A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OF PREPARING A MANURE CALLED SUPERPHOSPHATE OF LIME
Year: 1849

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN DEBELL
TUCKETT, of Plymouth, in the County of Devon, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ire-
land, bearing date at Westminster, the Eighteenth day of October, in the year.
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, in the thirteenth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Debell Tuckett, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Debell
Tuckett, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, and such others as I, the said John
Debell Tuckett, my exors, adiriors, or assigns, shall at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term of.
years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England and Wales and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OF PREPARING A MANURE CALLED
SUPERPHOSPHATE OF LIME;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
that I, the said John Debell Tuckett, should cause a description of the nature
of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same
Letters Patent, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the sard
John Debell Tuckett, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed; are fully set forth and
ascertained in and by this instrument in writing, or Specification thereof, under
my hand and seal, reference being had to the Drawing in the margin of these
presents of the steam machinery and apparatus, and the description thereof,
and of the uses to which the different parts thereof are to be applied, marked
with the letters of the alphabet from A to L inclusive, and in which said
Drawing and description in the margin hereof similar parts are marked and
referred to by similar letters of the alphabet.
Whereas bones and other phosphoric animal substances have been heretofore
used and employed as manures, but to the best of my knowledge and belief
such substances have either been employed in a chemically undecomposed state,
in which their action on the soils to which they have been applied has been
slow and imperfect, or, if such substances have been hitherto employed in a
decomposed state, such decomposition has been effected by the use of sulphuric
acid, or some other strong acid, which acids are costly and, if my process be
adopted, needless.; and the manures prepared by the use of such acids contain
a much smaller proportion of phosphate of lime than is contained in the
manure which I call superphosphate of lime, prepared by the means and in the
manner set forth in the following Specification:-
Now, my said improvement consists in decomposing in manner following
bones and other animal substances containing phosphate of lime:-Previous to
using the phosphate of lime therein contained for the purposes of manure, I
take bones, bone dust, horns of cattle, or other animal substances containing
phosphate of lime, and place them in a steam digester or digesters, as shewn
in the annexed plan, and therein marked with the letters B and B, which steam
digesters are to be so fixed that the steam may be forced on or drawn off from
such bones, bone dust, horns, or other substances, as occasion may require; and
which steam digester or digesters is or are to be sufficiently strong to allow the
bones or other substances therein to be subjected to a pressure of from twenty-
nine to one hundred pounds to the square inch at a temperature of from two
hundred and fifty to three hundred and thirty-two degrees of Fahrenheit's.
thermometer. The bones, bone dust, horns, or other substances to be decom-
posed, having been placed in the steam digester or digesters marked B and B,
and the man-hole marked D being firmly fixed down, the steam is to be let on
in the usual manner by turning a cock or tap, or otherwise, and. the sub-
stances to be decomposed submitted to the operations of the steam at a pressure.
of from twenty-nine to one hundred pounds to the square inch, according to the

page_text: nature of the substance to be decomposed, and of the product or products to
be obtained therefrom. For bones of ordinary quality steam at a pressure of
fifty pounds to the inch at a temperature of two hundred and eighty degrees of
Fahrenheit's thermometer will be sufficient, but the horns of cattle will require
the steam to be at a pressure of seventy pounds to the inch, or thereabouts, at
a corresponding ratio of temperature. This application of steam is to be con-
tinued until the fat and oil in the bones or other substances to be decomposed
are separated and discharged, which is usually effected in about two hours, when
the steam is to be let off through the refrigerator in the Drawing marked I, and
the fat and oil drawn off by the cock marked K; which being done, these cocks
are to be shut and the steam again applied, but at a greater heat and pressure
than it was previously necessary to apply to the bones or other substances, until
the gelatine is dissolved, and the bones or other substances have become friable,
which will be effected in a longer or shorter time, according as the tem-
perature and pressure made use of are higher or lower. The steam is then to
be turned off through the refrigerator, and the steam digester discharged at the
man-hole D; what then remains of the bones or other substances which remains
are to be crushed to a still finer powder by usual and well-known means (if
needful), and the powder thus produced is then fit to be used as a manure, and
is the improved manure which I have described by the name of superphosphate
of lime. But I do not allege that such powder will then consist wholly of such
phosphate, but the quantity of phosphate therein will vary with the substances
from which it is prepared, and when prepared from bones of ordinary quality
will contain about eighty-five per cent. of phosphate of lime.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I declare that I do not confine myself to
any particular degree of pressure or temperature, so that the same be not lower
than the lowest degrees of pressure and temperature respectively above specified;
but if the object is to obtain the gelatine, the other constituent of the bones or
other animal substances aforesaid, in a pure state for delicate uses, the pressure
and temperature should be comparatively low, in which case the time required
will be longer; but if the object be to separate the gelatine in the quickest and
cheapest manner the temperature and pressure should be high. Neither do I
confine myself to any shape, or size, or construction of steam digester. But I
recommend the following as what I believe to be the best shape and construc-
tion for enabling a workman of competent skill and knowledge to carry on the
manufacture in the best and most advantageous manner, that is to say:-
In shape the steam digester should be curved in every part without angles,
in order that it may bear without danger the proper pressure of the steam, and

page_text: that no portion of the bones or other substances may escape. the full and com-
plete action of such steam; and I recommend that it be of such shape and size
that the bones may be strewed thereon lightly and to a small depth, and not in
thick mass.. And further, that diaphrams or partial separations of any fitting
material be introduced into the boiler, so that the steam may be forced to
circulate and spread itself therein before and during its escape from the
digester into the refrigerator, and may thereby be retained in the digester for a
period of time at the discretion of the workman conducting the process of
manufacture, to enable it to produce the most full and beneficial. action on the
aforesaid animal substances. And further, that the high-pressure steam from
the boiler be introduced by spreading pipes or other contrivances well known to
workmen, and therefore not needful to be here described, into and among the
bones in all parts of the boiler, and not by only one single pipe, jet, or
current.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Debell Tuckett, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Fourteenth day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine.
Chancery.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of December,
in the year of our Lord 1849, the aforesaid John Debell Tuckett came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifica-
tion aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in
form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Fifteenth der of Decor