AN IMPROVED METHOD OF TREATING BONES AND THE PRODUCTS OBTAINED THEREFROM 80 AS TO RENDER THEM AVAILABLE FOR VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES.
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Stirling Jackson, of Carter Street,
Walworth in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of "AN
IMPROVED METHOD OF TREATING BONES AND THE PRODUCTS OBTAINED
THEREFROM 80 AS
TO RENDER THEM AVAILABLE FOR VARIOUS USEFUL
PURPOSES.
Scaled the 14th May 1869, and dated the 10th December 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Stirling
Jackson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his l'etition, on the 10th December 1868.
1, WILLIAM STIRLING JACKSON, of Carter Street, Walworth, in the
County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF TREATING BONES AND THE PRODUCTS OBTAINED
THEREFROM SO AS TO RENDER THEM AVAILABLE FOR VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES,"
to be as follows:-

page_text: purpose of dissolving the earthy matter (phosphates of calcium), and
separating the same from the animal matter (osseine) thereof by
arranging the bones in suitable vessels as described herein, and then
subjecting them to the solvent action of the said acid solutions, such
solutions being applied to the bones under an increased pressure, or at
the ordinary atmospheric pressure only as required until they are
saturated or nearly so with the earthy matter of the bones.
Secondly. In the decomposition of the phosphates of calcium obtained
by the action of solution of hydrochloric acid on bones by means of
silicic acid for the economical extraction of their phosphoric acid and
phosphorus phosphates thus obtained may be advantageously employed
as a fertilizing agent.
Thirdly. Submitting the animal matter obtained by the action of
solutions of hydrochloric acid on bones to the direct action of high-
pressure steam for the production of gelatin or size.
Fourthly. In treating the animal matter obtained by the action of
hydrochloric acid and similar known solvents on bones (or the gelatin
of such animal matter so obtained from bones) with sulphuric acid in
order to obtain sulphate of ammonium and glucose, or a fermentescible
saccharine matter isomeric therewith.
In carrying out this Invention, so far as relates to the extraction
of the carthy matter of bones by means of the acid solutions applied
thereto under an increased pressure, I prefer to use a strong cylindrical
wrought or cast iron vessel or vessels capable of sustaining a pressure
of 100 lbs. on the square inch, and lined inside with sheet lead or other
suitable material, and provided with convenient inlets for charging
with the bones and acid solutions, and with outlets for discharging the
saturated solutions and animal matter thereof; when necessary the
pressure is applied to the interior of the vessel when charged with
the bones and acid solution by means of an air pump or suitable
hydraulic power at about 60 lbs., or it may be increased if desired to
100 lbs. on the inch. When saturated the solution is to be run off from
the bones and replaced by a fresh solution, and the process is to be repeated
until the earthy matter of the bones is entirely dissolved, if required,
by the acid solutions and separated from the residual animal matter. By
these means the bones are far more rapidly penetrated by the acid
solutions, and such solutions are much more completely saturated than
is practicable by the usual process. When the acid solutions are applied

page_text: to the bones at the ordinary atmospheric pressure only, I use vessels
built of wood only, or rectangular tanks well built of hard baked stock
bricks lined inside with lead or wood, or cemented and well covered with
asphalte; these tanks are convenient when made capable of holding
5 or 6 tons each of bones, or in inside dimensions of about 12 feet in
length by 6 feet wide, and from 10 to 12 feet in depth, and fitted with a
stout wooden grating or false bottom having an open space of 3 or 4
inches between the actual and false bottoms, such open space com-
municating with the outside of the tank by a 2-inch plug hole bored
through the front wall of the tank and used for running off the saturated
solutions.
In charging one of these tanks I proceed as follows:-I take, say,
5 tons of the bones and pack them closely in rectangular shaped ash
wood crates capable of holding 5 hundredweight of bones each, and
nearly 6 feet in length by 3 feet wide, and 2 fect in depth outside
measure, the wooden framework of these crates must be strongly made
and stout in wood, and the withies forming the sides and bottom of the
crate not more than one inch apart; when the crates are filled with
bones I arrange them in five layers, one above the other, of 4 crates
each within the tank, and fill up the tank with the hydrochloric acid
solution or other known solvent, and when such solution is saturated, or
nearly so, with the earthy matter of the bones it is run off through the
plug hole into any suitable vessel, and the basic phosphates of calcium
separated therefrom; a fresh solution of the acid is again poured on the
bones, which when saturated or nearly so is run off and treated as
before, and this process is repeated if required until the whole of the
earthy matters of the bones is dissolved by the acid solutions and
separated from the residual animal matter..
In order to extract the phosphoric acid and phosphorus from the
basic phosphates of calcium obtained as described I intimately incorporate
with them from one and a half to twice their weight when dry of fine
sand or pulverized sandstone and transfer the mass to a retort and
expose it to a full red heat until the whole of the phosphoric acid
contained in the basic phosphates is volatilized and conveyed by means
of a current of air into any suitable vessel where it is condensed in the
solid form or in solution as required, or the phosphoric acid vapour
may when required be conducted over red hot charcoal, and thus
directly converted into phosphorus, which is collected in the ordinary

