IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine Moreau, of
No. 4, South Street, Finsbury, London, and 39, Rue de l'Echiquier,
Paris, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING
A communication
Sealed the 1st February 1855, and dated the 21st November 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Armand le Comte
de Fontaine Moreau at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with his Petition, on the 21st November 1855.
I, PETER ARMAND le Comte DE FONTAINE MOREAU, of No. 4, South Street,
Finsbury, London, and 39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, Patent Agent, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREAT-
ING FATTY ACIDS" to be as follows, that is to say:-
The Invention of an improved process for treating fatty acids consists, first,
in the treatment of fatty bodies by means of a quantity of sulphuric acid to
obtain an instantaneous combination producing fatty acid in a proper state for
distillation.
Secondly, the use of boiling water to prevent such combination exceeding
the limits of a proper acid saponification.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine Moreau in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 20th May 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PETER
ARMAND le Comte DE FONTAINE MOREAU, of No. 4, South Street, Finsbury,
London, and 89, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine Moreau, Her special
license that I, the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine Moreau, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, tho said Peter
Armand le Comte de Fontaine Moreau, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make,-use, exercise, and vend; within the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING FATTY ACIDS," communicated to me
from a foreigner residing abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine Moreau, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to.
be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine
Moreau, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to bé performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
Several chemists have studied the action of concentrated sulphuric acid on
greases and oils; and Braconnot, amongst others, has demonstrated that with
a certain quantity of this acid an instantaneous combination takes place, and
that by immediately diluting that combination with boiling water the water
separates the sulphuric acid, and allows the greasy matter to rise to the surface
in a state of decomposed greasy matters. The product thus obtained is a greasy
acid in an imperfect condition, which cannot be purified, and its solid and
liquid elements cannot be separated except by repeated treatment by alcohol,

page_text: essence of turpentine, or ether. This operation is, therefore, of a purely scientific
nature, and not capable of producing a manufacturing result. These facts led
to the idea of rendering available this remarkable effect of sulphuric acid, by
substituting for the use of alcohol, ether, and the essence of turpentine the
manufacturing processes of distillation for purifying the greasy acids, and
extracting therefrom the steric and oleic acids of commerce.
This latter mode of treatment, which possesses considerable advantages over
the processes of acid saponification or acidification, employed until now in the
trade, consists in introducing into the grease or oil first raised to a high tem-
perature sulphuric acid mixed with water, or, preferably, by digesting the fatty
bodies in a quantity of sulphuric acid at sixty-six degrees during eight to
twelve hours, or even a longer time, and keeping them in continual motion
during the whole of that time, and at a minimum temperature of one hundred
and ninety-four degrees Fahrenheit.
The following are the chief advantages obtained by this new process
First, an instantaneous combination effected under the eyes of the operator,'
the extent of which is indicated by the appearance of the mixture; secondly,"
the absence of the refuse matter of acidification; thirdly, saving of labour;
fourthly, an economy of fuel; fifthly, an easy and inodorous distillation of the
greasy bodies; sixthly, a diminution in the quantity of tar deposited in the
distilling apparatus. The proportions which I prefer employing are fifty parts.
of concentrated sulphuric acid to one hundred parts of grease; a larger pro->
portion of acid is unnecessary; a smaller proportion would be equally successful
provided the temperature of the grease and acid be raised.
I operate as follows:-I place in a vat A, provided with an agitator, about
twenty-seven hundredweight of water, which I raise to ebullition by means of
steam; in a vat B, provided with a closed serpentine tube, I place about
twenty hundredweight of grease; and in a vat C, also provided with a closed
serpentine tube, I place about ten hundredweight of concentrated sulphuric
acid. The two vats, B and C, are placed over the vat A underneath them,
and against the upper part of A is a vessel D, made to balance, and serving
for the mixture of grease and sulphuric acid. When the water boils, and the
grease is at a temperature of one hundred and sixty degrees to one hundred
and eighty degrees Fahrenheit, and the sulphuric acid at a temperature of one
hundred and ninety-four degrees to two hundred and three degrees Fahrenheit,
I run into the vessel D about one hundredweight of grease, the level of which
has been regulated and marked beforehand. I then rapidly pour into it about
half a hundredweight of sulphuric acid with a guaged measure; I agitate
the substances, and at the end of a minute or two, more or less, according to

page_text: the nature of the greasy matter employed, the combination of the grease and
acid is indicated, by the appearance of a deep redish colour and by the rising
of the froth caused by. the operation. I then press down one side of the
vessel D, so as to cause it to lean against a leaden cask, which, descending into
the vat A as far as the level of the water, precipitates the mixture into it. I
then restore the vessel D to its first position, ready to recommence the same
operation until the whole of the twenty hundredweight of grease has been
treated. The treatment of the hundredweight of grease occupies. about an
hour, during which time. care must be taken to keep up the supply of tho
steam to the vat A, and after the last mixture has been poured in I allow it to
boil from half an hour to an hour, and then stop the ingress of steam.. I allow
the whole to remain at rest about four hours, and then decant, by means of a
syphon, the greasy acid, which is then ready to be distilled; and, lastly, by
means of a tap at the bottom of the vat A, I collect the acidulated water,
which is generally at twenty degrees to twenty-two degrees of strength by the
areometer. The recipients I make use of are made of wood lined with lead,
but they may be of other, suitable, materials, and, of any desired; form; and
arrangement, according to circumstances::
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and the manner; of
performing the same,, I would have it understood that what I claim is,-.
First, the treatment. of greasy bodies of every kind by the employment of
concentrated sulphuric acid in such a quantity as to give rise to their imme-
diate combination, the result of which is the production of greasy acids suitable
for distillation, as herein-before described.
Secondly, the employment, by any suitable process, of hot water to prevent
the mixture of grense and acid from exceeding the limits required for saponifi-
cation, as herein-before described.
In witness: whereof, I, the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine
Moreau, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this. Sixteenth day of
May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six:
תיז
CONTAINE MORTAIL
L'DE FONTAINE MOREAU. (L.S.).