CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING OILS
Year: 1846

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MICHEL
LOUIS FERANT, of No. 861, Oxford Street, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eighth day of October,
(One thousand eight hundred and forty-six,) in the tenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Michel Louis Ferant, my executors, administrators, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Michel
Louis Ferant, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others as I,
the said Michel Louis Ferant, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey,
Alderney, Sark, and Man, and in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING
OILS," communicated to me from abroad; in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso, that I, the said Michel Louis Ferant, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and

page_text: in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her said 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 reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Michel Louis Ferant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained by the following instrument in writing, reference
being had to the description hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
That the Invention communicated to me consists in treating oils, and
especially fish oils, by the application, firstly, of caustic soda or potash, made
into solution by the absorption of atmospheric vapours; secondly, in sub-
mitting these oils to several washings; thirdly, by the combination with the
oil of a certain fatty agent to give it the required softness for useful
purposes. Whale fish oil being an animal produce, it is to be con-
sidered as fit for machinery as neat's-foot oil; but in order to give it the
necessary properties to obtain their end, it must be first freed from a quantity
of animal matters, such as fibrine, gelatine, albumen, blood, and the fatal
stearine, which, although valuable for making candles, are positively unfit for s
any other purpose; a great proportion of heterogeneous matter must also
be extracted, which hitherto has only allowed it to be used for manufacturing
a very coarse soap, or as a poor lighting material. Numerous processes have
be en pointed out and employed for the purification of fish oil. Some taking
little account of its noxious fatty matters, the phocenic acid, and gelatine it a
contains, merely submitted it to a moderate heat, in order to cause the precipi-
tation of its impurities; others used chemical re-agents, for instance, acids or
alkalies. With acids they merely extracted a part of the gelatine and other
coagulable matter, and left in the phocenic acid; with alkalies they removed
only a part of these bodies, and saturated the phocenic acid, but they destroyed &
at the same time, by too great a saponification, as will be shewn hereafter, the
whole fatty substance of the oil, and left it extremely poor and drying; more-
over, by this process, a portion of the alkaline or acid re-agents is retained in,
and these soon exert a speedy and deleterious action on metals.
Having now stated the imperfections of the processes hitherto known and 8
employed, I will now give a description of the new mode communicated to
me of treating oils, which obviates these above-mentioned inconveniences.
Fish oil to be rendered fit for machinery must be first purified with a
solution of caustic soda or potash, in preference; this is to be prepared by

page_text: the absorption of the humidity of the atmosphere, until about a third part
of its weight of water has been absorbed. It will not be untimely to explain
the difference between, and the advantages offered by the preparation by
absorption in preference to the direct solution in this particular case. The
idea of using alkalies for the purification of whale fish oil is most decidedly
not new, and the theory of the oils being more saponifiable in proportion
of their being fatter could not fail to suggest it; but this same theory ought
to have caused to give up as inconsistent the use of carbonate of potash not
previously rendered caustic by lixiviation, and the caustic solution ought to
have been considered quite as defective on account of its containing too large
a quantity of uncombined water, and being too weak also, on account of its
saponifying (as I shall bereafter shew) all the fatty parts of the oil, without
even touching the fibrinous and fleshy portions, rendering the oil so treated
extremely poor, and of course unfit for the use of machinery. Leaving com-
pletely aside the carbonate of potash, I was induced to try many experiments
with the direct solution of caustic potash, of different degrees of strength,
and the result formerly mentioned was constantly identical. It is a well-
known fact, that caustic potash has the greatest affinity for the water spread
in the atmosphere in a vaporous state; but it must be remarked that this
absorption is very slow, and that the potash assimilates to itself this water and
its latent caloric as it has assimilated previously its water of chrystallisation,
which the most intense heat cannot entirely dissipate, and without which, it has
been said, it could not exist as a chemical body. In fact, this sort of combina-
tion increases the causticity of the alkali instead of lessening it, as is the case
with the direct solution. By the addition of a certain proportion of water to
caustic potash there is a considerable disengagement of caloric, and the vessels
containing the admixture becomes intensely hot. I may ask now what is the
source of this caloric? Does it not come from the alkali? Is not its causticity
partly due to this caloric? Do not uncaustic bodies, instead of producing heat
at the instant of their solution, take some from the surrounding bodies? On the
contrary, the solution of caustic alkalies so prepared, instead of impairing the
causticity of it, increases it, I may say, with all the latent caloric contained
in the vapour of water slowly absorbed. This is, I must repeat again, another
portion of water of chrystallisation becoming intimately combined with the
potash, and not simply an admixture, which is the case with the direct solution;
and as a proof of my argument, its action is sufficiently powerful to attack and
completely destroy the fibrinous and fleshy parts contained in the oils, and so
exhausting itself, it leaves untouched in the same ratio the fatty portions on
which, on the contrary, the direct solution acts, the weakness of which is the

