IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF FOCAL MATTERS AND OTHER AMMONIACAL COMPOUNDS, AND THE PRODUCTION OF MANURES THEREFROM.
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Young Darracott Scott, of Ealing, in the County
of Middlesex, Major-General, C.B., for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
TREATMENT OF FOCAL MATTERS AND OTHER AMMONIACAL COMPOUNDS, AND
THE PRODUCTION OF MANURES THEREFROM.
"
Sealed the 13th October 1877, and dated the 7th May 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Young Darracott
Scott at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 7th May 1877.
HENRY YOUNG DARRACOTT SCOTT, of Ealing, in the County of Middlesex,
Major-General, C.B. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF FOCAL MATTERS
AND OTHER AMMONIACAL COMPOUNDS, AND THE PRODUCTION OF MANURES THERE-
FROM."
The object of this Invention is the preparation from focal matters and ammo-
niacal compounds of manures containing nitrogen, and ammonia, and phosphoric
acid in the proportion best suited for general agricultural and horticultural
purposes.
The Invention is specially adapted for dealing with the mixed focal matters now
collected in the north of England in pails or tubs, technically termed "pail stuff,"
and is an improvement upon the process for which Letters Patent were granted to
me, dated 26th January 1876, No. 322.
In carrying out my Invention I introduce the pail stuff into a closed vessel to
avoid effluvium. The vessel is fitted with an agitator, and by preference should be
made of such materials as will admit of heat being applied to its contents.
I then add to the pail stuff a milk of slaked dolomitic lime, so proportioning the
quantity added as to yield sufficient lime to precipitate the carbonic acid of the
decomposed urine, say, 1,200 grains of dolomitic lime, more or less, per gallon of
pail stuff.
Whilst the temperature of this mixture is being raised I agitate it, and the
resulting solid products are chiefly carbonate of lime, magnesia, and organic matter,
while the liquid products consist in the main of a solution of ammonia and chlorine
in the form of magnesia and alkaline chlorides, which contribute materially to the
37

page_text: success of the process, especially in the second part of it, wherein the obtaining of
magnesia is one of the objects aimed at.
When the temperature is at the boiling point, or nearly so, I add a sufficiency of
superphosphate of lime to supply phosphoric acid for neutralizing one-fourth or
upwards of the ammonia present, and now and again agitating the liquid, the
ammoniacal phosphate of magnesia is precipitated, and the ammonia is solidified
without the employment of any more sulphuric acid than is necessary to render the
phosphate of lime soluble.
The ammoniacal phosphate thus produced, and also the carbonate of lime and
organic matter, are now filtered from the urinous liquid, and to the clear liquor
which runs off an additional quantity of dolomitic lime is added, for the purpose of
setting free any ammonia which may still remain as chlorides, or in any other fixed
state. I might employ ordinary lime for this purpose, but by using dolomitic lime
an additional quantity of magnesia, which may be used in the first part of the
process (above described), is obtained. Magnesia will of course also serve the pur-
pose, but its cost is prohibitive at present. By this means, and by the addition of
an extra quantity of superphosphate, I am able to fix more of the ammonia as
ammoniacal phosphate.
In the above process I may dispense with heat, but I prefer to use it, because,-
1st. It removes smell.
2nd. It produces a more complete decomposition of the carbonate of ammonia
by the lime.
3rd. It aids the filtration process very materially.
I do not however employ a high temperature, as the ammonia will not then
combine so readily with the phosphate of magnesia.
The liquid obtained from the filtration process having been treated as described,
is now subjected to distillation for the removal of the remainder of the ammonia,
which is fixed by an acid in the usual manner, and salts of aminonia are crystal-
lized out.
I prefer to use a Coffey still for this second part of the process after the separation
of the magnesia (and other solids), which the second addition of the dolomitic lime
will have produced by the removal of the lime as chloride of calcium, which remains
in solution.
The solids produced in the first part of the process are carefully dried and ground
to a powder with the salts of ammonia produced in the last part of the process, and
thus a valuable phosphatic and ammoniacal manure is produced, having its fertilizing
elements held by bonds which are readily loosed by moisture and rain.
