IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OP SOAP
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME GREETING, I,
RICHARD LAWRENCE STURTEVANT, of Number 42, Church Street, Bethnal
Green, in the County of Middlesex, Soap Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Letters Patent
under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster, the
Eighth day of March, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and forty-one, in the fourth year of Her reign, did give and grant unto me, the
said Richard Lawrence Sturtevant, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Richard Lawrence Sturtevant, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and
such others as I, the said Richard Lawrence Sturtevant, my executors, admini-
strators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein mentioned,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, called England, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OP SOAP;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that I,
the said Richard Lawrence Sturtevant, shall cause a particular description of
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled
in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as
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
Richard Lawrence Sturtevant, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement, that is to say :-
Instead of the ordinary process of making hard soaps by boiling the oily-
and fatty matters with caustic alkaline lees of various degrees of strength, by
which two sorts of soap are produced, distinguished by the names of grained
or curd soap and yellow or fitted soap, in the making of which there is great
loss of time and waste of materials, caused by the necessary separation of lecs
from the former, and of lees and niger from the latter. My improvements
consist in making hard-soap at a single operation in the ordinary open boilers,
coppers, or pans, without separation of lees or niger, or the necessity of
incurring the expence of highly concentrated lees; and my manufacture is:
accomplished by the admixture of the materials, and by the modes of operation.
herein-after described, whereby a great saving of materials and time is effected,
and a larger product is obtained at less cost than by the ordinary process of
soap making. But in order that my improvements may be perfectly under-
stood I now proceed to describe my mode of manufacture:-The materials I
use in my improved process are those which are generally used in making soaps,
such as vegetable and animal oils, tallow and fat, and every other material that
can be adopted with advantage, possessing the quality of such ingredients in
whatever degree; in combination with such oily and fatty matters I generally
use a portion of cocoa-nut oil, more or less according to the kind of soap I intend
to produce, and I find it to be more advantageous for the purpose of effecting
a complete combination and preventing the separation of lees or niger than any
other article which I have used with the same object; I sometimes, however,
use, either alone or in combination with other fatty or oily matters, palm oil
decolored by acids or otherwise, and ealain or tallow oil, which I find to be
also beneficial for the same purpose. I use soda lees, which are prepared in
the usual manner adopted by soap makers, care being taken that they are
rendered properly caustic, and made from alkali, free from excess of neutral
salts; the soda alkali I prefer is the carbonated white soda ash, containing fifty
per centum or upwards of dry or anhydrous soda, and for the fine descriptions of
soap I use chrystals of soda. I also use potash lees, which are prepared from
the potash or pearl ash of commerce, and made caustic in the same manner as
soda lees. For the purpose of ascertaining the specific gravity or strength of
the lees I use in the following examples, I employ the hydrometer of Beaume
at the temperature of sixty-two degrees of the therometer, of: Fahrenheit.

page_text: To make a white soap I take the following materials; and in the following
quantities: Two thousand and seventy-two pounds weight of cocoa-nut oil,
either in the state in which it is imported, or deprived of its rancidity, as herein-
after described; one hundred and sixty-eight pounds weight of olive or other
sweet oil or of tallow; three hundred and twenty-five gallons of soda lees,
marking twenty-four degrees by the said hydrometer; sixty gallons of potash
lecs, marking twenty degrees. I put into my soap copper the cocoa-nut oil
and the other oil or tallow and apply the heat of fire or of steam, but I prefer
the latter. I then add about ten gallons of the soda lees, and as soon as these
materials boil and unite, I proceed to add, from time to time; about the same
quantity of soda lees, keeping the materials at the boiling point, and taking
care that they become properly united before more lees are added; when the
whole of the soda lees has been used I boil the compound for about half an
hour, and then put into the copper the potash lees, observing the same
particular mode of proceeding as before; when the whole of the potash lees
has been added I allow the compound to boil for about fifteen minutes, and
then I sprinkle slowly over the surface about eighty-four pounds weight-of
muriate of soda or. of muriate of potash, which sprinkling occupies about
fifteen minutes, after which I continue to boil the soap for about half an hour}
when I withdraw the fire or steam, the manufacture of the soap being
completed, and it has then somewhat of the consistence and tenacity or
closeness of melted glue; I allow it to cool down, and I afterwards cleanse or
frame it in the usual way. In combination with soda lees I generally use
potash lees for the finer and more expensive qualities of soap; but for the
commoner sorts of soap I sometimes omit them; for example, to make yellow
soap, I take one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two pounds weight of
cocoa-nut oil, either in its imported state or when deprived of its rancidity in
the manner herein-after described; one hundred and twelve pounds of palm oil
as imported, three hundred and thirty-six pounds of palm oil deprived of its
color by Mr. Charles Watts' patent process or otherwise; four hundred and
forty-eight pounds of tallow; two hundred and twenty-four pounds of resin ;
one hundred-and twelve pounds of muriate of soda; or of muriate of potash ;
and four hundred and fifty gallons of soda lees; marking twenty-three degrees
by the said hydrometer. I charge the copper with the whole of the cocoa-nut.
oil, palm oil, tallow, and resin, and apply the fire or steam and conduct the
operation throughout precisely in the same manner as already described in my
process for making a white soap, except as to the omission of potash lees
and of the interval of time connected with the use thereof, and this soap, when

