IM- PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURES
Year: 1855

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Manning Prentice and
Thomas Richardson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 30th March 1855.
We, MANNING PRENTICE, of Stowmarket, and THOMAS RICHARDSON, of
Newcastle-on-Tyne, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURES," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of reducing fish to a tolerably uniform consistence by
boiling, or by mechanical cutting or grinding or tearing in water, and running
the product into a reverberatory furnace, either alone or with blood, and boil
the whole down by surface heat from the naked fire, either to dryness or to a
less degree, and employ dryers to absorb the moisture. And we employ as
drying matters for the above, or for super-phosphate of lime or other phos-
phatic manures, artificially dried spent bark, or what tanners call ross or
dross, or sea-weed, reduced to a fine powder. And in order to avoid nuisance
we employ a jet or jets of steam to conduct the vapours from the above process
through a fire or through water.

page_text: SPECIFICATION m pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Manning Prentice and Thomas Richardson in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 27th August 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, MANNING
PRENTICE, of Stowmarket, and THOMAS RICHARDSON, of Newcastle-on-Tyne,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Manning Prentice and Thomas Richardson, Her special licence
that we, the said Manning Prentice and Thomas Richardson, our executors.
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Manning Prentice
and Thomas Richardson, our 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, excrcise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURES," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said Manning Prentice and Thomas Richardson, by an instru-
ment in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of
one of us, 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 we, the said Manning Prentice and Thomas
Richardson, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer
tained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention consists of reducing fish to a tolerably uniform consistence by
boiling, or by mechanical cutting or grinding or tearing in water, and running
the product into a reverberatory furnace, either alone or with blood, and boil
the whole down by surface heat from the naked fire, either to dryness or to a
less degree, and employ dryers to absorb the moisture. And we employ as
drying matters for the above, or for super-phosphate of lime or other phosphatic
manures, artificially dried spent bark, or what tanners call ross or dross, or
sea-weed, reduced to a fine powder, And in order to avoid nuisance we employ

page_text: a jet or jets of steam to conduct the vapours from the above process through a
fire or through water.
Having thus stated the nature of our Invention, we will proceed to describe
the manner of performing the same.
We take fish and refuse animal matter containing as much blood as pos-
sible, which we throw into an ordinary reverberatory furnace, either lined with
sheet iron or not, and run in about the same weight of water. to which we
prefer to add about five per cent. of sulphuric or muriatic acid. Where
blood free from other refuse animal matter can be procured in sufficient
quantity, we substitute it for the water either in whole or part, but if solid
animal matters cannot be obtained we employ only blood. The whole is
then submitted to the action of surface heat, in the manner now generally
in practice in chemical works; but instead of continuing the application
of the heat until the whole is evaporated to dryness, by which we would
incur the risk of destroying a portion of the nitrogenous matters, we add
perfectly dry sawdust, spent bark, or what tanners call ross or dross, or sea-
weed, previously reduced to a fine powder, so as to absorb the moisture.
The evaporation is carried so far as to reduce the mass to the consistency of
a thick cream. The proportion of the dryer depends upon the nature of the
materials, but the quantity added must be suflicient to bring the whole to the
state of ordinary super-phosphate of lime. This point of the process requires
great care on the part of the workman, who must damp up his fire and
cautiously regulate the heat so as not to char the animal matters.
The gaseous products are perfectly inoffensive when the process is carefully
conducted, but in order to avoid any annoyance we employ a jet of steam to
force them through an ordinary fire placed between the furnace and the
chimney or we conduct them through a tower filled with coke and supplied
with water from above, similar to those in use for condensing muriatic acid in
alkali works.
In making ordinary super-phosphate of lime various plans are adopted for
what is technically termed "drying-up this manure." We substitute artificially
dried spent bark, or what tanners term ross or dross, or sea-weed, or sawdust,
having previously reduced them to a fine powder by grinding under edge stones
or by fluted rollers, as in the manufacture of snuff.
In the Specification of another Patent of even date herewith we have
described the manufacture of a liquid manure by the application of muriatic
acid, which is adapted to its special application, but as large quantities of
muriatic acid run to waste, we also employ it, by preference, instead of sulphuric
acid. In making super-phosphate of lime we mix any phosphatic materials in

page_text: any convenient vessel in which we can employ either steam heat by means of
a coil of lead pipes or surface heat, as above described, in such proportions that
the quantity of muriatic acid shall be sufficient to combine with the lime
present in the phosphatic material. We find it best to mix, say 20 cwi.
ordinary animal charcoal with 12 cwt. of muriatic acid of about 1.135 specific
gravity, which we boil down nearly to dryness, and then add 23 or 24 cwt.
more acid, heating or warming the whole, to which we add from time to time
about 10 cwt. artificially dried spent bark, ross or dross, or sawdust. reduced
to a state of powder by grinding, when the mixture will resemble ordinary
sulphuric acid super-phosphate of lime, and is ready for stock or for packing
in bags. We do not confine ourselves to the kind of apparatus or the
proportions above named so long as the general nature of our process is
followed.
In witness whereof, we, the said Manning Prentice and Thomas Richard-
son, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Seventeenth day of
August, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-five.
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
MANNING PRENTICE. (L.S.)
THOMAS RICHARDSON. (L.S.)