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said William Wood, Her special licence that I, the said
William Wood, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said William Wood, 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 Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND ORNAMENTATION OF POMFRET
OR LIQUORICE CAKES, ROLLS, STICKS, AND PIPES, AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES
OF CONFECTIONERY," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
William Wood, 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 William Wood, 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 thereof, that is to say:-
Pomfret or liquorice cakes, rolls, sticks, and pipes have hitherto been
made black, except very rarely, when a few have been made of a whitish or
light color by scraping the bark or rind from the the liquorice root and mixing
white sugar and gum with the extract.
Now, the object of the first part of my improvements is to make Pomfret or

page_text: liquorice cakes, rolls, sticks, and pipes colored and of various colors, instead of
making them black. I effect this by the following methods:-By repeatedly
working, rolling, and drawing out the boiled liquorice paste or mixture when
in a nearly cold and stiff state the color becomes lighter, and this effect is very
much increased by altering the usual ingredients of the mixture. If the
flour ordinarily used be omitted, and an additional quantity of sugar used in
lieu of it, the color becomes very much lighter by manipulating the paste as
before described, boiled sugar, if repeatedly pulled when nearly cold and stiff,
becoming quite white, and so, even when black extract of liquorice is used,
alters with the above-named treatment the color of the whole mass to a pale
brownish color, and if a light colored extract of liquorice be used, the color of
the paste will be much lighter. It is also desirable to use white refined
sugar and gum.
When preparing this article I, by preference, use the heated table and rollers
described in my Patent, No. 356, 1862, together with the subsequent reducing
and drawing-out rollers and cake-making roller machinery described therein.
I produce a good light colored liquorice paste or mixture from one part of
suitable extract of liquorice, two parts of white loaf sugar, and one part of
good gum arabic, mixed with water; I omit the whole of the flour. The
mixture is, after it has been sufficiently heated and blended and evaporated to
a suitable consistency, made more or less light colored in proportion as it is
more or less pulled, drawn out, or manipulated when in a stiff and nearly cold
state. If it should be desired to further alter the color, I add suitable innoxious
coloring matter according the color required.
My improvements also consist in combining black, whitish, or colored liquorice
paste with one another, and with other suitable confectionery material, which
I effect in various modes, amongst others, I combine liquorice paste or mixture
by bringing together differently colored sheets, bands, strips, or other forms
thereof of a suitable consistency, and use such combinations of sheets, etc., or
form them into compound sheets, etc., as material wherewith to form cakes,
rolls, sticks, and pipes; or I form rolls, sticks, and pipes, as described in my
Patent, No. 479, 1863, by making the outer part of such rolls, etc., or like
articles of one color, and the inner part another color or combination of colors,
or by otherwise combining black, whitish, or colored liquorice paste or material
with one another or with other suitable confectionery material. I also form
rolls, sticks, and pipes by laying together strips or pipes of suitable liquorice
paste of any desired color or combination of colors, alone or combined with
other suitable confectionery material, either in straight lines side by side, or
by twisting or interlocking such strips or pipes together; I also use such

page_text: combined strips or pipes, or make sheets or bands therefrom, as material where-
with to form cakes, pipes, or other articles. I cover rods, sticks, and pipes by
adding strips of various colored materials thereto, by a modification of part of
the apparatus described in my Patent of 21st February last, viz., by means of
two, three, four, or more grooved rollers set at such angles to one another that
the junction of their grooves forms a central opening, a strip of different
colored material or combination of materials of a suitable consistency being
supplied to each roller, and a rod, stick, or pipe of another color, material, or
combination being placed in the central opening; the whole are welded into
one by the revolution of the rollers.
Liquorice cakes have hitherto been figured by having a device formed
thereon of the same color and material as the cake itself, and by my Patent,
No. 479, 1863, liquorice and other rolls, sticks, and pipes are figured by
having a device, figures, or letters formed thereon; these devices, patterns, or
letters I prefer to make of one color, and the ground or body of another color.
or combination of colors, or when the cakes are figured on both sides, in
accordance with my Patent, No. 356, 1862, I prefer to make the figure on one
side of a different color to the figure on the other side, and such figure, device,
or lettering on one or both sides of cakes, and on the surfaces of rolls, sticks,
and pipes, may be made of some other confectionery material, and the body of
liquorice paste or dough, or vice versa.
When making the figure or device of liquorice cakes of a different color to
the body, I force paste of a suitable consistency and of the desired color into
the sunk figured parts of the upper roller of the machine shewn on Sheet 2 of
my Patent, No. 356, 1862; this may be done by a screw or small pug mill, or
by a roller driven faster than the figured roller and acting in conjunction with
a straight-edge, the sunk pattern being only of the same depth as the pattern
or relief is high. The sheet of material which is to form the body of the cake
being then passed between the rollers, the pressure causes the paste in the sunk
pattern to adhere to the sheet, which thus draws it out of the sunk pattern ;
the figured sheet then passes on to the cutting-out cylinder. Or the device and
face of one or both sides of the cake may be made of a different color and
material from each other and from the main body of the cake by placing a
thin differently colored sheet on the body sheet to alter the color on one side,
and two thin differently colored sheets of material, one on each side of another
colored body sheet, to alter the color on both sides, and passing the compound
sheet thus formed through the cake-making machine before alluded to in the
manner described in that Specification.
I also apply the above processes to the formation of devices, figures, or

page_text: letters on rolls, sticks, and pipes; or I take a figured roll, stick, or pipe, say
black, and pass it through the mandril tube of a pipe-making forcing machine,
referred to in my Patent, No. 479, 1863, which is supplied with a differently
colored paste, say whitish; the black roll, stick, or pipe must, round the device
or raised pattern, be of the full size of the nozzle through which it and the
whitish paste are forced, so that when the black roll, stick, or pipe, together
with the whitish paste, is forced out, the nozzle scrapes the whitish paste off the
raised black device and fills up the sunk parts with the whitish material, thus
forming a black device on a whitish ground.
These modes of forming patterns and faces of one or various colored material
on a ground or body of another color or combination of colors, and the modes
described of combining and treating sheets, bands, or strips, or other forms of
material of different colors or combination of colors, are also available for the
manufacture of lozenges and other similar articles made from suitable con-
fectionery materials.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Wood, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
WILLIAM WOOD. (L.S.)