IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDMUND
SNELL, of Bridge Street, Lambeth, in the County of Surrey, Medical Student,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-first day of November, in the seventh year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Edmund Snell, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege, and authority,
that I, the said Edmund Snell, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Edmund Snell, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in
all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP;" in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso, that I, the said Edmund Snell, shall cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the salu
Edmund Snell, do hereby declare that the nature of my Invention, and
the manner in which is to be performed, are fully described and ascertained in
and by the following statement thereof (that is to say):-
The Invention consists,―
First, in adding what I have herein called "dextrine" to fatty and oily
substances which have been saponified for the manufacture of soap, and also
the using of what I have herein called "fibrine" in the manufacture of soap,
whether such "dextrine" or fibrine be obtained from potatoes or other
vegetable matter containing farinaceous substances.
And secondly, in apparatus for obtaining dextrine or fibrine for the manu-
facture of soap.
I make the dextrine and fibrine from potatoes in the following manner,
but I do not confine myself to such process:-The potatoes being washed
are to be reduced to as fine a pulp as possible. I prefer to use a
revolving cylinder, with parallel plates of steel or iron placed thereon between
narrow pieces of iron, such plates to have fine teeth, like saws, the teeth rising
just above the surface of the cylinder, such cylinder revolving quickly at the
bottom of a hopper in which the potatoes are put in from, when the pulp falls
on sieves or screens below; but I do not claim such cylinder as a part of my
Invention. The pulp of the potatoes is to run over the upper sieve, which is
a plane about five feet, broad and eight feet long, slightly inclined, with four
bars the whole length, and one or two cross bars, on which a wire cloth, with
thirty holes to, the inch, is to be placed. At the top and about midway down
the sieve, are pipes containing water, to be placed so that the water shall run
out from the pipes through small holes the whole breadth of the sieve at the
top and middle, the finer parts of the potato flowing through the meshes of the
sieve with the water, and the coarse parts running down over the sieve into a
vat below. The finer parts which run through the first sieve will then flow,
over a second sieve placed about two, feet under the other, and covered, with,
the wire cloth of sixty holes to the inch, the finer parts of the potato flowing
through the meshes of this second, sieve with the water, and the coarse parts
running over the sieve into a vat. The finer parts I call "dextrine," which
fall on a wood plane placed under the second sieve (but inclined in, a
contrary direction to, the sieves) into, vats, where it is repeatedly washed, in.
sieves of finer wire cloth until it is cleansed of all its impurities, and the coarse
parts I call "fibrine" are washed in coarse sieves. The finer parts, or dextrine,
will precipitate to the bottom of the vat, from whence it is taken up in pails.
or other vessels fit for use, and the coarser parts remain in a vat covered with;
water until required for use; or the dextrine may be dried by any convenient

page_text: means, and in the dry state kept till required for use, in which state, to
each ton of saponified tallow or oil I apply from three to three and a half
hundredweight of dextrine, mixed with from one to one and a half hundred-
weight of cold water, and let it stand for an hour, and then add about six
hundredweight of hot water, nearly boiling, and when mixed in pails it should
be added to the soap in the manner herein-after mentioned; and it should be
remarked, that the two inclined sieves above, described are each to have a slight
horizontal motion. I prefer making white soap from tallow, oil, and alkali, in a
boiler heated with steam by means of a jacket, about one third the way up from
the bottom, and get in as much alkali with the tallow or oil as the same will
take up in the usual way of making soap, as is well understood to soapmakers,
and when the soap is in a fit state to cleanse into a frame, and for each ton of
saponified matter in the boiler I take from four and a half hundredweight to
five hundredweight of dextrine in its wet state, and add about six hundred-
weight of hot water (nearly boiling) thereto, or as much as will make
into a
thin paste, which I mix in pails, and throw it into the boiler with the soap until
I get it all in keeping, the soap well stirred at the time, and when properly
mixed and heated up it will be fit to be cleansed into a, frame for cooling and
cutting up in the usual way. Before the dextrine is added all the spent or
other lye should be pumped off out of the boiler. Yellow soap may be made
in a common soap pan with tallow, oil, and alkali, either with or without resin,
in the usual way, getting in as much alkali as possible with the tallow and oil;
and after the soap is what is called "fitted" I take the soap into a boiler
heated by steam, as above, and add the above quantity of dextrine in the
manner above described, and when properly mixed then cleanse it into the
frames as usual for cooling and cutting up. If no resin is put in the soap a
much larger quantity of dextrine may be used, and the dextrine may be added
with or without "fitting the soap. In making common soap, by using the
fibrine. I take, as much water from it as will leave a thick body, when I put it
in a boiler heated by steam, as before described,, with an equal quantity of
tallow or oil and resin, and add thereto alkali in the usual way of making soap,
boiling the same together until it is, fit to be cleansed, into a frame, either with
or without fitting. Common soap, either yellow or white,, made in the usual
way, and containing a large quantity of alkali, if re-melted, and dextrine
added thereto as above, will greatly improve it in quality, and it will not waste
so fast in hot water as it would if no dextrine was mixed with it, and the color
of the soap will be improved. The reason I prefer using a boiler heated by
steam by means of a jacket is, because the dextrine and fibrine is very apt to
carbonize in à, boiler lieated by fire, when it, will not catch up so quick if
heated by steain; and if the steam pipes are put on the inside of the boiler to

page_text: heat it they will be found in the way of mixing the dextrine. The soap made
by adding dextrine to it is greatly improved in color and increased in its
cleansing qualities, and gives a very soft and pleasant feeling to the skin,
the dextrine having been found very beneficial thereto. I would remark,
that I am aware that vegetable matter from potatoes containing farina has
before been proposed to be used in the manufacture of soap, by combining
that matter with alum and soda, but I have discovered that mixing such
vegetable matters with alum and soda prevents the vegetable matters com-
bining with saponified fatty and oily matters, and that it is of the greatest
importance that such vegetable matters should be used without having been
previously acted on by alum and soda so as to prevent their combining and
incorporating with saponified fats and oils in the manufacture of soap; and I
would remark, that I do not confine myself to the precise quantities or details
herein described.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the best means I am
acquainted with for carrying the same into effect, I would have it understood
that what I claim as my Invention, is,―
First, the mode of manufacturing soap by combining therein the vegetable
matters which I have called dextrine and fibrine, by mixing the same with
saponified fats or oils, as herein described.
And secondly, I claim the obtaining dextrine and fibrine to be used in the
manufacture of soap by means of the sieves, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edmund Snell, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-four.