NEW AND PARTICULAR METHOD OF MANUFACTURING THE SEDIMENT COMMONLY CALLED THE BOTTOMS, FOOTS, OR SLUSH OF WHALE OIL, TAKEN FROM THE BONE WHALE, OR THE SEDIMENTS OF SEAL OIL, OR OF ANY OTHER FISH OIL, AND EXTRACTING, HARDENING, AND PURIFYING AND WHITENING THE SAME, CHIEFLY FOR THE PURPOSE OF MAKING CANDLES
Year: 1789

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third,
by Ilis Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at.
Westminster, the Sixth day of November, in the thirtieth year of His reign,
did give and grant unto me, MOSES HART, of Bermondsey Street, in the
Borough of Southwark, in the County of Surry, Gent., His especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Moses Hart, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, and every of us, during the term of
years therein expressed, should and lawfully might use and exercise my
"NEW AND PARTICULAR METHOD OF MANUFACTURING THE SEDIMENT COMMONLY
CALLED THE BOTTOMS, FOOTS, OR SLUSH OF WHALE OIL, TAKEN FROM THE BONE
WHALE, OR THE SEDIMENTS OF SEAL OIL, OR OF ANY OTHER FISH OIL, AND
EXTRACTING, HARDENING, AND PURIFYING AND WHITENING THE SAME, CHIEFLY FOR
THE PURPOSE OF MAKING CANDLES," within that part of Great Britain called
England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and
also within His Majestie's Colonies and Plantations abroad, in such manner as
to me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or any of us, should in our
discretion seem meet; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
that if I, the said Moses Hart, should not particularly describe and ascertain
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, and cause
the same to be inrolled in His Majestic's High Court of Chancery within one
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters

page_text: Patent, that then the same Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages
whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become void,
as in and by the said Letters Patent more at large doth appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Moses Hart, in pursuance of and in
compliance with the said proviso, and the purport and true intent and meaning
of the said Letters Patent, and of His Majestie's said most gracious intention,
do by this Instrument in writing under my hand and seal duly executed,
declare that the nature of my said Invention, in which it is to be performed,
is as follows, that is to say-
In order to make a hard and clean inflamable substance, for the purpose
of being manufactured into candles, or any other uses to which tallow
may be applied, out of the sediment commonly called the bottoms, foots, or
slush of whale oil, taken from the bone whale, or the sediment of seal oil,
or any other fish oil, and extracting, hardening, puryfying, and whitening
the same, to and for the purposes aforesaid, first put the slush, sediment, foots,
or bottoms into bags; those bags, thus filled, lay them under a slack press.
After laying several days under this pressure, and untill such time as the
operator shall think there be as much fluid matter pressed out as the pressure
can force, then take out the matter remaining in the bags; put it in a pan
of iron or copper, fixed in stone or brick work, with a grate and fireplace
under the said pan or kettle, and make a fire under the said pan or kettle of
matter. Melt or boil, as occasion or circumstances may require, or as the ope-
rator at the time may judge proper. This operation being ended, the dissolved
matter is to be put into proper vessels to cool. When cold, the coolers are
be emptied, when a very considerable quantity of dirt and putrified matter will
be found settled at the bottom, which must be cut or pared off, and considered
as of no value in this work of purification, but greatly injurious to it. If this
operation be performed in summer season, the matter so melted or boiled will
not harden sufficient to turn it out of the cooler to scrape or cut off the filth from
the bottom, therefore it becomes necessary or proper to take off the clean fat
from the top, and thus seperate it from the filth. All this being done, put the
cleaner substance into bags a second time, and place them in a common press,
with wooden or small iron screws, and give it a pressing of several days' con-
tinuance, so that a very considerable quantity of foul oil and other matter
may be pressed therefrom. Next let the bags be emptied of the matter
remaining, which must again be put into the boiler, pan, or kettle. Let fire
be kindled under it. Melt or boil the fat, according to the variable circum-
stances of divers sorts of sediments, foots, slush, or bottoms may require,
which can be only judged of by the operator for the time being. This

page_text: operation being finished, the melted inflamable substance must again be put
into coolers. Let it stand at rest till perfectly cold, then turn it out of the
coolers, and seperate the foul bottom, as injurious to the purification of the
solid substance.
The next operation is to cut or shave the cakes, which appear now a
tolerable hard substance; then put it into small bags or square pieces of
strong hempen cloth, with which bags so filled charge a large strong press,
the frame of which should be made either of large strong timber or of iron,
with a large iron screw fitted with iron plates, which are to be placed with the
prepared produce of the sediment, slush, foots, or bottoms, and placed in the
press, stratum super stratum, till the press shall be fully charged. You are
then to have a large strong iron laver fitted to the screw, with double sheave
blocks and pullies, also a cog wheel, with all which you are to screw the
matter the presses loading with with an exceeding hard pressure. This
operation being ended, the substance is to be taken from under the press;
the inflamable matter is to be taken out of the bags and put into the boiler,
and make a fire under it, and when nearly all is melted put thereto a lixivium
made of alkaline salts, such as salt tartar, barrilla, potash, or pearlash. Con-
tinue the fire, keeping the matter in the pan hot or boiling some time. The
lixivium will collect the dirt, which must be left to subside. This operation
will collect and seperate the dirt and filth, harden and considerably whiten
the fat substance. This operation being finished, draw off the fluid from the
sediment, and let the fluid rest in tubs or pans till perfectly cold. When per-
fectly cold, and taken out of the tubs or pans, a small portion of sediment will
be formed at the bottom, which must be seperated from the purer matter.
Again put the inflamable substance into the pan or boiler, with a portion of
pure water. Let the whole boil, then draw it off, when the operator (the
tallow being now cold) may find it necessary, for obtaining a perfect purifi-
cation, for to repell this operation once or twice more, which is to be deter-
mined from appearances.
Tho' the fat, tallow, or inflamable matter now
appears to be whitened, hard, and clean, nevertheless it requires further
operations to seperate from it a substance which greatly obstructs its inflama-
bility when made into candles; also it requires to be brought to a finer clearer
whiteness. Therefore, in the first place, this fat, tallow, or wax-like substance
is to be put into balneum mariæ, of a size suitable to the quantity finally
purified. When thus put into balneum mariæ, it must be kept in hot digestion
till the cross substance seperates, which it will do by adhering to the sides and
bottom of the cucurbit or containing vessell, when the pure substance is to be
drawn off into proper pans to cool and harden, when it will be found pure,

page_text: dry, and hard, and if formed into candles they will give a clear and bril
liant light. But still the matter is somewhat deficient in whiteness, which
is now to be bleached, either by itself, after the manner of bleaching.bees' wax,
or it may be first mixed and melted and bleached with yellow bees' wax, to
which it hath strong affinity, and may be used therewith to great advantage in
making wax candles. This substance, being thus purified and whitened,
becomes a white, dry, and hard substance, nearly resembling bees' wax
purified and whitened.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, the Twenty-
third day of November, in the thirtieth year of the reign of His
Majesty King George the Third, and in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.
Inrolled the Twenty-third day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.