IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF STRAW MANURE, AND OBTAINING PRODUCTS THEREFROM."
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Henry Cobley, of Dunstable, in the County of
Bedford; for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF STRAW
MANURE, AND OBTAINING PRODUCTS THEREFROM."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Henry Cobley at the
"
'IMPROVE-
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 16th August 1879.
THOMAS HENRY COBLEY, of Dunstable, in the County of Bedford.
MENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF STRAW MANURE, AND OBTAINING PRODUCTS
THEREFROM."
My process consists in treating straw manure in order to obtain,-
(1.) Cellulose or fibrous matter for the manufacture of paper, board, and maché.
(2.) Manure in a concentrated form, by fixing and concentrating the manuring
matter adhering to, mixed with, and saturating the straw.
(3.) Recovering the alkali employed in the process so as to economize cost of
process, such recovery of alkali being also applicable. to all kinds of raw materials
requiring an alkaline treatment.
In carrying out my said Invention, I proceed mainly as follows:-
The straw manure is first boiled, with steam or water, in order to remove the
adhering particles of manure and prepare the strawy and fibrous portions for after
treatment. Where the formation of ammonia is very marked the mass is acidulated
with dilute acid, by preference sulphuric, or solutions of sulphate of chloride of
magnesia (Kieserite stassfurt salt).
After boiling, the liquor containing the manuring matter is run off for precipi-
tation and concentration.
An alkaline solution is then run on to the remaining strawy or fibrous portion,
which is again boiled in the said alkaline solution until sufficiently disintegrated,
when the mass is drained and washed, and the black liquor set aside for recovery.
The cellulose or fibrous mass resulting from this operation may be used in this
state for common paper, board, and maché, or may be dried and ginned, beaten and
blown, prior to bleaching if desirable, or bleached without such preparation.

page_text: The bleaching I carry out in the following manner either upon the crude or the
prepared cellulose material:-
After preliminary washing I steep it in a solution of chloride of lime of varying
strength, according to the quality of the mass, and after it has lain in a short time
I add a solution of sulphate of alumina, or carbonate or sulphate of soda, so as to
form either hypochlorite of either soda or alumina. Where sulphate of alumina is
used I finish by washing with a weak solution of carbonate of soda to neutralize
the acid set free. The waste liquor from the hypochlorite of alumina is employed
for fixing and precipitating the manure liquor.
The product is washed and dried with dessicated air or other available means.
Where an article of great purity is required; the dried bleached product should be
afterwards ginned or devilled, or beaten and blown, in order to free it from all
specks, undecomposed particles, and other impurities, that is to say, where it has
not been previously prepared in the unbleached state.
This mode of bleaching may also be applied to the ordinary materials used in
papermaking.
•
The manure liquor is fixed as hereinbefore described, by the addition of a small
quantity of acid, or sulphate, or chloride of magnesia (Kieserite stassfurt salt), and
precipitated by means of alumina as a double salt of magnesia and alumina, basic or
neutral, double sulphate magnesian, alum, or acichlor aluminium (waste liquor from
bleaching. The precipitate is pressed and dried. As driers, peat or turf dust, sawdust,
waste leather, coal sulphatized or not may be used.
.
To recover. the alkali used, I pass or force through the black liquor the gases and
fumes arising from combustion, preferably from the burning of lime.
The carbonic acid contained therein will convert the soda contained in the black
liquor into a bicarbonate, which will collect at the bottom, and may be easily
removed and recausticised by the addition of lime, and the pure-caustic liquor
separated for use by means of a filter press.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Thomas Henry Cobley in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 16th
February 1880.
THOMAS HENRY COBLEY, of Dunstable, in the County of Bedford. " IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF STRAW MANURE, AND OBTAINING PRODUCTS
THEREFROM,"
My process consists in treating straw manure in order to obtain,
(1.) Cellulose or fibrous matter for the manufacture of paper, board, and maché..
(2.) Manure in a concentrated form, by fixing and concentrating the manuring
matter adhering to, mixed with, and saturating the straw.
. (3.) Recovering the alkali employed in the process so as to economize cost of
process, such recovery of alkali being also applicable to various kinds of raw
materials requiring an alkaline treatment.
