IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OR MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL MANURES
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Chisholm, of Holloway, in the County
of Middlesex, Practical Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OR MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL MANURES"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Chisholm at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 4th June 1853.
I, JOHN CHISHOLM, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OR MANUFACTURE OF ARTI
FICIAL MANURES" to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in treating animal, vegetable, and mineral
bodies for the purpose of producing artificial guano and other manures.
From the mineral bodies I obtain phosphates and ammonia; from the
vegetable substances, potash, soda, and carbon, and by the use of
mineral substances I obtain acids to arrest and fix the volatile ammonia
In a retort similar to that used for the manufacture of gas from coal I
place fish and sea-weed, about equal weights of each, and submit them
to destructive distillation; the gasses are made to pass through pipes;

page_text: when the oily and aqueous vapours are condensed and received into
tanks, the lighter gasses pass through a chamber containing a charcoal
made from a peat (which had been impregnated with a sulphate of
lime) here the ammonia will be arrested by the sulphuric acid in the
lime, and converted into a sulphate of ammonia; illuminating gas will
pass on and may be stored in a gas holder. When the operation is
over, the contents of the retort and the contents of the chamber con-
taining the peat charcoal & ammonia are mixed together, forming
guano. The oil and other products will form the subject of another
Patent. Instead of a retort, I sometimes use a brick chamber, in
which I place the animal and vegetable substances, and pass through
them a stream of highly mixed nitrogen. Or I make use of steam and
electric currents. It may sometimes be convenient to treat the animal
bodies in the same way as that adopted in making wood charcoal on
the open ground; in that case the mounds should be kept covered with
damp peat or turf, either naturally containing sulphate of iron or
artificially impregnated therewith. A small mound of a sulphate peat
or vegetable charcoal should be placed near this, communicating with a
tube or passage for the gases to pass into it and be absorbed. The
animal bodies may be placed on heaps on the ground, covered with a
sulphate peat, and allowed to decompose; or they may be mixed with a
sulphate peat, and dried either in the air or submitted to the heat of a
kiln, or by passing a current of hot air through them; or they may be
mixed with peat, or peat or any vegetable charcoal. In either case I
prefer a sulphate peat. These preparations will form an excellent
manure, without further manipulation, or they may be stored away as
stock to be submitted to destructive distillation. I make use of all
animal bodies, those obtained from the sea or rivers, either in their
entire state or parts of them; but in populous districts I must naturally
confine myself to the offal of animals, such as the refuse of slaughter-
houses and fish markets, as blood, gut, skin, &c.
The vegetable substances I use are sea-weed, particularly that kind
called laminaria peat, (and where this can be obtained impregnated
with sulphate of lime, sulphate of iron, or peroxide of iron, it should be
preferred,) and charcoal made from peat or any vegetable body. The

page_text: mineral substances I make use of are decomposed gronite, shale, clay,
coal, iron pyrites, shells, lime and magnesia, and their salts, coprolites,
ouse, chloride of sodium, and sulphate of iron, and the mineral acids.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Chisholm in the Great Seal Patent Office,
on the 3rd December 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, J,
JOHN CHISHOLM, of Holloway, in the County of Middlesex, Practical
Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the six-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Ier heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Chisholm, Her special licence
that I, the said John Chisholm, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said John Chisholm, 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 of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF ARTIFICIAL MANURES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said John Chisholm, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain 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 John Chisholm, do hereby de-
clare 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, reference being had to the accompanying

