IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Bell, of Plaistow, in the County of Essex,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Bell at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
80th June 1859.
I, THOMAS BELL, of Plaistow, in the County of Essex, do hereby declare the
nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
manure. For these purposes guano is combined with magnesian limestone
and common salt in the state of powder, and then with sulphuric acid. These
substances are intimately mixed, and then allowed to stand for a time, when
they result in a dry powder, in which state the compound is used as a
manure.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Bell in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
30th December 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
BELL, of Plaistow, in the County of Essex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of June, in the year-of-our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas Bell, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas Bell, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas
Bell, 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 MANUFACTURE
OF MANURE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas
Bell, 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 Thomas Bell, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the fol-
lowing statement thereof, that is to say:-
manure.
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
For these purposes guano is combined with magnesian limestone
and common salt in the state of powder, and then with sulphuric acid. These
substances are intimately mixed, and then allowed to stand for a time, when
they result in a dry powder, in which state the compound is used as a
inanure.
Ilaving thus stated the nature of my Invention, I will proceed more fully
to describe the manner of performing the same.
The object of this Invention is to fix the ammonia in Peruvian guano, and
to add the salts of magnesia and soda, by which I have found the fertilizing
properties of Peruvian guano have been very considerably increased, to as great

page_text: an extent as fifty per cent. I take Peruvian guano and sift it through a sieve
equal to about eight holes to the inch; that portion of the guano which does
not go through a sieve of this size, I grind into a powder until the whole
passes through the sieve. To each ton of this guano in fine powder (put into
a suitable mixer, having by preference a revolving stirrer or horizontal shaft
with arms, which is worked by steam or other power,) I add 2 cwt. of
magnesian stone (dolomite or native carbonate of magnesia) in fine powder,
and 2 cwt. of muriate of soda, and whilst mixing I add 5 cwt. of brown vitrol,
and as soon as the whole of the materials are mixed well together, I allow
them to drop out of the mixer on to a floor below, and in a day or two or
longer the mass is in such a state that it may be bruised down into powder,
when it will be fit for use. By these means the ammonia of the guane
becomes fixed, the phosphates of the guano rendered soluble, and the fertilizing
properties of the guano very considerably increased.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Bell, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
THOMAS BELL. (L.B.)