IMPROVEMENTS in the ManufactURE OF SOAP AND IN APPARATUS USED IN "A com- SUCH MANUFACTURE, ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edmund Edwards, of the Firm of Edwards and Co.,
38, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineers and Patent Agents, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS in the ManufactURE OF SOAP AND IN APPARATUS USED IN
"A com-
SUCH MANUFACTURE, ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES."
munication from abroad by Robert Frecland, of Montreal, in the
Dominion of Canada.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edmund Edwards at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 31st October 1874.
I, EDMUND EDWARDS, of the Firm of Edwards and Co., 38, South-
ampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineers and Patent Agents, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP AND IN

page_text: APPARATUS USED IN SUCH MANUFACTURE, ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to improvements in the process of manu-
facturing soap and in the apparatus used therein, which improvements
are also applicable to the preparation of concentrated extracts and syrups
in vacuo or otherwise, the extraction of vegetable oils and of gelatinous
and glutinous materials, dissolving silicates, tallow rendering, bone boiling,
and distilling. It consists, first, of an improved process for the manu-
facture of soap (or other articles) under heat and pressure, whereby the
ingredients are converted into soap more speedily and effectively than
in the methods ordinarily used and practised; and, second, of improve-
ments in apparatus to be used in such process by which the ingredients
are heated and automatically agitated without the assistance of expensive
machinery for the purpose.
I take a closed vessel in which the ingredients are placed of any
suitable material, size, or shape, and supported in any convenient way at
a sufficient height above the floor to allow room for the pipes and
other accessories herein-after described. The vessel is provided with a
moveable cover closing with a steam-tight joint. Within this vessel is
arranged an inner shell (of which two or more may be used if required)
secured to the outer vessel, and open at the top and bottom, through
which the ingredients circulate. The top and bottom ends of this inner
shell are preferably made to curve inwards to a less diameter than the
remainder, and its lower end is covered by a shield arranged between it
and the outer vessel, but at a sufficient distance from the inner shell to
allow the materials to circulate freely between them. In the centre of
the shield is a small aperture which can be opened or closed by a sliding
or revolving plate (which I term a reversor) worked from outside by a
handle which passes through a suitable stuffing box in the outer vessel.
In the space between the sides of the outer vessel and the inner shell is
arranged a pipe or pipes forming a steam coil, to which steam from a
boiler is admitted either at its upper or lower end as may be desired by
means of suitable cocks or valves, any condensed water being drawn off
when requisite by cocks suitably arranged. Where it is desired to
reduce the temperature of the materials in the vessel cold water may be
admitted instead of steam into the coil.
Instead of a coil a jacket or other equivalent as well known and
practised may be used. At the bottom of the vessel and immediately

page_text: opposite the small opening already described in the shield is an opening
fitted with a pipe through which steam may be admitted directly into
the interior of the vessel, and which may also serve for discharging the
contents of the vessel, suitable cocks or valves being provided for
regulating such supply of steam and discharge of contents, and also for
clearing out the openings if necessary. The upper part of the vessel is
provided with a pyrometer, thermometer, or steam guage, and also with
a funnel and regulating valve or valves for supplying the ingredients to
charge the vessel. An air pipe provided with a cock or valve is also
arranged at the top of the vessel to allow the air to escape when the
latter is being filled, and the same pipe may be used for the admission of
steam to assist in discharging the contents of the vessel.
A supplementary vessel is sometimes arranged in any convenient
position near the one already described, and used as a condenser,
injector, and air or water heater, and especially as a means of creating a
vacuum in the principal vessel when lower temperatures are required
than can otherwise be produced, and for adding additional materials to
the principal vessel at any time, by forcing them from the supplementary
vessel through a connecting pipe to the principal vessel by means of
steam admitted into the upper part of the former. This supplementary
vessel is also provided with an internal coil through which air or water
may be forced and heated by means of steam contained within the body
of the vessel, and the coil may be connected by a pipe and regulating
valve with the coil in the principal vessel, so that the heat of the air
or water may be allowed to act upon the contents of the latter when a
lower temperature is desirable than that attained in the method first
described.
The supplementary coil is supplied with air through a suitable pipe,
and with water through an induction pipe which may be continued into
the upper part of the supplementary vessel and provided with a rose to
produce spray in the latter. A funnel and regulating valve are used for
filling the supplementary vessel when requisite.
The operation of the apparatus is as follows:-The principal vessel
being charged with the ingredients to be operated upon, steam is
admitted to the coil through citlier of its connections, the heat arising
therefrom causing the ingredients to ascend quickly through the
annular space between the vessel and the inner shell, and to pass

