Improved Manufacture of Detergent for Washing and Cleansing Dirty Linen.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 5th Dec., 1893-Accepted, 6th Jan., 1894
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Manufacture of Detergent for Washing and Cleansing
Dirty Linen.
A communication from AMALIE GROSS, Szederjes, Siebenbürgen, formerly of
Vienna, Austro-Hungary.
I, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 323 High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex,
Chartered Patent Agent do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to a new means of washing and cleaning dirty linen
whereby it is possible to thoroughly cleanse the foulest of linen by a simple boiling
process, without the use of machines or hand-labour.
The great advantage of the improved process however consists not only in the
great saving of time and labour but also in the fact that by the employment thereof,
the linen.is not in the slightest degree injured, which is far from being the case
when the bad methods now in use are employed, even with the utmost care and
nicety in handling, and least of all with the aid of machinery.
The process by which the new washing and cleansing agent is prepared is as
follows;-
In the first place, a hot saturated solution of some mineral oil soap in water
must be prepared. The most advantageous mineral-oil soap for this purpose is a
soda-soap, for each kilogramme of which there must be added say, 120 grammes of
petrolic ether and 70 granimes of the purest distilled petroleum. To the solution
of mineral-oil soap thus prepared is now to be added, with the aid of continued
stirring and in the proportions named, per kilogramme of the soap used for
preparing said solution, 32 grammes of pure acetic acid commercially known as
essence of vinegar.
It is to be understood that the quantities and proportions above given may be
varied without in any way affecting the principle of this invention.
After the stirring operation has been carried on for about half-an-hour over a
good fire, the compound is poured out into suitable moulds, and the cakes or tablets
set aside to cool.
For the purpose of destroying the offensive odour of the mass, a small quantity
of any ether-oil may be added during the stirring operation.
Washing and cleansing by means of this agent is performed as follows;-
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A portion of the dirty linen cr washing is first steeped in cold water. Then
a weak solution of the cleansing agent is prepared, say in the proportion of
80 decagrammes of the latter to 20 litres of water, which quantity will suffice for
from 60 to 80 pieces or articles to be washed. The cleansing agent dissolves in water
very slowly; and when completed the solution has very much the appearance of
milk.
The steeped linen is put into the solution when completed, and the whole set to
boil over a good fire for about an hour and a half.
Finally the "washing" is rinsed out in clean water twice.
Coloured stuffs must not be boiled at all. It will suffice merely to wash them
with the first rinsing water without adding any soap of any kind whatsoever.
Not one of the mineral oil soaps hitherto known whether they have in no matter
what proportion, turpentine-oil, or above all hydrocarbons, have as yet been found
to be efficient as a detergent for despite the boiling, the dirty linen, treated there-
with is never thoroughly and satisfactorily clean.

page_text: By the addition of vinegar-essence my correspondent is enabled to attain to a
complete and thorough cleansing, by simple boiling, of the articles to be washed,
as it is a most excellent bleaching agent and dissolves all dirt that clings to the
fibres of the fabric, without even the very finest lace being injured in the smallest
degree by the washing process.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent and in what manner the
same is to be performed I declare that what I claim is :-
The manufacture of a detergent for washing and cleansing dirty linen by the
addition of acetic acid or vinegar essence to the solution of a mineral-oil soap
substantially as specified.
Dated this 5th day of Doombox 1902
W. P. THOMPSON & BOULT,
Of London, Liverpool, Manchester, and Nottingham,
Agents for the Applicant.