A METHOD OF TREATING COAL, SHALE, LIGNITES, AND PEAT, IN ORDER TO MANUFACTURE MANURE.
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Gibbs, of Brentford, in the County of
Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "A METHOD OF TREATING
COAL, SHALE, LIGNITES, AND PEAT, IN ORDER TO MANUFACTURE MANURE.'
Sealed the 22nd November 1859, and dated the 24th May 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Gibbs at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th
May 1859.
I, JOSEPH GIBBS, of Brentford, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A METHOD OF TREATING
COAL, SHALE, LIGNITES, AND PEAT, IN ORDER TO MANUFACTURE MANURE," to be
as follows:-
My Invention consists in decomposing or disintegrating coal, oleaginous
and bituminous shales, lignites, and peat, and converting the same into manure.
I effect these objects by grinding coal, shale, lignites, and peats (the peats
being first desiccated) into fine powder; this powder is next passed through
machines and steam-tight vessels containing stirrers, and while it is in its
passage through such machines, steam, which has been superheated to about
500° Fahrenheit, or air of a like temperature (great care being taken not to
volatilize any of the substance), is admitted to the powder, which will in a few
minutes lose its crystalline property, and become of a sooty character and fitted

page_text: to fertilize the soil. The substance so prepared may be either used alone, or
combined and mixed with other fertilizing substances, according to the nature
of the soil to which it is to be applied.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph Gibbs in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
24th November 1859.
.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
GIBBS, of Brentford, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Joseph Gibbs, Her special licence that I, the said Joseph
Gibbs, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Joseph Gibbs, my 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 "A
METHOD OF TREATING COAL, SHALE, LIGNITES, AND PEAT IN ORDER TO MANUFACTURE
MANURE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Joseph Gibbs,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Joseph Gibbs, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention consists in decomposing or disintegrating coal, oleaginous and
bituminous shales, lignites, and peat, and converting the same into manure.
I effect these objects by grinding coal, shale, lignites, and peats (the peats
being first desiccated) into fine powder; this powder is next passed through

page_text: machines and steam-tight vessels, containing stirrers, and whilst it is in its
passage through such machines, steam, which has been superheated to about
500° Fahrenheit, or air of a like temperature (great care being taken not to
volatilize any of the substance), is admitted to the powder, which will in a few
minutes lose its crystalline property and become of a sooty character, and
fitted to fertilize the soil. The substance so prepared may be either used alone,
or combined and mixed with other fertilizing substances, according to the
nature of the soil to which it is to be applied.
I claim, treating coal, shale, lignites, and peat in order to manufacture
manure in manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Gibbs, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of November, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-nine.
JOSEPH GIBBS. (L.S.)