Improvements in the Manufacture of Pills, Pastilles, and Lozenges.
Year: 1893

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Pills, Pastilles, and Lozenges.
We, WILLIAM RALPH DODD of St Andrews Pavement Stamford Hill in the
County of London Pharmaceutical Chemist and CORNELIUS HANBURY of 3 Colts
Lane Bethnal Green Junction in the County of London Manufacturing Chemist
do hereby declare the naturo of this invention and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascortained in and by the following
statoment:-
This invention rolates to a new and improved method of making soft soluble
coated pills and soft coated pastilles and lozenges.
The method hitherto adopted in the manufacture of soluble coated pills has been
to manufacture the pills by any of the ordinary well-known methods, and when
sufficiently dry and firm to place them on pins or their equivalents, and then to dip
them in a solution containing gelatine and other ingredients kept liquid by heat.
The pills are then allowed to dry and are removed from the points. Defects in
this method are:-the point commonly leaves an aperture in the coating through
which volatile materials escape, causing loss of such materials and the diffusion of
their peculiar, and in some cases disagreeable odour. The pills also require to
have a certain degree of hardness before coating whereby the rapidity of their
solution or disintegration is diminished. This defect is still far more marked in
what are known as pearl-coated pills. These disadvantages are entirely avoided
by our invention, by the practice of which much labour may be saved.
According to our invention we tako
(1) A press, which may be worked by hand steam or other known power.
(2) Moulds constructed on the plan of those employed in the wellknown process
of making capsules containing ether and other liquids and known as "Perles" the
size and form of the apertures or dies in theso moulds being adapted to each
particular requirement.
In the manufacture of pills by this process we first prepare sheets of gelatine
or a composition of gelatine with gum, sugar and glycerine, of which gelatine
forms the essential ingredient.
These sheets are made by pouring a warm solution of gelatine or of the above-
mentioned ingredients upon levelled plates and allowing it to set. The sheets are
then further dried by placing the plates on trays in a suitable drying room.
We next prepare the pill mass or paste by taking definite quantities of active
ingredients and massing them in the usual way as prescribed by the British
Pharmacopacia except that we make the mass softer than is usual.
Having now prepared the gelatino sheets and made the requisite mass, we roll
the latter into sheets of definite thickness according to the size of pill required.
Wo take a pair of moulds containing dies of the size required, warm them to a
gentle heat and place upon the bottom dies a sheet of the prepared gelatine, upon
this we lay the prepared sheet of pill mass, smooth it down so as to mako it
uniform, then upon the latter we place another of the prepared sheets of gelatine.
We then upon the whole place the upper sets of dies and transfer to any suitable
press and forcibly press the two moulds together. On removal from the press, it
will be found that a pill has been formed by each pair of dies and that it is
hermetically sealed up in a coating of gelatine, whilst it is nearly severed from the
surrounding materials from which it is easily removed.
The gelatine coating, lossened if necessary by a little warmth and moisture, is
removed from the portion of material left between the pills and this portion of the
original mass is then ready to be beaten up again and passed again through the
same process.

page_text: In preparing soft lozenges or pastilles wo proceed in the same manner using dies
of appropriate size and form, and sheets of gelatine or of compounds, of which
galatine is the essential ingredient as before described. These sheets may be so
Havoured as to correspond with the material they are used to coat.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed wo declare that what we
alnim is
1. The production, from a paste of pilular consistence by prossure and at one
operation, of pills in a coating or covering hormetically closed, of gelatine or of
which gelatine is the essential ingredient substantially as hereinbefore described.
2. The production by pressure and at one operation from materials having the
consistence of a paste, of soft lozenges or pastilles in a coating or covering,
hermetically closed, of gelatine or of which gelatine is the essential ingredient,
substantially as hereinbefore described.
Dated this 31st day of January 1893.
ERNEST SALAMAN,
61 & 62, Chancery Lane, Agent for Applicants.