IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Clark Gist, Gentleman, of 36, Cannon Street,
in the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF MANURE."-A communication.
Sealed the 2nd February 1858, and dated the 19th August 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Clark Gist at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
19th August 1857.
I, ROBERT CLARK GIST, Gentleman, of 36, Cannon Street, in the City of
London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE," to be as follows:-
It consists of a process for generating, collecting, condensing, and fixing
ammonia in fertilizers of the soil, and in compounding them with certain other
substances in various and different proportions, so as to adapt the said fertilizers
to the nature of the different plants, and thus stimulate and promote their
growth and productiveness. For this purpose a quantity of aluminous earth
is made into a bed and exposed to the action of the air, but-protected from
rain and excessive natural or artificial heat, and subjected to repeated evapo-
ration by moistening it with water in which certain salts have been dissolved,
or with which certain acids have been mixed. The aluminous earth preferred
is ordinary green sand, consisting of the silicates of alumina, potash, and iron,
and it should be in a state of coarse powder sufficiently porous to allow the
circulation of the air, from which it absorbs and condenses ainmonia. Proto-

page_text: sulphate of iron, the copperas of commerce, is the salt, and sulphuric the acid
preferred for the operation of moistening, which should be performed with
care, that the ammonia be not dissolved and washed from the bed by excess of
moisture. Nitrogenous matter sufficiently decomposed to evolve ammonia
may be mixed with the beds and manipulated in the same manner. The
gelatine of bones may also be used with advantage in making the salts of
ammonia by this process. The insoluble silicates that are of no utility are by
this process made soluble and converted into food for plants. The character
and quality of this fertilizer may be varied to adapt it to the nature of the
plants to be produced; for cereals a larger proportion of phosphates, for grasses
the salts of ammonia and sulphate of iron, and for potatoes a predominating
quantity of alkaline matter should be employed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Clark Gist in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
15th February 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
CLARK GIST, Gentleman, of 36, Cannon Street, in the City of London, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Robert Clark Gist, Her special licence that I, the said Robert Clark
Gist, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Robert Clark Gist, 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," (a communication,) upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Robert Clark Gist, 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 Inven-
tion, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Clark Gist, 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:-
This Invention consists of a new and useful process for generating, collect-
ing, condensing, and fixing ammonia in fertilizers of the soil, and in com-
pounding such fertilizers wherein ammonia thus fixed and condensed is a
principal ingredient with certain other substances herein-after mentioned, in
various and different proportions, so as to adapt the said fertilizers to the
nature of the different plants, and thus stimulate and promote their growth
and productiveness. It has been known for some time past that iron oxidized
by exposure to the atmosphere frequently contains a small quantity of
ammonia, and also that the same substance is often found in aluminous earth
or minerals. I do not claim therefore to have discovered that such oxide and
earth are absorbents of ammonia; but based upon these ideas I have invented
a new and improved method of collecting, condensing, and fixing ammonia,
whether existing in the atmosphere or arising from the decomposition of
nitrogenous matter, for use in the composition of fertilizers. The minute and
small quantities of ammonia which the oxides of iron and the aluminous earth
contain in their natural state, however long exposed to the action of the air,
evince that their capacity to absorb ammonia is too inconsiderable to render
them of any value or importance by themselves in this connection. It requires
the addition of other substances and a peculiar process to produce the desired
result of generating, collecting, condensing, and fixing ammonia in such large
quantities that it may be used to advantage for fertilizing purposes. If I
desire to collect ammonia from the atmosphere only and to condense and fix
it by the process which I have invented, I proceed as follows:-A quantity of
the aluminous earth is made into a bed and exposed to the action of the air.
but protected from rain and excessive natural or artificial heat, and subjected
to repeated evaporation by moistening the same with water in which certain
salts have been dissolved, or with which certain acids have been mixed. The.
aluminous earth which I generally use consists mostly of the silicate of alumina
mixed naturally with other silicates, such as the silicates of potash, soda, and
iron. I have found no other silicate of alumina so well adapted to the purposes.
here adverted to as the green sand or glauconitic sand of the cretaceous
formation; this sand consists of the silicates of alumina, potash, and iron.
Other silicates of alumina, such as clay slate, may be used, but they do not
contain so much silicate of potash as the green sand, and their. use requires
the expense of pulverizing. The sulphate of lime or gypsum or carbonized

