AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF MANURE
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexandre Jaille, of Agen, in the Department of
the Lot et Garonne, in the Empire of France, Merchant, for the Inven-
tion of "AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF MANURE."
Sealed the 18th February 1862, and dated the 30th August 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexandre Jaille at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 30th
August 1861.
I, ALEXANDRE JAILLE, of Agen, in the Department of the Lot et Garonne,
in the Empire of France, Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF MANURE," to be as follows:-
I divide my improved manure into first and second quality. I compose the
first exclusively of animal matters, such as waste horn of every description,
hoofs, cow or other animal hair or wool, and all other animal remains obtain-
able from tanneries, leather cuttings, and old leather. I place all these matters
in a digester boiler, into which I introduce steam from a second boiler, raising
the pressure to three or four atmospheres, according to the hardness of the
materials under treatment, and in from fifteen to twenty hours they will be
entirely dissolved. I then place this matter in a malaxing or kneading
machine, adding a certain quantity of bone dust, and when intimately mixed,
dry artificially or in the sun, finally grinding it as fine as desirable.
I compose the second quality partly of the preparation above described, to
which I add dried and pulverized oyster shells, soot, the sweepings of animal
black factories, blood from the slaughter-houses, the fatty matters obtained in
bone boiling, fifteen or twenty per cent. of bone dust, the luting of the pots in
which the bones have been calcined, reduced to powder; and, finally, dry spent

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexandre Jaille in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
26th February 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDRE
JAILLE, of Ageu, in the Department of the Lot et Garonne, in the Empire of
France, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Ier heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Alexandre Jaille, Her special licence that I, the said Alexandre
Jaille, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Alexandre Jaille, 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 MANUFACTURE OF MANURE," upon the condition (amongst others)
that 1, the said Alexandre Jaille, 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 Alexandre Jaille, do hereby declare the
nature of my 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 improved manure may be divided into a first and second composition.
I compose the first exclusively of animal matters, such as waste horn of overy
description, hoofs, hair, or wool, scrapings or parings of hides, and all other
animal remains obtainable from tanneries, leather cuttings of every description,
and old leather. I place all these matters in a digester boiler, into which I
introduce steam from a second boiler by a conducting tube leading from
one boiler to the other. I raise the pressure of the steam to three or four

page_text: atmospheres, according to the hardness of the matters under treatment, which
also serves to guide me as to the length of time they should be submitted to
this high pressure, which is exercised according to circumstances from fifteen
to twenty hours, by which time the matters will be entirely and completely
dissolved either into a marmelade, if they have been placed in the boiler in a
slightly moist state, or if more thoroughly charged with moisture into a liquid
state. The matters being dissolved, I withdraw them from the boiler and
place them in a malaxing or kneading machine, which completes their intimate
admixture, and at the moment of effecting this amalgamation in the kneader,
I add a certain quantity of bone in impalpable powder. This compost is then,
if it be winter, placed upon a drying apparatus; if summer, it is simply dried
in the sun; and, finally, it is submitted to millstones to be pulverized to the
fineness required. The matters constituting the above manure may also be
dissolved by boiling with water in a digester boiler, the result being the same;
but the dessication will take much longer and be more costly by reason of the
great quantity of water absorbed by the matters during ebullition. This method
is good when a liquid manure is desirable. It should be remarked, that this
first composition (which I term " guano agenais, first quality") in its pulverulent
state may be again liquified by the simple addition of water, especially for
sprinkling or watering.
My second composition (which I term "guano agenais, second quality ") I
prepare with a portion of the first quality, to which I add dried and pulverized
oyster shells, soot, the sweepings of animal black factories, blood from the
slaughter-houses, the fatty liquids which are obtained in large quantities from
bone boiling. I again add bone dust in the proportion of from fifteen to
twenty per cent., the burnt clay which has served to lute the pots for calcining
the bones, reduced to powder, and finally, dry spent tan and dry plaster
triturated. The dry matters (although not without some fertilizing principle)
contribute to the absorption of the liquid matters rich in phosphate of lime and
azote, but the introduction of the plaster into the mixture in the proportion, say,
of five of plaster to one of azote, is essentially to fix and retain the azote by the
chemical combination which results from the contact of the matters in fermen-
tation, for then the sulphuric acid of the plaster seizes the ammonia of the
animal matters, and forms a sulphate of ammonia, which will not volatilize.
This combination preserves to the manure all its fertilizing richness to be
given intact to the land when thrown upon it, and submitted to the decomposing
agency of the soil and atmosphere. This manure will be found suitable to
every sort of culture, and when required to manure vines and other trees I
mix with it unprepared animal hair or wool, in the proportion of from ten to

page_text: twenty per cent. This addition of raw hair or wool gives more durability to
the mauure and renders it more particularly desirable for the culture in
question. The basis of my first-mentioned composition, namely, "guano
agenais, first quality," consist solely of animal matters, richer in azote than
Peruvian guano itself; these matters by their contexture and organic compo-
sition offer such a resistance and tenacity that hitherto it has been found
impossible to divide them sufficiently to utilize all their fertilizing properties,
and therefore, notwithstanding tho energetic action of these matters used as
manure, there necessarily resulted a great deperdition of the azote they contain,
and the effect of the manure, although real and apparent up to a certain point,
was, by reason of such insufficient division, considerably lessened. The more
a matter is divided, the more the decomposing agents act upon its parts, and
the application of this principle to the manure which I treat, is an incontestable
progress, for it will be evident, that manure reduced to powder in virtue of
this principle, will assimilate and incorporate more easily and actively with the
plants and the soil to fertilize, and, without loss, powerfully develop cultivation,
consequently, the division of the matters in question in a liquid pulverulent,
and so to say, molecular state, is an immense boon to agriculture, and
constitutes the merit of my Invention.
I deem it necessary to complete my Specification by stating that the means
which I employ to liquefy wool, horn, bristles, hoofs, hair, whalebone, feathers,
leather, tendons, and all other animal matters bitherto deemed insoluble really
constitute the principal and fundamental object of my Invention, and that the
manufacture of any description of manure is but one of the applications which
this process enables me to realize, and I desire it to be understood, that I claim
the exclusive use of my Invention for every application of which it is capable.
Thus, when woollen rags, always mixed with divers textile matters, such as
cotton, hemp, flax, or other, are operated upon the animal matter only is
dissolved, and every vegetable matter still remains within the apparatus, and
may very well be used in the preparation of pulp for paper-making. Here,
therefore, are all the elements of a new manufacture resulting from the use of
my Invention.
I would further add, that this result permits me to foresee the possibility of
applying animal matters in solution to the animalization of cotton by the same
ways and means as those which I have indicated, and which I shall also
complete.
Further, the solution of horn, first filtered and then freed from colour, gives
a product bearing the greatest analogy to light shell, and which may be used
for fancy goods.

page_text: To complete my Specification in its main points, I also deem it necessary to
add that I now obtain the immediate dissolution of all the animal matters
which I have above designated and which have been hitherto deemed insoluble,
by submitting them to a pressure of from 12 to 15 or more atmospheres, with
corresponding temperature of about 424 % "Farenheit." It is under the
double influence of strong pressure and an elevated temperature that I obtain
the dissolution of animal matters hitherto deemed insoluble; and it is this I
again designedly repeat that essentially constitutes my Invention. Under
these conditions, the steam from water as well as the water itself, may dissolve
considerable quantities of these matters, and even completely saturate some to
the point of forming a sort of very thick magma or sediment, which may at
pleasure be rapidly dried or receive additions of water according to the state of
concentration desired, and the use to which these solutions are destined, that
is to say, whether they are to be used in the preparation of strongly azoted
manure, for sprinkling dung heaps, or in the manufacture of ammonia and
its compounds.
It is certain that the shape and dimensions of the apparatus to be used may
infinitely vary, and that the object of this Invention is not based upon the use
of one or other special apparatus, because those already well known may be
readily adapted to the necessities of this manufacture, and also because, if certain
special arrangements may be useful, future experience alone can indicate them.
To sum up, a very considerable quantity of animal matters, the natural
insolubility of which rendered them little apt for use in agriculture, or which
were even considered of no value, old leather, to wit, will certainly be returned
to the soil, which but too much requires them, and profit everybody in their
vegetable circulation.
Thanks to the means which I have above indicated, these waste matters,-
these things looked upon as almost useless, or at least without value in their
actual state, will acquire a certain serious and useful value, while giving birth
to new manufacturing applications. In every point of view, there is therefore
creation of products new in themselves and in their applications, by reason of
which I claim all the exclusive rights accorded by the law to Inventors.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexandre Jaille, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
ALLAD JAILLE. (L.S.)