IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OP ALCOHOL
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Hippolyte Bordier, of Orleans, in the Empire of
France, Banker, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OP ALCOHOL."-A communication.
Sealed the 14th November 1854, and dated the 5th June 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Hippolyte Bordier at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 5th
June 1854.
I, HIPPOLYTE BORDIER, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVELIENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ALCOHOL," "a communication," to
be as follows:-
I propose to manufacture alcohol from that portion of wood commonly
called sawdust. Without confining myself to exactitute of parts or time
employed, the following will give a satisfactory knowledge of the Invention
communicated to me :-I take sawdust and sulphuric acid (of about sixty
degrees), say, about five parts by weight of the former to six parts of the latter,
mix and triturate them well for an hour, and then let the mixture rest for
twelve hours; it is then placed in ten or twelve times its weight of water, and
boiled for ten hours, care being taken to replace with water that which may
evaporate; then add chalk to absorb the acid, and pass through cloths to obtain
the saccharine liquid. This liquid is heated to eighteen or twenty degrees,
and, when fermentation is effected, distill, and the product is alcohol.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed'
by the said Hippolyte Bordier in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
17th November 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HIPPOLYTE
BORDIER, of Orleans, in the Empire of France, Banker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Royal
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Hippolyte Bordier, Her especial licenso that I, the said Hippolyte Bordier, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Hippolyte
Bordier, 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
send, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF ALCOHOL," (a communication,) upon condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Hyppolyte Bordier, by an instrument in writing under iny hand and seal, 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 Hippoltye Bordier, do hereby declare the
nature of tho said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
My Invention consists in the manufacture of alcohol, for which purpose I
mix five parts by weight of sawdust, reduced to a fine powder, with six parts
.of sulphuric acid, at sixty degrees of the "areometer." These articles are as
'intimately mixed together as possible, submitting the mixture to an energetic
trituration, which will give it a pasty appearance. This paste is left to itself
(or quiet) for twelve hours; after which period it is then diluted with six times
its weight of water, and placed in a wooden trough, tub, or other appropriate
vessel, firmly fixed or sustained, into which I inject steain by means of leaden
pipes or tubes. A rapid and continuous ebullition is kept up during eight or
ten hours, care being taken to fill up or renew the water that that shall have
evaporated. The liquid is then allowed to rest, in order that the particles of
wood which may not be dissolved should deposit. The clear liquid is then

page_text: drawn off and saturated with chalk, which precipitates the sulphuric acid in
the state of sulphate of lime. The pulp or thick paste thus obtained is
thrown or spread on cloths to extract the remaining liquid; the deposit is
washed whilo on these cloths and submitted to the action of the press. The
re-united liquids are then left in repose. When cold, a sufficient quantity of
beer, yeast, or other alcoholic fermentary agent is added, and the fermentation
allowed to operate in a locality suitable for this purpose. After which I distill
in the usual manner and obtain alcohol. This alcohol is agreable to the taste,
very wholesome, and applicable to all the purposes or uses to which vinous
alcohol may be applied or used.
I claim the manufacture or production of alcohol in the manner and by the
means herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Hippolyte Bordier, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
JOSEPH MERLE,
Rue Vivienne, No. 18,
Paris.
HIPPOLYTE BORDIER. (L.B.)