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Previous Next The best candle and soap tips online! the boiling water from entering the pipe, and thence passing into the coil. F F. Kettles to boil the soap. Their shape is the same as the ordinary kettles, only at the bottom there is a horizontal worm in which steam continually circulates during the boiling of the soap. Each worm is provided with a waste pipe, which traverses the bottom of the kettle to discharge the water of condensation. The worms are designated by the letters E E, and the waste pipes by G G. These pipes are provided each with a valve which is opened or closed at will. H II. Pipes, to draw off the lyes from the kettles. 11. Cisterns of masonry, used to receive the old lyes drawn from the kettles. K K. Cellars, communicating with the cisterns and the furnace by a stairway. M M. Foundation of the kettles. This foundation is made of brick and cement; and its object is to render the kettles more solid, and prevent the loss^of heat. N N". Sheet-iron vats, used to receive new lyes. O 0. Frames, into which the soap, when finished, is drawn. These frames are of wood, and open in four parts. P. Table on which the soap is divided into bars and cakes. Q. Drying-room, using hot air in which the soap is dried. Illustrated and described elsewhere. E.. Ram. This machine is used to mould the soap by means of a copper matrix. A heater for superheating the steam is now very customary, and has its advantages. The advantages of the system by steam may be summed up in the following points: 1. Economy in fuel, since several kettles can be heated by the same fire. 2. Facility and rapidity in the work. 3. Products of a quality superior to those obtained by heating with an open fire. 4. Economy of labor. The indispensable necessity of water in soap factories,either for the preparation of lyes, or the cleaning of the apparatus, must determine the manufacturer to establish his factory near a stream of clear and limpid water. This condition ought to be attended to, whenever circumstances will permit it, for it is of great importance in the fabrication. In case 208 TECHNICAL TREATISE ON SOAP AND CANDLES. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A SOAP FACTORY. 209 well water has to be used, it will be more economical to use a pump than to draw by hand. Then it will be convenient to prepare a large cistern below the surface of the ground, and to have it full at all times, for the various uses of the manufacture. The drying-room mentioned we here illustrate in the annexed cut, and remark that all soaps do not require drying, but many do, and a drying-room is very necessary—one with warm air or a steam heat, or one well ventilated by air. The latter does not require any heating apparatus, but can be used only in fine weather. It is generally established in the upper story of the building, where the air circulates freely. Shelves or racks, on which are placed the pieces of soap tobedried, are fixed in the room, eight or ten inches apart, one above the other; this separation has the advantage of accelerating the drying of the soap, by putting it in contact with a greater mass of air; the desiccation is more rapid when the temperature of the air is elevated. This mode of drying is incontest-ably the most economical, because it does not require either apparatus or fuel; it is also the most regular and the best for the drying of soaps, and it may be used whenever circumstances will permit; unhappily it is subject to the variations of seasons and weather so frequent in our climate. The drying-rooms with warm air have the advantage of being used at all seasons. In many manufactories, the drying-room consists of a more or less large room around which shelves provided with trays are disposed, and upon which are placed the pieces of soap to be dried. In the middle of the room is a stove heated with wood or coal. The temperature must not be above 26.6° C. (80° F.); openings must be made in different parts of the room to permit the air, saturated with moisture, to escape freely. This arrangement quickly hastens the drying of the soap. A temperature of 26.6° C. (80° F.) is sufficient to dry in fifteen or twenty hours pieces of olein soap destined to be moulded. Drying-room with Warm Air.—The drying of soaps in the free air cannot be practised at all seasous, and has to be stopped in rainy or damp weather. As for the drying in a room heated by a stove—while this mode is generally employed, it presents the inconvenience of localizing and causing an unequal distribution of the heat. Some shelves are remote from the source of heat—being but little affected by it—from which it results that the soap does not dry equally in all parts of the drying-room. This is not the only inconvenience; stoves often smoke, especially when first lighted, and the smoke stains and blackens the pieces of soap. These different inconveniences, and particularly that of the smoke, have obliged some manufacturers to use drying-rooms heated by hot air. By this system, they completely utilize the heat produced by the fuel, and the hot air which flows into the room is always pure, without either odor or smoke. "What distinguishes this system from all others is, that the desiccation of the soap is rather produced by an Fip. 15. energetic ventilation, occasioned by the abundance of the hot air continually renewed in the room, than by a high temperature; and experience proves that, in rooms heated by a good stove, it requires twenty-five to thirty hours to 14 210 Previous Next
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