240 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



this solution and withdrawing them they will be found covered with a thin 

 hard film, and may be immediately handled. 



An IrfLproved Soap called " JaponitoUne" The invention consists in manu- 

 facturing a gelatinous soap in the following manner : 



" Supposing (says the patentee) that I wish to manufacture bne thousand 

 five hundred pounds of the said soap, I proceed as follows : I first pour hi a 

 copper boiler about eighty-eight gallons of soft water, and mix with it about 

 one hundred and twelve pounds of crystal soda, or about seventy-nine pounds 

 of salts of soda. Two or three hours after the soda has been in contact with 

 the water, I agitate the mixture, and add to it about one hundred and 

 twelve pounds of common hard or soft soap. The fire being placed under the 

 furnace, I leave the mixture to be heated until the temperature attains forty 

 or forty-five degrees centigrade, when I add to the liquid about seventeen 

 pounds of Russian or American pearlash ; I well mix the whole, and when 

 the soap is nearly dissolved, I suspend in the middle of the copper a white 

 linen bag, containing about seventeen pounds of pounded quicklime. This 

 linen bag, strongly tied at its upper extremity to avoid any of the matters 

 escaping, must be immersed in the liquid to a depth of about eight inches. 



" When ebullition has commenced in the copper, I slowly agitate the 

 liquid mass, and pour therein about five gallons of mucilage of linseed, marsh- 

 mallow, or psyllium seed after which, I add seven and a half pounds of 

 borax, or about two and a half pounds of calcined alum. When the whole 

 is well mixed in the copper, and the liquid presents the appearance of being 

 perfectly homogeneous, I leave it to boil on a slow fire during three quarters 

 of an hour. The fire should then be extinguished, and the copper covered 

 over. When the temperature falls to fifty-five or sixt} r degrees, I pour the 

 liquid into barrels, where it becomes solidified in about twenty- four hours 

 (supposing that hard soap has been used); if otherwise, it will remain in 

 a gelatinous state." 



Laporte's Improvement in Candle Manufacture. M. Laporte, of Paris, has 

 obtained a patent for the following improvements in manufacturing candles : 



The invention consists, first, in the employment of a tubular wick, com- 

 posed of a great many threads, woven, plaited, or otherwise united together ; 

 al^o in the employment of a jacket or case round the moulds, capable of being 

 heated from 112 to 132 by steam; also, hi a general process to manufac- 

 ture a candle, composed wholly of vegetable wax, or having vegetable wax 

 for its base. 



The manner of carrying this invention into effect is as follows : To make 

 two hundred weight of candles, for example, take 66 parts, by weight, of 

 vegetable wax, and 34 parts of tallow, or of cocoanut oil, or other suitable 

 oil, or of any fatty liquid or solid body suitably prepared, and heat the same 

 to about 194, by means of steam or a water bath. The fatty body is com- 

 bined with the vegetable wax, for the purpose of rendering the vegetable wax 

 less friable and brittle, and of increasing the intensity of the light. Previous 

 to melting, the wax must be crushed up, and then thrown, together with the 

 tallow or fatty matter, into a vessel containing water, acidulated by sulphuric- 

 acid. The melted mixture must be allowed to remain until it becomes sum- 



