IMPROVEMENTS IN ARTIFICIAL MANURE
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Bartlett at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd November
1865.
I, GEORGE BARTLETT, of Brixham, in the County of Devon, and of
Plymouth, in the same County, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ARTIFICIAL MANURE," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the preparation of an artificial manure powder
having such antiseptic properties as will not only restore the organization
of the diseased potato plant and promote its growth and that of roots,
cereals, and other crops free from organic disease and preserved from the
attacks of insects, but also in a great measure prevent the spreading of
disease amongst cattle, owing to the saturation of the pastures with the
foul and coarse manures usually employed.
The ingredients which I propose to employ in the preparation of my
improved antiseptic manure powder are a combination of the mineral lime
(oxide of calcium) with the chloride and nitrate of soda, the chloride
and carbonate of potassium, and the oxide of carbon or charcoal, such
combination being chiefly effected by means of sulphuric acid or oil of
vitriol. The relative proportions of these ingredients which I propose to
employ, and also the mode and means of their chemical amalgamation or
combination, are as follows:-In an iron vessel or capsule of a suitable
capacity and sunk in the ground (or otherwise conveniently placed) I
put about ten hundredweight of the chloride of soda or common salt,

page_text: and one hundredweight of the nitrate of soda, together with about five
hundredweight of the chloride of potassium, and mechanically mix the
whole well together. I then cover in the whole surface of the mass with
a thick layer of the plastic sulphate of ammonia (from gasworks) of the
weight of about four hundred pounds, and I next saturate the saline mass
below the layer of sulphate of ammonia with sulphuric acid by making
holes or perforations through the latter and pouring in (by means of a
long tube) a sufficient quantity of the acid to completely saturate the
mass; after which the holes or perforations are to be closed up, and the
whole mass left to decompose for three days at the least.
The second division of the process is the combination of the sulphuretted
saline mass, prepared as above, with the mineral substance, calcined car-
bonate of lime (chalk limestone, calcareous spar, calcareous marls, lias,
dolomites, or other similar substances), which I effect in the following
manner In a cavity or sunken vessel adjoining the vessel before
mentioned I place about one ton of the mineral calcined carbonate of
lime in a caustic state direct from the kiln, the said carbonate being
placed in at least ten alternate layers with the decomposing saline mass
previously described, and the whole is then to be closely covered in by a
quantity of the antiseptic manure powder previously made. This process
of layering the ingredients must be performed by several operators, so as
to ensure the greatest possible speed and prevent the escape of gas. At
the end of about forty hours the whole mass (with the exception of its
covering) is to be mixed as rapidly as possible with about five hundred-
weight of powdered charcoal, and the whole again well mixed and stirred
together. As soon as the charcoal mixing process is finished the powder
is ready for use,
and must be placed immediately in bags, barrels, or other
receptacles and excluded from the air.
Such are the ingredients and the average relative proportions which I
propose to employ, but I would here remark that certain modifications of
the proportions of the various ingredients will be advisable to meet the
requirements of the different classes of agricultural products to be raised,
and also to compensate for the extremes of difference between the cre-
taceous and carbonaceous or other varieties of soil to be manured.