IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR PRODUCTION OF LUBRICATING COMPOUNDS."
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Irvine, of Royston Granton, in the County of
Midlothian, Chemical Manufacturer, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OR PRODUCTION OF LUBRICATING COMPOUNDS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Irvine at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 29th July 1880.
ROBERT IRVINE, of Royston Granton, in the County of Midlothian, Chemical
Manufacturer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR PRODUCTION OF
LUBRICATING COMPOUNDS."
My Invention relates to the combination of certain oils with the ingredients
hereinafter mentioned so as to produce a mixture or compound which possesses
improved lubricating properties.
In carrying out this Invention I take such oils as are derived by distillation from
coal, shale, or other bituminous minerals, or from earth or rock oils, known as
petroleum, or otherwise, or from earth wax or waxes, known as ozokerite, bitumen,
asphaltum, or such portions of these oils as are suitable for lubricants; or I employ
carth or rock oils which are used in their natural state as lubricants, or mixtures of
these several oils, as also residuum from oils, known as oil residuums or still
bottoms, and dissolve in or combine with any one or any mixture of these oils
compounds consisting of a fatty acid or fatty acids with an alkali, alkalies, salts
baving alkaline reactions, and, in some cases, alkaline earths. This combination or
compound when combined or mixed with water is commonly known as soap or
soaps. I employ such after the water usually present has been driven off by heat
or otherwise dehydrated; or I employ combinations of fatty acid or acids with
alkali, alkalies, salts having alkakine reactions, or alkaline earths, heated together
in a dry state until combination is effected; or I employ substances containing fatty
acids in combination with glycerine, such as tallow and other animal fats and
waxes, vegetable fat or waxes when decomposed by an alkali, alkalies, salts having
an alkaline reaction, or alkaline earths yielding a soap or saponaceous compound;
or these may be heated together with the oils, hereinbefore mentioned, so that their
combination may be thus effected.

page_text: To effect the solution of the soap, soaps, or saponaceous matters in the oil heat is
employed, applied at temperatures varying according to the proportions of
saponaceous matter added, and ranging up to the boiling point of the oil or oils
treated.
When the ingredients of the soap, soaps, or saponaceous matter are in their
proper proportions, that is to say, in their chemical equivalents or combining
proportions, complete solution, or mixture, or combination takes place in the oil or
oils employed, and hereinbefore described, and the mixture or compound assumes a
plastic or greasy structure or consistency at temperatures ranging from 100°
Fabrenheit to 260° Fahrenheit, and higher, according to the proportion of soap, or
soaps, or saponaceous matter used.
By this Invention I obtain a plastic or greasy mixture or compound in a
solidified form, free from water, which is eminently well adapted for preventing
friction of rubbing surfaces; and by minimising the quantity of soap used I obtain
in lieu of a solid product, an oil of a greatly increased body, which is available for
like purposes.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Robert Irvine in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 13th January
1881.
ROBERT IRVINE, of Royston Granton, in the County of Midlothian, Chemical
Manufacturer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR PRODUCTION OF
LUBRICATING COMPOUNDS."
My said Invention relates to the combination of certain oils with the ingredients
hereinafter mentioned, so as to produce a mixture or compound which possesses
improved lubricating properties.
In carrying out my Invention I take such oils as are derived by distillation from
coal, shale, or other bituminous minerals, or from earth or rock oils, known as
petroleum or otherwise, or from earth wax or waxes, known as ozokerite, bitumen,
asphaltum, or such portions of these oils as are suitable for lubricants; or I employ
earth or rock oils which are used in their natural state as lubricants, or mixtures of
theso several oils, as also residuum from oils, known as oil residuums or still
bottoms, and dissolve in or combine with any one or any mixture of these oils
compounds consisting of a fatty acid or fatty acids with an alkali, alkalies, salts
having alkaline reactions, and, in some cases, alkaline earths. This combination or
compound, when combined or mixed with water, is commonly known as a soap
or soaps. I employ such after the water usually present has been driven off by
heat, or after the compound has been otherwise dehydrated; or I employ com-
binations of fatty acid or acids with alkali, alkalies, salts having alkaline reaction,
or alkaline earths, heated together in a dry state until combination is effected; or
I employ substances containing fatty acids in combination with glycerine, such as
tallow and other animal fats and waxes, vegetable fats or waxes, the same when
decomposed by an alkali, alkalies, salts having an alkaline reaction, or alkaline
earths yielding a soap or saponaceous compound; or these may be heated together
with the oils hereinbefore mentioned so that their combination may be thus
effected.
In order to effect the solution of the soap, soaps, or saponaceous matters in the
oil heat is employed, applied at temperatures varying according to the proportions
of saponaceous matter added, and ranging up to the boiling point of the oil or oils
treated.
When the ingredients of the soap, soaps, or saponaceous matter are in their
proper proportions (that is to say), in their chemical equivalents or combining
proportions, complete solution, or mixture, or combination takes place in the oil or
oils employed, and hereinbefore described, and the mixture or compound assumes a
plastic or greasy structure or consistency at temperatures ranging from one
hundred degrees Fahrenheit to two hundred and sixty degrees Fahrenheit, and
higher, according to the proportion of soap, or soaps, or saponaceous matter used.
By this Invention I obtain a plastic or greasy mixture or compound in a
solidified form, free from water, which is eminently well adapted for preventing
friction of rubbing surfaces, and by minimising the quantity of soap used I obtain
in lieu of a solid product an oil of a greatly increased body which is available for
like purposes.
The following examples are given types of the lubricating compounds which
may be produced according to my said Invention.
In the practical manufacture of these lubricating compounds I employ varying
proportions of saponaceous matters. For example, in order to produce the lubricant
having a very high melting point I prefer to use a potash soap which has been
previously (or is in the process of manufacture) deprived of all water, in the
proportion of from ten to twenty per cent.; this proportion dissolves in or is

page_text: absorbed by the oil at a temperature of, say, from three hundred degrees to four
hundred degrees Fahrenheit, and produces the lubricant, which remains semi-solid
at temperatures over three hundred degrees Fahrenheit.
When not wanted with so high a melting point I use a less proportion or
saponaceous matter, varying from, say, three to ten per cent., which gives the
material with a lower or higher melting point at will.
When it is desired simply to increase the body of a mineral oil I use a minimum
quantity of saponaceous matter varying from, say, one half per cent. to two and a
half per cent. In this case the oil does not become a solid mass but retains its
liquidity, although the body or viscosity becomes much greater. It is obvious that
in all cases it is necessary to employ a higher temperature in the solution of the
saponaceous matters than is required as the melting point of the resulting product.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into
effect, I would observe in conclusion, that what I consider to be novel and original,
and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the hereinbefore in part
recited Letters Patent is,-
The manufacture or production of lubricating compounds from a solution in or
mixture with hydrocarbon oils of soap or saponaceous matter or matters in a dry
or bygroscopic state, substantially as hereinbefore described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Irvine, have to this my Specification
set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of January, One thousand eight
hundred and eighty one.
ROBERT IRVINE. (L.S.)