New Washing-substance and process for making it.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 27th June, 1896-Accepted, 26th June, 1897 -
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
New Washing-substance and process for making it.
We, AUGUST SCHUCHARDS, manufacturer of Mülheim on the Rhine and Theodor
Otto, soap-maker of Düsseldorf in the Province of Rhineland, Kingdom of Prussia,
Germany, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
With all washing-substances hitherto used such as hard or soft soap, extract of
soap, soap powder soda, etc. housewives considered it as indispensable to boil the
articles to be washed with the respective lye. The reason of this probably is that the
soap employed was dissolved with comparative difficulty in water, and when easily
soluble-soap-powder, extract of soap etc. were used, the different soiled parts of the
linen were specially rubbed with soft soap and that boiling was necessary to dissolve
this soft soap.
With our new substance the boiling of the clothes or linen may be dispensed with,
on account of its greater efficiency the rubbing in of the clothes with soap becoming
unnecessary.
The new substance is distinguished, as compared with all others, by its high
percentage of alcali and the presence of carbonic acid and can be distinguished from
all other washing substances merely by its appearance and touch having different
physical qualities and consistence from these.
For it is neither hard nor sticky like soft-soap, nor liquid nor in the form of powder,
but an unstable jelly-like pap of cheesy consistency and light colour reminding one of
the so-called silver-soap.
Besides the advantage already mentioned of the boiling of the wash being omitted,
this substance. has still further advantages consisting in its cheapness and in the
saving of labour and therefore of time. The greater cheapness of washing with the
new substance is shown by the following comparison.
For four buckets of water for washing there were hitherto used about
1 lb. soft soap for about 2d.
"
soda
", soap-powder
"
"
d.
2d.
if one uses the new substance: 1 lb at 2 d., thus saving 35-45%.
Also when using other lyes there is always an expense of about 4d.-4 d.
With regard to saving of labour and time, in the case of the new substance only one
substance has to be bought, to be kept, to be divided or to be weighed and dissolved,
while otherwise three, four or more substances have to be handled. This is therefore
a great simplification of the process of washing.
The process for making the new substance is as follows:
After the saponification of fats (about two thirds hard and one third soft fats) by
means of a caustic-lie (of in general three quarter potash and one quarter soda) the
obtained ground soap is added to a gelatinous filling mass of about 20-30% of the
weight of the fats, that are used in the saponification. For the mixture thus
obtained is added 1 or 1 times its weight of dry soda in the finest possible state
(so-called pearl-stear or patent-soda) the mass being continually stirred. The soda
may either be added gradually to the soap mass or by pouring the latter on to the
soda which is in a vat. By continually stirring, the mass, the particles of soap are
11

page_text: For the ground-soap the following substances are most suitably used: of hard fats
cotton-oil, cocoa-nut oil, bone-fat, palm-oil, tallow and tallow-like fats, suet; of soft
fats: linseed-oil, rape-seed oil, olive-oil, sesame-oil, poppy-oil, candine-oil, fish-oil.
For the proportion of 3 to 1.of the alkalies employed according to the time of year
slight changes may be made; thus in the summer more soda may be taken and in
the winter more potash. As substances for the filling-mass, there are used sub-
stantial-soap, glauber-salt and chloride of potash in any proportion as regards them-
selves with so much water, that a gelatinous consistency is obtained..
The washing substance made by the process just described forms, when brought
into water on account of its high percentage of alcali, in connection with barilla and
on account of the complete saponification of the fatty parts, a lye that is eminently
adapted for washing.
One pound of the washing substance is dissolved in about four buckets of water,
the clothes are soaked in the evening in the lye thus obtained, and allowed to
remain there over night. On the next day, by simply washing out the clothes and
rubbing them, they can be thoroughly cleaned, while injuring the fibres in the least
possible degree a dazzling white appearance of the linen is obtained..
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is: .
New washing substance, distinguished by the combination of a soap mass
obtained from ground-soap and filling mass with an equal or one and a half times the
weight of soda, forming a compound of a cheesy pap-like consistency.
2. In the manufacture of the washing substance distinguished under (1) the process,
distinguished by the addition to the finished soap compound formed by the com-
position of the ground soap with the filling mass, of its weight or of one and a half
times its weight of very finely broken up soda in a dry state, the whole being
continually stirred.