IMPROVEMENT: IN ENCLOSING OR COVERING OPIUM & OTHER MATTERS
Year: 1860

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Clark at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 21st April
1860. A communication from abroad by Mr. Pierre Hector Aubergier,
of Paris, in the Empire of France, Chemist.
1, WILLIAM CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer & Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENT: IN ENCLOSING OR COVERING OPIUM & OTHER MATTERS,"
to be as follows:-
Two processes are employed for enveloping the paste of opium; in Asia
Minor it is surrounded by poppy leaves & sprinkled with dock seed. By
this means the paste is very soft retaining consequently much moisture and
can be reduced into cakes; thus the cakes gradually lose the moisture
contained, resulting in a continual variation of the weight of the opium, a loss
to commence with, and what is still worse, an alteration of the properties of
the active principles contained in a given weight of this medicine. Further
the greater or less quantity of dock seeds absorbed is in proportion to the state
of softness of the paste, thus a foreign element is introduced, which augments
the weight and alters the quality in an irregular manner. In Persia the
opium is formed into small sticks after rendering it sufficiently dry to permit
of its being reduced easily to powder by means of manipulation, which is
unknown to us and is then surrounded with paper. This opium is purer than
that which comes from Constantinople & Smyrna, but the necessity of reducing
it to a form which renders the management and the transportation easy, in
Persia, as in other places, the opium is submitted to a treatment, which alters
its purity. In manufacturing opium in France, I have found means of
enveloping it exempt from inconveniences, which I have pointed out, which

page_text: in its employment does not necessitate the paste of opium to be submitted to
any modification & permits of its being always kept in the state it is to be
used and as sold in commerce. It requires an envelope, which is easily
detached from the paste without leaving behind it any foreign matter. I
have found this can be attained by enveloping it in tin foil, but by simply
covering the paste with the sheets of foil, the desired object would not bo
obtained, or the foil applied to the paste in a manner to hermetically envelopo
it, moreover it can be easily torn, and the cake will not keep its shape. Thus
the means of applying the sheet of tin foil to the cake is the desideratum
wanted, so as not to be easily detached and give to the cake thus preserved
a form which it will keep, which should depend at the time on the state of
dryness of the cake and the form given by the envelope.
This is the result which I have come to by the means which I will
describe below:-Opium should thus be brought to a convenient state of
dryness, in such way that it does not contain a greater quantity of water
than Mr. Payon terms "normal," and which can only be separated by dessi-
cation in a stove at 100°. The form of the cake is orbicular; a sheet of tin
foil of a certain thickness is then placed under the edge of this cake. On the
two sides are applied two washers of thin tin foil, so that they can more easily
receive the trade mark. Thus the cake is introduced in a round mould
open on two sides. At the bottom of the mould is a movable plate on
which is the trade mark, above the cake is placed a second plate, which
can also bear the same mark and by means of a screw the cake is pressed
between the two plates, the upper plate may be removed by means of a
lever, the under one is raised also, & the cako can be taken out of the
mould at pleasure. The form of the mould as well as the cake may be
varied without altering the operation or the principle of the Invention, which
rests on the nature of the envelope and the manner of its application. Owing
to the thickness of the sheet of tinfoil applied, the compression exercised on
the cake, and the consistance of the paste at the time of moulding, the cake
always keeps its form and loses no moisture, and the tin foil does not detach
itself, but can be raised or removed with the greatest ease. Opium thus envel-
loped does not only preserve its form, but also its composition, and assures at
the same time the preservation and perfect state of its composition.
This mode of applying envelopes is applicable to many other extracts or
matters in the same manner as for opium.