A NEW MODE OF PROCURING A GREATER QUANTITY OF RESINOUS, BITUMINOUS, AND OILY SUBSTANCES, FROM ARTICLES
Year: 1805

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BAPTIST DENIZE, of West Street, Somers Town, in the County of Middlesex,
Chemist, do send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Ninth day of March, in the
forty-fifth year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the said John Baptist
Denize, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His special license that
I, the said John Baptist Denize, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
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, my Invention of "A NEW MODE OF PROCURING A GREATER
QUANTITY OF RESINOUS, BITUMINOUS, AND OILY SUBSTANCES, FROM
ARTICLES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said John Baptest Denize, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and
by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Baptist Denize, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be produced, is particularly described
and ascertained, according to the following principles, processes, and operations
(that is to say)-
The theory or principle of my process for obtaining the greatest possible quantity
of bituminous, resinous, and oily matter consists in converting all the substances
of the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, of whatever denomination
they may be, whether solid or fluid, the same being essentially composed, more
or less, of carbon, hydrogen, sulphur, and phosphorus, into those substances which
are the object of my. Invention, by means of their being completely saturated
by the most hydrogenous substances taken indifferently from the said thrce
kingdoms. Or, it may be said, by means of a new combination of their
respective principles with a stronger proportion of those which constitute
essentially the most inflammable substances of the three kingdonis, or arc
artificially extracted therefrom, and the following is a specification of the
matters or substances I make use of as the bases of my operations, and by
means of which the conversion or change in question is produced, viz :—
Mineral Kingdom.-All natural productions described by naturalists, under the
generical head Bitumens, such as the different kinds of fossil, conl, jeat,
fuccinum, or amber, and their respective species, asphaltum and its species, and
all other substances analogous to the above, which are of an inflammable or
combustible nature, as likewise the volatile product resulting from their combus-
tion, and known under the generical head of Soots. Vegetable Kingdom.- All
the different species of gums properly so called, mucilaginous bodies, either
exsiccated or not, starchy and mealy substances, resinous gums, balms, concrete,
rosins, the different kinds of wax, glue, or the resinous extracted substances of
which it is made, coal resulting from the carbonisation of turf, soot, wood,
and all kinds of vegetables, or the rubbish or refuse of vegetables, such as
dunghills or compost, likewise the volatile product resulting from their com-
bustion, known under the generical head of Soots. Animal Kingdom.-Bones,
horn, hair, skins, and the strong sizes or glues made from these last, or with
bones, the muscular, greasy, tripy, and other olcaginous parts of all animals,
particularly the larger kinds of them, the entire substance of sea and other fish,
particularly the more oily sorts. All these things completely dissolved and
reduced into a kind of jelly, except the fat, from which I merely separate the
skin which covers it; also blood, bile, and such other fluid parts of large
animals as are composed of principles like those of blood and bile; finally, all
animal excretions or feculent substances, particularly those of the human

page_text: body; preferring, of all the above bituminous, resinous, and oily substances,
and of those analogous thereto in the said three kingdoms, whether obtained
directly or by distillation or otherwise, those in particular in which the carbonic
and hydrogenous, or else the sulphuric and phosphoric principle prevails most,
and still more those in which the three latter are found in the greatest
proportion.
The following is a specification of the matters or substances which I make
use of for the converting of all those above enumerated in the said three
kingdoms into those particular productions which I have made the subjects of
my discovery, viz-Mineral Kingdom.-All kinds of soft, fluid, and volatile
bitumens known by the several names of mineral, pitch, petrol, nephta, or
productions of the same nature or analogous to them, whether soft, fluid, or
volatile, obtained by distillation or otherwise, from all or any of the concrete
bitumens above described, and particularly those obtained by distillations or
carbonisations of fossil coal, and by distillation of mineral pitch, and of the
thick oil artificially extracted from fossil coal, such distillation being pursued
until the matters or substances are reduced into a carbon or caput mortuum.
Vegetable Kingdom.-All kinds of fluid, rosins, and essential oils, as likewise
the different oily and resinous products obtained by distillation, or otherwise,
from all or any of the vegetable substances described in the preceding specifi-
cations, comprehending all kinds of tar extracted by incision, or otherwise,
from all the resinous kinds of wood oils, obtained either by expression or
by distillation of those vegetable substances in which it is contained, and
whether fixed, volatile, or very thick; such, for instance, as those oils
which are obtained by the distillation of the different kinds of car-
bonisation of turf and other sort of vegetable rubbish or refuse, as dung-
hills, compost, &c. Finally and particularly, the volatile products resulting
from the express distillation of all resinous or oily productions of which mention
has been already made, pursued until the matters or substances are reduced
into a carbon or caput mortuum. Animal Kingdom.-All kinds of greasy
and oily matters naturally fluid, or rendered fluid or volatile by distillation,
and, generally, products of the same nature obtained by distillation of all
animal substances, secretions, and excretions described in the foregoing Spe-
cifications, until the reduction thereof into a caput mortuum; preferring, of
all the said bituminous, resinous, and oily substances, and their respective
analogies in the three kingdoms, whether obtained directly, or by distillation
or otherwise, those which are the most fluid and the most hydrogenous or the
most inflammable.
The process or manipulation.-In a very large copper, as deep as it is wide,
male of such metal or ether substance as that none of the principles or

