US2007974A - Soap manufacture - Google Patents

Description

Patented July 16, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SOAP BIANUFACTURE tenbach, deceased No Drawing. Application April 13, 1929, Serial No. 354,975. Renewed February 21, 1934 4 Claims.

My invention relates particularly to improvements in the making of that class of soaps in which a solvent or oil is usually incorporated. It has been common in the-past to merge these 5 bodies in soap emulsions and to market the soft tenuous mixtures thus made under various proprietary names. These mixtures consist for the greater part of water and the shipment about the country of this excessive water is tolerated only by reason of the high prices prevailing on the article and the freight charges on the useless water involves a wastefulness amounting to economic sabotage.

On the other hand difficulty has been encoun-.

tered in preparing concentrates" of these articles. Emulsions with lower water balance have not remained homogeneous and the market did not encourage the more concentrated emulsion in the face of the larger profit on-the highly diluted article.

The main object of the present invention is to provide a highly concentratedsolid soap-oil complex capable of most economically affording at will a source of soap-oil emulsions. It is substantially free from water in its preferred form, avoids the wastefulness of transporting useless water byfreight and affords the economy and convenience of making up emulsions as needed in the factory from concentrates of small bulk and relative ease of handling.

According to my invention pine oil and similar oils capable of forming-useful emulsions with water and soap are cooked with water and soap while stirring well. The water is driven away and the oil forms a solid or semi-solid mass with the soap which becomes harder on cooling. The materials are stirred in a double jacketed vessel provided with temperature control and with the heat sensitive oils, while with the more volatile oilsthe blending is conducted in sealed vessels.

According to the particularfatty acid used in the soap, the temperature necessary to attain solidification in the-presence of the oil'varies.

The, nature of the oil, and the completeness of the dehydration also governs the degree of hardness of the soap. The boiling point of the'oil is a. guide to the safe temperature as is also the decomposing point of the soap but I have 00 noted that the boiling point of the oil may often be safely exceeded by reason of its dissolved soap and the elevation above its natural boiling point thus induced. If the soap is soft by reason of potash content the blending oil can be more and .more replaced by oils of higher melting point,

the only requirement being that the oil be such as emulsifieswith the soap in aqueous solution.

As an example of my invention in its preferred form, I take one part water and two parts olive oil soap containing about 10% of water in the 5 condition of flake or powder and when those are well blended I stir in about one to two parts of pine-oil. The vessel containing the mixture is placed in a kettle surrounded by glycerine and the temperature of the soap, water and oil is 10 gradually raised to about 240 F. by heating the outer kettle. Steam is given off causing frothing of the soap with a great increase in volume of the mass. While some oils would ordinarily begin to volatilize below this temperature, the 5 soap raises the boiling point and permits them to be completely merged and held. When the heat, frothing and stirring have secured a uniform mixture, the mass is permitted to cool and solidify. 20

The solid soap lathers well, but slowly and yields at all dilutions a perfectly incorporated oil. It hasthe pleasant odor of pine oil but has the firm feel of anhydrous soap. The well fixed character of the oil is proved by the fact that 25 the soap does not render white paper greasy after long contact with it.

My solid soap-oil compound is a new and concentrated form of employing the combined and mutually cooperating virtues of soaps and pine- 30 oils, permitting, on the addition of water the free spread of the resulting emulsion. The materials to be incorporated may'be generally described as forest distillates, but solid and liquid aromatic hydrocarbons, essential oils, greases 35 and. resins of similar composition may be used. The complete natural oils or'their separate characteristic and useful constituents can be blended in the same way.

I consider all of these materials as emulsifiable 40 to a greater or less amount and useful degree with soap and water and the characteristic of my process is to secure a complete and homogeneous dispersion of such organic bodies in substantially solid soap. Y 5

In the making of soap emulsions of the oil-inwater type, true soaps .are employed i. e., compounds of the alkalies with fatty acids and water is the effective solvent and homogenizer of the mixture.

In soap-making similarly water is the solvent of the dilute and earlier stages of the process and remains the dispersant and homogenizer of the final soap even when little water remains present.

