AN IMPROVED PROCESS OR PROCESSES OF TREATING FELDSPAR EO THAT IT MAY BE USED AS A MANURE, OR FOR OBTAINING POTASH OR SODA THEREFROM-
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the
Invention of "AN IMPROVED PROCESS OR PROCESSES OF TREATING FELDSPAR
EO THAT IT MAY BE USED AS A MANURE, OR FOR OBTAINING POTASH OR SODA
THEREFROM-A communication.
Sealed the 17th March 1857, and dated the 16th December 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
16th December 1856.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED PROCESS OR PROCESSES OF TREATING
FELDSPAR SO THAT IT MAY BE USED AS A MANURE, OR FOR OBTAINING POTASH OR
SODA THEREFROM," to be as follows:-
The Inventor of the present improved process or processes of treating
feldspar has discovered that when feldspar, the common potash feldspar, is
heated with phosphate of lime and lime, all in a finely divided state, that the
phosphoric acid of the phosphate of lime unites with tho potash of the feldspar,

page_text: replacing silicic acid, which silicic acid unites with the lime left from the
phosphate of lime, and there results phosphate of potash, lime, and double
silicate of alumina and lime. If this be lixiviated with water, then the
phosphoric acid, by reason of "chemical affinity modified by insolubility," unites
with the lime, releases the potash in its caustic state, and there results potash
and a double silicate of alumina and lime, and phosphate of lime and lime.
This is the basis of the improved process or processes for which Letters
Patent are now sought. The potash can thus be obtained from its solution,
either as caustic potash or carbonate of potash, by evaporation in the ordinary
manner.
For the purpose of obtaining the caustic potash or carbonate of potash
chemically pure, any caustic lime contained in the solution can be precipitated
in the ordinary manner by gradually adding a solution of carbonate of
potash.
If soda feldspar or albite be treated with phosphate of lime and lime, as
above, and then lixiviated with water, there will in liko manner as results
caustic soda and the above double silicate of lime and alumina.
The advantage of the above discovery and process is that either potash or
soda can be obtained from feldspar easily and economically for use in the
arts, or a valuable manure directly results by the process above described of
heating feldspar together with phosphate of lime and lime.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 15th June 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Edward Newton, Her special license that I, the said William
Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said William Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and

page_text: assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"AN IMPROVED PROCESS OR PROCESSES OF TREATING FELDSPAR SO THAT IT MAY BE
USED AS A MANURE, OR FOR OBTAINING POTASH OR SODA THEREFROM," being a
communication from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said William Edward Newton, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and caus
the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Edward Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement (that is to say):-
The Inventor of the improved process or processes of treating feldspar so
that it may be used as a manure, or for obtaining potash or soda therefrom,
states in his communication to me, and for which I have obtained Letters
Patent as aforesaid, that he has discovered that when feldspar, the common
potash feldspar or orthoklas (K O, Si. O, + Al, O, 3 Si. O3), is heated with
phosphate of lime and lime, all in a finely divided state, that the phosphoric
acid of the phosphate of line unites with the potash of the feldspar, replacing
silicic acid, which silicic acid unites with the lime left from the phosphate of
lime, and there results phosphate of potash (3 KO, PO,), lime (Ca. O),
and double silicato of alumina and lime (Ca. O, Si. O, + Al, Os, Si. O₁). If
this be lixiviated with water, then the phosphoric acid, by reason of chemical
affinity modified by insolubility, unites with the lime, releases the potash in its
caustic state, and there results potash (KO, HO), and a double silicate of
alumina and lime (Ca. O, Si. O, + Al, Os, 3 Si. O,), and phosphate of lime
(3 Ca.O, PO.); and lime (Ca. O). The potash can thus be obtained from its
solution, either as caustic potash or carbonate of potash, by evaporation in the
ordinary manner. For the purpose of obtaining the caustic potash or car-
bonate of potash chemically pure, any caustic lime contained in the solution
can be precipitated in the ordinary manner by gradually adding a solution of
carbonate of potash.
If soda feldspar or albite (Na. O, Si. O, + Al, O, Si. O,) be treated with
phosphate of lime and lime, as above, and then lixiviated with water, there

page_text: will in like manner result caustic soda (Na. O, HO), and the above double
silicate of lime and alumina.
The advantage of the discovery and process that forms the subject of the
present Invention is, that either potash or soda can be obtained from feldspar
eisily and economically for use in the arts, or a valuable manure directly
results by the process above described of heating feldspar together with
phosphate of lime and lime. The advantages of such a manure will become
manifest by considering what are the wants of cultivated plants, and what are
the component elements of the unlixiviated mixture above obtained. Among the
substances which agricultural chemistry has pointed out as indispensable nutri-
ments to plants are ammonia, phosphoric acid, potash, and soluble silicic acid.
These substances being most wanted, soils are most apt to become deficient in
them. The two former have lately been successfully supplied by means of
Peruvian and Mexican guanoes. For potash and soluble silicic acid, however,
there has been, as yet, no article offered in our markets which would contain
these substances in a proper form for manure. Wood ashes, the only article of
this description, cannot be obtained in sufficient quantity. In consequence of
this fact most of our cultivated soils have become more or less exhausted in
potash and soluble silicic acid, and agriculturists are at a loss to improvo
them.
The above mixture in its unlixiviated state furnishes both potash and soluble
silicic acid, and will thus form a desideratum in modern agriculture. The
mode in which this mixture supplies potash has already been explained. With
reference to soluble silicic acid, it must be understood that the resulting double
silicate of alumina and lime is one of those silicates which contain tho soluble
modification of silicic acid. These silicates being soluble in acids cannot long
resist the disintegrating influence of the atmosphere, and will thus be rendered
assimilable to plants.
The supply of potash and soluble silicic acid are, however, not all the advan-
tages which the above mixture offers as a manuro. On account of phosphato
of lime being applied in the process for decomposing the feldspar, the mixture
necessarily contains also a considerable quantity of phosphoric acid, one of the
above-mentioned nutriments to plants. This substance can exist in soils only.
in the form of phosphate of lime, a salt which is very sparingly soluble in
water. To increase its solubility, and thereby render it more fit for ready
assimilation, it has been proposed to apply it to soils in a state of. infinite fine-
ness, in which it could not possibly exercise much resistance against the solvent
action of water (a state of infinite fineness of solid matter is quasi a state of

