CERTAIN IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Hippolyte Mège, of No. 10, Rue de la Fidélité,
Paris, Professor of Chemistry, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Hippolyte Mège at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 9th
November 1868.
I, HIPPOLYTE MÈGE, of No. 10, Rue de la Fidélité, Paris, Professor of
Chemistry; do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for " CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP," to be as follows, that is
to say:-
My Invention consists in the employment for the manufacture of soap of
the process I have described in Her Majesty's Letters Patent for improve-
ments in the treatment of fatty bodies, dated 17th July 1868, No. 1778, to
obtain a soap complete (that is to say, a soap in which the fatty body is
completely saponified.)
For common soap made from oils or greases with soda.-I obtain by means
of the soap, as above mentioned, such a combination that the fatty matters are
immediately acted upon by the lye, and are perfectly and rapidly saponified.
The perfection thus obtained by that kind of impastation is such that the
coction is replaced by a mere coagulation, liquation, and purification by a mere
washing, and the agitating in the cooling troughs by the mere pouring out of
the nearly cooled bubbles of soap into the moulds, where in a very short time

page_text: it settles into a mass. This operation, which requires only one lye, is rendered
still more economical by extracting from it the glycerine and by revivifying
the lime.
To manufacture soap from oils or neutral greases with potash.-I combine
the greases with the soap herein-before mentioned, and I mix a quantity of
potash lye with them, and when the saponification is complete the neutralization
is effected by means of a fatty acid.
To manufacture soap with fatty acids, and especially oleic acid, as in that
case the fatty body is completely saponified, the globular state takes place by
itself, I have merely to pour the oleic acid into the lye in excess, and within a
very short time the soap is prepared; the heat is then carried up to the
boiling point. The soap is washed and poured as usual into the troughs,
without requiring to be brought to the state of paste, or to be subjected to
coction, liquation, or agitation in the troughs; if resin be added it must be in
the state of emulsion.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Hippolyte Mège in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
21st March 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HIPPOLYTE
MEGE, of No. 10, Rue de la Fidélité, Paris, Professor of Chemistry; send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date, the Ninth day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant, unto. me, the
said Hippolyte Mège, Her special. license, that I, the said Hippolyte Mège, my
executors,, administrators, and assigns,, or such others as. I, the-said, Hippolyte
Mège, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time, agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at 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
Island, and. Isle of Man, an Invention for "CERTAIN. IMPROVEMENTS IN, THE
MANUFACTURE OF SOAP," upon; the condition (amongst others), that I,, the said
Hippolyte Mège,
executors, or administrators,, by an instrument in writing
under my hand. and seal, or under the hand and, seal of one of them, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in

page_text: what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office with six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Hippolyte Mège, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment, that is to say :-
My Invention, which constitutes new processes is a radical improvement in
the manufacture of soap, and is founded on the three following principles,
viz.:-
Firstly, in preparing globules undecomposable even in a hot state by a lye;
the keeping these divided globules in a permanent suspension in the alkaline
liquid, by using a hot lye sufficiently weak, and in sufficient quantity, assisted
with a continuous stirring kept up until the saponification is completed.
Secondly, in dividing, washing, and refreshing the soap sufficiently boiled,
so as to pour it in a state of pure and tepid granules into the frames.
Thirdly, in making use of one sort and of one single lye from which the
glycerine can be extracted, and which lye can be made more economically by
quickening the lime.
The essential quality of the soap consists in a complete saturation, that is
to say, in the entire disappearance of the glycerine. The complete saturation
is so necessary that I have stated in a previous Patent, dated the Sixteenth of
July, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, No. 1778, as a fundamental
basis, that by making use of a completely saturated soap (whatever may be
the process for manufacturing it) all the operations for extracting the stearic
acid are simplified, and the product rendered more valuable. The precise
means of saponification for facilitating this result, which I have herein
described, are naturally applicable to the manufacture of soap.
To manufacture soap with a soda base and with neutral natural fatty
matters, I proceed as follows:-I take a solution of carbonate of soda, from
which I separate the sulphurets (if any) by means of a metallic oxide, which
is afterwards converted into a sulphate in commerce, or which is quickened by
decomposition, and the solution is rendered caustic by lime; this lye must be
weak, as herein-after stated. As to the deposit of the carbonate of lime
formed it is quickened to the state of caustic lime in a kiln in order to save
any soda, and to obtain lime at a low price. The lye can be employed in two
different ways. The first consists in putting into the boiler the necessary
quantity of lye in which the globules may swim with ease (for instance,
three parts of lye to one of globules), and containing an excess of soda; this