In lieu of subjecting the clear liquid obtained from the first part of the process to
distillation, I sometimes evaporate it to dryness, after adding to it a sufficient
amount of mineral acid to fix the ammonia, and I thus produce the necessary salts
of ammonia for admixture with the focal solids. The evaporation is carried out in
an ordinary evaporating pan, when the avoidance of smell is of no great moment, or
in one of the many patented evaporating machines recently introduced for con-
ducting the evaporation of foccal matter and urine without nuisance.
To fix the sulphuretted hydrogen generated from the pail stuff I sometimes add
with the superphhospate a small quantity of a salt of iron, preferably of phosphate
of iron, inade soluble by means of a mineral acid.
In some cases, such as those in which the ammoniacal liquor of the gas works is
in the hands of the local authorities, and can be made available for supplying to the
phosphatized solids the balance between the phosphoric acid and the nitrogen
elements of the manure which will suit the market best, and also in the case of
small towns where it is of the utmost consequence that manufacturing processes shall
be reduced to a minimum, I carry the process of fixing ammonia without distillation
by means of magnesia and superphosphates to the extent to which magnesia is
readily obtainable.
For particular crops I add cheap salts of potash as well as ammonia salts to the
dried phosphatized solids thus produced,

page_text: When the quantity of organic matter in the pail stuff is so large as to render
filtration difficult notwithstanding the foregoing means of facilitating it, I commence
the operations by straining the grosser solids from the more impalpable solids and
the liquid, and I afterwards intimately mix with these grosser solids the ammoniacal
phosphate of magnesia, carbonate of lime, and organic matters (produced by the
process above described), for the purpose of facilitating their desiccation.
In dealing with these grosser solids of the pail stuff, I sometimes mix with them
magnesia obtained (as described in the above process) by the treatment of the
filtered liquid with dolomitic lime (or derived from other sources) and a sufficient
quantity of superphosphate of lime or phosphoric acid to neutralize the magnesia; or
I sometimes employ dolomitic lime as the alkaline earth, but I thereby obtain a less
soluble phosphatic compound than by the use of magnesia only.
In dealing with gas liquor I commence the operation by adding thereto a solution
of phosphate of iron in a mineral acid as well as dolomitic lime, the iron salt being
so proportioned as to remove all the sulphur from the solution. I thus supply acid
which will fix the ammonia left in the liquid filtered from the sulphide and phos-
phate salts of iron, carbonate of lime, and the ammoniacal phosphate of magnesia
resulting from this treatment, a feature which, in case evaporation is employed for
the end of the process, is of much importance.
Again, I sometimes add the said solution of phosphate of iron (for which chloride
and sulphate of iron may also be used) wholly as a preliminary step in the treatment
of gas liquor, and by this means I obtain a precipitate which on treating it with
acid yields Prussian blue. After the removal of the sulphur from the gas liquor,
any of the processes above described for removing the ammonia from the ammoniacal
liquid can be carried out without offence.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Henry Young Darracott Scott in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
7th November 1877.
HENRY YOUNG DARRACOTT SCOTT, of Ealing, in the County of Middlesex,
Major-General, C.B. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF FOCAL MATTERS
AND OTHER AMMONIACAL COMPOUNDS, AND THE PRODUCTION OF MANURES THERE-
FROM."
The object of this Invention is the preparation from focal matters and amino-
niacal compounds of manures containing nitrogen, and ammonia, and phosphoric
acid in the proportion best suited for general agricultural and horticultural
purposes.
The Invention is specially adapted for dealing with the mixed foecal matters now
collected in the north of England in pails or tubs, and technically termed "pail
stuff," and is an improvement upon the process for which Letters Patent were
granted to me, dated Twenty-sixth January One thousand eight hundred and
seventy-six, No. 322.
I wish it to be understood that wherever in the following description I make use
of the term "equivalent" I refer to the old and not the new chemistry.
In carrying out my Invention I introduce the "pail stuff" into a closed vessel to
avoid effluvium. The vessel is fitted with an agitator, and by preference should be
made of such materials as will admit of heat being applied to its contents.
The gases expelled in the process are conveyed through an acid chamber, where I
detain any ammoniacal gas by means of sulphuric acid gas, and I convey what
passes from this chamber to a furnace, where all noxious smell is destroyed by
burning.