page_text: matter mixed with earth, as muck or lignite in a carbonized state, can also be
used for this purpose.
The aluminous material, whatever it may be, should be placed on a floor
paved with stone, brick, or slate, or made of boards; but care should be taken
not to use too porous material for such floor in order to prevent an absorption
of the salts of ammonia; burnt gypsum made into paste will serve the same
purpose. To lay the beds of aluminous earth on the bare ground does not
answer very well, although it is not impossible to produce the salts of ammonia
in that way. Great care should be taken in the choice of the material, which
should be in a state of coarse powder sufficiently porous to allow the cir-
culation of the air through the whole mass. The powder ought not to be too
fine or plastic, like potter's clay, so as to prevent such circulation; nor too
coarse, as the aluminous earth acts in this state like other porous substances;
and condenses gases as platina sponge does hydrogen gas.
The beds of aluminous earth having been prepared I next make a mixture
for moistening it; this is done either by diluting different acids with water, or
by dissolving certain kinds of salts (neutral or double) in water. The acid
which I generally use, and which I much prefer, is the common sulphuric
acid of commerce (S. O 3), one part of which I dilute with ten parts of water:
Diluted muriatic acid and even organic acids, as humic acid, may also be
used, which form then different salts (muriates and humates). If salts are
used for the preparation of the moistening fluid or mixture, which I prefer
when carbonate of lime is contained in the aluminous earth, as, for instance, in
the green sand (in which is a large quantity of fossil shells), I generally
take the proto-sulphate of iron, for the reason that the action of the sulphate
of iron on the carbonate of lime is gradual, and gives the slowly liberated
carbonic acid time to unite with the ammonia of the air, forming carbonate of
ammonia, which afterwards, by further addition of proto-sulphate of iron, is
partly converted into sulphate of ammonia; both salts being found with the
results of this process. As substitutes for the proto-sulphate of iron I can use
the sulphate of alumina, and the double salt alum, and also the biphosphate
of lime or any other salt, the acid of which has a greater affinity for the
ammonia than for the basis to which it is united. In the place of using the
proto-sulphate of iron in its crystalline state or the copperas of commerce,
metallic iron in a comminuted state may be mixed with the aluminous earth,
and diluted sulphuric acid added, and the same result obtained, or the earth
may contain a sulphuret of iron in the form of pyrites, as sometimes is the
case of green sand, which will decompose into sulphate of iron, and have
the same effect.

page_text: The irregation or moistening of the aluminous bed, whether it be with one
mixture or the other, should be carefully made, so as not to wash out any salts
of ammonia already formed, and so as not to cause the bed to bake in drying.
By this process the ammonia of the atmosphere is gradually collected, con-
densed, and fixed, and I believe that in addition ammonia is formed as follows:
-The protoxide of iron unites in its nascent state momentarily with the
carbonic acid of the lime, forming a proto-carbonate of iron; but as this salt
cannot long exist in the presence of water it decomposes the water directly,
the oxygen of which combines with the protoxide of iron, changing it into an
oxide, while the hydrogen of the water unites in its nascent state with the
nitrogen of the air and forms ammonia, and this combining with the carbonic
acid set free makes carbonate of ammonia. If the aluminous earth contains
fossils of any description, the organic matter of those fossils contributes much
to produce the ammonia.
The process of collecting, condensing, and fixing the ammonia evolved from
the. decomposition of nitrogenous matter is precisely the same with that
herein-before stated. The nitrogenous matter, such as flesh, fish, blood, &c.,
is mixed with the green sand and other substances already named, and placed
in beds, which are watered from time to time, and when treated with either
liquid mixtures or other substitutes already described after decomposition has
sufficiently advanced to evolve the ammonia. The manipulation by repeated
evaporations and other proceedings are exactly the same as in the case of
collecting ammonia from the air or atmosphere.
In order to make the salts of ammonia by this last process the gelatine of
bones can be used to great advantage. When bones are being dissolved for
making biphosphate of lime for fertilizing purposes they are treated with
diluted sulphuric acid, which results in the production of sulphate of lime or
gypsum, biphosphate of lime as a fluid, and the gelatine of the bones in the
state of a paste. If this mass of three substances is mixed with the aluminous
earth into a bed, and subjected to the above described process, the gelatine is
converted into ammonia, and this is condensed and converted partly into a
phosphate of ammonia and partly into a sulphate of ammonia, the phospheric
acid of the biphophate uniting partly with the ammonia in its nascent state
forming phosphate of ammonia..
As the above described process is going on the suitable tests are from time
to time to be applied, to ascertain the quantity of ammonia evolved.
In addition to the advantages, already adverted to, resulting from this
process of forming the salts of ammonia, the following important results
are obtained :-

