IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING PHOSPHOTIC MATTERS AND IN OBTAINING PRODUCTS THEREFROM."
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Richardson, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
Manufacturer, and Manning Prentice, of Stowmarket, Suffolk, Manu-
facturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING PHOSPHOTIC
MATTERS AND IN OBTAINING PRODUCTS THEREFROM."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Richardson and
Manning Prentice at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 20th September 1860.
We, THOMAS RICHARDSON, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Manufacturer, and
MANNING PRENTICE, of Stowmarket, Suffolk, Manufacturer, do hereby declare
the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING PHOSPHOTIC MATTERS
AND IN OBTAINING PRODUCTS THEREFROM," to be as follows:-
We treat substances containing phosphate of lime with muriatic acid by
preference in excess in the cold state until all or nearly all the phosphate is
dissolved; we then separate the insoluble portion and boil down the acid liquor
to dryness, we heat the dry mass to redness and extract all matters soluble in
water. Or we mix sawdust or other organic driers with the acid solution, and
expose the pasty mass to a red heat in a close vessel. The muriatic acid used.
in dissolving the phosphotic matters is condensed, and thus re-obtained when
boiling down and when heating to redness.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Richardson and Manning Prentice in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 18th March 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
RICHARDSON, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Manufacturer, and MANNING PRENTICE,
of Stowmarket, Suffolk, Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Thomas Richardson and Manning Prentice, Her special licence that we, the
said Thomas Richardson and Manning Prentice, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Thomas Richardson and Manning
Prentice, our executors, administrators, and 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING
PHOSPHOTIC MATTERS AND IN OBTAINING PRODUCTS THEREFROM," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that we, the said Thomas Richardson and Manning
Prentice, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause 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 Thomas Richardson, on behalf of myself
and the said Manning Prentice, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be par-
ticularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof,
that is to say:
We employ animal charcoal, bones, bone ashes, coprolites, apatite, or any
other impure phosphate of lime, and we ascertain by analysis the quantity of
muriatic acid necessary for decomposing the earthy phosphates and carbonates
present. We use these materials in the state in which they are found in com-
merce, or we reduce them to a coarse powder in the ordinary manner. We
throw a given weight of the phosphatic material into any convenient and
suitable vessel and run in the muriatic acid, to which about 5 per cent. more

page_text: has been added than the analysis has shewn to be necessary. The strength of
the acid is not an essential point, and is regulated by the purposes to which we
apply the solution. When we employ the solution in making an artificial
phosphatic charcoal we use the strongest acid produced in the usual condensing
towers. When bones are the phosphatic substance employed it is advisable
to maintain as low a temperature as possible as a high heat softens the gela-
tine, which may then dissolve in the liquid. When treating the other materials
a high temperature has no injurious action, but the heat generated by the
chemical action is sufficient for our purpose. We occasionally agitate the
materials to facilitate the action of the acid, and if the mixture becomes too.
thick a quantity of water must be added to restore the original fluidity to the
mass, excepting when the solution is to be employed in producing an artificial
phosphatic charcoal, in which case it is desirable to keep the liquor as strong as
possible. Having ascertained by the ordinary tests that all, or nearly all, the
phosphates are dissolved, we separate the matters insoluble in the acid by
decantation or otherwise, and run the solution into a carefully constructed
reverberatory, so called "Dandy" furnace. We boil all down to dryness by
surface heat, and carefully expose the whole of the dry residue to a strong red
heat until we find by testing in the usual way that no phosphate is left in a
state soluble in water. As all the ordinary phosphates of lime contam some
carbonate of lime this latter substance is converted in our process into muriate
of lime, which remains mixed with the phosphates obtained as above described.
We therefore wash the dry mass from the furnace with water to remove this
muriate of lime, and if necessary dry the phosphates, which can then be
employed as a manure, or for the production of superphosphate of lime, or in
the production of glazes in the manufacture of earthenware. When we manu-
facture our artificial phosphatic charcoal we employ the solution made with
the strong muriatic acid and select the liquor which comes first off, reserving
the weaker liquors obtained by washing out the remaining soluble phosphates
for the process already described. When we employ bones we first crush them
between rollers or under edge stones, and treat 20 cwt. of bones with 20 cwt.
of muriatic acid of 1-130 specific gravity in a suitable vessel. When the
phosphates are all or nearly all dissolved, we draw off the solution, and, if
needful, bring it up to 1.300 specific gravity by concentration, and dry it up
with from 7 to 8 cwt. of dry sawdust. We then add 8 to 9 cwt. of finely
ground pitch, which is carefully incorporated with the previous mixture. The
whole mass is now thrown into a clay retort or other suitable close furnace,
and exposed to a long continued red heat until the phosphates are rendered
insoluble in water. We then withdraw the charcoal, and, if necessary, remove

page_text: any muriate of lime by washing it in water. The phosphatic charcoal is dried
and may then be employed as a substitute for the animal charcoal obtained
from bones by destructive distillation. The process is precisely the same when
other phosphatic substance is employed in the place of bones, and we can
substitute charcoal powder or any other organic dryer instead of sawdust.
We connect the open furnace and the clay retort, mentioned in the above
processes, with the usual condensing towers for recovering the muriatic acid
which is evolved in each case.
We claim the production of a phosphate of lime, as above described; and
we claim the manufacture of an artificial phosphatic charcoal in the manner
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Richardson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
THOMAS RICHARDSON. (L.S.)