page_text: Sheet of Drawings illustrative of the apparatus used for performing
portions of the operations, and forming part of this my Specification, on
which will be seen diagrams with letters of reference denoting the
several parts of the machinery or apparatus:
My Invention consists in treating animal bodies so as to destroy
their organic structure, and in arresting and securing the gases evolved
in such operation. I also treat certain vegetable substances by a
similar method to that adapted for animal bodies; or I mix the animal
and vegetable bodies together previous to their being acted upon as
herein-after described. I also make use of certain mineral substances
for perfecting my operation.
My Invention is applicable to the treatment of all animal bodies.
Fish is to be used, either entire or in parts. It will be obvious in
certain situations where a regular demand for animal food exists the
offal of animals only can be profitably used, such as the refuse of
slaughter houses and fish markets, blood, gut, skin, bone, or other
similar parts.
The vegetable substances I make use of arc, firstly,
sea-weed (and I particularly recommend that kind called laminaria, as
being rich in the salts of potash). Secondly, turf or peat; this may be
either the common peat or that description found in many localities
in pregnated with sulphate of lime, iron, or copper, or peats combined
or saturated with peroxide of iron. Thirdly, charcoal made from any
vegetable body, or from shale. The minerals I use in carrying out
my Invention are shale, clay, coal, decomposed granite, iron pyrites,
shells, lime and magnesia, and their salts, caprolites, ouse, chloride of
sodium and potassium, and their nitrates, sulphate of iron, and the
mineral acids, such as sulphuric, hydrochloric, and nitric. I make
use of a particular description of furnace, as shewn in the annexed
Drawing to the end of the furnace an apparatus is attached, similar
to that used by the manufacturers of gas from coal; the arrangement
being the same, with this exception, that the furnace is made use of
instead of a retort; the apparatus consists of a refrigerator, purifying
vessels, and a gas holder, and are so well known as to require no
description. I will now proceed to describe how the furnace is to be
charged with material and put in operation. The fire chamber A, of
:

page_text: the furnace is filled with coke from the hopper B; the chamber C, is
filled with coke from the hopper B; the chamber C, is filled to
about two thirds of its cubic contents with sea-weed or turf, or
a mixture of both; chainber D, is filled in a similar manner with
animal bodies; if it be fluid, such as blood, it may be mixed with ground
peat; the doors F, and G, by which the chambers C, and D, were filled,
are now to be closed and luted. The dry purifier is to be filled with
ground peat or charcoal, which is naturally or has been artificially
impregnated with a sulphate of lime, iron, or copper. Or this dry
purifier may be charged with the following preparations: take the
carbon that has been removed from chamber D, of furnace, digest
with half its weight of sulphuric acid which has been diluted with three
times its weight of water, this will convert the phosphate into a super-
phosphate of lime; if it should be too moist to be placed alone in the
purifier, it may be mixed with peat or charcoal in powder: the wet
purifier is to be charged with a solution of chloride of potassium and
lime, or a solution made by mixing the burnt ashes of laminaria with
water or a solution of chloride of sodium: this wet purifier has an
agitator, which must be kept in motion during the operation. All being
now charged, every opening is to be securely closed and the fire lighted;
the hot or cold air blast is now set in motion, and will pass into the
furnace by pipe E, and in its passage through the column of red hot fuel
will have its oxygen consumed, and the highly heated azote and carbonic
oxide in its passage through chamber C, will carbonize the vegetable
peat and algo, producing various gases; thesc, still in a highly heated
state, pass on to chamber D, and in a similar manner act upon the
animal bodies, from which gases are also evolved; all these gases mingled
together enter the refrigerator, where the aqueous and tarry matters are
deposited: the lighter gases pass first through the dry purifier, where
any ammonia that has escaped condensation will be arrested by the
sulphuric acid contained in the peat; it now passes, free from ammonia,
into another dry purifier filled with peat containing peroxide of iron, so
as to decompose sulphuretted hydrogen; from this the gas passes
into the wet purifier, and then passes into the atmosphere, or into a
suitable receiver. At the end of the refrigerator there is a tap for test-

page_text: ing the gas previous to its entering into the purifier; if the gas at this
tap does not stain turmuric paper brown, the operation is at an end, and
the blast should be stopped. The contents of chamber C, will now be a
vegetable carbon, rich in alkalies; that of chamber D, will principally
consist of phosphate of lime and a rich animal carbon: the ammonia
from the purifier may be used, combined with the charcoal as taken
from the vessel, or the ammonia may be washed out and converted into
a salt of ammonia in the usual way; the material from the sulphur
purifier, when loaded with sulphur, may be converted into sulphuric
acid, or the sulphur may be sublimed from it. The contents of the last
purifier filtered and crystalized in the usual way.
In the tank at the condenser will be found tar and water, the latter
being strongly impregnated with the salts of ammonia, principally in
a state of carbonate and sulphide; this liquid may be filtered by the
mode demonstrated by Mr. William Chisholm, when treating of the
ammoniacal liquor of gas works, in the Specification of his Patent,
No. 1258, dated the Twenty-first of May One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-three; or it may be treated with sulphuric or hydrochlorate
acids, or in any of the various modes practised by ammonia manufac-
turers. When the desired salt of ammonia has been made, such as a
sulphate or hydrochlorate, it is to be mixed with the animal and
vegetable carbon, so as to produce a manure of any given strength of
ammonia, phosphates, and alkalies. Another mode of accomplishing the
same end is, by destructive distillation in close vessels; such vessel may
bo in any form, and made of iron or clay: a very convenient form is
that now used at gas works for the distillation of coal. The retorts
are set in brickwork, in what are called ovens, there being three or five
retorts in an oven; if three be used, one should be charged with algo
or bituminous shale, another with peat, and the third with animal
bodies; the animal substance should always be placed furthest from the
fire. The modhues operandi is precisely the same (after leaving the
retorts) as already described when leaving the furnace, and the products
will be treated in a similar manner; the gas arising from the retort
process is of a high illuminating quality, and may be stored away for any
useful purpose. Where there is a quantity of animal substance readily

