IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE
Year: 1848

page_text: TO ALL TO HOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1, HOMAS
RICHARDSON, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of
May, One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, in the eleventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Richardson, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Thomas
Richardson, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas
Richardson, my exors, adiñors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Thomas Richardson, should
cause a particular 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 scal, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Richardson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof (that is to say):
My Invention consists in dissolving animal matters containing phosphates of
lime and magnesia in the liquors of the alum works, known under the name of
salts mothers, or in a solution of rough epsoms, an article known in commerce.
A weighed quantity of the animal matter, such as bones or guano, is mixed
with a small proportion of nitrate of soda, potash, lime, magnesia, or nitric
acid, in an iron pan lined with strong sheet lead, and heated from below, upon
which a measured quantity of the salts mothers, or solution of rough epsoms, is
run, when the whole is boiled until the animal matter disappears. I find that a pan
eighteen feet long, six feet broad, eighteen inches deep, is the most convenient
size in which to perform the above operation, and I employ at one time five
hundred gallons of salts mothers, or a quantity of rough epsoms equivalent to
this, as will hereafter be described. After having estimated the quantity of
phosphates of lime and magnesia in the animal matter to be operated upon, I
employ for every seventy-five pounds of phosphate, in the state in which they
are present in bones, guano, &c., one hundred gallons of the salts mothers, or
three hundred pounds of rough epsoms, dissolved in as small a quantity of water
as possible, with a quantity of one of the nitrates mentioned above, depending
upon the nature of the animal matter. When bones are used the nitrate or
nitric acid is to be employed in the proportion of one pound for every twenty-
six pounds of the former, while only half this proportion is necessary in the
case of ordinary guano. The animal matter is to be reduced to powder under
a pair of edge stones previous to use. In order to economisc fuel a portion of
rough epsoms may be dissolved in the salts mothers, as a substitute for the
latter, in the proportion of about three pounds of rough epsoms for every gallon
of salts mothers. The liquid in which the animal matter has been decomposed
will
present the appearance of a thick magma, and should then be evaporated
down to such a degree of consistence as to be capable of being removed to a
drying floor. The remainder of the water is then to be expelled at a tem-
perature which should never rise sufficiently high as to injure the animal matter.
I employ heat to a temperature about 300° Fahrenheit. When sufficiently
dry it is ground to powder, and in this state is ready for application as a
manure.
I do not confine myself to the form of vessel, nor to the proportions as given
above. But,-
First, I claim the use of saltes mothers, or rough epsomis, dissolved in water,

page_text: separately or mixed, for the purpose of dissolving and decomposing animal
matter containing phosphates of lime and magnesia.
Second, I claim the use of nitrate of soda, potash, lime, or magnesia, or
nitric acid in conjunction with the above, for the same purpose.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Richardson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.