page_text: qualities of the ingredients can escape, and properly set in brickwork, and
exactly closed with a moveable still-head, of the same material, or equally
impervious to steam, the latter being of a conical form, having the opening of
the neck or mouth thereof of the same diameter as the opening or
mouth of the copper, and a horn or conductor, descending on each side
of it, similar to the horns or conductors of a distiller's retort, whereof the
opening at their commencement is as large as possible, so as to facilitate the
passage of the steam, the apex or summit of the still-head being perforated so
as to admit an iron rod, stick, or other handle, long enough to reach the
bottom of the vessel, and to act within it like the milling or stirring stick of a
chocolate mill, without the steam escaping. I put, 1st, a certain portion or
quantity of fossil coals, the least earthly, or the most charged with the
inflammable principle, in preference to the other concrete bitumens which I
have mentioned; or, instead of the latter, a like quantity of vegetable coal
derived from the different sorts of carbonisation which I have above taken
notice of, the same being in either case previously entirely cleared of all
extraneous substances, and reduced mechanically or chemically into a powder
as impalpable as possible. 2ndly, the like portion or quantity of the soots of
fossil coal or other concrete bitumens, in preference to those derived from the
combustion of vegetable substances, these soots being well cleaned or carefully
cleared of all extraneous substances, and in like manner reduced to the state
of an impalpable powder by means of sieves or otherwise. 3rdly, two parts, or
double quantity, of blood, particularly bullock's blood, or instead thereof a
like portion of human excrement, either of them in its natural state rather
than in a state of exsiccation, and by no means mixed with any extraneous
substances, and used in preference to the other animal substances which I have
mentioned in their proper place. To all these matters or substances expressly
specified or referred to as substitutes, in their respective proportions above
mentioned, I add two thirds or three fourths, little more or less, of their
total weight of soft or fluid bitumens, such as the mineral pitch, or one
of the products thereto analogous, artificially extracted from the concrete
bitumens, or instead of either of these things, one or other of the products
resulting from the distillation or carbonisation of fossil coal, or turf, whether
or not these products be changed by their partial exsiccation from boiling
in water, or by the action of acids upon them, or by their more volatile
principles being carried off by distillation or otherwise, provided such exsicca-
tion has only tended to thicken them. And thus it is that I apply
the dissolvents of my bases; but I make this mixture or melley
as follows: I mix the half of the said two thirds or three fourths
of one or other of the said matters or ingredients used to dissolve my bases

page_text: with the articles reduced into impalpable powder, which I have here above
described under Nos. 1 and 2, and which I take care to mix well together
previously by passing them through the same sieve several times over.
I amalgamate, calcine, and shake the whole together in any convenient way,
with a moderate fire under the copper, so as that there may result from this
mixture, by means of requisite agitation and the action of of the fire, a sort
of nemogeneous paste, and so that the bases in question may appear strongly
impregnated with the natural or artificial product made use of as the dissolvent.
In the next place. I add to this first mixture the like proportion as expressed
under No. 3, of either one or the other of the materials specified in that No., to
which I now add the other half of the said two thirds or three fourths of the
said natural or artificial dissolvent product used as aforesaid. And I repeat
the same agitation, mixture, and heat, so as to obtain the same result, namely,
extreme attenuation of the bases by their entire impregnation with the dis-
solvent product. In this instance also I continue the fire, always, however,
taking care not to let any of the ingredients burn. I then examine the state
of the whole mass by taking a small portion of it, which I allow to get cold,
aud if on breaking it it appears homegeneous and nearly smooth in its grain
or texture where broken, and spits or crackles but little when applied to the
flame of a candle, I work the effect in question by putting on the still-head
upon the copper, retort, or alembic, above described, so as not to lose the
volatile, oily, and other principles which escape from the bases and their dis-
solvent in the coure of their attinuation, and, at the same time, using the
handle or stirring stick which I have mentioned; or I work the same effect
without the still-head, but only for this once. As soon as the attenuation of
the bases is brought to this point, I pour through an opening made on purpose
in the still-head, and with the aid of a funnel, the same dissolvent to the
amount of about a tenth part, little more or less, of the weight of the bases,
but in as hot a state as possible; I then close the opening, work about the
stirring-stick, and continue the attenuation by increasing the fire insensibly,
thereby the better to facilitate it. I examine occasionally into the state
of the whole mass, by means of the opening in the still-head, and as soon
as it appears to me that it no longer spits or crackles when applied
to flame, and that when cold the part where it is broken is still less ragged,
and that it is become more and more smooth in its grain or texture, I still
keep adding more of the dissolvent so as to render its effects still more com-
plete; and I do not cease doing so until I judge by examining a portion of the
mass that it has acquired the degree of dissolution necessary for it to undergo
in order to render it as fluid as the dissolvent itself. To promote this end

