IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF LIGHT, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OR PREPARATION OF MATERIALS APPLICABLE THERETO
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
FERGUSSON WILSON, of Belmont, Vauxhall, in the County of Surrey,
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 Twenty-third day of
March, in the tenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said George Fergusson Wilson, my
exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said George Fergusson Wilson, my exors, admors,
and assigns, and every of us, by ourselves or by our deputy or deputies,
servants, or agents, or such others as I, the said George Fergusson Wilson,
my exors, adiñors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of fourteen years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England,
the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands
of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her said Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
PRODUCTION OF LIGHT, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OR PREPARATION OF MATERIALS
APPLICABLE THERETO ;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso;

page_text: requiring me, the said George Fergusson Wilson, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and
to cause the same to be enrolled in the 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
George Fergusson Wilson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof (that is
to say):
In the preparation of products of various fatty matters for the manufacture
of candles, much of the material called tallow oil or oleic acid is produced,
which may in respect to the manufacture of candles be considered as refuse or
waste product, as it is unfit, by reason of its fluidity, for making candles; and
this product usually sells at a much less price than the fatty matters from
which it has been obtained, and in respect to soap-making (to which purpose
this product is for the most part applied) it is considered an inferior material.
This fluid acid product of fatty matters has not hitherto been used for burning
in lamps, owing to its depositing (in burning) a black matter, which in a short
time puts out the light.
Now my Invention consists of combining tallow oil or oleic acid with oil
which has not been converted into the acid state, by which combination a very
valuable manufacture of oil for the purposes of burning in lamps will be
obtained, and the cost of lighting by oil will be materially cheapened and
therefore improved.
And in order that my Invention may be most fully understood and readily
carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the means pursued by me.
I first take one hundred gallons of lard oil, which is a well-known liquid
material, produced by subjecting the lard of commerce to pressure, or when
castor oil of commerce is nearly as cheap as the lard oil, I prefer to use an
equal quantity of castor oil instead of the lard oil. I add to this lard oil or
castor oil one hundred gallons of liquid cocoa-nut oil, which is also a well-
known material, obtained by subjecting the cocoa-nut oil of commerce to
pressure; but I would mention that the addition of the cocoa-nut oil, though
I consider it very advantageous, is not indispensable. I boil up the material,
namely, the one hundred gallons of lard oil or castor oil, with or without the
cocoa-nut oil, by means of free steam admitted through a worm, which is a

page_text: well-known process, and during this process of boiling I throw in five pounds
weight of oxalic acid, continuing the boiling for half an hour after the acid is
in, and then leaving the material to settle for about an hour, after which I run
off the condensed water which has settled to the bottom. I then run in ono
hundred gallons of fresh water, and boil up the mixture as before by means of
free steam for half an hour. I then shut off the steam and let in one hundred
gallons of the tallow oil or aleic acid, and boil up the mixture by free steam,
as before, for five minutes. The mixture is then allowed to settle for six hours,
after which it is pumped up into suitable wooden vessels, where it is left to
cool, and it is then ready for use. I have found it important that the tallow
oil or oleic acid should be freed as much as possible from the mineral acid
used in the manufacture by which it is produced, and as far as my experience
has gone
I have found that distillation is the best mode of accomplishing this
object. If, therefore, the distillation of the fatty matters operated upon after
they have been converted into an acid state has not formed a part of the
process of manufacture by which the tallow oil or oleic acid is produced, then
I distil the tallow oil or oleic acid after it is produced, and before mixing it
with unacidified materials, as before described. The distilled tallow oil or
oleic acid should be bagged or filtered in order to remove the stearic acid
contained in it. I prefer to effect the process of distillation in the manner
described in the Specification of certain Letters Patent granted to George
Gwynne and me, the said George Fergusson Wilson, bearing date at West-
minster, on or about the Sixteenth day of November, One thousand eight
hundred and forty-three. I would observe, that in describing tallow oil or
oleic acid as a refuse material produced in the preparation of materials for the
manufacture of candles, I do not mean to confine myself to the oleic acid now
obtained from the particular fatty material now used in that manufacture,
my Invention being applicable to the oleic acid of fats and oils generally.
I would state that in place of combining expressed acid oil with unacidified
oils, the combined oil may be produced, though in a very inferior manner, by
only partially saponifying fatty matters, and subjecting the same to pressure,
by which the expressed oil would be partially acidified and partially unacidified,
and such would be the case with the concrete matters, which would consist of
stearine and stearic acid.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I would remark that although I have been
particular in describing the exact, means pursued by me, and the particular oils
which I prefer to use, and the relative quantities of the different materials
I employ when carrying out my Invention, I do not confine myself thereto;