page_text: down the latter, thus affording automatically a rapid circulation and
heating of the ingredients, causing them quickly to unite and form
perfect soap, or, when the apparatus is used for other purposes, effecting
the operation required with great speed and efficiency. The rapidity and
force of the circulation may be much increased by the direct admission
of steam to the bottom of the vessel as described, the course of the
steam being diverted towards the sides of the vessel by the shield. By
uncovering the central opening in the shield (by means of the reversor)
the steam is admitted directly to the centre of the inner shell, and by
the shutting off the steam from the coil the current of the circulation is
reversed.
The supplementary vessel may be used as desired for any of the
purposes for which it has been described.
In some of the processes for which the apparatus is to be used a
moveable perforated diaphragm is arranged across the inner shell and at
or near the level of this diaphragm a tube is fixed leading from it to
the outside of the vessel, and provided with a cock or valve through
which secondary products or refuse material upon the diaphragm can be
discharged.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edmund Edwards in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 30th April 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDMUND
EDWARDS, of the Firm of Edwards and Co., 38, Southampton Buildings,
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Engineers and Patent
Agents send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Edmund Edwards, Her special licence that
I, the said Edmund Edwards, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Edmund Edwards, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from

page_text: "
time to time and at all times thercafter 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 THE MANU-
FACTURE OF SOAP AND IN APPARATUS USED IN SUCH MANUFACTURE, ALSO APPLICABLE
TO OTHER PURPOSES,' a communication to me from abroad by Robert
Freeland, of Montreal, in the Dominion of Canada, upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Edmund Edwards, 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 Scal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edmund Edwards, 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 and accompanying Drawing (that is to say) :—
This Invention relates to improvements in the process of manu-
facturing soap and in the apparatus used therein, which improvements
are also applicable to the preparation of concentrated extracts and syrups
in vacuo or otherwise, the extraction of vegetable oils and of gelatinous
and glutinous materials, dissolving silicates, tallow rendering, bone
boiling, and distilling. It consists first of an improved process for the
manufacture of soap (or other articles) under heat and pressure whereby
the ingredients are converted into soap more speedily and effectively
than in the methods ordinarily used and practised; and second, of im-
provements in apparatus to be used in such process by which the
ingredients are heated and automatically agitated without the assistance
of expensive machinery for the purpose.
I take a closed vessel in which the ingredients are placed of any
suitable material, size, or shape, and supported in any convenient way
at a sufficient height above the floor to allow room for the pipes and
other accessories herein-after described. The vessel is provided with a
moveable cover closing with a steam-tight joint. Within this vessel is
arranged an inner shell (of which two or more may be used if required)
secured to the outer vessel and open at the top and bottom, through

page_text: which the ingredients circulate. The top and bottom ends of this inner
shell are preferably made to curve inwards to a less diameter than the
remainder, and its lower end is covered by a shield arranged between it
and the outer vessel, but at a sufficient distance from the inner shell to
allow the materials to circulate freely between them. In the centre of
the shield is a small aperture which can be opened or closed by a sliding
or revolving plate (which I term a reversor) worked from outside by a
handle which passes through a suitable stuffing box in the outer vessel.
In the space between the sides of the outer vessel and the inner shell is
arranged a pipe or pipes forming a steam coil to which steam from a boiler
is admitted either at its upper or lower end, as may be desired, by means
of suitable cocks or valves, any condensed water being drawn off when
requisite by cocks suitably arranged. Where it is desired to reduce the
temperature of the materials in the vessel cold water may be admitted
instead of steam into the coil.
Instead of a coil a jacket or other equivalent, as well known and
practised, may be used. At the bottom of the vessel and immediately
opposite the small opening already described in the shield is an opening
fitted with a pipe through which steam may be admitted directly into
the interior of the vessel, and which may also serve for discharging the
contents of the vessel, suitable cocks or valves being provided for regu-
lating such supply of steam and discharge of contents, and also for
clearing out the openings if necessary. The upper part of the vessel is
provided with a pyrometer, thermometer, or steam guage, and also with
a funnel and regulating valve or valves for supplying the ingredients to
charge the vessel. An air pipe provided with a cock or valve is also
arranged at the top of the vessel to allow the air to escape when the
latter is being filled, and the same pipe may be used for the admission
of steam to assist in discharging the contents of the vessel.
A supplementary vessel is sometimes arranged in any convenient
position near the one already described, and used as a condenser, injector,
and air or water heater, and especially as a means of creating a vacuum
in the principal vessel when lower temperatures are required than can
otherwise be produced, and for adding additional materials to the
principal vessel at any time by forcing them from the supplementary
vessel through a connecting pipe to the principal vessel by means of
steam admitted into the upper part of the former. This supplementary
vessel is also provided with an internal coil through which air or water