page_text: manner.
The animal matter remaining after the earthy constituents
of the bone are separated and removed therefrom may be converted into
gelatin or size by well washing it in cold water until such water ceases
to show an acid action on test paper; the greater portion of water
mechanically held in the animal matter may then be removed by
pressure, and it is then placed in a vertical iron cylinder upon any
strong filtering material or suspended by a metallic or ordinary net
therein and submitted to the direct action of steam at about 40 lbs.
pressure until converted into gelatin; the exit stop-cock with which
the cylinder is fitted is then opened, and the solution of gelatin passes
through the filter and out of the cylinder through the stop-cock into
the vessel placed to receive it, and the fibre and impurities contained in
the animal matter are left on the filter or net for removal when required.
In treating the animal matter obtained by the action of hydrochloric
acid or similar known solvents on bones, or the gelatin derived from
such animal matter so obtained from bones with sulphuric acid in
order to obtain sulphate of ammonium and glucose, or a fermentescible
saccharine matter isomeric therewith therefrom, I take the said animal
matter of bones, which by preference is to be previously desiccated by
pressure or otherwise, and add thereto in any suitable vessel about fifty
per cent. by weight of sulphuric acid of specific gravity 1845, or there-
abouts, and at the normal temperature, and when the animal matter is
dissolved by the acid, or nearly so, I dilute the solution with from twice
to thrice its bulk of water and boil the same until the gelatin of the
animal matter is converted into sulphate of ammonium and glucose, or
an isomeric saccharine matter; the solution is then carefully neutralized
with lime or chalk and filtered, and a small quantity of yeast or other
suitable ferment is added to the filtered solution, which is then exposed
to and maintained at a temperature of about 70° Fahrenheit; fermentation
soon commences, and when carbonic acid ceases to escape the saccharine
matter will have disappeared and the solution is found to contain an
alcohol which is separated therefrom by distillation and may be sub
sequently rectified by the usual processes. The solution remaining after
separation of the alcohol now contains only sulphate of ammonium
which may be separated by evaporation and crystallization; or the
solution may be mixed with an equivalent proportion of common salt
evaporated to dryness and salammoniac obtained therefrom by sub-
limation.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Stirling Jackson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 9th June 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
STIRLING JACKSON, of Carter Street, Walworth, in the County of Surrey,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Stirling Jackson, Her special
licence that I, the said William Stirling Jackson, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Stirling Jackson, 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 law-
fully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man,
AND
TREATING BONES
an Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF
PRODUCTS OBTAINED THEREFROM SO AS TO RENDER THEM AVAILABLE FOR VARIOUS
USEFUL PURPOSES. upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
William Stirling Jackson, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment 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.
THE
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Stirling Jackson, 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 following statement, that is to say:-
This Invention consists,--
Firstly. In a more effective and economical method of applying
solutions of hydrochloric acid. and similar known solvents to bones for
the purpose of dissolving the earthy matter and separating it from the

