IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- FACTURE OF MANURE
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Richardson, of 20, New Bridge Street,
Newcastle-on-Tyne, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF MANURE."
Sealed the 28th June 1859, and dated the 21st January 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Richardson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st January 1859.
I, THOMAS RICHARDSON, of 20, New Bridge Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF MANURE," to be as follows:-
The process consists in absorbing the acid by some porous organic material,
such as sawdust or others, then mixing the phosphatic substance with this
acid mixture, and allowing the whole to remain until the ordinary decompo-
sition is completed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Richardson in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 21st July 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, Ì, THOMAS
RICHARDSON, of 20, New Bridge Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,

page_text: the said Thomas Richardson,. Her special licence that I, the said Thomas
Richardson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Thomas Richardson, 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,
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 THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Thomas Richardson, 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 Thomas Richardson, 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 fol-
lowing statement thereof,. that is to say :-
The process consists in absorbing the acid by some porous organic material,
such as sawdust or others, then mixing the phosphatic substance with this acids
mixture, and allowing the whole to remain until the ordinary decomposition is
completed.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
The acid I prefer to use is either sulphuric or muriatic acid, the latter ass
strong as it can be made from the ordinary condensers, averaging 1.140
specific gravity, while the former may vary in strength from 1.500 to
1-845, specific gravity. I also prefer to employ sawdust as the mechanical
dryer, that made from soft wood by the upright saws answering my purpose
the best. I take the sawdust and expose it to a gentle heat in any
convenient place, until all or nearly all the moisture is expelled; but it
is important to avoid charring the sawdust by over heating, as charcoal and
similar carbonaceous substances have comparatively poor absorbing power,
and will not answer my object; when the sawdust is thoroughly dried I
pass it through a sieve having eleven or twelve meshes to the inch, the s
great object. being to obtain a dry porous material in a fine state of divi-
sion.
I then weigh out nine hundredweight of this sawdust, and throw
it into any shallow convenient tank or cistern, and run upon it twenty
hundredweight of sulphuric acid, which I prefer to use after it has been

page_text: heated to about 130° Fahrenheit, or 140° Fahrenheit; the mass is care-
fully mixed by the workmen until the acid is absorbed, when the whole
is allowed to remain exposed to the air for 10 or 12 hours to cool down; it
is then fit for use, or may be packed in hard wood casks well hooped, and
previously painted inside with hot tar, in which as much pitch has been
dissolved, as will not interfere with the necessary fluidity.for admitting of the
above application. This prepared material may be. employed alone as a
manure, and when ploughed into land it will aid in rendering soluble or
setting free the fertilizing properties of the soil; and if the land has been over
inanured or overlies à limestone or other similar formation, its action will be
found very beneficial. This material can also be employed with advantage-in
arresting the too rapid putrefaction of blood, while at the same time it, with
the blood, produces an excellent fertilizing mixture. For this purpose I mix
this material in the proportion of 1 cwt. with 7 gallons of blood in any
wooden cistern, and heat the mixture, by steam or otherwise, to a temperature
of 140° Fahrenheit, which promotes the coagulation of the blood, and ulti-
mately the mass will be found in a pulverulent form, capable of removal in
sacks or even in bulk, without the old inconvenience, to the surrounding
neighbourhood.
I employ the compound of acid and sawdust for acting upon bones, bone
ashes, animal charcoal, coprolites, or mineral phosphates, guano, skutch, and
similar materials. It is advisable to reduce all the above materials to powder,
more or less fine, and to moisten them with water before adding the said
compound, which I will call bone dissolver. In the case of bones it is advisable
even to soak them in water before mixing them with the bone dissolver; the
mixing must be as intimate and as carefully made as possible, and it may be
performed by means of shovels and rakes on a floor. After this operation is
finished, the whole mass must be thrown up into a heap, if possible, in a warm
place, and covered with old bags, or straw, &c., to retain the warmth which is
generated in the process, and to assist the dissolving. The heat generated by
the chemical action is very great, rising from 100° to 150° Fahrenheit above
the temperature of the atmosphere, and when the mixture has been made in a
sheltered warm place; this evolution of heat continues as long as there is any
decomposition going on, so that a thermometer inserted into the interior of the
heap indicates with tolerable nicety, the progress of the operation, and when
it falls to within a few degrees of the external air, the process may be con-
sidered at an end. I prefer to employ sulphuric acid of about 1-600 sp. gr.
and when the bone dissolver has been made with acid of this strength in
the proportions above named, the following are the limits within which I

page_text: recommend it should be employed; when mixed with materials containing
phosphate of lime :-
For 20 cwt. bones, from
8 to 16 cwt. bone dissolver.
20 cwt. bone ashes
"
14 to 24 do.
do.
or animal charcoal
وو
20 cwt. coprolites or 16 to 24 do.
do.
mineral phosphates
"
20 cwt. guano
20 cwt. skutch
12 to 18 do.
12
do.
do.
do.
"
As muriatic acid is not made of the same strength as sulphuric acid, the
proportions in which it must be employed differ considerably from the above.
I employ this acid as it runs from the ordinary condensers at about 28°
Twaddel, and I do not heat it, as in the case of the sulphuric acid. I run 20
cwt. of this muriatic acid upon about 8 cwt. of the fine dry sawdust already
described, and when the whole has been thoroughly incorporated the mixture
is employed with the various raw manure materials with the same precautions
as above explained, and in the following proportions :-
10 to 20 cwt. of the acid mixture.
For 20 cwt bones
20 cwt. bone ashes
from
20 to 35
"
or animal charcoal
"
20 cwt. coprolites or
mineral phosphates}
دو
20 cwt. guano
20 cwt. skutch
3
do.
دو
25 to 40
do.
"
"
15 to 20
do.
وو
دو
د"
15
do.
رو
In the cases of its employment for drying up and decomposing blood, it may
be used in the same proportious and in the same manner as the sulphuric acid
bone dissolver. After all or any of the above mixtures have lain until the
decomposition has nearly or entirely ceased, the heaps or heap may be packed
in bags, and applied in the usual way to the soil, for the various white and
green crops.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Richardson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
THOMAS RICHARDSON. (L.S.)