AN IMPROVEMENT IN BLEACHING PALM OIL
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Dixon, of the City of Dublin, Soap
and Candle Manufacturer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT
IN BLEACHING PALM OIL."
Sealed the 17th January 1858, and dated the 1st November 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Dixon
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 1st November 1852.
I, GEORGE DIXON, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN BLEACHING PALM OIL" to be as follows:-
I bleach palm oil by passing free or naked steam through it while
in a fluid state. The palm oil to be bleached is placed in a wide or
shallow vessel, on the lower surface of which are placed several pipes
pierced with a considerable number of small holes, and supplied with
steam from a boiler. The steam, being admitted into the pipes, first
heats them by its condensation, and then melts the oil if it is in a solid
state, and afterwards rushes through the small holes, and, passing
through the liquid oil, escapes. I prefer to expose the surface of the

page_text: oil to air and light during the operation. The pressure of the steam,
and its temperature, and the mode of introducing it, and the form of
the apparatus may, be varied.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Dixon in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 27th April 1853: .
__
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
GEORGE DIXON, of the City of Dublin, Soap and Candle Manufacturer,
send greeting.
CI
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date-the-First-day-of-November, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the six-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said George Dixon, Her special licence
that I, the said George Dixon, my executors, 'administrators, and
assigns; or such others as T the-said-George Dixon my exécutors
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, rusc, exer
cise, and, vend,f within the United Kingdom of Great Britain, and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention, for" AN
IMPROVEMENT IN BLEACHING PALM OIL," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said George Dixon, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to he
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.
11
.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Dixon, 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, reference being 'had to the accom-
3

page_text: panying Drawing, and to the figures and letters marked thereon...that:
is to say.
steam from a boiler.
*
I bleach palm oil by passing free or naked steam through it, while in
a fluid; state. The palm oil to be bleached is placed in a wide and
shallow vessel, on the lower surface of which are placed several pipes
pierced with
ha considerable number of small holes, and supplied with
steam, being admitted into the pipes, first,
heats them by its condensation, and then, melts the oil if it in a
solid state, and afterwards rushes through the small holes, and, passing
through the liquid oil, escapes. I prefer to expose the surface of the
oil to air and light during the operation.
W
Figure 1 of the Drawings hereunto-annexed-is-a-plan, and Figure 2-
is a section of an apparatus adapted for carrying out my Invention.
A, is a
open vessel containing the palm oil. either alone or floating on
the surface of a quantity of water. If no water is introduced in the
first instance, a portion will soon accumulate at the bottom from the
condensation of the steam. I do not heat the steam in its passage
from the boiler to the vessel A. B, is the steam pipe leading from the
boiler to a cross pipe C, from which issue several smaller pipes D, D.
perforated with holes through which the steam rushes out. E, is a
cock or valve to regulate the flow of steam. The steam is not merely
employed to melt the palm oil, but it is allowed to pass through the
oil for from six to twelve hours, more or less, until the oil is found to
be bleached.
The time varies with the nature of the palm oil and the state of the
weather and other circumstances, but the progress and completion of
the process is readily ascertained by occasionally taking out a sample of
the oil and allowing it to cool, and then examining its colour. The
form of the apparatus is not essential and it may be varied.
Neither acids nor any other chemical ingredients are to be added to
the palm oil.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that
what I claim as my Invention is, the bleaching of palm oil without
the aid of acids or other chemical ingredients, by passing free steam

page_text: through it in an open vessel; which steam has not been heated after
leaving the boiler in which it is generated, as' herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Dixon, have hereunto
set my hand and scal, this Twenty-fifth day of April, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
GEORGE DIXON. (L.S.)
Witness, .
ROB V. DIXON,. Clk., A.M.,
Fellow & Tutor T. C. D.,
Trinity College, Dublin.