In my process on the contrary, water is characteristically reduced in amount and the oil forced to play'its role. The homogenizing of the mixture, i. e., the dispersing of the oil throughout the soap, is possible even without water whether we regard the oil as in solid solution in the soap or the soap as in solid solution in the oil. That the oil is not merely a fluid in a sponge of soap is proved by the total absence of oily feel to the soap and the lack of tendency of the soap to sweat, smudge or offset oil stains upon paper wrappers if the oil be properly chosen and blended in the right amount.

It is understood that I do not wish to include such proportions and kinds of oils, fats, or waxes as are natural constituents of soap stock and remain in small amount in the free condition in the soap. My invention refers to substantial amounts of such oils as impart peculiar and specialadvantages to soap solutions when used ordinarily in the making of emulsions for scouring, kier-boiling, spinning, weaving, boiling off silk, dyeing, mordanting, textile sizing and finishing, etc.

'The invention is wholly distinguishable also from perfumed and medicated soaps which while containing added oils not natural to the soapstock or source, contain these only in small amounts, constitute no true medium of dispersion, are at no time successors to water as the dispersing or other solvent medium and are not substantially integral to the mass. Nor are such soaps designed to form emulsions of the stiff or pasty type nor so constituted as to afford a useful store or concentrate for the preparation of such stiff emulsion or emulsions of any kind which owe their virtue to substantial oil proportion as compared to the soap itself.

I wish to distinguish my product also from artificially altered oils such as turkey red oil and its solid congeners made by sulfonating or otherwise chemically altering saponifiable oils and then saponifying the unaltered oil to produce 4 solid or semi-solid materials which are incorporations of soapin a product that is neither a natural oil nor a natural soap but shares something of each.

My soap is a true soap and my oils are true natural oils in the usual acceptance of the word. My oils are water-insoluble still, when freed of soap and have not been rendered any more water soluble by my treatment.

In the textile art, my oil andx-Qsoap usefully cooperate, the soap acquiring new detergent properties which neither the oilyi'idr' soap have separately and the properties of the oil are usefully altered by being rendered more diifusible on the addition of water. The mixture also affects favorably or pleasantly the .skin if pure medicinal or cosmetic oils be employed.

The new mixture is adapted to replace the whole class of pastes, ointments, salves, liniments, and emulsions, being, as it were, a concentrate of these same and better adapted to carry and conveniently exhibit the virtues of these oils and it will serve to permit their storage in better form than the free oils themselves, if intended for water dispersion finally. v These concentrated dry emulsions or rather stock for making emulsions constitute-a vast improvement in economy, stability, convenience and efficiency. They are resistant to frost where the corresponding aqueous emulsions are not. They resist oxidation except on the surface,- while emulsions are invaded throughout by oxidation. They can be cast and pressed in any form.

As the distinction between oils, fats and waxes is not a rational one, I wish to group as congruous and equivalent in my invention those materials that are similar in nature and source to pine oil and are freely fluent at the temperature of merging with the soap, that are unctuous and greasy, insoluble in water, capable, when fluid, of spotting paper and rendering the spot darker by reflected and lighter by transmitted light and not readily volatile at the temperature necessary to dehydrate a freely stirred soap-water paste opened up to evaporation by stirring. I, therefore, include under the word oil those materials that have the aspect and properties of oils when naturally fluent or when melted.

I regard as comprisedwithin the reach and scope of my concept recorded herewith those products that I have made without an aqueous phase in their formation. he soap can be dissolved in volatile organic so vents, the oils incorporated and the solvents expelled. In this way, I have made equivalent solid products but they do not seem to be quite as readily incorporable with water thereafter.

The useful incorporation of the oil-like substances may also involve the use of mixtures of the same. In textile processing and dyeing, I find that I can advantageously add body and finish to sheer goods by incorporating with the soap such materials as rosin, gum dammar, and gum elemi previously merged in the oil before its mixture with the soap or fused with the soap and oil mixture. I can also by omitting the gum and using the pine oil soap effectively prepare an emulsion of the product for the boiling ofi of silk which yields a lustrous de-gummed silk with a much better hand and higher weight than the ordinary soap boil-offs.