I commence the process by ridding the decomposed pail stuff of the soluble car-
honic acid present in it. In order to effect this removal I add to the pail stuff milk

page_text: of slaked dolomitic lime, so proportioning the quantity added as to yield sufficient
lime to precipitate the carbonic acid, say, from one thousand two hundred to one
thousand three hundred grains of dolomitic lime, more or less, per gallon of pail
stuff; or I may expel the carbonic acid by the addition of phosphoric acid, as here-
after described.
Whilst the temperature of this mixture is being raised I agitate it, and the
resulting solid products are chiefly carbonate of lime, magnesia, and organic matter,
while the liquid products consist in the main of a solution of ammonia and chlorine
in the form of magnesia and alkaline chlorides, which contribute materially to the
success of the process, especially in the second part of it, wherein the obtaining of
magnesia is one of the objects aimed at.
When the temperature is at the boiling point, or nearly so, I add a sufficiency of
superphosphate of lime to supply phosphoric acid for neutralizing one-fourth and
upwards of the ammonia present (practically I add the quantity of phosphoric acid
or soluble phosphate of lime just sufficient to neutralize the liquid); and now, on
again agitating the liquid, the ammoniacal phosphate of magnesia is precipitated,
and the ammonia is solidified without the employment of any more sulphuric acid
than is necessary to render the phosphate of lime soluble.
I prefer to produce the phosphoric acid I employ by making the superphosphate
with a larger proportion of sulphuric acid than is used by manufacturers in the pre-
paration of ordinary superphosphate, and I add enough sulphuric acid to free the
phosphoric acid practically from lime, nearly the whole of the lime being united with
the sulphuric acid.
The ammoniacal phosphate of magnesia thus produced, and also the carbonate of
lime and organic matter, are now filtered from the urinous liquid, and to the clear
liquid which runs off an additional quantity of dolomitic lime is added, for the pur-
pose of setting free any ammonia which may still remain as chlorides, or in any other
fixed state. I might employ ordinary lime for this purpose, but by using dolomitic
lime an additional quantity of magnesia, which may be used for the first part of my
process (above described), is obtained. Magnesia will of course also serve the pur-
pose, but its cost is prohibitive at present. By this means, and by the addition of
an extra quantity of superphosphate, I am able to fix more of the ammonia as
ammoniacal phosphate.
•
In the above process I may dispense with heat, but I prefer to use it, because,―
First. It removes smell.
Second. It produces a more complete decomposition of the carbonate of ammonia
by the lime.
Third. It aids the filtration process very materially.
I do not however employ a sustained high temperature, as the ammonia will not
then combine so readily with the phosphate of magnesia.
I prefer to allow the liquid to cool as soon as the boiling temperature has been reached.
The liquid obtained from the filtration process having been treated as described,
is now subjected to distillation for the removal of the remainder of the ammonia,
which is fixed by an acid in the usual manner, and salts of ammonia are crystal-
lized out.
"
I prefer to use a Coffey" still for the second part of the process after the separa-
tion of the magnesia (and other solids), which the second addition of the dolomitic
lime will have produced by the removal of the lime as chloride of calcium, which
remains in solution.
The solids produced in the first part of the process are carefully dried and ground
to a powder with the salts of ammonia produced in the last part of the process, and
thus a valuable phosphatic and ammoniacal manure is produced, having its fertilizing
elements held by bonds which are readily loosed by moisture and rain.
In lieu of subjecting the clear liquid obtained from the first part of the process
to distillation, I sometimes evaporate it to dryness, after adding to it a sufficient
amount of mineral acid to fix the ammonia, and I thus produce the necessary salts
of ammonia for admixture with the focal solids. The evaporation is carried out in

page_text: an ordinary evaporating pan, when the avoidance of smell is of no great moment, or
in one of the many patented evaporating machines recently introduced for con-
ducting the evaporation of focal matter and urine without nuisance.
To fix the sulphuretted hydrogen generated from the pail stuff I sometimes add
with the superphosphate a small quantity of a salt of iron, preferably of phosphate
of iron, made soluble by means of a mineral acid.
