IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP, AND IN APPLIANCES FOR SHAPING AND COMPRESSING, THE SAME, ALSO APPLICABLE FOR MOULDING OTHER SOFT SUBSTANCES
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Scott Somers at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 11th November 1880.
'
WILLIAM SCOTT SOMERS, of the Firm of Messieurs W. and C. Scott and Company,
of Greenhead Oil Works, Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP, AND IN APPLIANCES FOR SHAPING
AND COMPRESSING, THE SAME, ALSO APPLICABLE FOR MOULDING OTHER SOFT
SUBSTANCES."
This Invention relates to certain improvements in the manufacture of soap and
in appliances for shaping and compressing the same, and the object of the Invention
is to produce hard granulated and soluble soaps for domestic and laundry purposes
from comparatively inexpensive material and possessing detergent properties
superior to those of soaps as hitherto made. By means of the shaping and
compressing appliances the soaps are made into cakes or bars of forms which
admit of their drying even when closely packed, rendering the soap more durable
than usual, and facilitating the cutting or subdividing of the bars into pounds or
fractions of a pound, or other convenient weights for sale. This part of the
Invention is also applicable for forming butter and other soft substances into similar
cakes for subdivision.
In carrying out the Invention according to one modification applicable mainly.
for the manufacture of granulated soap, I employ a soap prepared from a petroleum
or other crude oil base as follows:-The petroleum or other crude oil is taken and
pumped into a close retort to which heat is applied to volatilise the lighter oils,
and an oil of light specific gravity is still left, or is next run off, its specific gravity
ranging from 700 to 865 degrees at 60 degrees Fahrenheit. This oil is afterwards
bleached by means of soda or other alkaline substances, or by the aid of sun light,
and the oil is treated by means of potash or other alkali, as in the ordinary process
of saponification of animal or vegetable oils or fats, to produce a crude soap.
then place the crude soap so prepared into an iron or other metal pan containing a
strong solution of soda or other alkaline salt (the proportion of soap to the soda
being 10 to 25 per centum) and subject the whole to sufficient heat either by means
of steam, or by placing the pan over a fire, to raise it to the boiling point, and
drive off superfluous water as vapour. When the mass has boiled for some time
and it is reduced to about the consistency at which ordinary soaps are run off to
be dried, the mass so treated is discharged into convenient drying boxes, in which
it is agitated by means of combs of iron or wood, so as to granulate the mass while

page_text: cooling. During this agitating process the mass is coloured by means of aniline or
other dyes added thereto, whereby the soap or soap powder is permeated with
color.
In applying the present improvements to the manufacture of soluble and other
similar soaps, I employ a soap prepared as already described from a petroleum or
other crude oil base; this crude or hard soap is shaved or cut into small pieces, and
placed into a pan with a solution of potash or other alkali or akalino substance in
the proportion of about 25 to 75 per centum by weight of soap shavings to 75 to 25
per centum of the alkali, and the whole is gradually heated by steam, or over a fire
until reduced to the liquid state, by which means the soap is double curded. The
temperature of the mass is then raised to the boiling point to drive off all trace of
free alkali and excess of water, after which it is run into a cistern, boiler or pan
containing a quantity of water, about twice the volume of the mass of soap under
treatment, but varied in other proportions according to the strength or detergent
qualities of the improved soap to be produced. The water has the effect of
glutenising the whole mass which is allowed to settle in the cistern or vessel for an
hour or thereby, and is afterwards removed and placed in an open heating boiler or
pan, and heated for the purpose of vaporising or driving off any excess of water.
When the semi-liquid mass reaches the consistency of thick cream it is run off into
tins or moulds as finished soap ready for use.
The hard or granulated soaps prepared from the petroleum or crude oil base as
described; may be made up into the usual form of rectangular bars for sale, but by
further improvements of this Invention, the soap taken from the drying boxes is
compressed and shaped by means of moulding boxes and dies into bars or cakes
having regular ridges and hollows or corrugations running across their sides or
edges, so that when packed or ranged in stacks the ridged or corrugated surfaces of
each bar bear on or against the corresponding raised surfaces of the adjacent bars
and leave considerable free space for air and ventilation. This has the effect of
allowing the soap to dry quickly, and admits of the bars being made to contain a
given weight, such as a pound or fraction of a pound of soap between each ridge
or hollow which can be readily cut off when desired for sale. The moulding
boxes or shapes are preferably made of iron or other metal, several being cast in
one large plate or laid in rows together, and consists simply of an opening formned
in the metal of the shape of the corrugated bar desired or having its sides formed
with corrugations. Each mould is fitted with a movable corrugated bottom, and is
open at the top or side of the bar shape for the insertion of the soap taken from
the drying boxes already referred to, or the soap may be poured into the boxes
when in a liquid state. Each mould has a cover or compressing die also corrugated
to correspond to the mould, and which fits into and enters the upper side of the
mould to press the soap inside. The compressing of the soap is effected in all the
moulds of a set simultaneously by means of hydraulic or screw or spring presses
acting on the upper dies, and when the bars are fully pressed and shaped the
upper dies are withdrawn and the movable bottom plates of the moulds pushed
up to raise the bars to the top edge of their moulds to be removed by hand. The
moulding and compressing of these bars may be effected by other known means, but
in every case so as to shape them in the manner described.
The improvements relating to the shaping of the bars or cakes of soap with
corrugated surfaces are also applicable to the shaping or moulding of butter and
other soft or ductile substances sold by weight or otherwise, which can in the
manner described be subdivided into fractions of a pound or other weight convenient
for sale or use.