page_text: decomposed by heat, such as blood, I prefer to place it in a retort cold
set, that is, without being exposed to beat. The highly heated gases
from the retorts charged with the peat and algo, and the more solid
animal matter, such as hoof or bones, is made to pass through this cool
set retort, so as to pass over the blood before ascending the stand pipe,
and entering the hydraulic main, the object being to liberate the
nitrogen with as little heat as possible. I use peat without sea-weed,
or sea-weed without peat; either or both of them may be mixed with
the animal bodies before submitting them to heat, or animal bodies may
be used alone in either of the processes. Both in the furnace and
retort operation it is desirable to have a spare dry and wet purifier, so
that the gas may be turned into a fresh filled purifier should either of
the purifying materials become exhausted during the operation. For
instance, I will suppose there are three dry purifiers, numbered
respectively 1, 2, 3. No. 1, takes up the ammonia; No. 2, the
sulphur; No. 3, is empty; cach purifier has a stop cock attached for
the purpose of testing the gas that has passed through it; upon the
application of turmeric paper to this stop cock at No. 1, if it becomes
stained brown it shows the presence of ammonia, and that the material
that arrested the ammonia has become saturated; it becomes therefore
necessary to fill No. 3, with peat or charcoal saturated with the requisite
material already described for taking up the ammonia and turning
the
gas from No. 1, to No. 3. If a piece of white paper moistened
with a solution of acctate of lead becomes black when exposed to
the stop cock of purifier No. 2, it shows that sulphuretted hydrogen
is escaping. No. 1, should then be charged with the peat or peat
charcoal, impregnated with peroxide of iron, and the gas turned from
No. 2, to No. 1; the peroxide proportion may be used many times by
merely exposing it to the atmosphere to peroxidise the iron, or by leaving
it in the purifier, and passing through it a current of air moistened with
steam. Peat or peat charcoal, as is well known, absorbes offensive gases
from decomposed animal bodies; this is, however, a mere mechanical
mixture, the offensive gases being again given up upon being exposed to
the rays of the summer sun, tainting the atmosphere, and spreading
disease, but by the processes herein described remain in the soil as food

page_text: for plants. Many parts of the coast of Great Britain and Ireland are
periodically visited by vasts shoals of fish, the quantity thrown upon the
beach tainting the atmosphere for miles; to secure these, and prevent
the escape of the injurious gases, I adopt the following process: I mako
a circle on the ground, say 25 feet in diameter; I remove the earth so
as to make the ground incline in all directions towards the centre; a
round cavity is dug out of the centre, about 9 inches deep and 18
inches over; from this a gutter is formed ending in a tank or sunk cask
placed beyond the circle line; the centre hole and gutter are lined and
covered with slate or any convenient material; this will receive the
drainage from the decomposing animal bodies, and be conveyed by the
gutter to the tank; dried peat or turf strongly saturated, either
naturally or artificially, with a sulphate of lime or a sulphate of iron, or
a chloride of calcium or chloride of sodium, is to be spread over the
entire base to the depth of two feet; a wall 2 feet high and 3 feet
thick at the base gradually sloping inwards, so as to be 2 feet thick
when 2 feet high. Where turf is not readyly obtained by the sea-shore,
sea-weed with mud or sand are to be used; into the inner circle are
thrown the fish until level with the top of the turf wall; the top of the
fish is covered with a similar turf to about 6 inches deep; another and
similar turf wall is again built all round, and the space within filled as
before with fish; this is repeated so as to form a cone: if the diameter
of the base is 25 feet, the summit should be about 10 feet; the entire
outside of the cone is to be covered with a light porous peat, impreg
nated with peroxide of iron. This mound may be allowed gradually to
decompose; the ammonia evolved will be absorbed by the sulphate or
chloride peats, and converted into a sulphate or hydrochlorate of
ammonia, while the sulphuretted hydrogen forcing its way through the
walls of the sulphate peat will be decomposed in its passage through
the peroxide peat, depositing its sulphur and forming a protosulphuret
of iron; this protosulphuret is almost instantaneously oxidized by the
atmosphere, and again converted into a peroxide; this play of chemical
affinities will continue as long as sulphuretted hydrogen be evolved.
These mounds may be of any size or form. I prefer the above-mentioned
size, as when they are made too large the walls are insecure. The

