AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
JOSEPH CHARLES SHERIDAN, late of Lewisham, in the County of Kent, and
now of Highgate, in the County of Middlesex, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS I did by petition represent to Her most Excellent Majesty
Victoria, that I had invented" AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP,"
and her said Majesty being willing to encourage all useful Inventions did issue
Her Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, on or about the Twenty-ninth day of September, in the second
year of Her reign, whereby. Her said Majesty did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Joseph Charles Sheridan,
Her especial licence, that I, the said John Joseph Charles Sheridan, my exors,
admors, or assigns, or such others as I,'the said John Joseph Charles Sheridan,
my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein ex-
pressed, should and lawfully- might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my said Invention,
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said
John Joseph Charles Sheridan, by an instrument in writing, under my hand
and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be enrolled in Her
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and

page_text: immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and b
the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the sai
John Joseph Charles Sheridan, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully
described and ascertained in and by the following explanation thereof, (that is
to say):
My Invention of "An Improvement in the Manufacture of Soap," consists
in the application to or incorporation with the known ingredients used in the
manufacture of hard soap, of a detergent mixture, manufactured as after-
mentioned, consisting of caustic soda leys or caustic potash leys, (substances
well known to soap-boilers,) and the amylaceous matter extracted from
vegetable substances containing the same and reduced to powder, and a
saturated solution of alumine, and likewise consists, as regards the manufacture
of soft soap, in the application to or incorporation with the known ingredients
used in the manufacture of soft soap of a detergent mixture; manufactured as
after mentioned, consisting of caustic soda leys or caustic potash leys,
and the amylaceous matter extracted from vegetable substances containing the
same, and reduced to powder. Many vegetable substances would furnish this
amylaceous matter, but I prefer using that material which is generally called
potatoe flour.
In order that my Invention may be most fully understood and readily
carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the means by which I perform
my said improvement, and in describing the same I shall drop the use of the term
amylaceous matter and use the more familiar term potatoe flour, as I find it to
answer the purpose better than any other description of amylaceous matter.
In describing my said Invention, also, I shall first proceed to describe my.
improvement in making hard soap. I take equal quantities, by weight, of
potatoe flour and cold water and mix the same thoroughly so that no lumps;
remain; I then take for every twelve and a half pounds of potatoe flour used
thirty-seven pounds of the solution of alumine (a solution well known and
easily prepared), free from sediment, and mix such solution with the above
ingredients until they are thoroughly blended, which is, speedily effected. I
then for the like proportion of potatoe flour used, videlicet, twelve and a half
pounds, gradually add forty pounds of soda leys or potash leys of a strength 3
indicated by 22° of Beaume's hydrometer, being the hydrometer generally used
by soap-boilers, or within 1° or 2° thereof and mix the whole together into one
homogeneous mass. In making hard soap, I recommend caustic soda leys to.

page_text: be used; such final mixture or homogeneous mass is the detergent mixture
first above mentioned, and is the mixture which I hereafter call by the name
of detergent mixture.
This detergent mixture should be now heated for a period from three to
five hours at a heat of from 170° to 190° Fahrenheit, but not higher, and F
recommend this to be done in a steam or water bath which tends to preserve
a brighter colour. During the heating, the mixture must be continually
stirred to prevent it from adhering to the vessel. This mixture is now fit to
be applied in the process of soap-making, as after mentioned.
I shall now proceed to explain the method pursued by me for applying the
detergent mixture to or incorporating it with the ingredients used in making
hard soap, when the ingredients for making hard soap have undergone the
usual process; and being perfectly saponified, are in the proper condition to be
cleansed (a term well known to soap makers) they should be placed in a pan
or vessel and the detergent mixture in its heated state should be progressively
poured, pailful by pailful, into such pan or vessel, care being observed, after
each pailful has been poured in, to stir or crutch (a term also well known to
soap-makers) the whole contents of the pan or vessel so as to intimately blend
the said detergent mixture by degrees with the saponaceous materials, in the
manner in which white or curd soap is, according to the present practice,
crutched, and it should be stated that the said detergent mixture, when poured
in, should be as near the same degree of heat as possible with the saponaceous
materials. The most convenient size for the said pan or vessel I have found
to be one which will contain about half a ton. The quantity of the said
detergent mixture which should be added to a given quantity of a saponaceous
materials may vary from one-fifth to one-third by weight of the whole mass;
but the soap boiler may arrive at a most correct judgment of what quantities.
of the said detergent mixture he should use in each kind of soap, by taking a
number of equal small measures or experimental frames, capable of containing
about half a pound each, and putting in each a small quantity of the ordinary
materials of soap-making, when perfectly saponified and fit to be cleansed, and
intimately blending with each separate measure of soap different quantities of
the said detergent measure and allowing the same to cool, by which there.
will be produced samples of soap having different ascertained quantities of the
said detergent mixture, whence the soap maker may judge what course to
pursue as to the quantity of the said detergent mixture to use in order to.
obtain the article he may wish to produce; but the proportions above given
will answer generally without any such trial. Having thoroughly crutched in.

page_text: the said pan or vessel the said contents thereof, the same are then to be
poured into the ordinary frames.
Having thus far described the nature of my Invention, as regards the
manufacture of hard soap and the manner of carrying the same into effect,
I would remark that the pan or vessel may be dispensed with, and the said
detergent mixture added to the saponaceous materials in the frames; but the
result is not by any means so beneficial, owing to the difficulty of crutching
the saponaceous materials and the said detergent mixture when in the frames,
in a manner to effect that which must be the object of the soap manufacturer,
and which the said pan or vessel more effectually accomplishes, videlicet, to
intimately blend and incorporate the said materials and detergent mixture
together.
In manufacturing soft soap I take potatoe flour, water, and soda leys or
potash leys (but I greatly prefer potash leys) in the following proportions:
Potatoe flour sixteen pounds, water two hundred and seventy pounds, and
potash leys one hundred pounds, the latter being of a strength indicated by
20° of Beaume's hydrometer, or within 1° or 2° degrees thereof; this mixture
I heat for from one and a half to two and a half hours, at a temperature of
from one hundred and seventy to one hundred and ninety degrees Fahrenheit,
stirring it continually. This detergent mixture in its heated state is then added
to the ordinary soap materials used in making soft soap, at that period when
these materials have been sufficiently boiled, and are ready to be put into the
ordinary tubs. The proportion of the detergent mixture last described, to be
so added as aforesaid, may be from one-fourth to one-third, by weight, of the
whole mass.
Now whereas the application of caustic soda leys or caustic potash leys, and
also the application of alumine in the manufacture of soap is known, therefore I
do not claim any right or privilege in respect of the same. And whereas the
liquid obtained from the combination of such amylaceous matter as aforesaid,
with caustic soda leys or caustic potash leys is not new, therefore I do not
claim
any right or privilege in respect of the same; but the application of the
detergent mixture, herein-before described, in the manufacture of hard soap and
soft soap respectively, being to the best of my belief new, and never before
used in that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain called England,
Her Majesty's Principality of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
I do hereby declare this to be my Specification of the same; and I claim as
new, and as my Invention, the application of such detergent mixture in the
manufacture of soap, in the manner herein-before stated.

page_text: I should remark that the detergent mixture aforesaid, firstly described, may
be applied to hard soap without the solution of alumine, especially in making
white soap; but I recommend that in making hard soap a solution of alumine
should be added to the mixture, in the proportion herein-before stated.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Joseph Charles Sheridan, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.