page_text: may be forced and heated by means of steam contained within the body
of the vessel, and the coil may be connected by a pipe and regulating
valve with the coil in the principal vessel so that the heat of the air or
water may be allowed to act upon the contents of the latter when a
lower temperature is desirable than that attained in the method first
described.
The supplementary coil is supplied with air through a suitable pipe,
and with water through an induction pipe which may be continued into
the upper part of the supplementary vessel, and provided with a rose to
produce spray in the latter. A funnel and regulating valve are used for
filling the supplementary vessel when requisite.
b
The operation of the apparatus is as follows:-The principal vessel
being charged with the ingredients to be operated upon, steam is
admitted to the coil through either of its connections, the heat arising
therefrom causing the ingredients to ascend quickly through the annular
space between the vessel and the inner shell and to pass down the latter,
thus affording automatically a rapid circulation and heating of the
ingredients, causing them quickly to unite and form perfect soap; or
when the apparatus is used for other purposes, effecting the operation
required with great speed and efficiency, the rapidity and force of the
circulation may be much increased by the direct admission of steam to
the bottom of the vessel, as described, the course of the steam being
diverted towards the sides of the vessel by the shield. By uncovering
the central opening in the shield (by means of the reversor) the
steam is admitted directly to the centre of the inner shell, and by
shutting off the steam from the coil the current of the circulation is
reversed.
The supplementary vessel may be used, as desired, for any of the
purposes
for which it has been described.
In some of the processes for which the apparatus is to be used, a
moveable perforated diaphragm is arranged across the inner shell, and at
or near the level of this diaphragm a tube is fixed leading from it to
the outside of the vessel, and provided with a cock or valve through
which secondary products or refuse material upon the diaphragm can

page_text: an evaporating or Doming pan with apie
The accompanying Drawing is an illustration of this Invention,
Figure 1 being a vertical sectional elevation, and Figure 2 a horizontal
section on the line A, A, of the apparatus; Figure 3, shews the reversor
on a larger scale.
a is a closed vessel, in which the ingredients are placed, of any
suitable material, shape, or size found desirable, and supported as shewn
in the Drawings or (in any other convenient way at a sufficient height
above the floor to allow room for the pipes, &c., to be herein-after
described; is a removeable cover secured to the vessel a by bolts or in
any suitable way, so as to render it steam-tight; cis the inner shell
(one only being shewn in this case) open at the top and bottom, through
which the ingredients circulate, and which is secured to the outer
vessel a in any convenient manner, both ends of this shell c being pre-
ferably arranged to curve inwards, as shown on the Drawing. dis a
shield covering the opening in the lower end of the shell or shells c, but
placed at a sufficient distance from c to allow the materials to circulate
freely between them; e is a small aperture in the shield d, closed or
opened by an attachment foperated from the outside, which I term a
reversor, for the purpose of changing the current of live steam from the
outer space to the centre or vice versâ; 7 is an annular space between
a and c, within it being arranged a steam coil h, to which the steam is
admitted by a pipe i provided with suitable valve, the condensed water
passing off by the pipe k. Both these pipes arc furnished with
valves, ¹, to let off the water arising from condensation, so that they
may be used indifferently either as supply pipes for the steam or dis-
charge pipes for the condensed water. The coil & may also be used for
the purpose of reducing the temperature of the contents of the vessel
by admitting cold water through it or into the jacket used in lieu of a
coil. is a pipe through which live steam may be admitted, and also
serving as a blow-off or discharge pipe, the discharge being regulated by
the valve. The tap affords a means of cleaning the pipe 7 should it
ever become clogged; m' is the pipe through which the steam passes to
the pipe 7, having in addition to the ordinary valve a check valve m';
n is a pyrometer, thermometer, or steam guage, as may be required,
placed in any suitable position; and o, a funnel provided with regulating
ૐ

page_text: valve o' for charging the apparatus; p is an air valve to allow the air to
escape during the filling of the vessel a to the same opening, being
attached a steam pipe 9 (with valve q¹) to assist in expelling the contents
of the vessel; r is the combined condenser, injector, and air or water
heater, placed either where shown or in any convenient position; this is
to be applied for the several purposes above mentioned, and especially as
a means for creating a vacuum in the vessel a where lower temperatures
are required than can be otherwise produced; by this means also
additional materials can at any time be added during the manipulation,
its contents being forced into the vessel a by steam from the blow
pipe through the pipe. This vessel R is also provided, as shewn,
with a coil S through which air or water may be forced and heated by
means of steam contained within the body of the vessel itself, and this
coils may be connected with the coil h by the pipe w so as to allow the
heat of the air or water to act upon the material contained in the
vessel a in cases where low temperatures are preferable; is the pipe
admitting air to the coils; and u, an induction pipe for water to the
same coil, being the continuation of the pipe u as a spray furnished
with a rose (as shewn in dotted lines) at its end to the upper part of the
condenser "; and a is a filler attached to r. All these pipes are pro-
vided with suitable valves for closing and opening connections, as may
be required.
The operation of this Invention is as follows:-The vessel a being.
charged with the ingredients to be operated upon, steam is admitted to
the coil through either of its connections i or k, the heat arising
therefrom causing the ingredients to ascend quickly through the
annular space g and pass down through the shell or shells, as shewn
by the arrows, thus affording automatically a rapid circulation and
beating of the ingredients, thereby causing them quickly to unite
and form perfect soap, or when the apparatus is used for other purposes
effecting the operation required in very little time and with perfect
efficiency.
The rapidity and force of the circulation may be much increased by
the direct admission to the annular space through the pipe 7 of live
steam, the direct course of which is diverted by the shield d. By
opening the aperture e (which may be done by means of the reversor ƒ)

page_text: and air or water heater, substantially as described and shewn in the
Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edmund Edwards, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of April, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.