page_text: more readily and still more exactly, I add latterly to the mass, and each time
in the same proportion of the said tenth part of the bases, the oily principle
.which may have distilled in the course of the operations, and which I take care
to collect in suitable receivers, closely joined to the two spouts or conductors
of the still-head, and well stopped at such joining, taking care also to put only
.so much of it as is requisite for obtaining the degree of dissolution or fluidity
desired, and to separate with exactness the volatile dissolvent so distilled from
all aqueous matter, either insipid or acid, which may have got mixed with it.
I operate also in like manner upon the same materials by making use of
natural or artificial products more fluid or volatile than those above employed,
and which I have expressly set forth in the second part of these specifications
under the titular licad Mineral Kingdom, so as by means thereof to volatilise
fuy bases, even to the degree of those substances, and particularly adding, as I
have mentioned, the volatile oily matter which distils in the course of the opera-
tion, or else I obtain substances equally bitumenous, thick, fluid, or volatile, by
operating in the same way individually upon each of the minerals described
as the bases of my operations under the heads in which they are treated of,
together with the different substances which I have also purposely described
under the titular head Mineral Kingdom in the second part of these specifica-
tions; or else by also taking sulphur, which I convert in the same manner into
fluid or volatile bitumen. And in order to obtain bituminous concrete matter
and certain kinds of mineral pitch, I distil separately each of the thicker
substances produced by the several manipulations which I have just been
treating of with an adequate fire, and continued for a sufficient time to detach
the volatile, aqueous, acid, saline, and oily principles which they contain, and
this in such a sufficient proportion or quantity as that on inspecting the mass
it may be found reduced by that exact substraction to the state of solidity or
hardness I wish, according to the object I have in view in the operation;
and particularly I distil in the same manner and with the same precautions,
specially to obtain bitumens or bituminous, concrete, and very solid sub-
stances:-
1st. Mineral pitch.
2dly. The thick black, bituminous, and empyreumatic oil which is artificially
procured from fossil coals, whether by distilling or carbonising them in any
possible way.
3dly. The sort of pitch in any way made with the said bituminous oil.
4thly. The oil equally thick but petid and high coloured, which is also pro-

page_text: resins extractive, or bitumino-resinous matters or substances equally thick,
fluid, volatile, and of the consistance of pitch, or even still more concrete, by
nerely following the general plan of operations which I have just set forth for
the obtaining the different bituminous substances which I make. And working
upon the same bases, in the same proportions, but using in this case, as the
dissolvent of my bases, one or other of the resinous or oily substances which I
have purposely set forth in the titular head Vegetable Kingdom, in the second
specification, particularly the different kinds of tar and turpentine, and the
products resulting from their distillation, as also the different sorts of vegetable
pitch, but always preferring for these bases and their dissolvents the resinous
and oily substances in which hydrogen is found in the greatest proportion, I
obtain matter more particularly oily. By conforming to the directions I have
just given for the obtaining of the resinous matter, but using in this case, as a
dissolvent of my bases, one or other of the oily substances I have purposely set
forth under the titular head Animal Kingdom, in the second Specification, in
like manner preferring for the bases and their dissolvents those of the sub-
stances which I specified under that head as being the most volatile and the
most hydrogenous. In fine, I prefer all the foregoing products, whether
bituminous, resinous, or oily, according to the objects I have in view, by
oxygenating them more or less by all the known means.
It only remains to mention that the form of the vessel which I have
described above is not essential to the above-mentioned operations, and that I
therefore make use of any other kind of vessel or utensil, the form whereof
enables me to obtain the same results, and consequently do not conceive it
necessary to delineate the plan or model of it in these Presents. But in
whatever form the stilling vessel may be constructed, I fill it only two thirds
full, on account of the violent ebullition of the ingredients towards the end of
my operations, particularly when I use the blood or other animal substances
reduced to jelly. And further, to avoid this inconvenience, I make the
additions of the dissolvents only after having entirely separated the water and
the acids from the preceeding additions, and taking care previously to each
addition to diminish the heat of the mass, which at other times I keep almost
always in a boiling state, and especially when the bases which I am using are
of an infusible nature. Moreover, to prevent the coagulation of the blood
and the said jellies or gelatinous substance in any preliminary operation, I
take care that it is a very slow fire by which I dissolve them, unless I use the
said ingredients entirely exsiccated and reduced to an impalpable powder, like
as I reduce all my other bases except those of a fusible nature.
Finally, have to remark, that in the same way as I operate on each bases

page_text: in particular, or upon some or all of them united in equal or unequal propor-
tions, so I use as my dissolvent of the bases so employed one or more, or all
together united, of the dissolvents herein-before mentioned, the which I use in
the like manner in equal or unequal proportions, so as to form, by this latter
mode of operating, products of a nature analogous to the bases and dissolvents
respectively employed to obtain them.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Baptist Denize have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Ninth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and five.