PROCESS  FOR  OBTAINING  AND  PURIFYING  GLYCERINE.  33 
ON  A  PROCESS  FOR  OBTAINING  AND  PURIFYING  GLYCERINE, 
AND  ON  SOME  OF  ITS  APPLICATIONS. 
By  Mr.  G.  F.  Wilson. 
The  paper  I  was  asked  to  give  was  one  on  our  new  process  of 
obtaining  and  of  purifying  glycerine.  I  trust,  however,  you  will 
excuse,  as  an  introduction,  a  short  sketch  of  the  past  history  of 
glycerine  and  its  uses,  though  it  will  take  us  over  some  ground 
well  known  to  most  members  present. 
Glycerine  was  discovered  in  1789,  by  Schcele,  as  a  product  in 
the  process  of  lead  plaster  making,  and  was  called  by  him  the 
sweet  principle  of  oils.  About  twenty-five  years  afterwards  it 
was  studied  by  the  father  of  fatty  chemistry,  Chevreul,  and 
shown  by  him  to  be  the  base  of  fats  and  fat  oils.  M.  Chevreul 
lately  received  a  specimen  of  glycerine  obtained  by  our  new  pro- 
cess, with  expressions  of  extreme  pleasure.  Nearly  half  a 
century  has  passed  since  the  earliest  of  those  beautiful  researches 
into  the  constitution  of  fatty  bodies,  in  the  course  of  which  he 
discovered  the  function  of  (glycerine,  yet  our  specimen  found  him 
still  lecturing  to  his  class. 
A  source  of  impure  glycerine  has  long  existed  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  lead  plaster,  in  which  the  combination  of  the  litharge 
with  the  acids  of  the  olive  oil  sets  the  glycerine  free ;  another 
source  in  soap-making,  the  soda  or  potash  setting  free  the  gly- 
cerine ;  and  a  third  source  in  the  stearic  candle  manufacture, 
where  the  lime  saponification  separates  the  glycerine.  Most  of 
the  purifiers  of  glycerine  appear  to  have  preferred  this  last 
source. 
Notwithstanding  the  known  existence  of  these  great  sources  of 
impure  glycerine,  it  was  long  before  glycerine  was  in  any  way 
utilized  :  hundreds  of  tons  have  been  and  are  yearly  thrown  away. 
The  first  suggestion  of  a  use  which  we  can  trace,  dates  in  the 
beginning  of  1844,  when  Mr.  Thomas  Dela  Roche,  being  engaged 
on  some  experiments  requiring  the  use  of  syrupy  substances, 
procured  some  glycerine  from  Mr.  Warington  of  Apothecaries' 
Hall,  some  of  which  he  applied  to  a  burn  and  an  irritation  of 
the  skin.  The  experience  thus  obtained  of  its  properties  of  sooth- 
ing and  keeping  moist,  led  to  its  introduction,  through  Mr. 
.3 
