AN IMPROVED MODE OF MANUFACTURING SOAP
Year: 1850

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
DICKASON ROTCH, of Drumlamford House, in the County of Ayr, North
Britain, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Thirty-first day of July, in the fourteenth year of Her
reign (being the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty), did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas Dickason Rotch, Her special license that I, the said Thomas
Dickason Rotch, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Thomas Dickason Rotch, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term
of fourteen years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within that part of Her said Majesty's United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in Her Islands of Jersey, Guernsey,
Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her Colonies and Plantations
abroad, the following Invention communicated to me by a Foreigner residing
abroad, namely, "AN IMPROVED MODE OF MANUFACTURING SOAP;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Thomas Dickinson
Rotch, by an instrument in writing under ny hand and seal, particularly to

page_text: describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, and cause the same to be inrolled in Her
said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and
at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Dickason Rotch, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
to consist in the introduction of certain sulphites, bisulphites, and polysulphites,
into the fatty, resinous, and other compounds undergoing the process of saponi-
fication in the manufacture of soap. And in further compliance with the said
proviso, I, the said Thomas Dickason Rotch, do hereby describe the manner in
which the said Invention may be performed, by the following statement of
various means which I have adopted of introducing bisulphites into the
saponifying masses used in the manufacture of soap, reference being had, when
describing one of the means aforesaid, to the Drawing annexed, and to the
figures and letters marked thereon.
When during the saponification aforesaid bisulphites of soda are to be
introduced into the mass, the ordinary soap pan is to be used, and the process
conducted in all respects in the usual manner by filling in the caustic lyes and
fatty or other matter in proper proportions to be converted into soap, and by
heating the mass to the proper degree of temperature; when arrived at this
point, I add twenty parts of bisulphite of soda dissolved in water to every one
thousand parts of fatty or other matter to be saponified, the process being
then continued in the usual way for making soap without any alteration in
consequence of the addition of the sulphite of soda. When potash is to be
introduced instead of soda the proportions differ; I then add twenty-five
parts of bisulphate of potash, dissolved in water, to every one thousand parts of
fatty or other matter to be saponified, the operation being otherwise conducted
in the usual manner when potashes are used. When lime is to be introduced
into the saponifying mass, I add twenty parts of bisulphite of lime to cach
one thousand parts of fatty or other matter to be saponified, the bisulphite of
lime being carefully diluted with water into a kind of milk of lime before it is
poured into the mass in the pan, the rest of the operation being conducted in
the usual manner.
I will now proceed to describe another mode of carrying my said Invention
into effect, which, under some circumstances, is cheaper and may be preferable
to those before described. During the whole of the ordinary process of
saponification I cause a current of sulphurous acid to be continually passing

page_text: parts of sulphurous acid to one thousand parts of fatty or other matter, and I
accomplish this by the decomposition of sulphuric acid in an apparatus similar
to that herein-after described, that is to say :—
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 represents a furnace and boiler, the brickwork being shown in
section. A, A, is the boiler. B, a flange which supports the boiler on a
perforated plate C, C, which rests on the brickwork. D is the top or cover of
the boiler, bolted on by means of a flange and screw nutts. E is a safety
guage. F, a feed hole; and G a leaden escape pipe through which the sul-
phurous acid is allowed to escape or pass off into the bottom of the soap pan,
and thence rise up through the boiling mass of saponifying matter. Figure 2
is a plan of the perforated plate C, C, about two pounds of charcoal being
introduced into this apparatus with about twenty pounds of sulphuric acid at
66° of Baumé. I apply heat till the decomposition of the sulphuric acid is
effected, the fire being kept up during the whole process of saponification.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, it is only necessary to state that sulphites,
bisulphites, and polysulphites are equally applicable to my said Invention, the
quantity used being varied according as the one or the other are employed.
And I claim as the Invention therefore, and as my improved mode of
manufacturing soap, the introduction of suitable sulphites, bisulphites, and
polysulphites into the saponifying masses of fatty or other matter, as herein-
before described. And such Invention being, to the best of my knowledge
and belief, entirely new, and never before used within that part of Her
Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her
Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, nor in the Islands of
Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, or Man, nor in any of Her Majesty's
Colonies or Plantations abroad, I do hereby declare this to be my Specification
of the same, and that I do verily believe this my said Specification doth comply
in all respects, fully and without reserve or disguise, with the proviso in the
said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained; wherefore, I
hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to the said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Dickason Rotch, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.
-
THOS D. (L.S.) ROTCH.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fourth day of January,
in the year of our Lord 1851, the aforesaid Thomas Dickason Rotch
came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknow-
ledged the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein con-
tained and specified, in form above written. And also the Specification
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for that
purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-fourth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.