IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF WOOL FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF WOOLLEN AND OTHER FABRICS, AND IN THE PROCESS OF OBTAINING MATERIALS TO BE USED FOR THAT PURPOSE
Year: 1852

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
PILLANS WILSON and GEORGE FERGUSSON WILSON, of Wandsworth, in the
County of Surrey, Gentlemen, send greeting.
WHEREAS by Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, on or about the
Twenty-second day of January, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Her present
Majesty Queen Victoria, after reciting, amongst other things, that we, the said
James Pillans Wilson and George Fergusson Wilson, had, by our Petition,
humbly represented unto Her said Majesty, that we had had partly com-
municated to us by a Foreigner residing abroad, and had partly invented our-
selves, "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF WOOL FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF
WOOLLEN AND OTHER FABRICS, AND IN THE PROCESS OF OBTAINING MATERIALS TO BE
USED FOR THAT PURPOSE," and that we had humbly prayed that Her said
Majesty would be graciously pleased to grant unto us Her Royal Letters
Patent for the sole use, benefit, and advantage of the said Invention, as therein
mentioned, Her said Majesty did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said James Pillans Wilson and George Fergusson
Wilson, our exors, adñiors, and assigns, Her especial license, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that we, the said James Pillans Wilson and George
Fergusson Wilson, our exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such others and we, the

page_text: said James Pillans Wilson and George Fergusson Wilson, our exors, admors,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times during the term of fourteen years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend the said Invention, within that
part of Her said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called
England, Her Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick, and in the Islands
of Jersoy, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and in all Her said Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad; in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso requiring us, the said James Pillans Wilson and George Fergusson
Wilson, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, and to
cause the same to be enrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in
part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto
had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
James Pillans Wilson and George Fergusson Wilson, do hereby declare that
the nature of the said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be
performed are fully and particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof (that is to say):
:-
In the processes of preparing materials for the manufacture of certain
kinds of candles, fatty matters are converted into fatty acids, and the fatty
acids are subjected to pressure, from which latter process a fluid fatty acid
results, which is called by chemists "oleic acid," and which, being now exten-
sively produced, is well known. Formerly the fatty matter which was com
monly used for making fatty acids was tallow, and the fatty acid expressed as
above stated was commonly called "tallow oil;" but more recently palm oil
has been extensively substituted for tallow in making fatty acids, and fatty
acids have, as is well known, been extensively subjected to distillation before
being pressed. Now, the Invention for which the said Letters Patent were
granted relates to improvements in the substitution of oleic acid for the more
expensive oils commonly used, as is well known, in the preparation of wool for
the manufacture of woollen and other fabrics. We are aware that before
palm oil was extensively used in making fatty acids, and before the introduc-
tion of the process of distilling fatty acids, it was proposed to use the tallow
oil of commerce in such preparation of wool; but such tallow oil did not come
into use, being found to prevent the wool working freely and to rust the cards,
and being also considered objectionable on account of its dark color. The

page_text: Invention for which the said Letters Patent were granted is founded on the
discovery that the two former objections above referred to were wholly or
mainly attributable to the fact that the tallow oil contained some portion of
the solid matter of the fat, and also contained some of the mineral acid used
in the processes of manufacturing the fatty acids. The said Invention con-
sists in part in the application to the preparation of wool, as aforesaid, in place
of the tallow oil of commerce, of oleic acid obtained from distilled fatty acids,
and particularly on account of cheapness of oleic acid obtained from the dis-
tilled fatty acids of palm oil, the same being found preferable to tallow oil on
account of their freedom or comparative freedom from mineral acid and also
on account of their lighter color. And the said Invention also consists in part
in the use of means for preparing oleic acid generally to be used as a material
in the preparation of wool as aforesaid. The process we prefer to use for this
latter purpose is, to store the oleic acid in casks or otherwise, in a situation
where it is exposed to the temperature of the outer air, in which situation we
keep it until it has been subjected to cold winter weather for not less than
ten days, preferring the greatest degree of cold and longest continuance of
storing that can be conveniently obtained. We then, during the continuance
of the cold weather, and at the greatest degree of cold which can be con-
veniently obtained, subject the oleic acid to hydraulic or other suitable pressure,
in the ordinary mode of pressing fatty matters, until all the fluid that can be
obtained therefrom is expressed, and afterwards allow the expressed product to
remain exposed in cisterns to the temperature of the outer air at as low a
degree of cold as can conveniently be obtained, and for as long a time as can
be conveniently given, preferring six days at the least. We then draw off the
liquid oleic acid from the upper part of the cisterns, leaving at the bottom any
solid matter which may have been deposited, and from which further liquid
may be obtained by bagging and pressure. We would here observe, that
unless the oleic acid operated upon was produced in summer, or at a tempera-
ture materially higher than that at which the above-mentioned processes are.
carried on, it may be found that it does not solidify sufficiently to be subjected
to pressure, and in that case we bag it, instead of pressing it, as above directed,
and afterwards expose the fluid product of bagging in cisterns as before stated,
and draw off the liquid product thereof; and any solid deposit therefrom may
also be treated as before stated. Having thus operated upon the oleic acid
to divest the same of solid matter, we operate upon the fluid oleic acid
obtained by the above processes, in order to remove therefrom any admixture
of mineral acid; and the means which we have found best for effecting this
object is to wash the fluid oleic acid by boiling the same by free steam, with

page_text: its weight of water, for half an hour, after which we allow the water to settle
out of the oleic acid, and we prefer then to distil the oleic acid with steam,
especially if the fatty acids from which it was produced were not distilled;
which distillation with steam, being a well known process, need not be further
described. Or in cases where distillation cannot be conveniently employed,
we repeat the process of washing, by again boiling the fluid oleic acid with a
fresh quantity of water of its own weight, and in the manner before described.
The fluid oleic acid, prepared as before mentioned, is to be used in the prepara-
tion of the wool, in a manner similar to that in which the oils commonly
employed are used, which being well known, and forming no part of the said
Invention, need not be further described.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and the best means
with which we are acquainted for carrying it into effect, we would have it
understood, that we do not confine ourselves to the exact details above men-
tioned, if the essential nature of the said Invention be retained; nor do we
lay claim to the preparation of wool with oleic acid for the manufacture of
woollen and other fabrics, unless the oleic acid used in such preparation has
either been obtained from distilled fatty acids or has been itself prepared by
being carefully divested of solid matter and mineral acid, for being used as a
material in such preparation of wool; nor do we lay claim to the use of the
means above described for the treatment of oleic acid except when such
means are used as a process for obtaining improved materials for the prepara-
tion of wool for the manufacture of woollen or other fabrics. But what we
claim as the Invention for which the said Letters Patent were granted, consists
in the following particulars; that is to say,-
First, we claim the using, in the preparation of wool for the manufacture of
woollen and other fabrics, of oleic acid obtained from distilled fatty acids.
Secondly, we claim the using, in the preparation of wool for the manufac-
ture of woollen and other fabrics, of oleic acid which has been treated by a
preparatory process for the purpose of freeing the same from solid matter and
mineral acid.
And we claim the process of obtaining oleic acid, freed from solid matter
and mineral acid, as a material to be used in such preparation of wool as
aforesaid.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Pillans Wilson, for myself and
for the said George Fergusson Wilson, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-second day of July, One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-two.
J. P. (L.s.) WILSON.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-second day of July, in
the year of our Lord 1852, the aforesaid James Pillans Wilson came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-second day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.