The soap-oil compound may also be made by saponifying fats or fatty acids in, the presence of pine-oil. Stearic acid may be dissolved by the aid of heat in pine oil and chemicals reacting to form soaps therewith may be added. Solid transparent soaps rich in pine-oil may thus be made. Pine oil carries the fatty acids into complete solution. Blends of similar oils with the pine-oil, such as oil of cade, pine-needle oil or oil of juniper furnish solid soaps, of medicinal value with high oil content and therapeutic power.

The water residual in the soap varies with the temperature to which the mixture is carried but even with much water retained in the soap a substantially solid body is produced. 200 parts of soap are mixed with parts water and boiled up to 212-215 F. for minutes. parts of pine-oil are then stirred in while heating. There is a considerable increase in volume due to the vapor of steam, the mass increasing in volume about three times the original. After five minutes stirring and raising the heat to 218-220 F.

the sample is withdrawn and pressed while warm. Most of the original water is retained, but the soap is a true hard solid. More tenacious and still harder soaps are made by longer heating or higher temperatures although the soaps with pine oil equivalent in amount to true soap, are softer than those containing a lesser amount of oil than soap.

Soaps, equivalent to the previously given proportion but heated to 234 F. until about one half the water is gone, are much harder. Most of the water disappears at about 238-240 F., the melt ceasing to be steam-blown and swollen. A soap made by heating 200 parts 90% olive-oil chip-soap, 100 parts water and 1:50 parts pine-oil to this temperature and until the steam is dissipated yields a hard, tough material which gives a generous free-flowing lather of remarkable detergent power. The lather lies close to the skin when used as a toilet soap. It has a remarkable spreading or wetting-out power and carries the cleansing power of the oil as well as of the soap to the skin for, unlike soaps in which 011 is blended as a mere perfuming element, these soaps contain in gross amount the blended oil and the detergent action of the soap is exerted in a phase rich in oil, the oil possibly predominating over the water used upon the hand in determining the soaps action. It is to be noted that the oil is not a mere auxiliary to the soaps action. The soap 'is made of oil substantially and integrally as the chief liquid which holds the sodium oleate or other salt dispersed throughout it precisely as when water is the sole liquid constituent as in soap pastes or soaps of high water content.

It will be seen that I have provided a solid pineoil soap and, for the emulsion art, a new and useful solid stock substance heretofore unavailable, affording a ready, economical, reliable and stable base and vehicle adapted for all forms of the same whether salves, liniments, pastes, creams, hydrated greases, ointments, textile detergents, finishes, dyeing and printing auxiliaries.

Therefore, while I have described my improvements in detail and with respect to certain forms and modifications thereof, I do not desire to be limited to such details, forms or modifications since many other'modifi cations and changes may be made and the invention embodies in widely different forms without departing from the spirit and scope thereof in its broader aspects. Hence I desire to cover all of-the forms and features coming within the langauge or scope of any one or more ofthe appended claims.

In the subjoined claims the term pine oil" is not used in the specific sense of limiting the claims to the commodity commercially known as pine oil, but instead the term is used generically to include pine oil and those equivalents of pine oil in the process and product constituting the subject-matter of the claims hereinbefore described in this specification. No generic term is known which accurately includes within its scope pine oil and the equivalent substances herein mentioned, and excludes substances which may not be substituted for the pine oil.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. A solid composition of matter having the consistency of ordinary hard soap, said composition consisting essentially of hard soap and pine oil, the pine oil constituting about 15 to 50% of the composition.

' 2. A substantially water-free soap having incorporated therein and uniformly dispersed therethrough pine oil in an amount constituting 15-50% of the total weight of the combined oil and soap. v

3. A new composition of matter consisting essentially of hard soap and pine oil, the pine oil constituting about 15 %-50% of the composition.

4. A soap having incorporated therein pine oil in such fine state of subdivision as to emulsify on solution of the soap in water, said pine oil consti- 'tuting 15%-50% of the total weight of the combined oil and soap.

CHARLES E. KALTENBACICI.