page_text: animal matter thereof by arranging the bones in suitable vessels, as
described herein, and then subjecting them to the solvent action of the
said solutions, such solutions being applied to the bones under an
increased pressure or at the ordinary atmospheric pressure only, as
required, until they are saturated or nearly so with the earthy matter of
the bones.
Secondly. In the decomposition of the phosphates of calcium obtained
by the action of solutions of hydrochloric acid on bones by means of
silicic acid for the economical extraction of their phosphoric acid and
phosphorus.
Thirdly. In submitting the animal matter obtained by the action of
solutions of hydrochloric acid on bones to the direct action of high-
pressure steam for the production of gelatin and glue.
In carrying out this Invention,so far as relates to the extraction of the
earthy matter of the bones by means of the acid solutions applied thereto
under an increased pressure, I prefer to use a strong cylindrical wrought
or cast iron vessel or vessels capable of sustaining an internal
pressure
of one hundred pounds on the square inch, and lined inside with sheet
lead or other suitable material, this vessel or vessels being provided with
convenient inlets for charging with the bones and acid solutions, and
outlets for discharging the saturated or nearly saturated solutions and
animal matter when necessary. The description of vessel I prefer as
being convenient for the purpose is that of a wrought-iron cylinder
capable of containing about one ton of bones, or about three feet in
diameter by about twelve feet in depth inside measures; the bottom of
the cylinder is convex, and is fitted with a stop-cock for discharging the
solutions; the open end of the cylinder is fitted with a flange, and is
closed by a moveable convex cover fitted with a corresponding flange,
and furnished with two stop-cocks for charging the cylinder with the
solutions; an efficient joint is obtained by inserting a caoutchouc ring
or washer between the two flanges and screwing them together with
bolts; the cylinder is mounted on axles supported on bearings for the
convenience of filling or emptying; and for accelerating the action of
the solutions the pressure may be applied to the solutions within the
cylinder by means of an air pump or by any other suitable means. I
however prefer to employ the power obtained by injecting a stream of
cold water into the closed cylinder when charged with the bones and
solvent solution; for this purpose I carry a pipe through the centre of

page_text: one of the axles into the cylinder, and connect this pipe with a hydraulic
pump; the pipe is fitted with an efficient socket joint to permit of the
inversion or rotation of the cylinder without disconnecting the pump.
When the cylinder is filled with the bones and the cover well secured
thereon the two upper stop-cocks are opened and the bottom one is shut;
the cold solution of the solvent is then run through one of the open
stop-cocks into the cylinder until it begins to flow out of the other, when
both are to be closed and the pump set in motion and continued until the
required pressure within the cylinder is reached; this may be raised to
any height compatible with the strength of the apparatus, and it may be
varied according to the nature of the solvent used and the density of the
bones operated upon; a pressure of from sixty to one hundred pounds
on the square inch will however generally be found to give good prac-
tical results. To accelerate the action of the solutions under
pressure it
is desirable that some mechanical alteration in the relative positions of
the bones and solutions should frequently be made, and this I accomplish
by imparting to the cylinder a slow rotary motion or by inverting it at
short intervals, although other suitable means may be used. After the
bones have been about an hour under pressure the solution will be found
to be saturated or nearly so with the carthy matter thereof, and is then
run from out of the cylinder into any convenient vessel, and the phos-
phoric acid may be separated therefrom either by precipitating as a
metallic phosphate, or by precipitation or evaporation, as the tri-phos-
phate, di-phosphate, or mono-phosphate of lime, as required, for use in the
arts for the production of phosphoric acids, phosphorus and phosphates
generally, or for the purposes of vegetation. When these saturated
solutions are obtained from bones by means of hydrochloric or of phos-
phoric acids a very economical method of concentrating such solutions
for the purpose of separating their mono-phosphate of lime may be used,
by which the necessity of evaporating is almost superseded; this consists
in mixing the saturated solution with a fresh quantity of the solvent,
which is then reapplied to the bones under pressure as before until the
solvent is neutralized and the solution again saturated. By this process
the density of the solution is increased to a degree of specific gravity
from which the degree most suitable for crystallizing out the mono-
phosphate is attained with a minimum of evaporation. The same process
is also applicable to the concentration of saturated solutions obtained by
the action of sulphurous acid, and effects a considerable economy in the
cost of separating the di-phosphate of lime therefrom. The most suitable

