In- PROVEMENTS IN TREATING THE WASTE OF WOOL, SILK, HORN, AND OTHER NITRO- GENIZED ANIMAL MATTERS TO BE USED AS MANURE
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 13th August 1869.-A communication from abroad by Paul
Pichelin, of Orléans, France.
I, CLINTON EDGCUMBE BROOMAN, of the Firm of Robertson, Broo-
man, and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agents, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "In-
PROVEMENTS IN TREATING THE WASTE OF WOOL, SILK, HORN, AND OTHER NITRO-
GENIZED ANIMAL MATTERS TO BE USED AS MANURE," to be as follows:-
The waste of wool, silk, horn, leather, and other analogous animal.
matters contains a certain proportion of nitrogen which may be usefully
employed as manure; and the object of this Invention is the treatment
of these materials so as to render their fertilizing qualities applicable to.
the above purpose. My treatment is founded upon the disaggregation,
the dissolution; or the fusion of the nitrogenized matters above mentioned
by the action of sulphuric acid and nitric acids combined, or nitro-sul-
phuric acid. The products resulting from this reaction are very rich in
nitrogen and constitute in some respects nitric acids.

page_text: In order to utilize these products as manure I make use of the nitric
acids furnished by these matters to treat phosphates and coprolithes,
and to form from them nitrated superphosphates.
Of the different matters capable of disaggregation by my process I
may mention,
1st. Wool, woollen rags, the waste from wool shearings, and in short
all sorts of woollen fabrics whether alone or mixed with other bodies,
such as thread, silk, or cotton.
2ndly. Silk, silken rags, and all silken stuffs and others containing
silk and their residues.
3rdly. The hides of all animals, comprising the hair superior and
inferior, leather, and the residues from tanning and leather dressing, as
well as all materials manufactured with these products.
4thly. The feathers of all winged animals and the residues therefrom.
5thly. Horn, including horn, properly so called, claws, the hoofs of
horses, and all horny matters and their waste.
The disaggregation or fusion of the matters is performed by a mixture
of sulphuric and nitric acids in variable proportions according to whether
a body more or less resisting is to be resolved, but no body of which
mention has been made will resist a mixture of two parts of sulphuric
acid at 66° degrees with one part of nitric acid at 35 or 36 degrees.
These matters may be resolved with feebler acids, thus with the nitro-
sulphuric acids proceeding from the manufacture of nitro-benzine the
resolution is effected; they attack the matters with tolerable force when
cold, but by heating the action is assisted.
For woollen waste the following proportions are preferred :—
Woollen maste
50 naxta by weight

page_text: receiver containing water in order that they may be there condensed
into a liquid, which by its acid properties can dissolve phosphates.
After ten minutes stirring the wool is liquefied and forms with the
acids a pasty liquid. This paste or pasty liquid I apply to the manu-
facture of superphosphates; its concentrated acidity of about 50 degrees
dissolves and renders soluble all phosphates whether bone or coprolithes,
or phosphorites, of Spain and other places. By stirring together 100
parts by weight of nitric acid, and 200 parts by weight of phosphates
and by leaving them in contact for 48 hours a product is formed which
dries and solidifies in such a manner as to render the pickaxe necessary
to break it. After being pulverized by means of a roller or clod breaker
the nitrated superphosphate is ready to be employed as manure. By
this process the nitrogen is not only incorporated with the super-
phosphate, but this nitrated superphosphate is prepared at half the
cost of ordinary superphosphate.