CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF MANURE
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
BARKER, of Budleigh Salterton, in the County of Devon, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of October, in the eleventh year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Ed-
ward Barker, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said Edward Barker, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Edward Barker, my executors, administrators, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, and
in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, my Invention of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF MANURE;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Edward Barker,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe
and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High

page_text: Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Edward Barker, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following description thereof, that is to say :-
These improvements consist in combining certain animal, vegetable, and
mineral materials in certain proportions, and in submitting these combinations
to the action of fire, in the manner I am about to describe, for the production
of a compost or manure suitable, under some slight variations of proportions
or quantities, to almost every nature of soil, and to every variety of vegetation.
First Process. I put into a reverberatory or other suitable furnace sea coral
or coralline, or sea or land shells, or sulphate of lime or phosphate of lime, or
any substance or substances containing lime, and requiring disintegration, or a
mixture of any two or more of these substances, and to every one hundred
parts by weight of either of these substances, or of a mixture of any two or
more of them, or of so much of the chemical constituents of each as may be
necessary for the formation of one hundred parts by weight of any two or
more of them, I add from fifty to one hundred parts by weight of common
salt, more or less, according to the use for which the compost is intended.
These are to be heated with any vegetable substance capable of affording
either potass or soda, or with any other combination or material containing
either potass or soda, in what way soever applied, until the disintegration of
the particles of the coral, coralline, land or sea shells, or any of the substances
containing lime, which I may prefer to employ, can be effected by slight
mechanical pressure or by slight attrition. I then take fifty parts of these last
described materials, prepared as above specified, and I add to them one hundred
parts by weight of fish or of any land or marine animal organic substance, with
or without any admixture of land or marine vegetables, or of night soil, and I
mix them well together in a boiler or in any other suitable receptacle, with urine,
sea water, or gas liquor, and, avoiding the escape of ammonia by the addition
of an acid, or of any salt whose acid constituent possesses a greater affinity for
ammonia than the base or bases with which it may be united, I boil the whole
with careful agitation until it becomes dry or nearly dry, and I add during the
process described above as much silex, or of the silicates of potassa, soda, or
lime, as may be required by the specific nature of the soil on which my com-
post may be intended to be used, and by the nature of the vegetable about to
be grown.

page_text: Second Process.-I take fish or any marine animal organic substance or sub-
stances, with or without an admixture of marine vegetables, as before
described, and I combine it or them with night soil in the proportions of from
ten to twenty parts by weight of the latter to one hundred parts, more or less,
by weight, of the former material or materials; or, in place of the night soil,
which will depend upon the intention for which my compost may be required,
I add ten parts by weight of bones, which ten parts of bones are to be pre-
viously mixed with diluted sulphuric acid, so that the bones shall be converted
to a soft state; and I mix the materials thus described with from ten to twenty
parts by weight of soot, or I omit the soot, at pleasure. So many of the
materials in combination and in proportion as described above as may be
deemed necessary for each specific agricultural purpose, which I cannot here
define, but which, according to the nature of the soil, will be readily known
to agricultural persons, I place in a boiler, or in any other convenient recep-
tacle, with urine or sea water or gas water, using merely a sufficient quantity
of either of these fluids, or of a mixture of any or all of them, to enable the
materials to be boiled and perfectly mixed together. I then heat the mixture,
continually stirring it, until it is thoroughly incorporated, and until it is dry or
nearly dry, taking care to prevent the escape of ammonia by the means pro-
posed in process No. 1, or any other suitable means.
Finally, I mix, when required, the results of process No. 1 and of process
No. 2 in proportions to suit specific purposes.
Now, I do not claim the application of any one of the materials mentioned
herein, taken separately; but that which I consider to be new, as applied to the
composition of manures, and therefore wish to claim as the Invention secured to
me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is the disintegration of
coral, coralline, shells, or other lime salts by operating thereon in combination
with common salt, soda, and potass, or their constituents, by means of heat, as
above described, and for the purposes above set forth; also combining the
materials (so prepared) with other ingredients, in the manner above described,
for the purposes of producing an improved manure or compost, adapted to
almost every variety of soil and to every variety of crop.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Barker, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.
EDWARD (L.S.) BARKER.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Fifth day of April, in the
year above mentioned, the aforesaid Edward Barker came before our Lady the
Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and
all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also the
Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute in that
case made and provided.