IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF SUBSTANCES CONTAINING EARTHY PHOSPHATES
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Louis Antoine Ritterbandt, of 45, Warwick Street,
Regent Street, London, in the County of Middlesex, Doctor of Medicine,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF SUBSTANCES
CONTAINING EARTHY PHOSPHATES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Louis Antoine Ritter-
bandt at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 6th January 1857.
I, LOUIS ANTOINE RITTERBANDT, of 45, Warwick Street, Regent Street,
London, in the County of Middlesex, Doctor of Medicine, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF
SUBSTANCES CONTAINING EARTHY PHOSPHATES," to be as follows:-
These improvements consist in the treatment of coprolite, apatite, and other
minerals containing the phosphates of lime and magnesia, and also bones,
animal black, and other substances of like nature, for the purpose of obtaining
therefrom the above phosphates in a state of extreme division, and in a com-
paratively pure state.
This treatment consists,-
A. In dissolving the minerals or earthy part of the bones in dilute acids,
preferring muriatic acid, and decanting the solution from the insoluble
matters.

page_text: B. In precipitating the earthy phosphates from the solution so formed by
neutralizing the acid, when the whole of the phosphates fall down as an in-
soluble powder, which may be collected and dried.
I employ for this purpose,-
1st, caustic lime in sufficient quantity to neutralize the acid.
2nd, or I take gas liquor or other crude nitrogenous product and I distil
it with lime, passing the ammonia evolved into the acid liquor A. In both
these cases the basic phosphate produced is in a comparatively pure state, the
excess of lime which the mineral may have contained remaining in solution as
chloride of calcium.
3rd, or I treat the acid liquor A by gas liquor unmixed with lime, when the
whole earthy matter is precipitated, the phosphate in this case falling down
mixed with some carbonate of lime, if the original mineral contained lime in
excess.
4th, or I evaporate the liquor A, and cause it to be absorbed by sawdust,
peat, or other porous substance, and expose the mixture in a dry purifier to
the action of impure gas, the ammonia of which acts as the gas liquor in 3.
5th, or I treat the solution A with crude sulphate of magnesia, in order to
remove the lime and substitute magnesia, and after decanting, I treat the
liquor by the processes 2, 3, or 4, in each of which case the phosphate of
magnesia precipitates, but in this case combined with ammonia in the state of
double phosphate of magnesia and ammonia.
My object in all these cases is to bring the earthy phosphates into a minute
state of division unattainable by mechanical means, and in all these cases
except the first to economize the acid employed by using it to unite with
ammonia and form ammoniacal salts after it has served for dissolving the
phosphate.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Louis Antoine Ritterbandt in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 4th July 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LOUIS
ANTOINE RITTERBANDT, of Warwick Street, Regent Street, in the County of
Middlesex, Doctor of Medicine, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her niost Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Tatent, bearing date the Sixth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her

page_text: reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Louis Antoine Ritterbandt, Her special licence that I, the said
Louis Antoine Ritterbandt, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Louis Antoine Ritterbandt, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF
SUBSTANCES CONTAINING EARTHY PHOSPHATES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Louis Antoine Ritterbandt, my executors or admi-
nistrators, 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 Louis Antoine Ritterbandt, 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, that is to say:-
My improvements consist in the treatment of coprolite, apatite, and other
minerals containing the phosphates of lime and magnesia, and also bones,
animal black, and other substances of like nature, for the purpose of obtaining
therefrom the above phosphates in a state of extreme division, and in a com-
paratively pure state.
This treatment consists,-
A. In dissolving the minerals or earthy part of the bones in dilute acids,
preferring muriatic acid, and decanting the solution from the insoluble
matters.
B. In precipitating the earthy phosphates from the solution so formed by
neutralizing the acid, when the whole of the phosphates fall down as an in-
soluble powder, which may be collected and dried.
I employ for this purpose,-
1st, caustic lime in sufficient quantity to neutralize the acid.
2nd, or I take gas liquor or other crude nitrogenous product, and I distil
it with lime, passing the ammonia evolved into the acid liquor A. In both
these cases the basic phosphate produced is in a comparatively pure state, the
excess of lime which the mineral may have contained remaining in solution as
chloride of calcium.

page_text: 3rd, or I treat the acid liquor A by gas liquor unmixed with lime, when the
whole earthy matter is precipitated, the phosphate in this case falling down
mixed with some carbonate of lime, if the original mineral contained lime in
excess.
4th, or I cause the acid liquor A to be absorbed by sawdust, peat, or other
porous substance, and expose this mixture in a dry purifier to the action of
impure gas, the ammonia of which acts as the gas liquor in 3rd.
5th, or I treat the solution A with crude sulphate of magnesia, in order to
remove the lime and substitute magnesia, and after decanting, I treat the
liquor by the processes 2nd, 3rd, or 4th, in each of which case the phosphate
of magnesia precipitates, but in this case combined with ammonia in the state
of double phosphate of magnesia and ammonia.
My object in all these cases is to bring the earthy phosphates into a minute
state of division unattainable by mechanical means, and in all these cases
except the first to economize the acid employed, by using it to unite with
ammonia and form ammoniacal salts after it has served for dissolving the
phosphates.
In witness whereof, I, the said Louis Antoine Ritterbandt, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fourth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
L. A. RITTERBANDT. (L.S.)