page_text: solution). The correctness of this proposition is now amply proven by the
extensive manufacture of superphosphate of lime, a substance which acts so
powerfully on crops only, because it reproduces in the soil the common
phosphate of lime (from which it is originally manufactured) in a state of
infinite fineness. This state of things is produced in an exactly analogous
manner in the above mixture. Whilst the superphosphate of lime acts by
virtue of its soluble biphosphate of lime, which in contact with lime (in the
soil) is reconverted into common phosphate of lime, the above mixture acts
by virtue of its soluble phosphate of potash, which in contact with the excess
of lime (in the mixture) become also reconverted into common phosphate of
lime in the form above described. I would also mention the property of the
above mixture to fix ammonia, which is inherent to the double silicate of
alumina and lime contained in it. The capacity of soils to attract ammonia
from the atmosphere, as well as their power to retain it when dissolved, has
been recently ascribed to portions of the double silicate of alumina and lime
contained in soils. This double salt is directly supplied by the above mixture,
and its action in fixing ammonia may therefore play not the least important
part in the combined action of this mixture as a manure. The above mixture
supplies, therefore, indirectly ammonia, and directly potash, soluble silicic acid,
and phosphoric acid, the latter analogous to the manner of a superphosphate.
To enable others skilled in the arts to practise the new process, I will now
proceed to describe in detail the mode of proceeding, both for the obtaining of
potash for manufacture, and incidentally the mode of preparing the mixture to
be used as a manure.
The Inventor has found that the best proportion of the materials are, one
part of feldspar, one half part of phosphate of lime, and three to four parts of
lime; it is not found that other proportions are so economical or effective. The
feldspar should be ground as fine as mechanical means will admit; a previous
calcination at a low heat will materially aid its subsequent comminution.
As to phosphate of lime, it will act satisfactorily only when used in a state of
the finest subdivision, a condition in which it is offered to us by nature, in the
form of phosphatic guanoes (especially Mexican guano). Mexican guano
contains the phosphate of limo in a state of fineness much superior to that
which mineral phosphate of lime could possibly be reduced by mechanical
means; this is especially the case if the Mexican guano contains at the same
time a considerable quantity of carbonate of lime or corals, through which the
particles of its phosphate of lime are then uniformly diffused, and consequently
infinitely divided. Direct experiments have shewn that a Mexican guano

page_text: which contains, besides carbonate of lime, from twenty-five to forty-five per
cent. of phosphate of lime, will effect the decomposition of the feldspar most
admirably. The coprolites from England will, no doubt, act similar to Mexican
guano, for the reasons just explained. As to lime, it should be used either in
the water-slacked state or air-slacked state; its use in either one of these con-
ditions will save the cost of grinding, and will secure its fineness.
The materials so selected and prepared should be mixed in the proportions
above specified, and then placed in a reverberatory or other suitable furnace,
and heated to a light red heat for about two hours, more or less. The
chemical action which takes place in the above mixture, when properly heated,
is explained by the following process:-Feldspar is a double silicate of alumina
and potash. In contact with phosphate of lime (under the above conditions)
a double chemical decomposition ensues between the latter and the silicate of
potash in feldspar, in consequence of which silicate of lime and phosphate
of potash are formed. The one combines with the remaining silicate of
alumina to form a double silicate of alumina and lime; the other remains as
phosphate of potash until the dry mixture is lixiviated with water.
instant of water being added, the lime present at once renders the potash
caustic by combining with its phosphoric acid to form phosphate of lime.
From the original mixture, containing double silicate of alumina and potash
(feldspar), phosphate of lime and lime (in excess), we thereforo obtain a
mixture of double silicate of alumina and lime (soluble in acids), phosphate of
potash and lime (in excess), which, in contact with water, separates into
double silicate of alumina and lime, phosphate of lime and lime (in excess),
insoluble in water, on one side, and caustic potash and a little caustic lime,
soluble in water, on the other.
At the
It is evident from the abovo that this mixture can be used in every respect
like wood ashes. When lixiviated with water it will furnish a solution of
potash, either in the caustic or carbonated state, with small quantities of caustic
lime, which latter, if it is the object to obtain chemically puro potash, may be
precipitated by gradually adding a solution of carbonate of potash.
The application of the unlixiviated mixture as a manure and its advantages
are fully stated; it may be used either by itself, or, as the basis of a manure,
combined with other substances to suit particular soils; and it has also been
stated that soda feldspar can be treated in a manner similar to potash feldspar,
for the purpose of obtaining caustic or carbonate of soda.
Having thus described the improved process or processes that have been
communicated to me, I claim, as the Invention secured to me by Letters

page_text: In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Eleventh day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFatt,
66, Chancery Lane.
W. E. NEWTON. (L.S.)