In carrying out my process I have found by my experiments that previous to
boiling the straw manure it will be preferable to steep or macerate the substances
to be treated in either hot or cold water, or a solution of a soluble sulphide; for
instance, polysulphide, common salt, or waste bleach liquor. The straw manure
thus treated, or the fibrous portion thereof, after the liquor or steep has been run
into receptacles for precipitation is either boiled or triturated. For common paper
and millboards the process of trituration will produce a material sufficiently
prepared for its being used in their manufacture, but for finer qualities it will be
necessary to boil such fibrous substance. For the process of trituration I employ
machinery now in use for the production of wood-pulp, or a mill provided with a
vertical stone or ribbed cylinder, which in the presence of water will triturate the
mass into a fine pulp, suitable for the purposes herein mentioned. For preparing
the finer qualities the fibrous portion of the manure is brought into a boiler,
preferably a vertical one, or one upon an incline with a rocking motion, in either
case the boiler must be provided with a double bottom of perforated plate, and the
steam introduced so as to act upon the material. The object of this is by the action
of the steam to wash down the dirt, sand, and impurities still adhering to the mass
into the bottom of the boiler. After the mass has been placed into the boiler water
is run in and the necessary portion of the alkali, or alkaline earth, added in the form
of solution or solid. Caustic soda, or caustic soda and lime, or lime slaked with
common salt, or lime waste alkaline steep, latter preferred for sake of economy, and
for fixing the manurial compounds left behind, as also for preserving a greater strength
of fibre. The proportion of lime used is about 2 cwt. per ton of straw manure, more
or less, slaked with a solution of common salt, 28 lbs. more or less per ton of straw
manure made up into milk of lime with waste alkaline steep, or not less than 84 lbs.
common soda to the ton of straw manure. Where the alkaline steep is not used,
steam is introduced and the mass boiled for several hours, according to the stage of
maceration and pressure of steam in boiler. The pressure of steam should be at
least 80 lbs.; the higher the pressure the more perfect the disintegration; but I
carry the maceration to such a stage that the mass can be boiled in an open vat.
After boiling the mass is removed from the boiler and washed in a drum washer
(known to all manufacturers of straw paper) or by any other convenient means.
The alkaline manure liquor is run into the manure liquor obtained as hereinbefore
described, or may be precipitated separately. After the mass has been washed it is
then subjected to the bleaching process, or utilized in the unbleached condition.
I bleach the material for certain applications very cheaply, by subjecting it to the
fumes of sulphurous acid in a closed chamber, or steeping it in liquid sulphurous
acid, or solutions of the sulphites or the byposulphites. To obtain a pure white it
is necessary to employ chlorine, as chlorine water or solutions of the hypochlorites.
Before attacking the mass with any form of chlorine I remove the iron present by

page_text: means of a warm steep or bath containing about 10 lbs. more or less of hydrochloric
acid to the cwt. of dry half stuff, or a mixture of hydrochloric acid and sulphate of
soda, which I produce by dissolving the salt in water, then adding equal part of
sulphuric acid, then heating it with steam or otherwise. I thus obtain a cheap
solvent for both iron and hippuric stain left in it, the waste liquor resulting from
this operation to be employed in the precipitation of the manure liquor. This
operation may be conducted with a solution of the carbonate of soda and hydro-
chloric acid in separate tanks or receptacles, in which case the waste alkaline steep
would be used for boiling in connection with the lime. As the liquid chloride of
lime is more powerful than the dry, and can be produced more simply, I purpose to
make my own liquid chloride of lime by first introducing hydrochloric acid in the
ordinary way, by decomposing common salt by means of sulphuric acid in a salt
cake pot, and carrying the hydrochloric acid fumes into a retort containing water
and peroxide of manganese, water sufficient to condense the hydrochloric acid fumes,
which will immediately attack the peroxide of manganese with the solution of
chlorine gas. This is washed by passing it through water to remove the hydro-
chloric acid, and then fixed by passing it into milk of lime. This milk of
lime is drawn off as soon as it reaches 8° Twaddel of strength, and the gas
turned into another receptacle while the milk of lime is replaced. The liquid
