IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING A DEODORIZING AND DISINFECTING MATERIAL
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Glass, Analytical Chemist, formerly of
2, Dahlia Cottages, Poplar, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
OBTAINING A DEODORIZING AND DISINFECTING MATERIAL."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Glass at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 18th
October 1855.
I, WILLIAM GLASS, Analytical Chemist, of Millwall, Poplar, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING A
DEODORIZING AND DISINFECTING MATERIAL" to be as follows:-
It is well known that chloride or muriate of zinc has been found very useful
in destroying the noxious matters contained in cesspools, drains, holds of ships,
wards of hospitals, dissecting rooms, cellars, &c., and that the benefit derived
from the use of this salt has been owing more particularly to the decomposition
of volatile, odorous, and noxious compounds of sulphur, the zinc combining
with the sulphur, and forming a fixed inodorous and innoxious compound.
Now, my Invention consists in using sulphate and acetate of zinc separately.
or in combination, by which I obtain a better and much cheaper deodorizing.
and disinfecting powder or liquid for the above purposes.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Glass in the Great. Seal Patent Office on the 18th
April 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
-GLASS, Analytical Chemist, formerly of 2, Dahlia Cottages, now of 4, Ingelheim
Terrace, Millwall, Poplar, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth 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 William Glass, Her special licence that I, the said William Glass, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Glass, 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 OBTAINING A
DEODORIZING AND DISINFECTING MATERIAL," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said William Glass, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Glass, 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,
that is to say,
My objects are the disinfection and deodorization of organic and inorganic
substances, that is, the removal of the causes of infection, and any injurious
taint. I thus prevent animal and vegetal.or. other matter being decomposed,
and interrupt such decomposition. when it has begun, or destroy hurtful emana-
tions when formed. I effect those objects more perfectly, and economically
than by chloride of zinc, by using acetate and.sulphate of zinc separately or in
combination, and thereby obtain a imaterial 'free from the acid, caustic, and
deliquescent properties of the former, besides liaving the superior advantage of
being in the state of powder, and therefore more safe and easy of carriage,
as no bottles are necessary to transport it.

page_text: Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, I will now proceed to
describe the manner of performing the same. By sprinkling with the material
in powder, or by rinsing, steeping, or injecting with its solution in water or
otherwise, the antiseptic or preservative and the deodorizing or purifying
powers of this disinfectant may be fully taken advantage of, and thus the decay
of a ship's or other timber or stores, and the production of stinking bilge water
and other bad odors, may be alike prevented or arrested.
For the disinfection or preservation of timber, canvas, wool, skins, bodies of
animals, &c., and for the deodorization or purification of urinals, privies, drains,
cesspools, stables, piggeries, cow-houses, slaughter-houses, dissecting rooms,
wards of hospitals, dust-bins, cellars, market places, factories, &c., I employ a
solution, one pound to ten gallons of water, of the acetate of zinc, or of the
sulpho-acetate of zinc, that is, the mixture of the sulphate and acetate, but I
prefer to use the acetate alone where expense is not an object; & for obtaining
the most economical results from the sulpho-acetate, I mix (85) eighty-five
parts by weight of the sulphate with (15) fifteen parts by weight of the
acetate. I do not, however, confine myself to these proportions, as they may be
varied in some cases with advantage.
For deodorizing offensive gases from gas works, or other factories or places,
I employ charcoal, sawdust, or other fibrous substances imbued with a solution
of the acetate or sulpho-acetate, or mixed with it in fine powder.
I do not claim the use of sulphate of zinc alone for the purposes of dis-
infection, or for the use of salts of zinc in preserving seeds, potatoes, and other
roots from decay, &c., but I claim the use of acetate of zinc alone, or in
combination with sulphate of zinc, whether they are kept separate previous to
use, or combined together in a powder or solution as a sulpho-acetate, for the
purposes of disinfection and deodorization.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Glass, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
WILLIAM GLASS. (L.S.)