CHEMISTRY. 239 



much practical experience and knowledge. After detailing the rationale of 

 the experiments and patents brought forward for the past ten years, he said 

 that the only patent relating to the manufacture of soap which appeared 

 likely to succeed and to lead to a practical result, was for combining the 

 materials by mechanical means without the aid of fire, the object being to 

 avoid the formation of glycerine. He felt satisfied that much inquiry, and a 

 series of accurate experiments on a large scale, must be devoted to this 

 subject, before the success looked for can be achieved. He says : 



" If the theory of the manufacture now generally received be correct, we 

 must not be sanguine of great improvements being made in the process. 



"It is hardly possible to have a purer or cheaper alkali. 



" The process of combination, by the joint action of steam and fire, or by 

 steam only, is simple and rapid, and the treatment of the soap, cooling it in 

 frames and then cutting it into bars, after the chemical process is perfect, can- 

 not be much improved or cheapened ; but if we seek for new principles under 

 which the saponification may take place, there is room for great economy hi 

 the raw materials, and, therefore, for the production of an equally good, if 

 not superior, article at a very low price. 



" At present, from 8 to 10 per cent, of the fatty matter used in soap- 

 making is converted into glycerine, and is wasted. "\Ve make nearly 100,000 

 tons of soap annually, requiring 60,000 tons of tallow, oil, &c., one-tenth of 

 which is absolutely thrown away. 6,000 tons, at 30 per ton, or 180,000 

 per annum, is the measure of this waste. 



" The quantity of fatty matter required to make a ton of perfect soap, is 

 13 cwt. 3 qrs. Ibs., or 1,540 Ibs., but analyse the soap so produced by what 

 means you may, you cannot reproduce more than 1,400 Ibs., not of tallow, 

 but of fatty acid or hydrogenated tallow, and therefore representing really 

 but little more than 1.300 Ibs. of tallow. The difference between these 

 quantities is to be found in the glycerine." 



IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAPS AND CANDLES. 



Bleo.cldng Rosin for Soap. J. Buncle, of England, patentee. This improve- 

 ment consists in melting the resinous substances by a jet of steam, and boiling 

 the same with caustic alkali, adding a little salt when boiling, and then 

 passing currents of air through the resin, which is then allowed to stand 

 for a little while until ah 1 impurities settle to the bottom of the vessel. The 

 clear is then run off and used in the soap boiler, and as resin is now used, 

 and for the same purpose. 



ffardtniny Fatty and Oily Bodies. R. A. Tilghmann, of London, has 

 secured a patent for hardening oil and fatty bodies, by subjecting them to 

 the action of a small portion of sulphur or phosphorus at a high tempe- 

 rature. 



An improvement of A. J. Austin, London, said to be of value, has'for its 

 object the hardening of the outside or surface of the candles. Stearic acid is 

 mixed with five per cent, of white wax, and then dissolved in hah their 

 weight of methylated spirits of wine. By rapidly dipping tallow candles into 



