IMPROVEMENTS IN PURIFYING PARAFFINE
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Mitchell, of Dunnings Alley, Bishopsgate Street
Without, in the City of London, Assayer, for the Invention of "IM-
D
D
35
Sealed the 23rd November 1858, and dated the 3rd June 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Mitchell at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 3rd
June 1858.
I, JOHN MITCHELL, of Dunnings Alley, Bishopsgate Street Without, in the
City of London, Assayer, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PURIFYING PARAFFINE," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in purifying paraffine.
Heretofore, paraffine has sometimes been purified by a process consisting of
mixing it with sulphuret of carbon, and then pressing it, and this treatment
has usually been repeated several times, and afterwards the purification has
been completed by acting on the paraffine with animal charcoal. Now I have
discovered that crude paraffine may be much improved in quality by treating
it with animal charcoal, or charcoal obtained from peat or other vegetable
matter, or with charcoal obtained from schist or coke, and this process of
purification is also applicable to paraffine which has been partially purified by
any of the ordinary processes, but which has not been subjected to the action
of sulphuret of carbon, and it is in dispensing with the expensive process of
partial purification by sulphuret of carbon before the treatment with charcoal
that one part of my Invention consists, the other part consisting in the use of
peat or other vegetable charcoal, or charcoal of schist, or coke, as a substitute
for animal charcoal.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Mitchell in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
3rd December 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
MITCHELL, of Dunnings Alley, Bishopsgate Street Without, in the City of
London, Assayer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Ierself, Ier heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Mitchell, Her special licence that I, the said John Mitchell,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Mitchell, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agreo
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
PARAFFINE," upon the condition (amongst others) that J, the said John
Mitchell, 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 mauner 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 John Mitchell, 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 follow-
ing statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in purifying paraffine.
Heretofore, paraffine has sometimes been purified by a process consisting of
mixing it with sulphuret of carbon and then pressing it, and this treatment
has usually been repeated several times, and afterwards the purification has been
completed, by acting on the paraffine with animal charcoal. Now I have
discovered that crude paraffine may be much improved in quality by
treating it with animal charcoal, or charcoal obtained from peat or other
vegetable matter, or with charcoal obtained from schist, or coke, and this pro-
cess of purification is also applicable to paraffine which has been partially
purified by any of the ordinary processes, but which has not been subjected to

page_text: the action of sulphuret of carbon, and it is in dispensing with the expensive
process of partial purification by sulphuret of carbon before the treatment with
charcoal that one part of my Invention consists, the other part consisting in
the use of peat or other vegetable charcoal, or charcoal of schist, or coke, as a
substitute for animal charcoal.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed to describe
the manner of performing the same. The paraffine is to be melted, and the
charcoal, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, in a state of powder, is to be
stirred in and mixed therewith, the paraffine being kept heated and melted
for from half an hour to two or three hours, depending on the quality of the
paraffine. The quantity of charcoal used is about one-tenth, by weight, of the
paraffine. The paraffine is then separated by canvas or other bag filters. Or,
in place of mixing the charcoal with the melted paraffine, as above explained,
the charcoal may be in the state of coarse powder, made up into the form
of filters, and be so used, the melted paraffine being in such cases caused to
percolate or filter through a succession of such charcoal filters (suitably heated
to retain the paraffine in a melted state) till the desired purification is
obtained.
Another part of my Invention consists of applying vegetable and mineral
charcoal in place of animal charcoal when parafline has been first partly
purified by the aid of sulphuret of carbon. In carrying out this part of my
Invention, the treatment of paraffine with sulphuret of carbon is to be per-
formed, as heretofore practised, and the paraffine is then to be subjected to
the action of mineral or vegetable carbon, in like manner to that resorted to
when using animal charcoal.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Mitchell, have hereunto set my
band and seal, this Fourteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
0 Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
⚫
JOHN MITCHELL. (L.S.)