IMPROVEMENTS IN PURIFYING PARAFFIN
Year: 1866

page_text: Sealed the 7th August 1866, and dated the 14th February 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Soames and James
Kolle Soames at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 14th February 1866.
We, JAMES SOAMES and JAMES KOLLE SOAMES, both of the Thames Soap
Works, Greenwich, in the County of Kent, Soap and Candle Manufacturers,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PURIFYING PARAFFIN," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in purifying paraffin. We
take crude paraffin and melt it to separate the dirt; we then mix it with about
half its weight of some saponifiable. oil, then while hot we put it into press
tins; when cold we submit it to pressure between mats, in the manner well
known in the manufacture of stearine from tallow. We repeat this process
with fresh oil until the impurities are removed; we then remelt the cakes from
the press with a weak solution of caustic alkali, and boil it to remove the last.
portion of oil which remains in it.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Soames and James Kolle Soames in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 10th August 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
SOAMES and JAMES KOLLE SOAMES, both of the Thames Soap Works,
Greenwich, in the County of Kent, Soap and Candle Manufacturers, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said James Soames and James Kolle Soames, Her special licence that
we, the said James Soames and James Kolle Soames, our executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said James Soames and James
Kolle Soames, our 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
PURIFYING PARAFFIN," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
James Soames and James Kolle Soames, our executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the
hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 we, the said James Soames and James Kolle Soames,
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:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in purifying paraffin. For
this purpose we mix the paraffin with an oil which is capable of saponification,
and we subject it when so prepared to heavy pressure, which in a great part
expels the oil and with it the impurities of the paraffin. We repeat the
process until the impurities are sufficiently removed, and we then treat the
paraffin with alkali to saponify, and so remove the small quantity of oil which
the press is unable to squeeze out.

page_text: The following is the manner in which we prefer to proceed :-We melt the
crude paraffin and allow it to settle to deposit the dirt; we then mix the
paraffin with from one-third to one-half of its weight of saponifiable oil, such
as olive or cotton seed; the hardest paraffin will take about one-half its
weight of oil, while the softest paraffin will not press satisfactorily if mixed
with much more than one-third of its weight. The paraffin and oil are melted
together by means of steam, and the mixture is cast into cakes of about one
inch thick, as is usually practised in making stearine, and the pressing is con-
ducted in a similar manner to that practised in making stearine, the cakes
being piled up in a bydraulic press with horse-hair mats between them. The
cakes when they come out of the press we usually treat a second time in the
same manner, viz., by melting them with a fresh quantity of oil, and again
casting into cakes and pressing. Ordinarily we press either two or three
times, according as the crude paraffin contains more or less impurity. After
the last pressing the cakes are inelted and boiled by steam with a weak solu-
tion of alkali; we employ 2 lbs. of soda ash dissolved in 5 gallons of water,
and rendered caustic with 2 lbs. of lime for each hundredweight of paraffin
cake; the boiling is continued for a quarter of an hour or more, and the
paraffin is run off and boiled for a few minutes with weak acid, say, 1 lb. of
sulphuric acid and 2 gallons of water to each hundredweight of paraffin.
Afterwards the paraffin is drawn off, and if it is required to be perfectly free
from color it may be filtered through animal charcoal, as is now commonly
practiced when purifying paraffin. In place of using an oil in the process
above described, a saponifiable grease containing a considerable quantity of
oil may be used, thus lard may be employed; but it is not found advantageous
to use a grease in place of an oil, as the stearine it contains is inoperative, and
has afterwards to be removed by saponification.
In witness whereof, we, the said James Soames and James Kolle
Soames, have hereunto set hand and seal, this Sixth day of
August, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
JAMES SOAMES. (L.S.)
J. K. SOAMES.
(L.S.)