IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Pickford at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 31st December
1861.
I, THOMAS PICKFORD, of Fenchurch Street, in the City of London, Merchant,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE," to be as follows:-
I azotize or ammoniate & manipulate Sombrero Island phosphate guano
according to a new or improved process to produce a valuable manure equal in
all and superior in some qualities to the Peruvian guano, by mixing in pans,
tanks, or chests, either lined with lead or without, the Sombrero Island phos-
phate guano and other mineral, or bone phosphates in certain proportions,
ground or whole, and treating the same with diluted sulphuric, muriatic,
nitric, or other acids, and when brought to a proper condition, by being mixed
in a machine or otherwise, I introduce in certain proportions ground feldspar,
also small sea shells ground to a fine powder (cockle. shells) preferred; I
then, to about one ton of the above mixture, add about one hundredweight of
Peruvian guano saturated with urine, diluted sulphuric acid, & muriate of
sodium in a mixer, and add certain proportions of magnesian limestone (say,
about 100 lbs.) powdered and mixed with bone or gas sulphates of ammonia;
also I sometimes mix with this blood and water in a raw liquid state or dried
by pressure or otherwise, sometimes using about half a hundredweight of
soda ash; I also use raw bones and bone ash and boiled bones dissolved in
any of the before-mentioned acids and then worked up with the Sombrero

page_text: Island phosphate guano in certain proportions. I also use old leather or
leather cuttings after they are dissolved in any of the before-mentioned acids,
also refuse from the poulterers and horse dung and urine dissolved and treated
with sulphuric and other acids. I also use sulphuret of sodium, with a view
of fixing the organic matters with animal or vegetable charcoal, and if any
free phosphoric acid exists in the superphosphate of lime manufactured I
neutralize it by means of soda, potash, hydrate, or carbonate of magnesia,
forming soluble phosphatic compounds with the respective base used, and
which constitutes an indispensable ingredient in the mature developement of
all cereal grains.
In mixing the Sombrero Island phosphate guano, after it is ground into a
fine powder, with any of the before-mentioned acids, it is found to assume a
soft plastic consistence highly prejudicial to its practical application or mixing
with the other before-mentioned substances. Now to obviate this I generally
use certain proportions of feltspar coprolites or bone ash with it at the time of
mixing; also sometimes I boil the various ingredients together, and I also use
nitrate of soda, kelp, salt, and sometimes as driers, sulphate of lime, native
prefered.
After this manure has been properly mixed in the various proportions it is
better for it to lie in a heap for some time, and, if necessary, then it can be
ground in a mill to a fine state fit to use. When I mix the raw blood in a
liquid state I first of all treat the Sombrero Island phosphate guano with
diluted acid or acids as before mentioned, then mix the whole up together
with coprolites, ground, and sulphate of lime, thus making Sombrero Island
phosphate blood manure.
I also dissolve Peruvian guano so as to extract the uric acid, and mix in
combination with the other acids, and blend it with the prepared Sombrero
Island phosphate; I also use ammoniacal salts, soda refuse, & sulphate
of soda and sulphate of magnesia bottoms in small proportions (say, about
100 lbs. to the ton); also shoddy and woollen refuse after it has been treated
with acids.
In the manufacture of sulphuric acid used in the manufacture of manure,
instead of allowing the nitrogen to escape, as usual in manufacturing that
acid, I condense it in alkaline solutions, and thereby obtain sulphate of
ammonia, with which I azotize the guano or manure as before mentioned.