page_text: cause of its action being so impressed on the other ingredients of the oil. These
reasons, based on experience and scientific inductions, prove in an evident
manner the difference existing between the direct solution and the preparation
by absorption. The solution so prepared, in the proportion of from two to six
per cent., according to the impurity of the oil acted upon, must be added to the
oil, and the whole must be well stirred together for about twenty minutes; it
is then laid aside, and a few hours afterwards there is formed a collection of
heterogeneous matters, which generally fall to the bottom of the vessel, but
sometimes rise to the surface, leaving the oil perfectly clear, which must be
then decanted. This operation will be more quickly performed if made in a
hot water or sand bath (balneum mariæ). The fluidity of the oil is now too
great for useful purposes; it retains still a portion of gelatine, and a certain
quantity, more or less considerable, of saponified product, and some of the
re-agent used. The retention of this gelatine would cause gome to accumulate
on the parts it would have been applied to, and so much drying, that the oil
would have lost that softness which could have in some way neutralized the
action of the air on the gelatine; the saponified product and the re-agent would
make it corrode the metals. The most important point was then to find a
remedy for these imperfections, and restore to the oil that soft fatty portion,
which is the sine quâ non for oils intended for the various uses of machinery.
For this purpose, the oil, purified as herein-before described, has to undergo
five or six washings with cold or warm water; the first time the two liquids
must be but little stirred, so as not to produce saponification, and to secure tho
dissolution of the re-agent left in the oil and the gelatine only; both these
substances being soluble in water. To assist the separation, a small quantity
of liquid chlorine may also be added to the water for the first washing, but
not any for the others. The quantity of water employed for these washings
must be equal in proportion at least to the oil treated upon, so as to have a
more powerful action on the gelatine and re-agent, and be more easily decanted
off; this action will in fact increase, and be quicker in proportion to the water
being more abundantly used. At the expiration of one or two hours, the
water having fallen to the bottom of the vessel, the inferior tap must be
opened to leave an issue to it. The oil is then subjected to a second and
third, and so on, up to five or six washings, as herein-before stated; at the end
of which the oil is then filtered, and afterwards heated by means of a hot water
or sand bath or (balneum marie) to a temperature not exceeding one hundred
and sixty or one hundred and seventy degrees of Fahrenheit; and while in
that bath, I add to it a quantity of from seven to ten per cent. of solid
tallow, or what is preferable, of twelve or sixteen per cent. of unmelted lard;

page_text: the whole must be well stirred together until the admixture is complete, and
the lard or tallow entirely liquified. The oil prepared in the manner herein-
before described will have the softness of neat's-foot oil, which it can super-
sede; for all the purposes of machinery it will be deprived of its drying and
oxidizing properties, and will not deposit gome on the parts to which it would
be applied.
And having now fully described the Invention communicated to me, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim
as new, and as the Invention communicated to me, is,―
First, the application of soda, or preferably, of caustic potash, prepared by
the absorption of the atmospheric vapours for the purification of fish oil.
Second, to extract by means of several washings, as herein-before described,
the deleterious bodies which fish oil may still retain.
Third, the introduction in the fish oil, previously prepared as herein-before
described, of a fatty, rich, and soft body, by which the fish oil is rendered fit
for useful purposes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Michel Louis Ferant, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eighth day of April, One thousand eight