IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STARCH, GUM, OR DEXTRINE, AND THEIR COMPOUNDS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Young and James Strang, of Castle Glen and
Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Manufacturing
Chemists, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
STARCH, GUM, OR DEXTRINE, AND THEIR COMPOUNDS."
Scaled the 23rd November 1858, and dated the 31st May 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Young and James
Strang at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 31st May 1858.
We, JOHN YOUNG and JAMES STRANG, of Castle Glen and Glasgow, in tho
County of Lanark, North Britain, Manufacturing Chemists, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF STARCH, GUM, OR DEXTRINE, AND THEIR COMPOUNDS," to be as follows,
that is to say-
The object of this Invention is to impart increased strength or thickening
power to starch, gum, or dextrine, and their compounds, such as "thickening"
and "paste," used by calico printers and others, and it consists in employing
in the manufacture or preparation of the starch, gum, or compound either
whey obtained from sour milk or buttermilk, or by employing such con-
stituent or constituents of whey as may be found to produce the desired
effect; the whey or the constituent thereof employed being carefully freed
from curds.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Young and James Strang in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 29th November 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
YOUNG and JAMES STRANG, of Castle Glen and Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Manufacturing Chemists, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand cight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Iler heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
John Young and James Strang, Her special licence that we, the said John
Young and James Strang, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said John Young and James Strang, our executors, admi-
nistrators, 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 THE MANUFACTURE OF STARCH, GUM,
OR DEXTRINE, AND THEIR COMPOUNDS," upon the condition (amongst others) that
we, the said John Young and James Strang, our executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, should particularly describo and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and in what manuer 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 we, the said John Young and James Strang,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement in writing, that is to say:-
"
The object of our said Invention is to impart increased strength or
thickening power to starch, gum, or dextrine, and their compounds, such as
"thickening" or paste" used by calico printers and others, and it consists
in employing in the manufacture or preparation of the starch, gum, or com-
pound, either whey obtained from new milk, or whey obtained from sour milk
or buttermilk, or by employing such constituent or constituents of whey as
may be found to produce the desired effect. The whey or the constituent
thereof employed must be carefully freed from curds, or, if the curds are
retained in it, they must be in a dissolved or minutely divided state. And in

page_text: order that our said Invention may be properly understood and carried into
effect, we will particularly describe the mode or modes of practising the same
which we find to be most advantageous.
In the first place, with reference to the preparation or treatment of the
whey, if new milk is used it is curdled by means of rennet or other suitable
matter, and the whey is separated from the curds as in the manufacture of
cheese. If sour milk or buttermilk is used it is heated to curdle it, and the
whey is separated from the curds by straining or otherwise. Or, instead of
separating or removing the curds from the whey, the new milk or buttermilk
may be treated with an alkali, such as caustic soda, which causes the curds or
their constituents to be held in the whey in a dissolved or minutely divided
state. The proportion of alkali to be used will depend upon the quality of the
milk or buttermilk, and can be determined in each case by trial with a small
sample. We may, however, mention that a gill of caustic soda of full strength
is the average quantity to be mixed with a gallon of new milk or buttermilk.
Secondly, with reference to the manufacture or preparation of the starch,
gum, or compound, according to one plan we take starch as prepared for
sale, and moisten it with whey in the proportion of three to four gallons of
whey to each hundredweight of starch, and then dry it, or the whey may be
mixed with the starch prior to the final drying of the latter in the ordinary
course of its manufacture. According to another plan, we moisten the starch
with new milk or buttermilk previously alkalizated or treated with an alkali,
as lierein-before described.
In the manufacture of gum and "thickenings" or "pastes" made from
starch or gun, we prefer to apply the whey, or the alkalizated milk or butter-
milk, to the starch before its conversion in the ordinary way into gum, but it
may also be applied after such conversion, the gum being either mixed with it
on being dissolved, or prepared for immediate use, or being moistened with
it and re-dried.
In the manufacture or preparation of "thickenings" or "pastes" with
flour or other farinaceous or amylaceous ingredients, the whey or alkalizated
milk or buttermilk may be added at any stage, it being necessary, however, to
apply heat to the compound after such addition to a greater or less degrec,
according to the nature of the compound being prepared.
Having thus particularly described our said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is or may be used or carried into effect, we have to state that
we do not restrict ourselves to the precise details herein-before described, but
that what we consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the
Invention secured to us by the herein-before in part recited Letters l'atent, is

page_text: the application and use in the manufacture or preparation of starch, gum, or
dextrine, and their compounds, of whey or alkalizated milk, or alkalizated
buttermilk, as herein before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Strang, in behalf of the said
John Young and myself, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this
Twenty-sixth day of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT, Patent Agent,
28, St. Enoch Square, Glasgow.
JAMES STRANG. (L.S.)