page_text: lye being partly exhausted is removed and rendered stronger by fresh soda,
and so on.
The second means consists in leaving in the boiler, after the soap
has been taken away, the lye of the preceding boiling, then adding the
globules, and afterwards the lye containing the necessary quantity of soda for
the saponification, and a sufficient quantity of water for the composition of the
soap and for the evaporation in such manner that the same quantity of lye at
the same degree of strength always remains in the boiler. The same operation
is always renewed by preparing and adding the exact quantity of lye repre-
senting the water and soda used. The lye in the boiler is renewed when it
contains too much glycerine, which may be concentrated and bleached for
commerce. By this mode I economise labour, and prevent the soap from
being lost in the lye; however, to insure good results I make use in all the
different stages of the operation of a weak lye and only one lye once
added.
White soap. First operation.-The forming of the paste is made promptly
and with certainty as follows:-Into water containing soap in solution, the
liquid fatty matter is poured, care being taken to stir at the same time; a
milky liquid is immediately formed, which is composed of globules of a double
salt of oleate of glycerine and soda capable of being very finely divided in the
hot lye without the fatty body separating; the hot lye is then mixed with
these globules, and the liquid agitated. The quantity of lye must be sufficient
to maintain the globules freely immersed, and the whole of the lye must
contain more soda than is necessary for the complete saturation of the fatty
body; by this mode the soap being divided, immersed, expanded, and stirred in
the middle of the lye is rapily saponified. I can dispense with using soap
directly by adding fatty acids in the neutral fatty bodies, so as to form the
soap in the middle of the combined mass by contact with the lye; I can also
dispense with using formed soap and fatty acids by producing soap directly.
In this case I mix together the fatty body and lye at the usual temperature,
and when I perceive that in the cold state a sufficient quantity of soap has
been formed as well as a sufficient quantity of double salt produced, I raise
the temperature, and I continue the operation.
Second operation.-The hot soap being divided into globules, united in
light flakes, and not dissolved or being in granules, requires no addition or
operation to be separated from the lye. It suffices to raise the temperature
and to interrupt the agitation, the globules being directly in fusion will unite
again, and rise to the surface of the upper part of the boiler, the soap forming
a fluid layer.
Third oueration. During the preceding operation the elevation of the

page_text: temperature produces the coction or boiling, and the interruption of the
agitation produces the liquifaction, for as soon as the stirring ceases the flakes
composed of soap globules unite and begin to dissolve form a layer of melted
soap.
Fourth operation.-As a consequence of having employed lyes containing
no sulphurets and fatty matters freed from iron (if they contained any) by
ebullition of them with acidulated water, and besides not having formed
compact granules, it follows that the liquifaction takes place by itself, and
water cannot be added to the soap in larger quantity than it can receive, as
the melted soap forming a layer on the top of the boiler is really liquified. To
remedy the defects in the ordinary processes I divide the soap in pure and salt
water; this soap being washed loses part of its heat, agglomerates into tepid
granules, which are poured into the frames; this mode of operating insures
the natural running off of the whole of the lye, and the granules preserving
still a sufficient glutinous state are united in one mass, which after the lapse
of some hours changes its isomeric state, and becomes opaque and hard, and
possesses all the commercial qualities of a neutral and complete soap.
Marbled soap. The marbled soap is made in a similar manner. The white
and blue soaps being separately and respectively divided and tepid, are roughly
mixed together, and the mixture is poured into the frames, in which the
operation is carried on as before stated.
Blue soap is produced as usual from white soap, colored with any suitable
colouring substance, but especially with sulphuret of iron. The oleic acid,
more or less pure, is of all the fatty acids the most generally employed. In
manufacturing soap I operate with this acid on the same principle as I have
already described for the neutral fatty bodies, only I can begin at once,
without preparing the globules, as it is a fatty acid.
I have stated that the mixture of fatty acid with natural fatty bodies
produces globules by the alkaline mixture; hence it follows that with oleic
acid such an operation can be dispensed with, consequently I merely combine
the oleic acid, either pure or mixed, with neutral fatty bodies with the hot lye.
The quantity and strength of the lye and the stirring in the alkaline bath
should be according to the mode herein-before described, and I perform in the
same manner the coction, liquification, washing, and running off into the
frames; marbled soap is produced in the same way.
It will be understood that the more the oleic acid is adulterated the more
the soap is colored, and the worse the smell of the oleic acid, the less
it will yield, whilst the unadulterated oleic acid such as I have described
the means of producing in the previous Letters Patent, dated the Sixteenth

page_text: day of July, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, produces a soap
without any defect and equal to the best and finest white soap made.
To manufacture soap with a potash base I combine hot lye with neutral
fatty bodies, and the mixture is maintained hot, but without ebullition.
I produce a very good soap by the direct combining of oleic acid with a
solution of potash, so as to produce directly an oleate of potash or soft soap by
means of a simple mixture.
And having now described my Invention, and the best means of putting the
same into execution, I observe that I do not confine myself to the precise
details of proportions, or the precise mode of operating herein-before described,
as many modifications may be made therein without departing from the
principle of my Invention; but what I claim as new, and intended to be
protected by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
First, the preparing and employing of one lye and the quickening of the
lime in the manufacture of soap, as herein-before described.
Secondly, the complete saponification, including all the operations of the
usual saponification by means of globules, continually stirred in a sufficient
quantity of hot and weak lye facilitated by heat and rest, and its application to
the manufacture of common soaps, as herein-before described.
Thirdly, the dividing, washing, and cooling of the soap before being poured
into the frames, as herein-before described for the manufacture of white or
marbled soap.
Fourthly, the application of the above principles to the manufacture of soap
having potash for its base, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Hippolyte Mège, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
Witness,
HY. GILBEE,
10, Rue de la Fidélité,
Paris.
H. MEGE. (L.S.)