CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING PALM OIL, WHEREBY IT IS RENDERED APPLICABLE TO THE WOOLLEN MANUFACTURES, LUBRICATING OF MACHINERY, AND OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES, TO WHICH IT HAS NOT HITHERTO BEEN APPLIED
Year: 1837

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MILES
BERRY, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex, Patent Agent and Mechanical Draughtsman, 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 Twenty-sixth day of October, in the first year of Her
reign, and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-
seven, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Miles Berry, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Miles Berry, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Miles Berry, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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, and also in all Her Majesty's Colonies
and Plantations abroad, an Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING
PALM OIL, WHEREBY IT IS RENDERED APPLICABLE TO THE WOOLLEN MANUFACTURES,
LUBRICATING OF MACHINERY, AND OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES, TO WHICH IT HAS NOT
HITHERTO BEEN APPLIED," being a communication from a Foreigner residing
abroad, in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me,
the said Miles Berry, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,

page_text: particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be
inrolled in Her 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso I, the said
Miles Berry, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention to consist
in bleaching and purifying palm oil, and rendering the same applicable
to and fit to be used in the process of carding wool, in the currying of leather,
lubricating of steam engines and other machinery, the axles of locomotive
carriages, oil stones for sharpening edge tools, polishing and preserving metals
from rust, for burning in lamps, as the bases of pomatums, and oils and such
like compounds used for encouraging the growth of the human hair, for
ointments and salves, for cattle medicines, and for various culinary, medicinal,
and other useful purposes.
And in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Miles Berry,
do hereby describe the manner in which the said Invention is to be per-
formed, by the following statement thereof (that is to say) :-
I take palm oil, as imported and known as an article of commerce; I
then melt it in open vessels by the application of heat,-I prefer the use of
steam, and keep it in a liquid state for the space of twenty-four hours, or
until the whole of tho sand, dirt, or other foreign or extraneous matters
contained in the oil have settled and are deposited in the bottom of the
vessel, or remain in the lower part of the material under operation. The
upper part of the palm oil is then removed, and placed in shallow vessels
in which water is contained. These vessels are placed in the open air, and the
oil is kept liquid by means of heat, steam being preferred, the steam heating
pipes being placed in the water bath of the bleaching vessels; but the same
effect may be produced by a steam bath or casing surrounding the vessels, as
in ordinary sugar-boiling pans, if preferred. To the oil, at this part of the
process, is to be added a sufficient quantity (say, about five per cent.) of a
metallic oxide, or alkaline or carthy base, for the purpose of neutralizing any
acid that may naturally exist in the oil, and to facilitate the bleaching process.
The bleaching can be effected without the application of the metallic oxide, or
alkaline or earthy base, by the natural action of the sun and atmosphere
alone, as is well known in the common process of bleaching beeswax; but in
this case longer time is required. The oil is placed in these bleaching vessels
from one to two inches in depth upon the water bath, and it is kept at a heat

page_text: of about 100 to 150 degrees, according to the temperature of the atmosphere,
and is well agitated or stirred, by manual labour or mechanical means, about
every half hour for a period of from two to four days, or until the oil has
become of a very pale colour.. The oil is now to be drawn off at its upper part,
and cooled, when it is fit for use, and is particularly adapted for soap makers,
curriers, perfumers for pomatum, druggists for ointments, the oiling or lubri-
cating of the axles of locomotive engines, railway carriages, pistons of steam
engines, windmills, and other heavy machinery.
In order to obtain a very clear and thin limped or liquid palm oil which will
▸ be applicable for carding wool, lubricating steam engines and other machinery,
axles of carriages, burning in lamps, and other purposes to which the part
called the oleine or ealine of palm oil may be found most applicable and useful,
I take the bleached and purified palm oil, prepared as above, and carefully
separate the stearine by mechanical pressure, filtration, or any of the other
known methods generally adopted for such purpose, the palm oil being kept at
a proper degree of temperature, according to the state of the atmosphere, to
allow of such filtration or pressing operation. The clear oil which flows from
this last process is removed into tanks or vessels, which are heated by steam
pipes passing through the lower part of the oleine, which is to be kept in the
state for several days at a temperature of about 75°, when any remaining
stearine, as also any impurities or foreign matters, will settle to the lower part,
or be deposited, and the pure oil, or oleine, as it may now be called, is thereby
rendered beautifully clear and fit for use. Or the same effect may be obtained
in another way for many of the above purposes. For instance:-Take palm
5 oil before it has been bleached and refined, and in that state effect a separation
of the oleine from the stearine by either of the means (pressure or filtration)
before mentioned, and bleach and purify the oleine and stearine respectively
by the processes above enumerated.
Now whereas I claim, as the said Invention, the operating upon palm oil
O by submitting it to the various processes herein-before described, and in
manner berein-before described, and the application of the same for the
various purposes before enumerated, and such Invention being, to the best of
my knowledge and belief, entirely new, and never before used within that part
of Her said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called
5 England, Her Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and
also in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, I do hereby declare
this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe this my
said Specification doth comply in all respects, fully and without reserve or
disguise, with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Lotters