AN IMPROVED FERTILIZING COMPOUND FOR AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Marc Antoine François Mennons, of the British and
Foreign Patent Offices, 39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, in the Empire of
France, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED FERTILIZING COMPOUND FOR
AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES."-A communication from Messrs. Charles de
Chauveau and Celeste Duval, of Oran, in the Colony of Algeria.
Sealed the 11th April 1860, and dated the 4th January 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Marc Antoine François
Mennons at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 4th January 1860.
I, MARC ANTOINE FRANÇOIS MENNONS, of the British and Foreign Patent
Offices, 39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, in the Empiro. of France, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED FERTILIZING COM-
POUND FOR AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
According to the per-centage of fertilizing elements required in a given bulk
of the manufactured product, a quantity of urine, say 25, 50, 75, or 100
gallons is placed in a suitable reservoir closed by a shallow vessel, the bottom
of which is formed of wire gauze or other open-worked máterial; on this
shallow vessel is spread a mixture of, say, 2, 3, 4, or 5 quarts of pulverised
vegetable charcoal, and from 5 to 6 pounds weight each of mould and sulphate
of lime. This absorbent mixture being thoroughly saturated by the ammoniacal
and other gases, disengaged by the urine (the decomposition of which may,

page_text: if necessary, be hastened by heat or other known means) is removed from its
recipient and blended with 25 gallons of fresh urine, to which are added about
2 pounds weight each of phosphate of ammonia, phosphate of lime, ammo-
niacal phosphate of magnesia, nitrate of potass, nitrate of soda, sulphate or
nitrate of magnesia, chloride of sodium; about 4 pounds of sulphate of iron,
or of crude sulphates of zinc and magnesia in equal parts; and finally, about 14
pounds weight of sulphate of lime. The whole being thoroughly incorporated
is brought to the consistence of a compact paste by the addition of, say, 2 cwt.
of calcined clay (argil). The mass is then dried and reduced to powder for use.
If so desired, the absorbent mixture, instead of being exposed in the dry
state to the emanations of the urine, may be blended directly with it, and when
saturated with tho volatile elements be removed from the waste liquid, and
treated as above described.
C
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Marc Antoine François Mennons in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 20th June 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MARC
ANTOINE FRANÇOIS MENNONS, of the British and Foreign Patent Offices, 39,
Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, in the Empire of France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Marc Antoine François Mennons, Her special licence that I, the said Marc
Antoine François Mennons, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Mare Antoine François Mennons, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 In-
vention for "AN IMPROVED FERTILIZING COMPOUND FOR AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES,"
(a communication from Messrs. Charles de Chauveau and Celeste Duval, of
Oran, in the Colony of Algeria,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Marc Antoine François Mennons, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under ny, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention

page_text: 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 Marc Antoine François Mennons, 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 following statement (that is to say):
According to the per-centage of fertilizing elements required in a given
bulk of the manufactured product, a quantity of urine, say, twenty-five, fifty,
seventy-five, or one hundred gallons, is placed in a suitable reservoir closed by
a shallow vessel, the bottom of which is formed of wire gauze or other open-
worked material. On this shallow vessel is spread a mixture of, sny, two,
three, four, or five quarts of pulverised vegetable charcoal, and from five to
ten pounds each of mould and sulphate of lime. This absorbent mixture being
thoroughly saturated by the ammoniacal and other gases disengaged by the
urine, is removed from its recipient, and blended with a fresh quantity of
twenty-five gallons of urine, to which are added about two and a quarter pounds
weight each of phosphate of ammonia, phosphate of lime, ammoniacal phos-
phate of magnesia, nitrato of potass, nitrate of soda, sulphate or nitrate of
magnesia, chloride of sodium; about four and a half pounds weight of sulphate
of iron, or of crude sulphates of zinc and magnesia mixed in equal parts, and
finally about fourteen pounds weight of sulphate of lime. The whole being
thoroughly incorporated is brought to the consistence of a compact paste, by
the addition of, say, about two hundredweight of calcined clay (argil). The
mass is then dried and reduced to powder for use.
If so desired the absorbent matters instead of being exposed in the dry
state to the emanations of the urine, may be blended directly with it, or
employed as a filtering medium. When the latter mode of preparation is
adopted, the absorbent matters should be distributed in layers in three
superposed recipients, the bottoms of which should be formed of tinned
metallic gauze or other open-worked material. The decomposed urines thrown
from a separate reservoir into the highest recipient, give up their volatile
elements in passing downwards through the successive absorbent layers, and
are carried off from below as waste liquid by a channel or conduit of any
suitable form. In this arrangement the sulphate of lime employed as above
mentioned with the charcoal, may be advantageously replaced in the two
upper recipients by carbonate of lime, and retained only in the last of the
series; if more convenient, an equivalent of sawdust, pulverised peat, or other
analogous matter may be substituted to the mould employed in these processes.

page_text: The saturation being completed, the contents of the recipients are removed
and combined with the other ingredients as above described.
An arrangement similar to the above might be applied on a smaller scale
in the construction of public urinals. By this means while preventing the
ammoniacal emanations, the necessity for the removal of the liquid matters
would be obviated, the volatile elements being directly absorbed by the char-
coal and other substances which might readily be carried off when saturated,
and replaced by fresh supplies:
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention and the manner of
.carrying it into effect, I declare that what I claim is the manufacture, sub-
stantially as described, of a fertilizing compound for agricultural purposes by
the saturation of vegetable charcoal with the volatile constituents of urine, and
the combination of the saturated mass with the ingredients above enumerated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Marc Antoine François Mennons, have
hereto set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
M. F. MENNONS. (L.S.)