IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION AND USE OF COM- POSITIONS FOR CLEANSING AND SWEETENING CASKS AND OTHER VESSELS, SUCH COMPOSITIONS BEING ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Henry Atkinson, of No. 66, Aldersgate
Street, in the City of London, Manufacturing Chemist, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION AND USE OF COM-
POSITIONS FOR CLEANSING AND SWEETENING CASKS AND OTHER VESSELS, SUCH
COMPOSITIONS BEING ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES."
Sealed the 10th March 1868, and dated the 4th January 1868!
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Henry Atkinson'
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 4th January 1868.
I, WILLIAM HENRY ATKINSON, of No. 66, Aldersgate Street; in the
City of London, Manufacturing Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION AND USE OF.
COMPOSITIONS FOR CLEANSING AND SWEETENING CASKS AND OTHER VESSELS, SUCH
COMPOSITIONS BEING ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES;" to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in the preparation and use of the improved.
compositions herein-after described for cleansing and sweetening wooden
casks, beer barrels, pails, iron and copper pots, pans, and all other vessels

page_text: or utensils that may be dirty or greasy, or that have a musty or offensive
smell, which said compositions are also applicable to the cleansing of
bedsteads and other surfaces.
The improved compositions are intended to be used in the order of
process herein-after stated, but they may be otherwise used according to
the surfaces which they are used to clean.
In preparing what I term "composition No. 1," I heat twenty pounds
of common soda and three pounds of hydrate of potash together in an
iron pot or other suitable vessel, keeping the mixture well stirred until
it is dry; I then allow it to cool and put it into a bottle or jar so as to
keep it from the air.
In preparing what I term "composition No. 2," I add one pound by
weight of sulphuric acid to forty pounds of sulphate of soda, and dry
them in an iron pot or other suitable vessel, keeping the mixture well
stirred until it is dry. When this last-mentioned mixture of sulphuric
acid and sulphate of soda is dry I intimately mix therewith common
salt in the proportion of about one part of salt to two parts of the
mixture.
I will describe the application of my improved compositions to the
cleansing and sweetening of casks. I dissolve the "composition-No. 1"
in water in the proportion of about one pound of the said composition to
five gallons of water, and I partly fill the cask with the solution; I then
boil the said solution by means of an open steam pipe passed through the
bung hole of the said cask into the said solution, which is thus dispersed
all over the cask and enters the pores of the wood of which the cask is
made and extracts the must or smell therefrom without injuring the
fibres of the wood. The boiling is continued for about half an hour, the
solution is then run out, and the cask is washed two or three times with
hot water. The cask is then subjected to the same process with "com-
position No. 2," which is dissolved in water in the same proportions as
"composition No. 1."
.
In cleansing bedsteads or other surfaces with my improved compositions
the surface is scoured with a hot solution of one of the said compositions
or first with a solution of "composition No. 1," and then with a solution
of "composition No. 2," the said solutions being washed off with hot
water.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursance of the conditions of the Letters Patent
filed by the said William Henry Atkinson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 26th June 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HENRY ATKINSON, of No. 66, Aldersgate Street, in the City of London,
Manufacturing Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent bearing date the Fourth day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-first
year of Her reign, did for Herself, Her heirs, and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said William Henry Atkinson, Her special licence,
that I, the said William Henry Atkinson, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others, as I, the said William Henry Atkinson, 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 THE PREPARATION AND USE OF COMPOSITIONS FOR CLEANSING AND SWEETENING
CASKS AND OTHER VESSELS, SUCH COMPOSITIONS BEING ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER
PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William
Henry Atkinson, 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 Henry Atkinson, 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 :-
My Invention consists in the preparation and use of the improved com-
positions herein-after described for cleansing and sweetening wooden'
casks, beer barrels, pails, iron and copper pots, pans, and all other vessels
or utensils that may be dirty or greasy, or that have a'musty or offensive"
smell, which said compositions are also applicable to the cleansing of
bedsteads and other surfaces.

page_text: The improved compositions are intended to be used in the order of
process herein-after stated, but they may be otherwise used according to
the surfaces which they are used to clean.
)
In preparing what I term "composition No. 1," I heat twenty pounds
of common soda and three pounds of hydrate of potash together in an
iron pot or other suitable vessel, keeping the mixture well stirred until
it is dry; I then allow it to cool and put it into a bottle or jar so as to
keep it from the air.
In preparing what I term "composition No. 2," I add' one pound by
weight of sulphuric acid to forty pounds of sulphate of soda, and dry
them in an iron pot or other suitable vessel, keeping the mixture well
stirred until it is dry. When this last-mentioned mixture of sulphuric
acid and sulphate of soda is dry I intimately mix therewith common
salt in the proportion of about one part of salt to two parts of the
mixture.
I will describe the application of my improved compositions to the
cleansing and sweetening of casks. I dissolve the "composition No. 1,"
in water in the proportion of about one pound of the said composition to
five gallons of water, and I partly fill the cask with the solution; I then
boil the said solution by means of an open steam pipe passed through the
bung hole of the said cask into the said solution, which is thus dispersed
all over the cask and enters the pores of the wood of which the cask is
made, and extracts the must or smell therefrom without injuring the
fibres of the wood. The boiling is continued for about half an hour, the
solution is then run out, and the cask is washed two or three times with
hot water. The cask is then subjected to the same process with "com-
position No. 2," which is dissolved in water in the same proportions as
"composition No. 1." Instead of boiling the solutions in the cask as
aforesaid each of the said compositions may be put into the said cask cold
and the said cask filled with boiling water and bunged down, each of the
said compositions being allowed to remain in the said cask for about
twelve hours, but I prefer the method of boiling herein first described.
In practice I find it advantageous to inject steam into the casks after the
cleansing process herein-before described, the injection being continued
for about two hours, but I do not claim as part of my Invention the
injection of steam after the cleansing process.
In cleansing bedsteads or other surfaces with my improved compositions
the surface is scoured with a hot solution of one of the said compositions,

page_text: or first with a solution of "composition No. 1," and then with a solution
of "composition No. 2," the said solutions being washed off with hot
water.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that
I do not limit myself to the precise details and proportions herein
described, as the same may be varied without departing from the nature
of my said Invention.
But I claim as my said Invention the preparation and use of the
compositions herein-before described, or either of them, for cleansing
and sweetening casks and other vessels, and for such other cleansing
purposes as the said compositions are or may be applicable to.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Henry Atkinson, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of June
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
eight.