Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 15th May, 1888
Specification Accepted, 15th June, 1888
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, F.C.S. M.I.M.E. of the Agency for Foreign
Patent Solicitors 6, Lord Street, Liverpool and 6, Bank Street, Manchester, both in
the County of Lancaster, and 323, High Holborn in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement:-
In the manufacture of disinfecting soaps it has been common to mix disinfecting
materials with the soap in the liquid or plastic state, so as to form a solution pervaded
The
by the disinfectant substance, the soap forming merely a dilutent thereof.
intimate union between the component parts which is the result of so combining them is
objectionable in that it in a measure neutralizes the efficiency of the antiseptic
or disinfecting agents, and because it is apt to lock them up so that they are not
liberated as readily as desirable when brought in contact with the liquids upon which
they are designed to act, while the blocks formed when the component parts are in
solution are liable to crack open under the action of the atmosphere, or to be otherwise
injuriously affected thereby. Moisture and air are both deleterious to many of the
antiseptic and disinfecting ingredients, and if they are so solved with the soap as to
form a practically homogeneous substance throughout, they are in a measure destroyed
in the manufacture, and many otherwise desirable antiseptic substances are unavailable,
because the excess of alkali usually present in soap prevents their being solved with
the soap, or because the water which solves the soap would cause or permit chemical
action to take place. The object of the invention is to provide at small cost blocks or
cakes in which these disinfecting or antiseptic agents shall be securely housed,
without dilution, and protected against liberation through the action of air and
moisture when not called into effective use, while being readily liberated by the
contact of the substances upon which they are designed to act. It is especially
adapted for use in urinals but is capable of application to many other purposes. The
essential feature of the invention consists in compacting the disinfecting or antiseptic
agents with the soap or other matrix or gangue while both are in a comminuted state
and substantially free from moisture, the compression applied being such as to form a

page_text: solid or cohesive block or cake without having either material brought to a solvent or
plastic state.
In practice ordinary soap is commonly taken and reduced while
substantially dry, by means of any convenient chopping knife or machine, to a
comminuted state, while it is mingled either during the operation of comminating or
subsequently, with the antiseptic or disinfecting material which has already been
reduced to a similar state. The intermingled substances are then compacted into
bricks or cakes by hydraulic or other suitable pressure. The agents used are thus
preserved in their integrity with no dilution or impairing of their respective properties.
The soap, instead of neutralizing the chemical agents serves to bind them together
and seal them against the action of air and moisture, so that no escape or deterioration
is possible, except as the, solution of the soap or matrix, by the contact of the substance
upon which they are intended to act, unlocks and releases them, when each particle
acts with its unalloyed vigour, but without communicating its disintegration to other
particles which lie within and remain intact until they are in turn called into play by
the further solution of their matrix.
The antiseptic and disinfecting agents may be of any character possessing the
chemical properties desired and may be mixed in finer or coarser grains or mixed
more or less thickly through the soap according to the use of which they are to be
put. My correspondent has used them in different degrees of fineness varying from
approximately the size of granulated sugar to approximately the size of peas. For
some purposes it may be desirable to exceed those limits, though for most purposes
a mean between them will be preferable.
.
He has found the following, among other antiseptic, disinfecting or deodorizing
agents, to be suitable for the purpose; to wit, Sulphate of Alumina, Protosulphate of
Iron, Sulphate of Copper, Sulphate of Zinc, Chloride of Lime; also such agents as
Salicylic and Bengolic acid and Thymol. These are mentioned as illustrations, there
being many others to which the invention is equally applicable, and which may be
selected with reference either to economy or to the particular property which is most
desired. They may be used severally, or two or more of them collectively in the
same article..
While soap has been found the most satisfactory matrix, the advantages of the
invention may be in a measure secured by using other soluble matrices possessing
the requisite cohesiveness and solidity under ordinary atmospheric conditions.
Among others my correspondent has used grape sugar, but has found it to dissolve so
readily that, for ordinary purposes he considers it less satisfactory than soap.
ordinary meat chopper will answer for the purpose of comminuting the soap.
An
Where the disinfecting agents are united with the soap by solution it is difficult to
incorporate them in greater proportion than from twenty to twenty five per cent, while,
by my correspondent's method, there is no difficulty about incorporating as high as
seventy per cent. of active agents.
Having now particularly ascertained and described the nature of the invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
As a new article of manufacture the herein described block or cake for neutralizing
the noxious properties of substances to which it is applied, consisting of a matrix of
soap or equivalent solvent and cohesive material having the chemical agents in a
granular form imbedded therein, substantially as described.
K70 AY
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool,
Agents for the Applicant..