IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MEANS OF DISTILLING TURPENTINE AND OTHER RESINOUS MATTERS, AND IN MANUFACTURING BOILED OR DRYING OILS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas William Keates, of Chatham Place, Black-
friars, in the City of London, Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MEANS OF DISTILLING TURPENTINE AND OTHER RESINOUS
MATTERS, AND IN MANUFACTURING BOILED OR DRYING OILS."
Sealed the 27th June 1854, and dated the 15th March 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas William Keates
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
15th March 1854.
I, THOMAS WILLIAM KEATES, of Chatham Place, Blackfriars, in the City of
London, Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF DISTILLING TURPENTINE AND OTHER RESINOUS
MATTERS, AND IN MANUFACTURING BOILED OR DRYING OILS," to be as follows:-
The principle of this Invention consists in applying superheated steam or
heated air as a substitute for an open fire as a source of heat in the distillation
of turpentine or other resinous bodies, and in heating linseed oil or other oils
for the purpose of producing what is known in commerce as boiled or drying

page_text: oil. In applying superheated steam or heated air to the distillation of turpen-
tine I make use of a pipe, coil of pipe, or other convenient apparatus arranged
in a still, in which is placed the material to be distilled, or I add to the still
a jacket, and through this coil of pipe or jacket I cause superheated steam or
heated air of the necessary temperature to circulate, so that its heat may be
imparted to the contents of the still.
In the apparatus which I use for.. the above purpose I can regulate the
exact temperature of the steam or air I use by mixing in any proportion
common steam or cold air with the superheated steam or heated air.
In the second part of my Invention which relates to the manufacture of
boiled or drying oil I also employ superheated steam or heated air as a source
of heat, and I apply them by means of a coil of pipe or a jacket adapted to
any suitable vessel for containing the oil. Or otherwise I cause the super-
heated steam or heated air in the place of traversing a close coil or jacket to
issue from holes perforated in the pipe or coil as it lies in the heating pan, so
that the steam or heated air is blown through the oil and is brought in contact
with it, thereby effecting the chemical change in the oil upon which the
siccative property depends.
In producing the superheated steam or heated air above mentioned I cause
the steam after it leaves the boiler, or the air as it issues from a force pump,
to circulate through a pipe or coil of pipe laid in a furnace, and thereby heated
to a red heat or other convenient temperature. The steam or air becomes
heated from contact with the heated pipe, and is then capable of being
employed as a source of heat under the circumstances described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letter's Patent, filed
by the said Thomas William Keates in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 15th September 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
WILLIAM KEATES, of Chatham Place, Blackfriars, in the City of London,
Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her. Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas William Keates, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas William

page_text: Keates, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Thomas William Keates, 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 makė,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MEANS OF DISTILLING TURPENTINE AND OTHER RESINOUS MATTERS,
AND IN MANUFACTURING BOILED OR DRYING OILS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Thomas William Keates, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, 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 Thomas William Keates, 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 fol-
lowing statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and
to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
My Invention of improvements in the means of distilling turpentine and
other resinous matters, and in manufacturing boiled or drying oils, may be
divided into two parts, the first of which relates to the distillation of turpen-
tine and other resinous bodies by means of a certain application of super-
heated steam or heated air in the place of the open fire ordinarily employed
for that purpose.
The second part of the Invention relates to the preparation of drying or
boiled oil through the agency of superheated steam or heated air, as hereafter
described.
.
In a Patent recently granted to me for improvements in the method of
distilling turpentine and other resinous bodies, and dated September Fifteenth,
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, the Invention is described as
consisting in causing a large body of superheated steam or heated air to
penetrate or.permeate in every direction the mass of the matter to be distilled,
and this object was effected by allowing heated air or steam, in the condition
above mentioned, to issue from numerous holes drilled in a pipe or coil of pipe
arranged within the still, the steam or air being by this means-brought into
direct contact with the substance to be distilled.
In that part of my present Invention which relates to the distillation of
turpentine and other resinous matters I also propose to employ superheated

