AN IMPROVED FERTILIZING COMPOST
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Watt, of Putney, in the County of Surrey,
Consulting Chymist, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED FERTILIZING
COMPOST."
Sealed the 28th January 1868, and dated the 30th July 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Watt at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 30th
July 1867.
I, ALEXANDER WATT, of Putney, in the County of Surry, Consulting
Chymist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED FERTILIZING COMPOST," to be as follows, that is to say :-
My Invention consists in forming a compost for horticultural and other like
purposes, which besides possessing considerable fertilizing properties also has
the advantage of keeping moist for a longer period than when water alone is
employed, and this I accomplish by adding glycerine to rotted leaf mould,
peat soil, rotted fibres, or any other suitable fertilizing compounds.
To form the improved compost I moisten any of the above soils, or in fact
any suitable fertilizer, with glycerine, or a solution of glycerine, the strength
of the solution varying according to circumstances, some soils or fertilizers
requiring less glycerine than others.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander Watt in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
30th January 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
WATT, of Putney, in the County of Surrey, Consulting Chymist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Alexander Watt, Her special licence that I, the said Alexander Watt,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Alexander Watt, my executors, 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 "AN IMPROVED
FERTILIZING COMPOST," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Alexander Watt, 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 Alexander Watt, 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:-
My Invention consists in forming a compost for horticultural and other like
purposes by the employment of glycerine.
To carry out my Invention I proceed as follows:-I take peat, rotted
fibres, loam, leaf mould, or other fertilizing substances, to which I add
glycerine, or a solution of glycerine, the object of which is to keep the soil in
a moist state for a longer period than would be the case when water alone is
employed.
The glycerine may be added to any of the above compounds or fertilizers,
or a mixture of several of them, by being worked up with the hand, or more
conveniently in a vessel fitted with a vertical rotating stirrer with several
blades placed alternately in the spindle. A small portion of the compost thus

page_text: formed may be mixed with other soil or soils, or may be applied as a "top
dressing" for flowers in pots or flower beds. By employing glycerine in a
diluted form, say, one part of glycerine to about seven parts of water, it may
be applied to the soil in which plants are growing instead of water. The
solution of glycerine may also be used alternately with water in the irrigation
of plants.
I have found that plants in pots to which I have applied a compost pre-
pared with glycerine retained their moisture for a much longer period than
when watered with plain water, and thus considerable saving of time and
labor is effected in the greenhouse, hothouses, and other like places.
Guano, superphosphate of lime, and other strong fertilizers may be employed
in the usual proportions with the glycerine. In hot weather the application
of dilute glycerine to plants will be found very convenient, inasmuch as the
soil in which they grow will remain moist for some days longer than if water
alone were used.
And having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I would have it understood that I do not confine
myself to the precise details of proportions and modus operandi herein laid
down; but what I claim as new and intended to be protected by the herein in
part recited Letters Patent is, the application of glycerine to horticultural and
other like purposes, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Watt, have hereto set my
band and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
Witness,
G. F. REDFERN,
4, South Street, Finsbury.
ALEXANDER WATT. (L.S.)