page_text: .
finished, should have the same consistence and tenacity or closeness as that in
the preceding example. To make a hard soap for fulling and other manufac
turing purposes, I take one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two pounds of
cocoa nut oil, three hundred and thirty-six pounds of tallow, two hundred and
-twenty-four pounds of olive oil, one hundred and twelve pounds of rape oil, or
of decolored palm oil, four hundred gallons of soda lees, marking twenty-five
degrees, and eighty gallons of potash lees of twenty degrees of strength.
I. charge the copper with the whole of these materials, and apply the
fire or steam, and conduct the operation precisely in the manner already
described in my process for making white soap, except as to the muriate of
soda or of potash, which in this description of soap is omitted. When
these materials are combined and made into soap I add about two thousand
two hundred and forty pounds, more or less, of grained or curd soap made
on the old system from tallow or decolored palm oil, and I boil the whole
together until it be properly incorporated, when I allow it tocool down,
and I cleanse or frame in the usual manner. Notwithstanding that I have
described the modes of operation and the ingredients I use for three of
the most saleable descriptions of soap, made according to my improvements
in manufacture, nevertheless I here declare that the quantities anddescrip-
tions of the oily and fatty matters, and the quantity of soap made by the
ordinary process which I use to make fulling soap, and the quantities, strength,
and description of the lees, may be varied according to the quality and descrip-
tion of the soap required to be produced; thus, by the addition of water, or
the use of a greater proportion of lees of inferior strength, the quantity of soap
may be increased, whereas by evaporation or the use of a smaller proportion
of stronger lees the quality of the soap will be improved. Care must be taken,
however, to avoid any excess of alkali that would cause the separation of lees
or niger, or an effloresence upon the surface of the soap when cut into bars,
unless, indeed, the strength of the soap be regarded as of more consequence
than the appearance. The manufacturer having once ascertained in the usual
manner by taste and appearance the quantity of lees requisite for any particu-
lar charge of goods, he will then have obtained a rule applicable to all future
charges of such materials; and I declare that soap made in any other boiler
or vessel than I have already mentioned, and with or without fire, or steam
pressure, or heat, but with the materials, and after the principles herein-before
described, is to be included as soap made according to my improvements in
the manufacture of soap. To soap made upon my improved process, the pulp
or paste of bones prepared under Mr. John Lambert's Patent, or otherwise, as
.

page_text: also gelatine, albumen, aluminous earth, and silicia, may be added with greater
advantage than to soap made in the ordinary way. To remove the rancid
odour from, cocoa-nut oil, I proceed as follows:-I boil ten hundredweight of
cocoa-nut oil by steam in a wooden or other vessel not liable to be acted upon
by acids, and I add three pounds weight of sulphuric acid, or five or six
pounds weight of muriatic acid, and continue the boiling until the rancid
odour is removed, which generally occupies from eight to twelve hours; to..these
quantities may be added three ounces of chlorate of potash if needful. But as
a more economical mode, I sometimes buil the cocoa-nut oil alone in any iron
pan by means of dry heat for a sufficient length of time..
I claim as my improvements the making of hard soap at a single operation,
without separation or removal of lees, or precipitation of niger, and in the
manner and with the combination of materials. herein-before described, whereby
I procure a larger product, and effect a great saving of time and fuel.
I claim the use of cocoa-nut oil in conjunction with other materials, in the
manner, upon the principles, and for the purposes herein-before specified.
I claim the mode of depriving cocoa-nut oil of its rancid and unpleasant
odour, by the processes already set forth in this my Specification, whereby it is
rendered more extensively useful for the purposes of my improvements in
making soap as aforesaid, and also making soap generally.
I claim the use of potash lees in the manner herein-before described, or
otherwise, for the purpose of improving the quality and appearance, and also
for giving greater tenacity to soaps.
I claim the use of muriate of soda and muriate of potash, in the manner
already described, or otherwise, for the purpose of giving greater tenacity and
hardness to soaps.
I claim the ascertainment with greater facility and accuracy of the quan-
tities and proportions of alkaline lees requisite to be used with the other
ingredients herein-before described as applicable to each description of soap
respectively, whereby the operation is rendered more simple, certain, and
uniform, than by the ordinary process.
Lastly, I claim the mode of making a fulling soap, or soap for manufac
turing purposes, in the manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Lawrence Sturtevant have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-one.
RICHARD LAWRENCE (LS) STURTEVANT.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Eighth day of September,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Richard. Lawrence Sturtevant came
before our Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifi-
cation aforesaid, and all and everything therein contained, in form above
written., And also the, Specification aforesaid was stamped according to. the
tenor, of the Statute in that, case made and provided..
Inrolled. the. same Eighth day of September; in.the year above written..