AN IMPROVED MODE OF MANUFACTURING SOLUBLE SILICATES
Year: 1854

page_text: man, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF MANUFACTURING SOLUBLE
SILICATES." A communication
Scaled the 12th January 1855, and dated the 15th November 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
15th November 1854.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MODE OF MANUFACTURING
SOLUBLE SILICATES" to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a new and economical mode of preparing soluble
silicates to be used as a manure, either alone or in combination with guano,
phosphorite, or other manures in common use; or in the formation of artificial
nitre beds, or for any other purpose to which these silicates may be found
applicable.
As the source of the soluble silicates, feldspar or the slag of furnaces,
particularly of iron furnaces, is employed. The feldspar or the slag, (which is
mostly composed of a double silicate of lime and alumina with excess of base,)
is first ground in any desired quantity, and then mixed with caustic lime and

page_text: soda ash upon a hard floor or pavement. The compound is now made into
a heap, and kept wet by daily applications of a shower of water for a month,
more or less, when the soluble silicate will be fully formed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 15th May 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special license that I, the said Alfred Vincent
Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, usc,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED MODE
OF MANUFACTURING SOLUBLE SILICATES," being a communication from abroad,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Alfred Vincent Newton, 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, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, con-
sists in a new and economical mode of preparing soluble silicates to be used
as a manure, either alone or in combination with guano, phosphorite, or other
manures in common use; or, in the formation of artificial nitre beds, or for
any other purpose to which these silicates may be found applicable.

page_text: The value of soluble silicates as a manure has been recognized for some
years, but more especially since the important part attributed to ammonia in
vegetation has been generally received, and the discovery made that the sili-
cates of lime and alumina have the property of absorbing large quantities of
ammoniacal gas. It is supposed that ammonia is.the vehicle of silica to the
plant, but whether it be so or not, it is. found that the nitrogenous manures
with a deficiency of silica cause a rank and weak growth in plants and a ten-
dency to "lodge," while, with a sufficiency of silicates and ammonia, the greatest
perfection of the plant, and weight and strength of haulm, is obtainable. Great
difficulty, however, has been experienced in procuring soluble silicates at a
reasonable cost, and this difficulty it is proposed to surmount by this Invention.
The fusion of silica and alkalies, or the solution of powdered flint (which
contains the soluble and insoluble silica) in alkalies at a high temperature, say,
three hundred degrees Fahrenheit in close vessels, or the formation of gela-
tinous silica, have all been found to be very expensive as modes of procuring
soluble silicates for manures.
In carrying out this Invention, the slag of furnaces (particularly of iron
furnaces) or felspar is employed as the source of the soluble silicates. The
slag of iron furnaces is mostly composed of double silicates of lime and alu-
mina, with excess of base already combined, and by the addition of a small
amount of base in a caustic form, and in a peculiar manner, what would other-
wise require a high temperature is effected by time at ordinary temperatures.
After grinding a large quantity of the slag and mixing it with caustic lime
and soda ash upon a hard floor or pavement, the whole is made into a sharp
heap, and kept wet daily applications of water with a sprinkling pot for a
month, when the soluble silicate is fully formed.
The mode of mixing or combining is as follows:-Two hundred pounds, or
thereabouts, of quick lime are slacked upon the floor or bed; one hundred
pounds, or thereabouts, of soda ash are then thoroughly incorporated with the
lime by a shovel or other means; seven hundred pounds of powdered slag
are then added, and the whole thoroughly mixed and made into a heap. The
heap is kept wet by sprinkling water upon it daily, and at the end of a month,
more or less, the process is completed.
Recent experiments have proved that plants exhale more ammonia than is
supplied to them artificially in the soil, and recent calculations have also shewn
the amount of ammonia supplied to a given surface from the atmosphere
through rain and snow, and from the fact that soluble silicates have the
property of absorbing large quantities of ammonia, and from the very
favorable results from the use of the soluble silicates obtained by the above

page_text: described process, the Invention may bo regarded as possessing the two-fold
merit of affording the means of producing soluble silicates in an economical
manner, and silicates of a superior quality, for manuring purposes. The
Inventor does not limit himself to any precise proportions of alkalies to
be used with the powdered slag, but he employs the proper chemical pro-
portions of each, according to the strength of the potash and soda ash, and the
character of the slag.
Having now described the Invention of "An Improved Mode of Manu-
facturing Soluble Silicates," as communicated to me by my foreign corre-
spondent, I wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited
Letters Patent I claim, the employment for this purpose of powdered slag
from furnaces and felspar, and exposing the same in heaps with lime and soda
and water for a sufficient time to effect the formation of the soluble silicates.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)