IMPROVEMENTS IN PURIFYING AND DECOLORISING PARAFFINE, AND RENDERING THE SAME WHITE, HARD, AND SWEET
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Middleton Kernot, of Gloucester House,
West Cowes, Isle of Wight, in the County of Southampton, Doctor of
Medicine, Doctor of Laws and Logic, Doctor of Philosophy, and Member
of the Royal College of Surgeons, England, &c., for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PURIFYING AND DECOLORISING PARAFFINE, AND RENDERING
THE SAME WHITE, HARD, AND SWEET."
Sealed the 27th May 1859, and dated the 11th January 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Middleton Kernot
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th January 1859.
I, CHARLES MIDDLETON KERNOT, of Gloucester House, West Cowes, Isle of
Wight, in the County of Southampton, Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Laws
and Logic, Doctor of Philosophy, and Member of the Royal College of
Surgeons, Eugland, &c., do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PURIFYING AND DECOLORISING PARAFFINE, AND RENDERING
THE SAME WHITE, HARD, AND SWEET," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in purifying and decolorising
paraffine without the expensive and injurious mode of using acids. The crude
paraffine is placed in a suitable vessel or tank, supplied with a hollow worm
tube to apply heat by steam circulating through the hollow worm tube for
meiting the paraffine, the said vessel to have a perforated bottom, and on
the perforated bottom a felted cloth laid thereon, or any filtering substance
properly secured as a filtering medium (without the use of charcoal or any

page_text: other substance), for filtering the paraffine to free it from the tar and other
impurities it may contain; this operation may be repeated a second or third
time, if required.
To decolorise the oil which is still remaining in the paraffine, and cannot
be extracted by hydraulic pressure, or by aid of the centrifugal machine,
I accomplish this object by using chlorochromic acid or chlorochromic acid
gas, and agitating it with a compound opposite rotator at a temperature ranging
from one to two hundred degrees, then washing the paraffine with warm water
to free it from the coloring matter and chlorochromic acid. I then add from
ten to twenty per cent. of any light, easy, evaporating fluid, such as fusil oil,
benzolin, photogen, chloroform, highly rectified alcohol, or camphine.
I then cast it into suitable moulds, proper size to fit the hydraulic press, or
place the paraffine in a centrifugal machine to extract the liquid remaining in
the paraffine, or when using the press for the purpose of extracting the liquid
remaining. The operation of washing may be repeated if the paraffine is not
found to be perfectly white and pure. For some purposes it will be found
requisite to pass steam through the paraffine for the purpose of extracting the
fluid that may remain therein, and then repeat, if required, the filtering, by
mixing from one to five per cent. of ground pumicestone, or any ground car-
bonaceous substance, or other filtering medium.
If it is required to be chrystalised in large chrystals the chrystalising pans
must be placed in warm water, and the paraffine allowed to chrystalise as the
water becomes reduced in temperature. If the paraffine is required for candle
making, apply sufficient friction until it begins to assume a milky appearance,
which will cause it to chrystalise in small chrystals, and facilitate the
moulding in candle making.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Middleton Kernot in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 28th June 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES 30
MIDDLETON KERNOT, of Gloucester House, West Cowes, Isle of Wight, in the
County of Southampton, Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Laws and Logic,
Doctor of Philosophy, and Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of
England, &c., send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters 35
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of January, in the year of our Lord,

page_text: One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Charles Middleton Kernot, Her special licence that I, the said Charles
Middleton Kernot, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Charles Middleton Kernot, 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 PURIFYING AND DECOLORISING CRUDE PARAFFINE, AND RENDER-
ING THE SAME WHITE, HARD, AND SWEET," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Charles Middleton Kernot, my exécutors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their bands 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 Charles Middleton Kernot, 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:-
My said Invention has for its object improvements in purifying and
decolorising crude paraffine without the expensive and injurious mode of using
sulphuric or other mineral acids.
Paraffine is usually mixed with tar, which requires a much higher tem-
perature to melt it than paraffine does. In order to separate the paraffine
from the tar, and thus purify it, I apply sufficient beat to the crude paraffine
to melt the paraffine which it contains without melting the tar, and I then
subject the melted material to filtration, when the paraffine will pass through
the filter, leaving the tar and other similar substances (if any). behind upon
the filter. Before filtering the crude paraffine in this way, I prefer to boil it
in water or steam it, so as to free it as much as practicable from its oil and
smell, and render it harder.
The crude paraffine may be melted in any convenient manner, but I prefer
to effect the object as follows:-The crude paraffine is placed in a suitable
vessel or tank, supplied with a hollow worm tube in order to apply heat by
steam circulating through the tube for melting the paraffine. I make the said
vessel with a moveable perforated bottom, and on the perforated bottom place
a felted cloth, or any other suitable filtering substance, properly secured, as a

