IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING OR PREPARING SOAP TABLETS
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Toner, of Gray's Inn Square, in the County
of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING OR
PREPARING SOAP TABLETS."
Sealed the 13th March 1874, and dated the 17th September 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left. by the said John Toner at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th September 1873.
I, JOHN TONER, of Gray's Inn Square, in the County of Middlesex, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
TREATING OR PREPARING SOAP TABLETS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to improvements in treating or preparing
tablets or cakes of soap to prevent waste during use, and also to preserve
their sizes as much as possible for convenience of washing hands and for
other purposes. It consists in incorporating with each tablet or cake a
block or a piece of other material, such as wood, papier maché, ebonite,
or the like, preferably of the size and shape a tablet of soap attains after

page_text: The block or piece of foreign material hard or soft is embedded in the
tablet at the time of its formation to the shape in which it is generally
sold, whereby the block is in most cases completely hidden from sight,
and its structure more or less regulates the solidity of the cake.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Toner in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
17th March 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
TONER, of Gray's Inn Square, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in
the thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Toner, Her special
licence that I, the said John Toner, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Toner, 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
TREATING OR PREPARING SOAP TABLETS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said John Toner, 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

page_text: 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 John Toner, 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 statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings here-
unto annexed, that is to say:-—
This Invention relates to improvements in treating or preparing
tablets or cakes of soap to prevent waste during use, and also to preserve
their sizes as much as possible for convenience of washing hands and for
other purposes.
It consists in incorporating with each tablet or cake a
block or a piece of other material, such as wood, papier maché, ebonite,
or the like, preferably of the size and shape a tablet of soap attains after
use in the ordinary way, and before it gets inconveniently small for
handling.
U
The block or piece of foreign material, hard or soft, is embedded in the
tablet at the time of its formation to the shape in which it is generally
sold, whereby the block is in most cases completely hidden from sight,
and its structure more or less regulates the solidity of the cake.
I prefer that the block be solid, but it may be hollow, and in some cases.
formed with grooves, undulations, or perfortions in any suitable direction.
The manner of carrying my Invention into effect is represented in the
accompanying Sheet of Drawings, in which Figures 1 and 2 show a
piece or block of wood or other comparatively cheap material A with
rounded edges, which can be embedded in a tablet or cake of soap B, as
shown by the dotted lines in Figure 3, and in section in Figure 4, by
first arranging the block in a suitable position on a stem of soap C
previously fitted in say two half moulds D, D, Figure 5, which
when the two half moulds are placed and bound together leaves a space
all round the block for the reception of hot soap, or soap in a liquid, or
semi-liquid state poured into the mould through the opening E, so
that the tablet or cake of soap when set can be removed from the mould
and be dried in the usual manner, to prepare it for use or for the
market. After such removal it may however pressed or otherwise.

page_text: previously moulded with a hollow or channel in it for the reception
of the block A or waste saver, in any convenient manner, such as
by pushing it in, which block may have parallel sides, or it may be
tapered wedge-shaped, in which case it may be pushed into a solid
cake or piece of soap while the soap is in a mould, whereby the soap
would be prevented cracking or splitting. The block of wood or other
material may be pushed in or otherwise inserted into the soap to any
distance, and one, two, or more ends or sides may be exposed, or all of it
may be enclosed, as desired.
Figure 12 shows an old-fashioned soap square with one of my blocks
or pieces of wood or other material within it, and Figure 13. shows a
section of a hollow block or piece of material which can be previously
moulded or shaped.
Figure 14 shows in section a mould composed of a bottom plate only,
in which, say three pins, are fitted to stand up from the surface near the
centre, and upon which the block is laid; hot or semi-liquid soap can
then be poured into the mould, so that the block becomes embedded, and
then a plunger which can be caused to press upon the top surface shapes
the tablet into the requisite shape.
In referring to wood or other material as a lining or interior to soap
cakes, tablets, or squares, I do not restrict myself to using useless pieces
or blocks, nor to the use of one block or piece in any one cake, square,
or tablet of soap B, as metallic or other boxes may be embedded or
otherwise enclosed therein.
Metallic boxes or receptacles containing liquids, such as scents, etc.,
can also be fitted or arranged in soap tablets, and the perfume can be
kept for any length of time in them, and which would only become
absorbed by the soap in cases of leakage, the box or receptacle being
still within the soap until the last of it is used.
And having now set forth the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,-
Firstly. The construction or formation of tablets or their equivalents
of soap, with an inner block or piece of material embedded or not, which
shall serve as a waste saver of such soap, as described.

page_text: Secondly. I claim the several methods herein-before referred to, in
or by which the lining composed of a body other than soap can be
inserted or incorporated into or with soap of the tablet, cake, or square
form, and usually termed fancy soaps, as and for the purposes set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Toner, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of March, One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-four.