page_text: degree of specific gravity at which the solvent solutions may be applied
to the bones varies with the nature of the solvent employed, but from
the rapidity with which they are saturated under pressure they may
generally be safely used at twice the density at which they are commonly
applied. Bones thus treated are rapidly decomposed, and in consequence
of more complete neutralization there is a material saving effected in
the decomposing agent employed. Any suitable known solvent of the
inorganic substance of bone may be used with increased advantage
under high pressures; thus solutions of carbonic acid, nitrate of soda, or
of ammoniacal salts, all of which slowly dissolve the earthy matter of
bones, exhibit an accelerated solvent action thereon under high pressures;
as also solutions of the acid phosphates, nitrates, sulphites, sulphides,
and chlorides generally, and the solutions generally of all such acids as
are capable of forming soluble compounds with lime. The solvents
usually employed by me are aqueous solutions of hydrochloric, phos-
phoric, and sulphurous acids, and very dilute solutions of sulphuric acid,
and such acid solutions or other suitable known solvents are thus applied
to the bones either singly or combined, as may be desired. The partially
decomposed bones remaining in the cylinder may, if required, be again
treated with a fresh cold solution or solutions of the solvent or solvents,
and subjected to the same process as described until the whole of their
earthy matter is dissolved and separated from the residual animal matter,
and this animal matter may either be at once removed by detaching the
cover and inverting the cylinder, or it may be rapidly and efficiently
washed therein by subjecting it to the action of clean cold water, and
of solutions of any suitable salifiable base under a pressure of sixty or
more pounds on the inch, rotating the cylinder for a few minutes, and
repcating such washings with fresh waters, as required; but instead of
completely exhausting the bones under pressure, sometimes I prefer to
thus extract about eighty per cent. of their earthy matter, or so much as
is obtained by the action of two charges of the solvent solutions; I then
transfer the remaining partially decomposed bones from the cylinder into
wooden crates and complete their decomposition in tanks, as hereafter
described, by means of solutions of sulphurous acid, which also simul-
taneously bleaches their animal matter.
When solutions of hydrochloric acid or similar known solvents arc
applied to bones at the ordinary atmospheric pressure I use vessels built
of wood, or rectangular brickwork tanks lined with lead or wood, or well

page_text: coated inside with asphalte; these tanks are convenient if made capable
of holding five or six tons each of bones, or in inside dimensions
about twelve feet in length by six feet in width, and from ten to twelve
feet in depth fitted with an open or perforated false bottom with an
open space of three or four inches between the real and the false
bottoms, such open space communicating with the outside of the
tank by means of a two-inch plug hole bored through the wall of the
tank and used for running off the solutions. In charging one of these
tanks I take, say, five tons of bones and pack them closely in rect-
angular-shaped ashwood crates capable of holding five hundredweights
each of bones, or nearly six feet in length by three feet in width and
two feet in depth, outside measures; the framework of these crates should
be strongly made, and the withes forming their sides and bottoms not
more than one inch apart, and it is advisable that they should not much
exceed the depth here given, as the primary object in making these
crates shallow is to relieve the lower strata from the pressure of the
superincumbent strata of bones, as when the bones become softened such
pressure greatly retards the action of the solvent thereon, and although
the working advantages are in favor of packing the bones in moveable
rigid sections or crates, as described, yet I do not confine myself thereto,
but I sometimes arrange the bones in layers upon moveable wooden
perforated diaphragms laid horizontally within the tank at distances
about two feet apart from each other, and so arranged by means of
intermediate supports that the weight of each diaphragm, together with
its layer of bones is transmitted through that placed below to the bottom
of the tank, thus relieving the bones of vertical pressure. When the
crates are filled with the bones I arrange them in five layers of four
crates each within the tank and fill up the tank with the solvent
solution, and when such solution is saturated, or nearly so, with the
earthy matter of the bones it is run off into a receiver, and the phos-
phates of calcium separated therefrom by precipitation, and this process
is repeated if required until the whole of the earthy matter of the bones
is separated from the residual animal matter. The circulation of the
fluids within these tanks is effected by connecting a suitable pumping
apparatus with the receiver and tank and equalizing the flow from the
tank into the receiver with that delivered by the pump into the tank.
In order to extract the phosphoric acid and phosphorus of the phosphates
of lime obtained as described, I intimately mix them with from one and a
half to twice their weight when dry of fine sand or pulverized sandstone,

