IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING PHOSPHATES OF LIME AND SALTS OF POTASS AND SODA IN ORDER TO FIT THEM FOR AGRICULTURAL USES
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street, in
the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN TREATING PHOSPHATES OF LIME AND SALTS OF POTASS AND SODA IN ORDER
TO FIT THEM FOR AGRICULTURAL USES."-A communication from abroad
by Georges Ville, of Paris, France.
Sealed the 6th July 1865, and dated the 17th January 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 17th January 1865.
.
1, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING PHOSPHATES OF LIME AND SALTS OF POTASS AND SODA
IN ORDER TO FIT THEM FOR AGRICULTURAL USES," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists, first, in the employment in agriculture of phos-
phate, pyrophosphate, and metaphosphate of potass; and, second, in a
particular method of treating these salts, which treatment is as applicable to
native and artificial phosphates as to the various salts of potass found in nature
or extracted from the mother waters of salt marshes.
Phosphates in the state found in nature, coprolites, nodules, apatite, and
even bones and animal black are often difficult of assimilation by vegetable
bodies. In like manner the salts of potass in the state of chloride and sul-
phate do not act, or act but little, on vegetation. Now the object of this
Invention is to impart to these substances the forms most favorable to
vegetation by their reciprocal action.

page_text: Preparation of the new products-I treat hot in leaden or wooden boilers
or vessels the phosphate of lime, apatite, coprolite, nodules, and by sulphuric
acid diluted with 30 times its volume of water, 1 stir the mass and heat it up
to from about 120° to 140° Fahrenheit by a naked fire or by a steam jet.
The matter is left to itself when the sulphate of lime is deposited; I decant
the liquid when clear. It is a solution of acid phosphate of lime. I con-
centrate this solution to half its volume, and pour therein sufficient sulphate
of potass, or simply sufficient sulphuric acid to precipitate the lime. I leave
it again to deposit the sulphate of lime, and the phosphoric acid remaining
may be used to form phosphate of potass by the aid of choride of potassium,
or sulphate of potass, or other salt of potass, as carbonate or nitrate. 1 com-
mence the reaction in a leaden boiler or vessel, and terminate it in a
reverberatory furnace or a cast-iron cylinder. 1 obtain thus pyrophosphate
of potass, which I pulverize and employ in that form, or after having mixed
it with the sulphate of lime arising from the first treatment. This sulphate
of lime contains a third of the initial phosphate of lime in a very advanced
state of disaggregation. By this process I give to the phosphate, which
is little or not at all capable of assimilation at the commencement, a form
which is most capable of assimilation, and to the salts of potass, which
are of doubtful action or incapable of action, a state in which they possess
a great and powerful influence on vegetation.
When I operate on salts of felspathic origin very rich in potass, I replace
in this treatment the salts of potass, the chloride, sulphate, or carbonate, by
chloride, sulphate, or carbonate of soda.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Oflice
on the 17th July 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Richard Archibald Brooman, Her special licence that I, the said Richard
Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others

page_text: as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, 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 TREATING PHOSPHATES OF LIME AND SALTS OF
POTASS AND SODA IN ORDER TO FIT THEM FOR AGRICULTURAL USES," (communicated
to me from abroad by Georges Ville, of Paris, France,) upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, 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 Richard Archibald Brooman, 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 thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention consists, first, in the employment in agriculture of phosphate,
pyrophosphate, and metaphosphate of potass; and, second, in a particular
method of treating these salts, which treatment is as applicable to native and
artificial phosphates as to the various salts of potass found in nature or
extracted from the mother waters of salt marshes.
Phosphates in the state found in nature, coprolites, nodules, apatite, and
even bones and animal black are often difficult of assimilation by vegetable
bodies. In like manner the salts of potass in the state of chloride and.
sulphate do not act, or act but little, on vegetation.
Now, the object of this Invention is to impart to these substances the forms
most favorable to vegetation by their reciprocal action.
Preparation of the new products.-I treat hot in leaden or wooden
boilers or vessels the phosphates of lime, apatite, coprolite, nodules, and by
sulphuric acid diluted with thirty times its volume of water; 1 stir the mass
and heat it up to from about 120° to 140° Fahrenheit by a naked fire or by a
steam jet. The matter is left to itself when the sulphate of lime is deposited:
I decant the liquid when clear. It is a solution of acid phosphate of lime.
I concentrate this solution to half its volume, and pour therein sufficient
sulphate of potass, or simply sufficient sulphuric acid to precipitate the lime.
I leave it again to deposit the sulphate of lime, and the phosphoric acid

page_text: remaining may be used to form phosphate of potass by the aid of chloride of
potassium, or sulphate of potass. or other salt of potass, as carbonate or nitrate.
I commence the reaction in a leaden boiler or vessel, and terminate it in a
reverberatory furnace or a cast-iron cylinder. I obtain thus pyrophosphate of
potass, which pulverize and employ in that form, or after having mixed it
with the sulphate of lime arising from the first treatment.
This sulphate of lime contains a third of the initial phosphate of lime
in a very advanced state of disaggregation. By this process I give to the
phosphate, which is little or not at all capable of assimilation at the com-
inencement, a form which is most capable of assimilation, and to the salts
of potass, which are of doubtful action or incapable of action,, a state in which
they possess a great and powerful influence on vegetation, When I operate
on salts of felspathic origin, very rich in potass, I replace in this treatment
the salts of potass, the chloride, sulphate, or carbonate, bychloride, sulphate,
or carbonate of soda.
By the process before described I produce phosphate of lime and chloride
of potassium; but phosphate, pyrophosphate, and metaphosphate of potass
can also be employed to produce an alkalino-terrous silicate, in which the
acid is itself in combination with the lime.
For this purpose I mix together:-
Phosphate of polass
Carbonate of lime
Silica (fine sand)
•
108 parts
-
90 "
-
50 ">
I heat to fusion in a reverberatory oven or in large crucibles or other con-
venient apparatus. This operation also applies to cases in which polass is
replaced by soda in the treatment of the phosphates, I then obtain a silicate
with a base of soda and lime containing phosphate of lime.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim, treating phos-
phates of lime and salts of potass and soda, substantially by the means and in
manner herein-before described, in order to fit them for agricultural uses.
In witness whereof, 1. the said Richard Archibald Brooman, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of July, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
R. A. BROOMAN. (L.S.)