page_text: The ammonia in its nascent state coming in contact in the beds with the
silicates of alumina and potash, acts upon them and renders them soluble to
some extent, by uniting with them and forming double salts, which are of
great importance, as plants can with their roots only absorb substances so
necessary for their growth if they are in a soluble state.
The character and quality of this fertilizer can be varied so as to adapt
it to the nature of the plants to be produced; for cereal grains of every
description there should be a larger quantity of phosphates, for grasses of
every description a larger quantity of salts of ammonia and sulphate of lime,
and for potatoes a larger quantity of alkaline matter.
In order to supply the extra quantity of such matter which some plants,
such as tobacco, potatoes, &c. require, I mix a concentrated solution of the
sulphate of soda with the aluminous earth containing the carbonate of lime,
such as fossil shells, and this produces a mutual decomposition of the sulphate
of soda and the carbonate of lime or shells, and the conversion of the first
into carbonate of soda, and the latter into sulphate of lime; and then as a part
of my process I take a certain quantity of the aluminous earth thus prepared,
usually ten per cent. of the matter which I separate from the ammonia beds,
and mix the same with such matter, and obtain by this combination a fertilizer
of a more marked alkaline character.
While I disclaim distinctly the discovery of the fact that ammonia is
absorbed to a small extent the oxides of iron and by aluminous earth, or
that it is generated by the decomposition of animal substances in contact with
air and water, I claim as my peculiar process, and desire to secure by Letters
Patent the particulars following, viz. :-
I. The formation of the ammonia beds for the purpose above described in
the manner substantially as herein-before set forth.
II. The process by which I collect, condense, and fix ammonia (whether
from the air or nitrogengenous matter) in such beds made of aluminous earth
or other substances above specified, sheltered from the rain or excessive heat,
and alternately moistened (with the diluted acids or a weak solution of salts
both enumerated above), and dried and treated in all essential respects as
herein set forth.
III. The introduction into these beds of bones which have been subjected
to the action of diluted sulphuric acid, and persuing with the beds thus charged
substantially the treatment herein-before described to condense and fix the
ammonia evolved from the gelatine of such bones, thus producing the
phosphate of ammonia.
IV. The conversion of a part of the silicates of the green sand or other

page_text: silicates (placed in the aforesaid beds) by nascent ammonia into a soluble state,
and the combination of such silicates thus converted with the silicate of
ammonia, so as to make double salts, and so as to make the silica present
available for the nourishment of plants.
V. The combination which I am enabled to effect (in the aforesaid beds or
in the matter taken from the same) of all the various elements of fertility and
productiveness herein-before specified, by using the means and persuing the
process substantially as above set forth.
VI. The variation or diversity which I can make or attain in the quality or
character of the fertilizer thus manufactured, by securing in the same more or
less of the phosphates, more or less of the salts of ammonia, or more or less of
alkaline matter, so as to adapt such fertilizer to the nature of the plants to be
produced, and so as to render the same more effective as an agent of fertility
than it otherwise would be, which diversity I effect or secure in the manner
and by the means herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Clark Gist have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
ROBERT CLARK GIST. (L.S.)