IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING EXTRACTS FROM POPPIES
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander William Williamson, of University College,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING EXTRACTS FROM
POPPIES."
Sealed the 30th March 1860, and dated the 18th October 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander William
Williamson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 18th October 1859.
I, ALEXANDER WILLIAM WILLIAMSON, of University College, do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING EXTRACTS
FROM POPPIES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in obtaining extracts from
poppies. For these purposes the poppies are placed in a suitable vessel with
water, and the atmospheric air is removed by an air pump, heat is then applied
to the contents of the vessel by means of steam or otherwise. The extract is
then drawn off and the poppies pressed to remove any extract they may
retain. These extracts, or extracts obtained by macerating poppies in water in
an open vessel, are then boiled in a suitable vacuum vessel in order to reduce
them to the degree of concentration desired.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander William Williamson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 18th April 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
WILLIAM WILLIAMSON, of University College, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Alexander William Williamson, Her special licence that I, the said
Alexander William Williamson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Alexander William Williamson, 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 OBTAINING EXTRACTS FROM POPPIES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alexander William
Williamson, 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 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 Alexander William Williamson, 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 following statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention' has for its object improvements in obtaining extracts from
poppies. For these purposes the poppies are placed in a suitable vessel with
water and the atmospheric air is removed by an air pump, heat is then applied
to the contents of the vessel by means of steam or otherwise. The extract is
then drawn off and the poppies pressed to remove any extract they may retain.
These extracts, or extracts obtained by macerating poppies in water in an open
vessel, are then boiled in a suitable vacuum vessel in order to reduce them to
the degree of concentration desired.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.

page_text: The poppies should be as fresh as possible, and they, together with water, are
to be placed in a vessel capable of being closed air tight and of sustaining the
pressure of the external atmosphere, when the air has been withdrawn from
the interior of the vessel, it being the object of the first part of the process
that the extract should be obtained in the absence of atmospheric air. The
poppies and water having been introduced into the vessel and the vessel closed
the atmospheric air is to be removed by a suitable air pump or apparatus.
Heat is then to be applied by steam, or otherwise, and to be maintained for
about half an hour at a temperature of about 212° of Fahrenheit. The extract
is then strained or filtered, and it is afterwards to be evaporated in vacuo in a
suitable apparatus, as is well understood when boiling sugar, and as good a
vacuum is to be maintained as possible, and the evaporation is to be carried
on at as low a temperature as can conveniently be done, till the degree of
concentration of the extract of poppies has been obtained.
I would state that I make no claim to the apparatus above mentioned, the
same being similar to what has been used for other purposes. My Invention
consists in obtaining extracts of poppies by the combined means above
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander William Williamson, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of April, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
ALEX. W. WILLIAMSON. (L.S.)