A METHOD OF EXTRACTING OR SEPARATING GELLY OR GELATINOUS MATTER PROM SUBSTANCES CAPABLE OF AFFORDING THE SAME, IN ORDER THAT THE SAME MAY BE USED IN THE ARTS, OR FOR DOMESTIC OR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1814

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENT SHALL COME, I, BAZILE,
LOUIS MERTIAN, of Threadneedle Street, in the City of London, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did,
by His Letters Patent under Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date the Twelfth day of July, in the fifty-
fourth year of Our reign, give and grant unto me, the said Bazile Louis
Mertian, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power;
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Bazile Louis Mertian, my
exors, adñiors, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of
years therein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Invention, communicated
to me by a certain Foreigner residing abroad, of "A METHOD OF EXTRACTING
OR SEPARATING GELLY OR GELATINOUS MATTER PROM SUBSTANCES CAPABLE OF
AFFORDING THE SAME, IN ORDER THAT THE SAME MAY BE USED IN THE ARTS, OR
FOR DOMESTIC OR OTHER PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso that if I, the said Bazile Louis Mertian, shall not par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent;
and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly

page_text: cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same (relation being
thereunto had) may more fully and at large appear:
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Bazile Louis Mertian, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in manner following, that is to say:
I do operate upon such animal substances as contain gelly or gelatinous
matter, but do not with facility afford or give out the whole of the said gelly
or gelatinous matter, by merely boiling or macerating such substances with
water alone; and the said substances do chiefly consist of the bony, hard, or
cartilaginous parts of animals, and that I do break, crush, chop in pieces, or
otherwise divide such of the said substances as by their structure do require
the internal parts thereof to be laid open and accessible to the fluid to
be made, use of for extracting or obtaining the gelly therefrom; and I do, if
convenient or desireable, in the first place, boil the said substances with water
alone, in order to extract a first portion of gelly (to which method of extraction
I claim no exclusive right or privilege), and I do afterwards operate upon the
residue according to the process of my said Invention as herein specified and
explained, or otherwise I do afterwards apply and use my said Invention to
and with the said substances without such previous boiling with water alone.
And farther, I do put into a vessel or vessels, of white wood or lead or other
material capable of withstanding the action of diluted acid, one hundred parts
by weight of the said substances, so if need be broken, crushed, chopped,
or divided, or of the residue left after boiling with water alone, as aforesaid,
along with four hundred parts by weight or thereabout of muriatic acid,
diluted with water until the specific gravity thereof shall be about 1040
(compared with the weight of pure water assumed to be expressed by the
number 1000), and I do stir the mixture daily until the bony, hard, or carti-
Jaginous parts shall have become soft, and I do then separate the acid by decan-
tation or otherwise, and do wash the said softened parts with repeated waters;
and I do, by means of a press or otherwise, separate and press out most part of
the acid liquor which may remain in the said softened parts, and do again
carefully wash the same with water, and the said softened parts may then be
either dried for keeping, or be converted into gelly, or size, or glue, by solution
in heated water as usual. And moreover, in case the said softened parts should
not be readily soluble in water (which will happen if the washing be carried
too far), this defect will be removed by adding a small portion of muriatic
acid. or diluted sulphuric acid, or of vinegar; and that in case the acid either
left in or added to the said softened parts should be more than would be suffi

page_text: cient to produce the due solubility, then the gelatine will be afforded in
a viscid state, which when dry is easily reducible to powder; but the proper
management in the said respects must and may be easily ascertained by trial.
And I do farther declare, that if the muriatic acid first to be used and applied
be more deluted than is herein-before mentioned, as, for example, to the
specific gravity of 1020, the process will be slower, and the product will be
more similar to isinglass in its qualities; but that in the large way it is.
preferable that the acid should be somewhat stronger than last mentioned.
And lastly, that the fat which is separated and floats upon the acid made use
of, and the posphate of lime contained in the said acid liquor, and also the
acid itself, may be separated and applied to use by well-known methods here-
tofore practised by chemists in the treatment of such substances. And
lastly I do declare, that in case the operator should not be provided with
muriatic acid for performing the process of softening the animal substance,
as is firstly herein mentioned and described, then he may make use of either
the nitric, or the phosphoric, or the acetous acid, of such strength and in such
proportions, and during such times of maceration, as by simple and easy trials
upon each respective animal substances shall be found most suitable to such
substances respectively, without exercising any farther or more powerful action
upon the same than is or may be requisite for the purposes herein-before set
forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Bazile Louis Mertian, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of July, in the year of our
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixteenth day of July, in the
year of our Lord 1814, the aforesaid Bazile Louis Mertian came before
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifi-
cation aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Eighteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fourteen.