IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING SCAMMONY ROOT AND COMMERCIAL SCAMMONY TO OBTAIN THE ACTIVE PRINCIPLE THEREFROM.
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander William Williamson, of 16, Provost Road,
Haverstock Hill, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING SCAMMONY ROOT AND COMMERCIAL SCAMMONY
TO OBTAIN THE ACTIVE PRINCIPLE THEREFROM.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander William
Williamson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 23rd December 1857.
I, ALEXANDER WILLIAM WILLIAMSON, of 16, Provost Road, Haverstock
Hill, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING SCAMMONY ROOT AND COMMERCIAL SCAMMONY TO
OBTAIN THE ACTIVE PRINCIPLE THEREPROM," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in treating scammony root
and commercial scammony to separate the active principle therefrom. For
this
purpose, the scammony root or commercial scammony is divided up into
small pieces, or reduced to powder, and treated with dilute hydrochloric or
other acid until the sugar which the substance contains is completely dissolved.
The acid liquid is then separated as completely as possible, and the insoluble
residue treated with ammonia or other alkali, which dissolves the resin acids
or active principle of the scammony, which is obtained in a state of comparative
purity by precipitating the clear alkaline solution with an acid.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander William Williamson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 23rd June 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
WILLIAM WILLIAMSON, of 16, Provost Road, Haverstock Hill, in the County
of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Alexander William Williamson, Her special licence that I, the
said Alexander William Williamson, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Alexander William Williamson, 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 Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING SCAMMONY ROOT AND COM-
MERCIAL SCAMMONY TO OBTAIN THE ACTIVE PRINCIPLE THEREPROM," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alexander William Williamson,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their bands 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 Alexander William Williamson, 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 -
This Invention has for its object improvements in treating scammony roots
and commercial scammony to separate the active principle therefrom. For
this purpose, when treating scammony root I proceed in the following
manner: The crushed or ground roots are boiled for about twenty-four
hours in a stoneware vat with a mixture of about 100 measures of water
and one measure of ordinary bydrochloric acid (other acids may be used,

page_text: but I prefer hydrocholric on account of its not undergoing any decom-
position). A sufficient quantity of the acid water is taken to cover the roots
completely, even after they have swelled up, and during the first part of the
boiling a labourer stirs the mixture occasionally with 0 wooden rod to make
the woody particles sink in the liquid. The acid solution of sugar which is
formed by this process has next to be removed as completely as possible from
the solid residue by squeezing in a press or other suitable apparatus, and the
dry residue is then soaked in water and again squeezed. In order to dry the
washed residue more completely than can be done by a press it is desirable
to finish the desiccation by the aid of heat by spreading the substance in the
form of small pieces on a plate heated by steam. The remaining woody
matter contains the acids of the scammony uncombined with sugar and
soluble in caustic alcalies, and caustic alcalies may be used for this purpose. For
the extraction of these acids I prefer however the use of spirits of wine, which
may be used in the following manner :-I introduce the washed and dry root as
above into a cylindrical iron vessel provided with a close fitting lid, and com-
municating at its upper end with the condenser of a still, at its lower end with
a vessel for receiving the extract. This cylindrical vessel (called an extracting
box) should not be entirely filled with the root, but an empty space should be
left at the top for the more uniform action of the alcohol vapour; spirits of wine
or an alcoholic extract (from previous portion of root) is introduced into the
still and made to boil. The vapour arising from this still passes into the
condenser, and thence, after condensation, through the root in the extracting
box. It is desirable that the water used in the condenser should be regulated
so as only to condense the vapour without cooling it much, so that hot
condensed spirits may fall on to the root in the extracting box, whilst some
of the vapour may be condensed within the box amongst the root which it
contains. The extraction of each charge of root should continue as long
as the spirit comes through coloured, and at the end of the process the spirit
adhering to the root may be recovered by blowing steam through the box, and
condensing as from the still. The resin acids left in the still should be freed
from the traces of alcohol adhering to them by a jet of steam, and then dried
in a steam evaporating pan till a sample on cooling becomes quite hard and
brittle.
When treating commercial scammony I proceed as when treating scammony
root.
What I claim as new in this process is, the treating scammony root or

page_text: commercial scammony with acid and afterwards dissolving out the active
principle from the substance so treated, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander William Williamson, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of Juno, in the
year of our Lord Ono thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
ALEX. W. WILLIAMSON. (L.S.)