page_text: steam or heated air as the medium of applying heat to the contents of the still,
but instead of allowing the superheated steam or heated air to issue from the
pipe, and mix with or permeate through the contents of the still, I confine it to-
a close pipe or coil of pipe which is made to traverse the interior of the still in
any convenient manner, the heated air or steam being made to enter the coil
of pipe at one point, and pass out at another. It will therefore be seen that
the superheated steam or heated air do not, under such circumstances, come in
direct contact with the substance to be distilled, but only pass along the pipe or
coil of pipe by which they are confined, and in their course impart to the
material placed in the still the whole or a portion of the heat with which they
had been previously charged, which heat so imparted by the superheated steam
or heated air is sufficient for the purposes of the distillation, and likewise to
render the rosin or residuary matter bright and fit for commerce.
The steam used in this process is not necessarily high pressure steam;
indeed I prefer to employ steam of not more than four or five pounds pressure
to the inch, as the temperature of the steam in the pipe does not depend upon
its tension, but upon its having been surcharged with heat when in the
vaporiform state. The steam or air is heated for the above purpose in the
manner specified in my former Patent, or in any other convenient manner
sufficient to effect that object, and the temperature at which the steam. or air
enter the still can be regulated according to the method and by the apparatus
therein described.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 represents a vertical section of a
still, with my present improvements adapted thereto. a, a, is the still; b, the
head from which the vaporized product is carried off to the condenser; c, c, is
the coil of pipe arranged around the lower part and bottom of the still. Super-
heated steam or heated air is admitted to this coil through the pipe d in the
direction of the arrow, and after traversing the whole length of the coil, and
imparting its heat to the contents of the still, the air or steam finally escapes
from the pipe e. When steam is employed as the heating agent, provision
should be made for drawing off the water of condensation from the coil.
When the distilling operation is completed, the liquid residuum may be drawn
off from the still by the pipe f. Although the above arrangement of apparatus
is the one which I generally prefer for applying superheated steam or heated
air to distillation, it is not absolutely necessary to cause the steam to circulate
through a pipe or coil of pipe placed in the still, as sometimes, instead of this
arrangement, the still itself may be furnished with a jacket or envelope, and
into this jacket the superheated steam or heated air may be admitted, and the

page_text: contents of the still will receive heat just as if the still were fitted with a coil,
or exposed to the action of an open fire.
In distilling turpentine or other resinous substances by means of superheated
steam or heated air circulating through a coil of pipe or jacket adapted to a
still it is better, that the substance to be distilled should have a certain
quantity of water (or, as it is technically termed; "liquor,") added to it before
the operation of distillation is commenced, as is the practice in the ordinary
process of distilling substances of a similar mature by the heat of an open fire.
In relation to this the first part of my Invention I claim the application of
superheated steam or heated air to a still as a source of heat in the distillation
of turpentine and other resinous substances, such superheated steam or heated
air being made to pass through or along a coil of pipe, or caused to circulate
in a steam jacket or envelope, for the purpose above set forth.
The second part of my Invention relates to improvements in the manu-
facture of boiled or drying oil, and I here make use of the same agents for
heating, (viz) superheated steam and heated air. I employ them as the
means of producing that chemical change in oils of a certain kind whereby
they acquire the power of drying rapidly when exposed to the atmosphere.
In my improved process for manufacturing drying oil I either adapt to the
boiling pan a pipe or coil of pipe, or I surround it with a steam jacket, and
through or along these I cause to pass superheated steam or heated air of a
sufficiently high temperature. In this case I use the steam or air only as a
heating agent in the place of an open fire. Sometimes, however, I arrange in
the vessel in which the oil is prepared a pipe or coil of pipe pierced full of
holes, or the still may be provided with a false bottom or other convenient
apparatus pierced in like manner with small holes, and through this pipe or
other apparatus I cause superheated steam to pass, so that it may issue from
the perforations and blow out freely into the oil; or in the place of superheated
steam, and preferably to it, I force atmospheric air previously heated to a
sufficient degree through the pipes into the oil.
By either of these methods the oil will be heated to the necessary tem-
perature and become endued with the peculiar siccative property.
The superheated steam and heated air which I propose to employ in this
process are heated subsequently to their leaving the steam boiler or air force
pump respectively, and before they enter the oil.
What I claim in this the second part of my Invention is the use of super-
heated steam or heated air either confined in a close pipe, coil of pipe, or
jacket, or blown freely through suitable perforations into the mass of the oil, as

page_text: a means of producing in certain oils that chemical change which imparts to
them the property of drying rapidly, which renders them in fact what is known
in commerce as drying oil.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas William Keates, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Fourteenth day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
T. W. KEATES. (L.S.)