AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP
Year: 1835

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
JOSEPH CHARLES SHERIDAN, of Walworth, in the County of Surrey, Chemist,
send greeting.
WHEREAS I did, by Petition represent to His most Excellent Majesty
King William the Fourth, that I had Invented "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF SOAP," and His said Majesty being willing to encourage all
useful Inventions, did issue His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great
Britain, bearing date at Westminster, the Sixteenth day of September, in the
sixth year of His reign, whereby His said Majesty did, for Himself, II is
heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Joseph Charles
Sheridan, His especial license, that I, the said John Joseph Charles Sheridan,
my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Joseph
Charles Sheridan, my exors, adññors, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of
years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
said Invention in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso,
obliging me, the said John Joseph Charles Sheridan, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
and to cause the same to be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Joseph Charles Sheridan, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully
described and, ascertained in and by the following explanation thereof, that is
to say:-
My Invention of "An Improvement in the Manufacture of Soap" consists
in the application to or incorporation with the known ingredients used in tho
manufacture of soap of a detergent mixture, consisting of caustic soda leys
or caustic potash leys (substances well known to soap boilers), and calcined
flint or calcined quartz, or consisting of caustic soda leys or caustic potash
leys and sand prepared as after mentioned. Many other substances could
furnish silicious matter, but they are either too expensive in themselves or the
difficulty and expense of preparing them would render them inapplicable, but
silicious matter however obtained, whether from flint, quartz, or sand, will
answer the purpose.
In order that my Invention may be most fully understood and readily
carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the means by which I perform
my said improvement.
If I use calcined flint or calcined quartz, I take a quantity of cither (but
the common black flint calcined I have found to answer the purpose best),
and reduce the same by wet grinding with horizontal stones to nearly an
impalpable state. To one part by measure of such ground calcined flint or
calciued quartz, which generally contain about twenty per cent. of water, I
add two pints of caustic soda leys or caustic potash leys, of a strength indi-
cated by twenty-eight degrees of Beaumés hydrometer (being the hydrometer
generally used by soap boilers), or within one or two degrees thereof. These
materials, viz, calcined flint or calcined quartz and caustic soda leys or caustic
potash leys in these proportions being well mixed are to be boiled about eight
hours (stirring continually) till they become incorporated into one homogeneous
mass having the appearance of saponified matter, which appearance will with
very little practice readily be judged of by a soap boiler. When this matter
has attained this appearance of saponification, it is fit to be applied in the
process of soap making as after mentioned.
In hereafter mentioning this matter, thus prepared, I give it the name of
detergent mixture. I shall now proceed to explain the method pursued by me
for applying the detergent mixture to or incorporating it with the ingredients
used in soap making. When the ingredients for making soap bave under-
gone the usual process, and being perfectly saponified are in the proper con-
dition to be cleansed (a term well known to soap makers), they should be

page_text: placed in a pan or vessel, and the detergent mixture should be progressively.
poured, pailfull by pailfull, into such pan or vessel, care being observed after
each pailfull has been poured in to stir or crutch (a term also well known to
soap makers) the whole contents of the pan or vessel, so as to intimately
blend the said detergent mixture by degrees with the saponaceous materials,
(in the manner in which white or curd soap is according to the present
practice crutched), and it should be stated that the said detergent mixture
when poured in should be as near the same degree of heat as possible with
the said saponaceous materials. The most convenient size for the said pan
In
or vessel, I have found to be one which will contain about half a ton.
making the detergent mixture for soft soap, if caustic soda leys be used in
making such mixture, the strength need not be more than twenty-three degrees
of the hydrometer, although the caustic potash leys may in the preparation of
the said mixture for soft soap be of the strength formerly stated. The said
detergent mixture for the manufacture of hard soap I recommend to be pre-
pared with caustic soda leys. The quantity of the said detergent mixture
which should be added to a given quantity of saponaceous materials will
depend on the strength required in the soap which is being manufactured.
In the course of my workings I find that in curd soap equal quantities by
weight of cach will answer best, in yellow soap about one-tenth more of the
detergent mixture may be used, and in soft soap two-tenths less. But the
soap boiler may arrive at a most correct judgment of what quantities of the
said detergent mixture he should use in each kind of soap, by taking a
number of equal small measures or experimental frames capable of contain-
ing about half a pound each, and putting in cach a small quantity of the
ordinary materials of soap making when perfectly saponified and fit to be
cleansed, and intimately blending with each separate measure of soap different
quantities of the said detergent mixture, and allowing the same to cool by
which there will be produced samples of soap baving different ascertained
quantities of the said detergent mixture, whence the soap maker may judge
what course to pursue as to the quantity of the said detergent mixture to use,
in order to obtain the article he may wish to produce. But the proportions
above given will answer generally without any such trial. Having thoroughly
crutched in the said pan or vessel the said contents thereof, the same if hard
is being made are then to be poured into the ordinary frames, and if soft
soap is being made are to be poured into the ordinary tubs.
soap
Having thus far described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I would remark, that the pan or vessel may
(though with inconvenience) be dispensed with, and the said detergent mixture

page_text: added to the saponaceous materials in the frames or the tubs, but the result
is not by any means so beneficial, owing to the difficulty of crutching the
saponaceous materials and the said detergent mixture when in the frames or
the tubs in a manner to effect that which inust be the object of the soap
manufacturer, and which the said pan or vessel more effectually accomplishes,
viz, to intimately blend and incorporate the said materials and detergent
mixture together. If the detergent mixture is to be made of caustic soda
leys or caustic potash leys and sand, it is requisite that the sand be previously
washed, and then mixed with carbonate or subcarbonate of soda, or of potash
reduced to power, in the proportion of one measure by weight of sand to
three measures by weight of the said carbonate or subcarbonate of soda or
of potash, and calcined to fusion in a reverberatory furnace, the result of
calcination is drawn off and dissolved in hot water. By injecting a current
of carbonic acid gas the siliceous matter of the sand is precipitated, and the
liquid in the state of a carbonate of the alkali used is drawn off, and the pre-
cipitate is then mixed and boiled with the proportion of caustic soda leys or
eaustic potash leys, as before mentioned, till the matter being sufficiently
boiled attains the appearance of saponified matter as before stated. The
detergent matter so procured is added to the saponaceous materials as herein-
before described, with reference to the detergent mixture obtained from flint
or quartz. The process I have just described is also applicable to flint and
quartz uncalcined, but these two latter substances I recommend to be used as
first described, and I again point out the common black flint calcined as having
Leen found by me to answer best.
Now whereas the application of caustic soda leys or caustic potash leys in
the manufacture of soap is known and used, therefore I do not claim any
right or privilege in respect of the same. And whereas the application of
various earths in the manufacture of soap is not new, therefore I do not
claim any right or privilege in respect of the same. And whereas the liquid
obtained from the combination of caustic soda leys or caustic potash leys, with
calcined flint or quartz, or with sand prepared as herein-before mentioned is
not new, therefore I do not claim any right or privilege in respect of the
same, but the application of the detergent mixture herein-before described in
the manufacture of soap, being to the best of my belief new, and never
before used in that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain called
England, His Majesty's Principality of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, I do hereby declare this to be my Specification of the same, and
I claim as new and as my Invention the application of such detergent mixture
in the manufacture of soap, in the manner herein-before stated, and I have

page_text: found that the said detergent mixture is best made from the black flint
calcined and the caustic soda leys, or caustic potash leys, and indeed I do not
recommend as applicable in preparing the said detergent mixture the use
of any other caustic alkali but caustic soda leys or caustic potash leys.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Joseph Charles Sheridan, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Sixteenth day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.