Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1845-04-24
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MANUFACTURE OF poUDRETTE.


will further call your attention 10 a very i'm
poItant discovery, recently made by the celebra
ted Dumas, and reported by him at the Royal A.
cademy oil Scisnces, at Paris, on an improvement
In the manufacture of Poudrette this report,
received ana read some months ago. and have
m'said, lost it--though the subject was SO i'm
pfessive that nave full recollection Of it.
The pufpoft OF his research was to discover
some cheap, or expeditions method of dis;nfecting
Tue n'gh' SOL, and converting it into the highly
valued ana costly manure, called Poudreie
Which, from tae heretofore tedious, and Difficult,
preparation, has commanded, i'm tn. city of New
! ofk, where 1t is, believe, exclusively manu-
iacIn'es 10 THIS country. fifty cents per bushel,
besides 'he expenses OF freight. and barrels. 10
distant paess.
lnis new method is simply through the agen-
cy OF su pirate OF lron-a cheap article, that may
be bought, presume, for about q dollar and a
hall per hundred pounds.
By solution Of this metallic salt, 10 be incor.
porated with the material, TO be acted upon the
offensive odour is Jispclled the reason is this,
tine gasses escaping from the offensive body,
are anmonaca gas, with sulphur, PHOSPHORUS,
ana hydrogen,-the other gas neutrality-suspicious.
bonic, does not contribute to the odour,-,he
metallic salt consists of snlphurc acid and iron ;
hence by the influence o! their chemical relations
Inc suiphurlc acid unites the ammoniacal gas and
renders II fixed and inodorous in the form of sui
s,
aho hydrogen, the other sources of offensive o.
dour unite with the iron OF the salt, making hy-
arc suiphuret and phosphoret of iron, which is
also ihodoTous, and thus, changing old bodies
INTO new forms, and aifording an instructive en-
ample OF the infinitely revolving circuit of all Or
game nature. Ii the alchemists Of old are not RI
vailed In their ransmutaiion Of the coarser metals
INTO gold yet, we have the transmutation of a
nuisance, and fatal source of disease, into a
substance incffensve and capable of producing
without limits, that precious metal.
IL VIII be understood, too, that all decompos.
ing animal bodies, and indeed all organic mate
rals, IN state OF putrescence, will be subject
TO the same chemical laws, and be disinfecled,
by fxing, for agricultural purposes, and not dis
slpatDg their nutrItive gases.
With regard TO this discovery, ! have made
some PRACTICAL experiments, TO inform myself of
lis truth or error--the results have been highly
favorable.
In New York. and elsewhere, the process for
making Pohdretie, has been, to expose the pru-
crescent substance to the air, mixed with earth or
lime and finally dried until the smell is lost !;
when u is sold under the name of Poudretie,-
and 1t is even then valuable manure; but it is
quite obvious, that under this process, The carbo
mates and phosphates alone, fixed by the lime,
are let, as It's only valuable components, the
earth and lime, used to cleanse and ID dry it,
VIII not combine with, and fix the ammoniacal
gas out, on the contrary, they will accelerate the
escape oil this gas, the richest constituent of the
manure, and leave it comparatively feeble in its
ELECTS, as vegetable nutrinent.
Ihe members of the "Dorches,er Farmer,
CAuo," generally-might confer benefit on the
community, as we'll as on themselves by TESTING.
ana establishing the Important fact alleged by
Du'ias'--which, 1t would seem, from the reasons
ohtfo ABOVE are probably true and, If true, in.
es'iManly valuable. in the promotion of health,
ana ffohi, to the citizen, as well as to the Far.
efi.by concentrating, and fixing the noxious
gases necessarily generated, and Giffused from,
aecomposing organic bodies and thus purifying
The atmosphere; and at the same time, forminS
new cpmbinatons, unollending 10 health, or per.
ceptiop; and conducive to the wealth, and graft
hca,ioh OF all who may choose to appropriate and
participate Of the preferred fruits.
JOSEPH +. MUSE.
January LIST, 1915.