IMPROVEMENTS AR MANT
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Berger Spence; of Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Manufacturing Chemist, and Peter Dunn,
of the same Place, Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
AR MANT"
Scaled the 8th August 1871, and dated the 28th April 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Berger Spence
and Peter Dunn at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 28th April 1871.
We, JOHN BERGER SPENCE, of Manchester, in the County of Lan-
caster, Manufacturing Chemist, and PETER DUNN, of the same Place,
Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IИ-
PROVEMENTS IN the Manufacture of Manure," to be as follows:-
On the 9th day of June 1870, Letters Patent were granted to Peter
Spence, No. 1676. In the Specification of the said Patent is described
the mode of obtaining alum from Rodondo phosphate, and other sub-
stances consisting of of phosphate of iron and alumina. After the alum
has been deposited in the manner described in the said Specification the

page_text: mother liquid is chicfly a solution of phosphoric acid with a small
quantity of sulphate of alumina, iron, and sulphate, or phosphate of
ammonia; now our Invention consists in utilizing the said mother liquor
in the manufacture of manure in the following manner, namely,-
In purifying illuminating gas from ammonia, the gas is brought in
contact with the said mother liquor mixed with sawdust or other
absorbent, and the residue produces a sulphate and phosphate of
ammonia for manure; the same result is obtained by distilling the
volatile products of ammoniacal gas water into the said mother liquor;
the mother liquor acts as a mixture or a solvent either alone or in
admixture with sulphuric or hydrochloric acid for tribazic phosphates
for manure. The mother liquor can be used to decompose nitrate of
soda to produce phosphate of soda and nitrous acid, which acid can be
employed in the manufacture of sulphuric acid, and the product con-
sisting of phosphate of soda for manure, also to decompose common
salt to produce phosphate of soda for manure, also to mix with soda
waste, or gas lime waste, cither calcined or uncalcined as a matrix for
--producing-a-dry_manure..
We also mix the said mother liquor with caustic lime either slaked
or unslaked, in such proportions as to retain the phosphate partially
soluble or in excess to produce a precipitated phosphate for manure;
also for decomposing muriate of potash to produce a phosphate of potash
for manure.
We also mix the said mother liquor with kainite to produce a potash
manure, and with sulphate of lime to produce a dry manure.
The quantities in which the mother liquor is mixed with the various
ingredients named must be varied according to the strength of the said
mother liquor.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Berger Spence and Peter Dunn in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 28th October 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, JOHN
BERGER SPENCE, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Manu-
facturing Chemist, and PETER DUNN, of the same Place, Merchant,
send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of April, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the
thirty-fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant. unto us, the said John Berger Spence and
Peter Dunn, Her special license that we, the said John Berger Spence
and Peter Dunn, our exccutors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said John Berger Spence and Peter Dunn, our execu-
tors, 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 for "IMPROVEMENTS.
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE," upon the condition, amongst others,
that we, the said John Berger Spence and Peter Dunn, by an instru-.
ment in writing under our hands and seals, (or under the hand and scal
of one of us) 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 we, the said John Berger Spence and Peter
Dunn, do hereby declare the nature of our 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 :-
Our Invention refers to certain methods of treating products arising
from the practice of an Invention, for which Letters Patent were granted
to Peter Spence, dated Ninth June One thousand eight hundred and
seventy, No. 1676.
According to that Invention the substance known by the name
Rodonda phosphate and other phosphates of alumina are used for the
manufacture of alum, and this having been crystalized there remains
a mother liquor consisting chiefly of a solution of phosphoric acid, and
our Invention refers to certain methods of treating this mother liquor in
order to obtain substances which may be conveniently and advantageously
employed as manure.
According to our first process we take the said mother liquors and
cause them to be absorbed by sawdust or other convenient substance,

page_text: which will in like manner hold them mechanically, and we then place
this material in purifiers of gas works, or in similar apparatus, so
that the impure gas shall pass through or in contact with it, as is now
the case when gas is purified by other substances, and this operation
is continued until all the acid in the said mother liquor has been
neutralized by the ammonia compounds which have existed in the gas.
The resulting compound being chiefly phosphate of ammonia mixed
mechanically with the sawdust is available as a valuable manure, or the
phosphate of ammonia may be dissolved out and thus separated from
the sawdust.
According to a second process we distil ammonia compounds from gas
ammoniacal water into the said mother liquor, by which means we
obtain a substance which, as before, is chicfly phosphate of ammonia.
According to a third mode of treating the said mother liquors we
use them instead of sulphuric acid, or to replace a part thereof, in the
manufacture of superphosphate of lime from the ordinary tribasic
phosphate of lime of commerce, and by using, say, one-half of such
mother liquors together with one-half the usual quantity of sulphuric
acid we obtain a manure much richer in soluble phosphate of lime than
by the usual method.
Fourthly. We use the said mother liquors to produce therefrom
precipitated or insoluble phosphate of lime by adding to such liquors
as much lime or carbonate of lime as will produce neutrality, which
condition will easily be found by practice, and we thus obtain a com-
pound of considerable value as a manure.
Fifthly. We obtain from the said mother liquors a soluble or partly
soluble phosphate of lime by calculating the quantity of lime in pro-
portion to the phosphoric acid contained in the solution, so that the
result may be a mono-basic phosphate of lime. As a guide for this
operation we may state that when the liquors, after the alum is
extracted, are of the specific gravity of 1-4 or 80 Twaddle, we find that
the quantity of dry slacked lime or hydrate of lime required is 1lb. for
every 15 lbs. of the said mother liquors, and we add the said quantity
of lime after having boiled the liquors to such an additional strength as
will produce a friable compound in suitable condition to be used alone
or mixed with other manures. The extent to which the liquors are
to be boiled down to afford this condition will readily be ascertained by
practice. By this process we find that a considerable portion of the

page_text: phosphoric acid is combined with the lime in the state of mono-basic or
soluble phosphate of lime, which is the more valuable condition as a
manure.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of our said Invention
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, we desire it
to be understood that we claim as secured to us under the above in
part recited Letters Patent, the use of the mother liquors resulting from
the manufacture of alum according to the patented process of the said
Peter Spence aforesaid, for the production of manure by the processes
substantially above described, that is to say,-
Firstly. By submitting the said mother liquors to illuminating gas
during the purification thereof.
Secondly. By distilling gas ammoniacal water into them.
Thirdly. By using them instead of the sulphuric acid or a portion
thereof employed in the manufacture of supersphosphate of lime from
the ordinary tri-basic phosphate of lime.
Fourthly. By adding lime or carbonate of lime thereto in such manner
as to produce precipitated or insoluble phosphate of lime.
Fifthly. By adding lime in such quantity as to produce a soluble or
mono-basic phosphate of lime.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Berger Spence, have hercunto
set my hand and scal, this Twenty-seventh day of October, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
one.
214TTAN