IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP, PARTS OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO PREPARING TALLOW FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HAWES, of Old Barge House, Christchurch, in the County of Surrey, Soap
Manufacturer, 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 Twelfth day of June, in the second year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the 'said
William Hawes, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said William Hawes, my exors, adñors, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said William Hawes, 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, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP, PARTS
OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO PREPARING TALLOW FOR THE
MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
that I, the said William Hawes, 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, I, the said
William Hawes, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon (that is to say) :-
In making soap according to the modes now in use, the combining of the
tallow or other fatty matters with the alkali is effected in a copper by
boiling, and saponification goes on during such boiling process.. Now, my
Invention relates to a mode of making soap by intimately combining and
mixing the ingredients of soap by mechanical means, without boiling, thus
producing a saponification of the tallow or other fatty matters employed at a
low temperature, and without submitting the materials for soap making to
that high degree of heat which heretofore has been the means of mixing and
bringing the particles of tallow and the alkaline ley into intimate contact to
effect their combination or saponification; by which means I am enabled to
obtain a more beneficial result, and at a less expenditure of fuel.
And in order to give the best information in my power, I will proceed
to describe the process pursued me, and which I have found fully to
answer.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCESS.
I take any given quantity of tallow, say two and a half tons, and having
melted it, keeping the temperature as low as possible, I mix it with the
quantity of alkaline ley which is required completely to saturate the tallow
or convert it into soap, and such mixing I perform by mechanical means, and
the apparatus or machinery I employ is hereafter described. I use the
ordinary ley of soap boilers, preferring that made from the strongest and
purest alkali. The saponification of the tallow or other fatty matter may be
ascertained by the absorption of or combination of the tallow, oil, or other
fatty matter with the ley, care having been taken in the first instance to use
sufficient quantity thereof, or about twenty gallons of ley made from the
strong alkali above referred to, and of the specific gravity of 1.125, water
being unity, or a smaller quantity if the specific gravity is higher (that being
determined by the quantity of free or caustic alkali in the ley), to every one
hundred pounds of tallow. It is necessary to state that various descriptions
of fatty matters require different proportions of alkali to convert them into
soap, and that provided there is sufficient the quantity is immaterial; and the
method of ascertaining the quantity of alkali in the ley being that now gene-
rally in use and well known to soap manufacturers. This combination of the

page_text: tallow or other fatty matters and the ley may be made in one of the ordinary
coppers now in use by soap makers, with the addition of a machine to produce
their intimate admixture and the miute division of the tallow. The appa-
ratus by which this may be effected I have represented in the annexed
Drawing, and consists of an upright shaft A, Fig. 1, from which arms
a, a, a, a, a, radiate to the sides of the copper B. This shaft may be either
temporarily or permanently fixed in the copper, and may be made of wood or
iron. The mode of fixing the apparatus and the materials used first will
depend on the nature of the copper and the convenience of the manufacturer.
An oscillating motion or rotatory motion may be given to the shaft and
connected arms by any of the ordinary methods of communicating mechanical
power, or a cylinder may be employed with a shaft C, Fig. 2, passing through
it horizontally, and from which arms c, c, c, c, c, c, may radiate, when a
rotatory motion will thoroughly incorporate the fatty matter and the ley. The
size of the cylinder for two and a half tons of tallow will be about six feet in
diameter and twelve feet in length. It must be provided with convenient
doors D for charging and emptying, which are shewn in the accompanying
Drawing. Motion being communicated to the machine, and the copper
having been previously charged with the tallow, the ley is to be gradually
added thereto, and in a short time every particle of the fatty matter will be
brought into intimate contact with alkaline ley, and by such means saponifi-
cation will take place; or the ley may be put in first and the tallow added
gradually, though the mode first described will generally be found to be the
best. This mechanical stirring process I continue for about three hours, or
until the tallow appears completely saponified, which will be indicated by the
mass thickening, and in this state the same is to be allowed to stand for some
time, the time varying according to the quantity, and for a large quantity
three or four days may be required. And it should be remarked that in
treating large quantities in this manner the same is very liable to heat, which
should as much as possible be kept down.
Should a cylinder be employed, then immediately upon its being charged
with the ley or the tallow (the tallow at a temperature just sufficient to keep
it fluid, the tallow or ley, as the case may be, may be pumped or run in, and
motion given to the shaft and stirring apparatus, which being continued in a
vessel of the size described, from three to four hours, or less time if the mass
becomes thick sooner, will ensure the perfect mixture of the materials, and
prepare the tallow for saponification, which is evinced by the evolution of heat.
As the benefit of this process arises mainly from the saponification of the
ordinary materials in a comparatively cold state, it is desirable, as soon as the

page_text: mass thickens and the ley is absorbed, that the cylinder should be emptied
and the contents turned into an ordinary copper, preparatory to their being
finished and converted into yellow soap by the addition of resin, or into mottled
or white soap by the operations of finishing leys, as at present practised, and
as well known to every soap manufacturer.
By this transfer from the cylinder to the ordinary copper time is allowed
for the combination of the tallow and alkali to become, chemically speaking,
perfect.
In the description of the process above given I have generally spoken only
of tallow, in order to prevent repetition of words; but it should be understood.
that the same description applies to oils, some of which will not require
melting or warming, and other fatty matters usually employed in soap
making.
I would remark that although I have given the description of the machine
I employ for mechanically mixing of the tallow and alkaline ley, I do not
confine myself thereto, as variations may be made therein, or other mechanical
means may be resorted to, so long as an intimate mixing of the matters be
effected, in order to the bringing of the particles of the tallow in intimate
contact with the alkali, that saponification may take place without the
application of boiling heat.
Having thus explained the nature of my Invention, so far as it relates to
the manufacture of soap, I would remark that the Invention is applicable to
the saponification of tallow or other fatty matters for making candles. In
saponifying tallow and other fatty matters as a preparatory process applicable
to the making of candles, that process has been heretofore performed by
boiling the fatty matters with lime, in the state known as cream of lime,
and the saponification and mixing has been performed by boiling. Now this
part of my Invention consists in mechanically mixing the alkali or lime
employed with the tallow without boiling, in the same manner as that
above described, and thus producing a saponification of the tallow or fatty
matter, which when so obtained is to be subsequently treated in like manner
to like matters when mixed and saponified when using heat.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, I would have it under-
stood that what I claim as my Invention is,―
First, the mode of combining mechanically tallow, oils, or other fatty
matters and alkali for producing saponification in soap making, avoiding
submitting the matters to that high degree of heat heretofore resorted to in
mixing the ingredients for saponifying tallow or other fatty matters in soap
making, as above described.

page_text: And, secondly, I claim the mode of saponifying tallow and other fatty
matters (in preparing the same for making candles) by mechanically mixing
the same with the alkali employed, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Hawes, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twelfth day of December, in
the year of our Lord 1889, the aforesaid William Hawes came before our
I said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein-contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twelfth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.