chloride of lime thus obtained may be converted into the hypochlorite of
alumina, soda, or magnesia, by the addition of a solution of the corresponding
sulphate of such bases, meaning the sulphates of alumina, soda, or magnesia,
(Kieserite); sulphate of lime in a fine state of division is deposited and may be
collected and sold for pearl hardening. The hydrochloric acid obtained may be
employed as a steep. The chloride of manganese left in the retort has to be
removed and precipitated, first with carbonate of lime, and afterwards with an
excess of caustic or hydrated lime, in order to be employed "in continuo" with the
addition of a small quantity of fresh manganese each charge. The bleaching is
conducted in an apparatus provided with stirrers or in a revolving drum, and steam
or hot air introduced, or steam and air conjointly, in order to increase the energy of
the bleaching agent. The strength of the bleaching liquor should not be less than
2° Twaddel. The bleached stuff is then washed by percolation, or any other
convenient means, in a receptacle provided with a perforated bottom, the per-
forations being sufficiently fine so as to prevent any escape of fibre. The washing
is to be effected first with hot then with cold water, with the addition of a little
antichlor where necessary. To give it a pearly appearance a small quantity of
rosin size may be introduced in the last stage of washing. The manure liquors are
treated for concentration in the following manner :-The liquors are treated with
precipitants made up of the waste hydrochloric steep, waste bleach liquor, mixed
with a salt of alumina as sulphate of alumina and salt of magnesia, the sulphate
or chloride or mixtures of the same, and the salts of alumina and magnesia may be
employed mixed or separate. In the case of ammonia being present, then the
addition of a little soluble phosphate in the presence of the magnesian salt employed
will bring down the ammonia in the form of ammonia phosphate of magnesia. The
alkalies may be precipitated by a proportionate addition of the fluosilicate of
alumina. The precipitates are allowed to settle and the superabundant liquor run
off, and the precipitate pumped up into filter presses, and pressed into cakes which
'may be dried and ground, or sold in the state of cake. For vine manure it is very
important to macerate in as strong a solution of polysulphide of calcium as possible,
as the sulphur of the polysulphide may be deposited in so fine a state of division as
to form a true sulphuretted guano, invaluable as a vine manure. The precipitated
deposit, after the effluent water has been run off, may also be mixed with driers;
for instance, ashes, sawdust, manure, peat dust, ground leather, coal sulphatized by
the addition of sulphuric acid or not, and disposed of in its crude state. Where
caustic soda is employed for boiling, the soda' may be recovered from the black
liquor (waste liquor run off after boiling) by forcing or passing into or through the
said black liquor carbonic acid obtained from. the waste gases of the flues and

page_text: chimneys carrying the gases of combustion, or from lime kilns or furnaces (the air
present containing as much as 7 per cent. carbonic acid). This carbonic acid will
precipitate the soda as a bicarbonate, which may be rendered caustic soda again
by the addition of caustic lime.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed or put in practice, I
hereby declare that I claim the Invention of "Improvements in the Treatment of
Straw Manure and Obtaining Products therefrom," as hereinbefore set forth and
described, in which Invention the following are important points or features:-
(1.) The separation of the manure from the fibrous matter of the straw manure
by means of boiling, steeping, or macerating, with or without solutions of a soluble
sulphide; for instance, polysulphide of calcium, common salt, and waste liquor,
resulting from process substantially as herein before described.
(2.) Utilization of manure and fibrous matter as in the manner herein described.
(3.) Steeping fibrous matter of manure and steep employed, substantially as
hereinbefore described.
(4.) Bleaching such macerated and triturated matter from straw manure,
substantially as hereinbefore described.
(5.) Utilizing macerated and triturated straw manure, bleached and unbleached,
in the manufacture of paper and such like substances, substantially as hereinbefore
described.
(6.) Mode of obtaining bleaching liquor or agent in the manner herein set forth.
(7.) Method and means of precipitating and concentrating the manure liquor,
substantially as herein before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Henry Cobley, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty.
Witness,
RUFUS WORKMAN,
Ludgate Square,
London, EC.
THOMAS HENRY COBLEY. (L.S.)