IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF EXTRACTING OIL AND GREASE FROM COTTON, WOOLLEN, AND SILK WASTE, AND OTHER MATERIALS OR FABRICS."
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Simpson and Joseph Webster
Baynes at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 11th February
1878.
$5
WILLIAM SIMPSON and JOSEPH WEBSTER BAYNES, both of Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster. IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF EXTRACTING OIL AND
GREASE FROM COTTON, WOOLLEN, AND SILK WASTE, AND OTHER MATERIALS OR
FABRICS."
Our Invention relates principally to the extraction of oil, grease, and dirt from
cotton waste that has been used for cleaning engines, machinery, or other purposes;
but it is also equally applicable for extracting oil and grease from woollen, silk, and
other fibrous materials or mixtures of materials, either in the form of waste or
otherwise.
The Invention consists in boiling, steaming, or washing the material under
operation in a solution or composition of soap, grease, washing soda, and water.
The proportions in which these materials are to be employed will vary according to
the nature of the material requiring to be cleaned; but for most purposes it may
generally be composed of about the following proportions, vizt.-One part of
grease, two parts washing soda, and four parts soap, varying the quantities of the
grease and soda only, soap being always the principal ingredient; various kinds of
grease may be used, but we have found tallow to answer the purpose best in most
cases. A very few minutes' boiling in this solution will be found to remove the oil,
grease, and dirt from "engine waste," woollen waste, or other similar material,
which must then be rinsed in clean water, pressed, and dried.
It will be found that waste or other similar material, when cleansed by this
process, will retain its "nature," and will not be hardened or rendered harsh to the
touch, as is the case with the cleansing processes heretofore employed.
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The oil, grease, and soda contained in the wash waters may be extracted there-
from by any of the known processes, and used again for cleansing waste, or it may
be utilized for a variety of other purposes.

page_text: The principal feature of novelty in this Invention consists in the addition to the
mixture of soap and soda in hot water of a certain amount of free oleaginous or
greasy matter not previously saponified.
The action of the soda upon this oil or grease causes saponification to take place,
and the result is that the detergent action on the material under operation is greatly
intensified, the grease and dirt are more quickly and perfectly removed, and the
cotton waste or other substance under operation is left in a state much more suitable
for being utilized afresh from various useful purposes.
It is a fact well known to chemists that frequently the various ingredients of a
chemical composition when used together, but before the chemical combination has
taken place, or during the time when the combination is being effected, will produce
effects which are quite different to that which would be produced by the use of the
composition itself after the chemical combination has taken place; and in the
present case the action of the soda and the oil or grease during the process of
saponification is much more energetic than could be obtained by the use of soap
previously formed by the combination of the same materials.