IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING FATTY AND OILY SUBSTANCES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Albert Tilghman, of the City of Philadelphia,
United States of America, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
TREATING FATTY AND OILY SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 15th January 1856, and dated the 11th October 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Albert Tilghman
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
11th October 1855.
on the
I, RICHARD ALBERT TILGHMAN, of the City of Philadelphia, United States of
America, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
TREATING FATTY AND OILY SUBSTANCES" to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in a method of hardening fatty or oily bodies (either
in the state of neutral fats or fat acids) by subjecting them to the action of a
small proportion of sulphur or of phosphorous at a high temperature. After
the effect has been produced; the excess of the sulphur or phosphorous used
may be removed by the action of. finely divided metals, metallic oxides, or of a
variety of agents capable of chemical combination with sulphur or phosphorous.
These substances may also be separated in the gaseous form during the process
of distilling the fatty body in a current of steam.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Albert Tilghman in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 11th April 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ALBERT TILGHMAN, of the City of Philadelphia, United States of America,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh-day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Richard "Albert Tilghman, Hér special licence that I, the said Richard
Albert Tilghman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Richard Albert Tilghman, 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 TREATING FATTY AND OILY SUBSTANCES," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard Albert Tilghman, my exe-
cutors 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 Richard Albert Tilghman, 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 Invention consists of a method of hardening fatty and oily bodies (either
fat acids or neutral fats) by subjecting them to the action of a small pro-
portion of sulphur or of phosphorous at a high temperature. After the effect
has been produced, the portion of these agents remaining in combination with
the fatty body is removed by the action of metals, metallic oxides, and many
other substances having a strong affinity for sulphur or phosphorous. As
sulphur is the cheaper hardening agent I employ it by preference; the quantity

page_text: used, may vary with the hardening effect to be produced. I have employed at
the rate of about one-half to one per cent. of the weight of the fat body, but
this may be varied.
The fatty body is heated in a suitable vessel, of stone ware or cast iron,
covered so as to exclude the air, and provided with an agitator, and the neces-
sary openings and tubes for the safe escape of the gases given off in the
process. When the fat is melted the sulphur is added and dissolved in it; the
fat is then gradually heated to near its boiling point, and maintained at that
heat as long as sulphuretted hydrogen continues to escape freely. When this
has almost ceased, I add gradually with brisk stirring a quantity of oxide of
copper or oxide of lead sufficient to combine with, the sulphur, left in the fatty
body, (an excess of the oxide will not be injurious); after remaining for some
time at this high heat, say, about an hour, the stirring is discontinued, and the
sulphuret of lead or copper is allowed to settle at the bottom of the vessel,
and the fatty body is then drawn off to be distilled in the usual manner in
a current of steam.
'
If the distilling apparatus and condenser be constructed of stone ware, or
other suitable material not acted on by sulphuretted hydrogen, the fatty body
may be distilled at once after the action of the sulphur is finished, as the
remaining sulphur for the most part escapes in the gaseous form during the
distillation. When this process is adopted, I prefer that the condenser should
be gradually cooled, so as to allow the fat acids alone to condense in the hotter
portion, and to be drawn off separately, while the steam and gases condense
further on in the cooler parts of the apparatus.
To remove the combined sulphur from the fatty body the oxides of lead or
copper may be previously dissolved in fat acids, and the equivalent amounts of
the copper or lead soaps thus produced may be used in place of the oxides, as
above directed. Metallic lead or copper in a finely divided state may be used
for the same purpose, as can also peroxide of manganese, and many other
chemical agents; but I prefer those above described. Substances capable of
liberating either sulphur or phosphorous during the operation, such as alkaline
sulphurets, or protosulphuret of iron, may be substituted for the free sulphur
of phosphorous.
I do not confine my claim to any particular proportion of sulphur or phos-
phorous, or to any mode of operating with them, as these may be much varied;
but I claim the hardening of fatty or oily bodies by the action of sulphur
or phosphorous, as above set forth.

page_text: And I also claim the process of separating the remaining sulphur or phos-
phorous from fatty bodies, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Albert Tilghman, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six...
Witness,
A. CARPMAEL.
R. A. TILGHMAN. (L.S.)