page_text: walls previous to applying the peroxide peat may be plastered over,
where obtainable, with rich ouse, obtained from salt marshes or beds of
rivers; they may also be occasionally damped with sea water; such
mounds will form a magazine of material to be acted upon by either the
furnace or retort process herein-before described at leisure. The
animal bodies either mixed with the turf and sea-weed, or either of
them, may be decomposed in an oven, similar to that in known use for
making bone black; for a description of such apparatus see the article
Bone Black in Doctor Ure's Dictionary of "Arts and Manufactures,"
and Plates 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140. Where mounds are made
or used it is advisable to have another small mound made beside them
about a fourth of the size; this smaller mound is to be formed of
sulphate peat; the two mounds are to be connected by tubing or pipes,
so that the smaller may absorb any ammoniacal gases that might be
evolved from the larger. The animal and vegetable substances might
be piled in small mounds on the beach, and at once submitted to a rude
process of charing or distillation; for a full description of such apparatus
I again refer to Dr. Ure's Dictionary of Arts, under the head "Carbon"
and charcoal. The animal bodies with the sulphate peat, with or with-
out the sea-weed, may be intimately mixed together by any mechanical
means; this mass may be formed into bricks or blocks, and dried in the
open air, or in a kiln, or exposed to a current of hot air, and may be
stored away to be operated upon at leisure by the furnace or retort, or
ground or powdered into powder for manure. The peat may be
saturated with a solution of chloride of sodium, then mixed with
about its own weight of any animal matter, blood, gut, or fish; when
intimately mixed, add lime, about a third the weight of the mixture, to
the damp mass, and form it quickly into blocks or bricks of any
convenient size; upon the lime being added, heat will be generated,
and the mass will become hard; These blocks may be stored in a
dry place; A chemical change will gradually take place, and after a
lapse of months they will be found to consist of nitrates and hydro-
chlorate of soda, ammonia, and phosphates. I make use of the various
minerals and mineral acids I have enumerated, according as local
circumstances may require; where I cannot obtain peat the locality

page_text: may supply shale or schists; such I substitute for peat: the locality may
have plenty of peat, but not impregnated with sulphate of iron. I
place heaps of iron pyrites on various parts of the bog, and by the joint
action of the atmosphere and moisture the pyrites are decomposed. A
sulphate of iron is formed, which saturates the surrounding turf;
solutions of mineral sulphates issue out of the soil in many localities,
and are also pumped out of mines, such solutions may be saturated
with peat; when such turf has been saturated strongly with a solution
of sulphate of copper, which may be done by repeatedly drying and
saturating, when the sulphuric acid has been taken up by the ammonia
and removed from the turf by washing, the peat may be sold for the
value of the metal it contains. All the animal offil of towns may be
mixed with the peats or charcoals I have described on the spot where
such offal is produced, such as fish markets and slaughter-houses; the
peats will at once absorb the offensive gases evolved by any partial
decomposition which might take place prior to the removal of the offal
to the manufactory, where it will undergo one of the processes already
described, either by furnace or retort.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Chisholm, have herein-before
affixed my hand and seal, this Third day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
Witness, JOHN GEDGE,
Patent Agent,
4, Wellington Street,
Strand, London.
JNO. CHISHOLM. (L.S.)