IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FECULA
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Damas Auguste Joseph Planque, Merchant,
of Pont St. Maxence, France, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF FECULA."
Sealed the 15th August 1856, and dated the 25th February 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Damas Auguste
Joseph Planque at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 25th February 1856.
I, CHARLES DAMAS AUGUSTE JOSEPH PLANQUE, Merchant, of Pont St.
Maxence (France), do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FECULA, to be as follows:-
My improvements consist: 1st. In submitting the residues of the products
to a second rasping process, so as to divide into smaller particles the parts that
may have escaped the action of the first rasping.
2nd. In making these products pass afterwards under grinding stones, &
continually wetting the said products with a suitable quantity of water, in such
manner that the water.agglomerates together the portions that are sufficiently
ground, and carries them off.
3rd. The employment of chlorine, of chlorides, or other discolouring agents.
4. In the employment of kaolin, or any similar kind of clay, which,
mixed with the fecula contained in the lixiviating waters, causes its pre-
cipitation and the saturation of the acid, and serves likewise to separate the

page_text: bran, and other extraneous matters, which may have become mixed with the
residues.
These different operations, and the use of these matters, together with suc-
cessive washings, allow of decanting, by means of which fecula as white and.
as good as that extracted from the potatoe may be obtained from these
residues, for the difference of densities of the kaolin, fecula, and bran permit
the complete separation of these different matters. However, it may be found
more economical, and consequently preferable, to obtain by this process fecula
of inferior quality to make up into paste, starch, etc.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Damas Auguste Joseph Planque in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 18th August 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
DAMAS AUGUSTE JOSEPH PLANQUE, Merchant, of Pont St. Maxence, France,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Charles Damas Auguste Joseph Planque, Her special licence that
1,, the said Charles Damas Auguste Joseph Planque, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Damas Auguste
Joseph Planque, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 FECULA," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Charles Damas Auguste Joseph Planque, my executors or adminis-
trators, 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 1, the said Charles Damas Auguste Joseph
Planque, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what

page_text: manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement :-
My Invention refers to certain improvements in obtaining fecula from
potatoes, and other tubercles, which improvements consist in a peculiar method
of treating the residues resulting from common manufacture, by subjecting
them again to the action of the rasp and of mill stones, with admixture of
water and chemical agents, described hereafter, (and also of kaolin, if desired),
in order to effect the precipitation of fecula and its separation from bran and
other extraneous substances it may contain.
It is well-known that fecula is got from potatoes by means of various
operations, which consist in rasping the potato, and receiving the pulp in sieves,
in successive washings that yield, after decantation, a settled material, which
is dried in stove rooms, pulverized, and sold off.
In the rasping operation many portions of the potato, etc., will drop, which
are not sufficiently divided, and yet contain a considerable quantity of fecula
adhering to the peels, and also fibres or strings of imperceptible bead-like
grains, which constitute, together with the two other parts just mentioned,
valuable residues, that remain in the sieves, and do not afford their part of
contribution. These are sometimes used for food of animals, but more usually
they are cast away, and the fecula they may still contain is thus lost.
In order to get from potatoes, etc., all the fecula they can afford, I subject
the residues to certain operations, by which a surplus or additional quantity of
product is obtained, sufficient to largely compensate the expenses this work
requires, and the products obtained thereby increase, in some measure, tho
crop, a larger stock being thus supplied for trade. I think it proper to com-
mend the use of the ordinary process for the manufacture of fecula, only taking
care to heap up the residues, or storing them in silos, till the whole supply of
potatoes, etc., is exhausted.. When the hoarded up residues are treated, and
the products resulting therefrom contribute a very nice fecula, and also a
peculiar and inferior quality of fecula which may be used for sizeing and other
similar purposes.
My improvements consist, first, in rasping anew the residues, in order to
divide those portions that have-been spared in the former operation.
Secondly, in subjecting the products thus divided to the action of mill stones,
with an additional supply of water for the purpose of washing and carrying away
all the particles rendered no larger than the common size of fecula grains under
the pressure of the mill stones; the products are afterwards dropt into sieves
and long inclined planes, where fecula is separated into various qualities.

page_text: My improvements consist, thirdly, in the use of chlorine, chlorides, hypo-
chlorites, and other like chemical agents, and,
Fourthly, in the use of kaolin, or other like clays, which, being mixed with
fecula into water, causes it to precipitate, at the same time serving to the
saturation of the acids, and to the separation from the residue of the bran and
other extraneous matters.
These various workings, and the use of the said combined substances, afford
great facilities for decanting, and thereby a quality of fecula is obtained as
white, neat, and nice as the former product got directly from potatoes; for,
owing to the difference of density between fecula and bran and extraneous
matters (with addition, if desired, of kaolin, etc.), a thorough separation of
these various substances is readily effected. It may, however, prove cheaper
and preferable to get in this manner an inferior quality of fecula for sizeing,
etc., purposes.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is or may be carried into effect, I desire it to be distinctly
understood that I do not confiue myself to the precise details herein described,
as such may be varied or modified without departing from the principle of
action thereof; but what I claim as novel, and therefore being secured to me
by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is treating the residues
resulting from the common manufacture of fecula, so as to get therefrom a
surplus or additional supply of the said product, by using the processes, and by
the application of the chemical agents herein described, thereby extracting
from the residues of potatoes, and other tubercles, all the fecula they may
contain.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Damas Auguste Joseph Planque,
I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of August,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six
CH. D. A. J. PLANQUE. (L.S.)