In some cases, such as those in which the ammoniacal liquor of the gas works is
in the hands of the local authorities, and can be made available for supplying salts
of ammonia to these phosphatized solids for preserving the balance between the
phosphoric acid and the nitrogen elements of the manure, and also in the case of
small towns where it is of the utmost consequence that the cost of the manufac-
turing process shall be reduced to a minimum, I carry on the process of fixing
ammonia without distillation by means of magnesia and superphosphates to the
extent to which magnesia is readily obtainable.
In order to obtain magnesia cheaply I avail myself of the exhausted liquid which
has been under treatment, and of such water as I can readily obtain to wash out the
lime from dolomitic lime, and leave the magnesia.
To render this washing or lixiviation process more effective I add to the liquid to
be used chloride of sodium in the form of rock salt, or I add muriatic acid, propor-
tioning the chlorine in these substances to the lime to be removed.
For particular crops I add cheap salts of potash as well as ammonia salts to the
dried phosphatized solids thus produced.
To liberate the carbonic acid by the use of phosphoric acid, as above mentioned,
I add to the pail stuff in the closed vessel already described, which is fitted with
the means of conveying the gases generated to a furnace in order to deodorize them,
an equivalent of phosphoric acid for every two equivalents of ammonia united with
the carbonic and hydrosulphuric acid present. I then add to the neutral phosphate
of ammonia thus formed a milk of phosphate of magnesia and of magnesia con-
sisting of equal equivalents of each of these substances, or in all of four equivalents
of magnesia and one equivalent of phosphoric acid, and I thus obtain, as before, pre-
cipitated phosphate of magnesia, but in this case without the presence of the car-
bonate of lime.
In order to ensure the complete action of the neutral phosphate of ammonia on
the above mixture of phosphate of magnesia and magnesia, I take the precaution of
stirring a second volume of the neutral phosphate of ammonia with the precipitated
phosphate of magnesia after decanting or straining from it the liquid with which it
was first treated, and which is now ready for its further treatment by distillation or
evaporation, as above described.
may also, in lieu of adding the phosphoric acid and the magnesia in the manner
above described, add to the urinous liquid these two substances after mixing them
together.
When the quantity of organic matter in the pail stuff is so large as to render
filtration difficult notwithstanding the foregoing means of facilitating it, I commence
the operations by straining the grosser solids from the more impalpable solids and
the liquids, and I afterwards intimately mix with these grosser solids the aminoniacal
phosphate of magnesia, carbonate of lime, and organic matters produced by the
process above described for the purpose of facilitating their desiccation.
In dealing with theso grosser solids of the pail stuff, I sometimes mix with them
magnesia obtained (as described in the above process) by the treatment of the
filtered liquid with dolomitic lime (or derived from other sources) and a sufficient
quantity of superphosphate of lime or phosphoric acid to neutralize the magnesia; or
I sometimes employ dolomitic lime as the alkaline earth, but I thereby obtain a less
soluble phosphatic compound than by the use of magnesia only.
In dealing with gas liquor I commence the operation by adding thereto a solution
of phosphate of iron in a mineral acid as well as dolomitic line, the iron salt being
30 proportioned as to remove all the sulphur from the solution. I thus supply acid
which will fix the ammonia left in the liquid filtered from the sulphide and phos-

page_text: phate, salts of iron, carbonate of lime, and the ammoniacal phosphate of magnesia
resulting from this treatment, a feature which, in case evaporation is employed for
the end of the process, is of much importance.
Again, I sometimes add the said solution of phosphate of iron, for which chloride
and sulphate of iron may also be used, wholly as a preliminary step in the treatment
of gas liquor, and by this means I obtain a precipitate which on treating it with
ncid yields Prussian blue. After the removal of the sulphur from the gas liquor,
any of the processes above described for removing the ammonia from the ammoniacal
liquid can be carried out without offence.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improvements in the
Treatment of Focal Matters and other Ammoniacal Compounds, and the Production
of Manures therefrom," and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect,
I wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent I
claim, obtaining in the manner above described fertilizing substances and ammo-
niacal salts from focal matters and other ammoniacal compounds, such compounds
being freed from the soluble carbonic acid gas contained therein, in the manner
above set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Young Darracott Scott, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Sixth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven.
HENRY Y. D. SCOTT. (L.S.)