page_text: and transfer the mass to a retort and expose to a full red heat until the
phosphoric acid is volatilized and conveyed by means of a current of air
into any suitable vessel, where it is condensed in the solid form or in
aqueous solution as required. This operation is effected in metal or fire-
clay cylinders or in muffle-shaped retorts set in furnaces, so that the
flames may pass round and raise them to between an orange red and a
white heat; the discharge tubes of four or more of these retorts may be
connected with a single receiver cooled by a current of water; this
receiver communicates by means of a wide pipe with a long narrow
chamber subdivided by guage partitions, through which the air current
passes into a chimney or other contrivance for creating a current. When
the mixture in the retorts is brought to a full orange red heat a slow
current of heated atmospheric air is passed through them in the
direction of the receiver, and the mass is stirred at intervals in order
to promote the volatilization of the acid and its removal by the current;
instead of atmospheric air a current of superheated steam may some-
times be substituted, in which case orthophosphoric acid is mainly
produced. When the evolution of phosphoric acid ceases the mixture
of neutral silicates and undecomposed phosphate of lime is removed
from the retorts and a fresh charge thrown in and the process repeated.
The undecomposed phosphate may be recovered by digesting the mixture
with a solution of hydrochloric acid or other suitable solvent.
phosphates of lime obtained from the saturated solutions by precipitation
or evaporation, as described, contain animal matter and more or less of
the solvent used in extracting, and to get rid of these it is advisable to
gently ignite the dried phosphates in an ordinary reverberatory furnace
with access of air until they become white. This process is applicable to
either of the three varieties of tribasic phosphates of lime obtained from
bones, as described, but I prefer to employ monophosphate of lime,
on account of the greater facility with which the decomposition is
effected, and for the purpose this salt will require about fifty per cent. of
its weight when dry of finely powdered sandstone. Pure phosphoric acid is
thus obtained in the forms of meta-phosphoric and pyro-phosphoric acids,
and their direct conversion into phosphorus may be effected by carrying
their vapour by means of a slow current of heated carbonic oxide gas
through incandescent charcoal contained in a fire-clay cylinder intensely
heated and connected with the ordinary receivers, but a greater yield of
phosphorus is obtained by first condensing the acids and intimately
mixing them with about fifty per cent. of their weight of powdered char
The

page_text: coal, sifting the mixture, and distilling in the ordinary manner. The
animal matter remaining after the earthy matter of the bones is separated
therefrom, as described, is well washed in cold water, and in solutions of
any suitable salifiable base, until such wash waters cease to show any
acid action on test paper; the greater portion of the water mechanically
held in it is removed by pressure or otherwise, and it is then in a condi-
tion suitable for conversion into a strong solution of gelatin or glue. For
this purpose I employ a vertical iron cylinder with a conical shaped base
terminating in a stop-cock; the upper end of the cylinder is closed by a
moveable cover within the cylinder, and resting just above the conical
bottom is a moveable perforated diaphragm covered with a stout double
woollen cloth or other suitable filtering material, and a small perforated
diaphragm also covered with stout woollen cloth is fixed within the
conical bottom just above the stop-cock, the space between these
diaphragms being filled with powdered animal charcoal or other filtering
or decolorizing material. A perforated moveable diaphragm rests on suit-
able supports within the cylinder; about twelve inches above this filter the
animal matter enclosed in an ordinary net is placed upon the upper
diaphragm; the cover is then securely closed, and steam of about forty
pounds to the inch is blown into the cylinder until the whole of the
soluble part of the animal matter is dissolved; the stop-cock is then
opened and the concentrated solution of gelatin passes through the filter
into the vessel placed to receive it, where it is allowed to settle clear and
is treated by the usual well-known methods according to the description
of article it is intended to produce. The fibre and impurities contained
in the animal matter are removed from the cylinder, and may be dried
and used as an ammoniacal manure or as a suitable raw material for the
manufacture of ammoniacal salts and ferrocyanide of potassium.
Having now fully described and set forth the nature and object of my
said Invention for "An Improved Method of Treating Bones and the
Products obtained therefrom so as to Render them Available for various
Useful Purposes," I hereby declare this Invention to consist in and I
claim,―
First. Treating bones with solutions of hydrochloric acid or other
similar solvent when applied thereto under high pressures for the
purpose of separating the earthy matter from the animal matter.
Secondly. Treating bones arranged in independent shallow permeable
vessels or layers with hydrochloric acid or other similar solvent at the

page_text: ordinary atmospheric pressure, for the purpose of separating the earthy
matter from the animal matter.
And, thirdly. For extracting phosphates, phosphoric acid, phosphorus,
and gelatin from the aforesaid earthy and animal matters separated as
above stated, substantially as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Stirling Jackson, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of May,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine.
W. STIRLING JACKSON. (L.S.)