IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP, AND IN THE PREPARATION OF MATERIALS TO BE USED FOR THIS PURPOSE
Year: 1850

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
JACKSON, of the Town and Borough of Kingston-upon-Hull, Soap Maker,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eleventh day of June, in the thirteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said William Jackson, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said William Jackson, my exors, adiñiors, and
assigns, and such others as I, the said William Jackson, my exors, aditiors,
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 mentioned, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP, AND IN THE PREPARATION OF MATERIALS TO BE
USED FOR THIS PURPOSE;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso obliging me, the said William Jackson, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature
of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
and to cause the same to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High 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, I, the said
William Jackson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof (that is
to say):
My Invention of "Improvements in the Manufacture of Soap, and in the
Preparation of Materials to be used for this Purpose," consists,-
Firstly, in subjecting resin to be used in soap making to repeated washings
in alkaline solutions.
Secondly, in charging such washed resin with alkali.
Thirdly, in mixing such washed and alkalized resin with soap in a fluid
state in the frames or any other vessel.
Having thus stated generally the features of my Invention, I will now
proceed to describe the process which I have found most convenient and
effective in carrying out the said Invention.
I employ in preference a circular pan of wrought or cast iron, or other fit
material, say about five feet in diameter, and about three feet deep, set in
masonry or brickwork, and heated by fire under the bottom. Within the
pan I place a pipe or pipes (or coil of pipe or pipes I prefer), which pipe or
pipes is or are to be perforated with small holes. This pipe or system of pipes
should be placed round the bottom of the pan, the open extremity of the pipe
or pipes being in connection or communication with a steam boiler, and that
end of the pipe or pipes furnished with a tap to regulate the ingress of steam.
Having thus arranged the apparatus, I now charge the pan, say with ten
hundredweight of resin, broken into small pieces or coarse powder, and before
lighting the fire below the pan, fill the pan up nearly to fulness with water;
I then continue the action of the fire until the resin and water come up to
boiling heat. When this has been effected, I then rake out the fire in the
grate below the pan, or prevent it acting upon the bottom of the pan by
means of a damper. I then throw into the mixture of resin and water about
twenty gallons of soap-maker's lees, or other suitable alkaline preparation or
mixture, and turn on the steam through the pipe or pipes into the pan, so as to
keep it in a boiling state for twenty or thirty minutes. At the expiration of that
time the steam must be shut off, so as to allow the resin to settle to the
bottom of the pan, which it generally does in a few minutes. Should it not
settle so soon as desired, or the liquor be found to be charged with an excess
of resinous matter, I then throw into the pan about twenty pounds of coarse
common salt, which will at once cause the resin to subside and settle to the
bottom, and thereby throw down any such excess of resinous matter. The

page_text: water in the pan will be found to be of a dark red color, and slightly alkaline.
I now, by means of a ladle or by taps in. the side of the pan, bale or run off
the whole of the water free from the resin, and again nearly fill up the pan
with water, throwing in about ten gallons. of lees or other alkaline mixture.
I then boil this mixture about ten minutes, by means of the steam alone,
admitted through the coiled pipe. I then discharge the water from the
pau,
and again repeat the washing with water and alkaline lees until the liquor
comes off nearly colorless. I have generally found four or five washings in
this way to be sufficient to produce the result required; but it will vary,
according to the resin operated upon. I have also found it advisable in some
cases to increase and in others to decrease the quantity of alkaline lees
employed in each washing; but the quantity must in some measure be left
to the judgment of the operator, as I have found that some resins will
require more alkaline lees than others to extract the coloring matter. The
resin, when thus prepared, a sample taken from the pan will, on becoming
cold, be found tolerably stiff and approaching to hardness, and resemble in
appearance the ordinary yellow resin. of commerce. This prepared resin I
employ in the ordinary manner of making soap, by adding it to the fatty or
oleaginous matter in the soap pan from time to time, as required.
I now proceed to describe the second part of my Invention. I take a
quantity of the washed resin, prepared as before described, and place it in
an iron or other suitable pan, and having heated it by means of a current
of steam admitted into the pan, I then add strong soap-boiler's lees, or other
similar alkaline preparation, in sufficient quantity to saturate or saponify the
resin. I then turn off the steam and allow the resin to subside, and when
perfectly cold, I, by ladling or otherwise, draw off the refuse spent lees. I
then add to every hundredweight of the resin, twenty pounds of soda ash of
fifty per cent. strength, and stir up the mass up by any convenient means, so
as thoroughly to incorporate the soda ash with the resin. In stating that I
use twenty pounds of soda ash to one hundredweight of resin, I do not intend
to confine myself to that quantity, as I have found that it may be advan-
tageously varied to suit the different kinds of soap which it is intended to
be mixed with.
I now proceed to describe the third part of my Invention. I take to every
ton of soap in the fluid state, as cleansed from the soap pan, from three to
five hundredweight of the washed resin, according to the quality of the soap
required, and mix or crutch it into the frames, or any other vessel, in the same
manner as if water was used.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in

page_text: which the same is performed, I would have it understood that I do not intend
to claim the use of the several processes herein-before described in soap
making, such as washing, alkalizing, and crutching, except as applied to the
treatment of resin, in the way and for the purpose above described; but that
which I intend to claim is,-
Firstly, washing for the purpose of purifying resin in alkaline solutions of
potash or soda, for the use of soap makers.
Secondly, charging such washed resin with potash or soda ash.
Thirdly, mixing the washed resin, prepared as before described, with finished
soap in a fluid state in the frames or any other vessel.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Jackson, have hereunto set my
hands and seal, this Tenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty.