IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Rhodes, of Regent Works, Leeds, in
the County of York, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF MANURE."
Sealed the 7th June 1853, and dated the 12th March 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Rhodes, at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 12th March 1853.
I, THOMAS RHODES, of Regent Works, Leeds, in the County of
York, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE" to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of reducing wool or hair into a finely divided
condition or pulp by machinery, such as is employed in paper making,
and then dissolving or treating the same by acid and alkali. The
classes of wool to which this invention is more particularly applicable,
are the waste products of wool obtained in spinning, and also in shear-
ing cloths, and other processes of the woollen manufacture, and also
wool obtained by reducing old fabrics of wool to pulp or fine division.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Rhodes, in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 10th September 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
THOMAS RHODES, of Regent Works, Leeds, in the County of York,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the sixteenth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Thomas Rhodes, IIer special licence that I, the said
Thomas Rhodes, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Thomas Rhodes, 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 "IMPROVULUT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
MANURE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas
Rhodes, by an instrument in writing under my hand and scal, 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 1, the said Thomas Rhodes, 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 thereof (that is to say):
This invention consists of reducing wool or hair into a finely divided
condition or pulp by machinery, such as is employed in paper making,
and then dissolving or treating the same by acid and alkali. The class es

page_text: of wool to which this invention is more particularly applicable, are the
waste products of wool obtained in spinning, and also in shearing
cloths, and other processes of the woollen manufacture, and also wool
obtained by reducing old fabrics of wool to pulp or fine division. And
in order that my said invention may be most fully understood and readily
carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the means pursued by me.
I take woollen rags, or shoddy, or old hair cloth, and reduce the
same to pulp in a paper engine, and I strain off the excess of
water, leaving in the water which does not readily drain away.
I then mix with the pulp sulphuric acid, and afterwards combine
this mixture with a quantity of ground bones, phosphorite, coprolite,
burnt bones, or animal charcoal. Or the pulp and bones or other
matters may be first mixed together, and then acted upon by sulphuric
acid. For turnips I prefer the following mixture: For every two cwt.
of the original shoddy or material I add about four cwt. of the sulphuric
acid of commerce, and mix the same well together, and I then add
about twelve cwt. of ground coprolite, or mineral phosphate, ground
bones, calcined bones, or animal charcoal. When these materials are
thoroughly incorporated or mixed, and the effervescence or action has
somewhat subsided, the mass is moved from the vat or vessel in which
the mixing has been performed into a covered place. where, by gradual
drying, it becomes fit for use. I would state that enough water is to
be left in the pulp to enable it to mix easily with the other materials,
and so that in mixing it may be a semi-fluid mass. Or, in place of
such water, urine or gas water containing the alkali ammonia may be
used, by which means the manure will be rendered more valuable. If
for corn crops, I use two or three times the quantity of shoddy pulp to
the same amount of the other ingredients.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, I would have it understood that I
make no claim to the use of coprolite, or mineral phosphate, or bones,
or animal charcoal, with sulphuric acid, in the manufacture of manure;
but what I claim is, reducing wool or hair into a finely divided condition

page_text: or pulp by machinery, and treating and applying the same in the
manufacture of manure as herein explained.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Rhodes, have hereunto set
my hand and scal, this Seventh day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
THOMAS RHODES. (L.S.)
Witness, GEO. SMITH.