page_text: filtering medium for filtering the paraffine to free it from the tar and other
impurities it may contain. The vessel or vessels to be used for melting and
filtering the crude paraffine may, however, be constructed and have heat
applied in any other convenient manner.
Paraffine melts at a temperature of from 110° to 112° degrees of Fahrenheit's
thermometer, and I raise the temperature a little above that, say to about
130 degrees, in order to make the paraffine pass more freely through the
filter. But as tar melts at about 180 degrees of Fahrenheit, care should be
taken not to heat the material to such a degree as to melt the tar and other
similar matters, if any, contained in the crude paraffine. The filtration will
also remove any dirt or similar materials contained in the crude paraffine.
This operation may be repeated a second or third time, if required.
When it is necessary or desirable to decolorise any oil which may be still
remaining in the paraffine, and cannot be extracted by hydraulic pressure, or
by the aid of the centrifugal machine, I prefer to accomplish that object by
means of chlorochromic acid or chlorochromic acid gas, and agitating it with
the acid or acid gas in a compound opposite rotator at a temperature ranging
from one hundred and ten to two hundred degrees, then washing the paraffine
with warm water to free it from the colorising matter and chlorochromic
acid; I then remelt the paraffine, and add from ten to twenty per cent. of
any light, easy evaporating fluid, such as fusel oil, benzole, photogen, or
alcohol. I then cast it into suitable moulds the proper size to fit the hydraulic
press, or place the paraffine in a centrifugal machine to extract the liquid
remaining in the paraffine, or use the press for the purpose of extracting the
liquid remaining. The operation of washing may be repeated if the paraffine
is not found to be perfectly white and pure. For some purposes it will be
found requisite to pass steam through the paraffine for the purpose of extracting
the fluid that may remain therein, and then repeat, if required, the filtering
by mixing from one to five per cent. of ground pumicestone, or any ground
carbonaceous substance, or other filtering medium.
To obtain the paraffine as colorless, inodorous, hard, and tasteless as prac-
ticable and less flexible for candle making, it may be found necessary to place
the same in a suitable tank or vessel, and apply heat to it to remove the
volatile matters which it may contain. The tank should be provided with a
perforated steam worm, so as to allow high-pressure or superheated steam to
pass through the paraffine, and a still head with a condensing worm attached
to it, in order to catch and condense the volatile and condensible matters
driven off by the heat. In this way the paraffine may generally be freed
effectually from all traces of oil or smell, and the paraffine rendered hard.

page_text: It may then be again filtered, if necessary or desirable. If it is required to be
crystalised in large crystals, the crystalising pans must be placed in warm
water, and the paraffine allowed to crystalise as the water becomes reduced in
temperature. If the paraffine is required for candle making, apply sufficient
friction until it begins to assume a milky appearance, which will cause it
to crystalise in small crystals, and facilitate the moulding in candle making.
Having thus fully described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I hereby declare that I do not claim as
of my Invention any of the processes above mentioned, except the mode of
purifying paraffine by filtration, as above described, and that what I do claim
under the above in part recited Letters Patent is, purifying and decolorising
crude paraffine, and rendering the same white, hard, and sweet, by filtering the
crude paraffine when melted and heated to such a temperature as will enable
it to pass through a filter, at the same time avoiding the raising of the tem-
perature to such a degree as would enable the tar and other impurities mixed
with the paraffine to pass through the filter with it.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Middleton Kernot, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of June, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
0
Witness,
JOSEPH TAYLOR.
CHAS. MIDDLETON KERNOT. (L.S.)