IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Richardson, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and
Manning Prentice, of Stowmarket, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE."
Sealed the 16th June 1857, and dated the 15th April 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Richardson and
Manning Prentice at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 15th April 1857.
We, THOMAS RICHARDSON, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and MANNING PRENTICE,
of Stowmarket, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
manure. For these purposes, the per-centage of carbonate of lime in any
material containing earthy phosphates is ascertained by analysis, whether the
same has or has not been previously calcined. The material is reduced to a
fine powder, and agitated in dilute muriatic acid; there being only as much
acid as will combine with the lime of the carbonate of lime; any phosphate of
lime which may happen to be dissolved is precipitated by adding lime water.
After being allowed to settle, the supernatant liquor is to be syphoned off, and
the residuum washed, when it will be in a condition to be used in the manu-
facture of superphosphates, or it may be heated to redness and employed as a

page_text: substitute for the rich earthy phosphates. We boil animal matter in a solu-
tion of soda salts, known amongst alkali manufacturers as "red liquor," or a
similar preparation of alkaline salt, and when reduced by boiling to a pasty
consistency, we add sawdust or the husk of trefoil seed, called cobb or cosh, or
malt chives, or similar drying materials. We connect with any suitable source
of waste heat a convenient cistern or vessel, in which we mix a phosphatic
material as free from animal matter as may be, with its equivalent of sulphuric
or muriatic acid, until decomposition has been effected; and the better to
accomplish this it is preferred to use dilute acids. The mixture is conveyed to
a reverberatory furnace, and the water is ovaporated until the mass becomes
thick, when the above preparation of animal matter is added, or some of the
driers above mentioned. In thus using muriatic or sulphuric acid, the heat is
to be prevented rising to near the red heat and the mixture is to be constantly
stirred.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Richardson and Manning Prentice in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 15th October 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
RICHARDSON, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and MANNING PRENTICE, of Stowmarket,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Thomas Richardson and Manning Prentice, Her special licence that we, the
said Thomas Richardson and Manning Prentice, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Thomas Richardson and Manning
Prentice, our 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF MANURE," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Thomas
Richardson and Manning Prentice, our executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand
and seal of one of us or them, should particularly describe and ascertain the

page_text: nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, 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 we, the said Thomas Richardson and Manning
Prentice, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
manure. For these purposes, the per-centage of carbonate of lime in any
material containing earthy phosphates is ascertained by analysis, whether the
same has or has not been previously calcined. The material is reduced to a
fine powder, and agitated in dilute muriatic acid, there being only as much
acid as will combine with the lime of the carbonate of lime; any phosphate of
lime which may happen to be dissolved is precipitated by adding lime water.
After being allowed to settle, the supernatant liquor is to be syphoned off, and
the residuum washed, when it will be in a condition to be used in the manu-
facture of superphosphates, or it may be heated to redness and employed as a
substitute for the rich earthy phosphates.
We boil animal matter in a solution of soda salts, known amongst alkali
manufacturers as "red liquor," or a similar preparation of alkaline salt, and
when reduced by boiling to a pasty consistency we add sawdust or the husk of
trefoil seed, called cobb or cosh, or malt chives, or similar drying materials.
We connect with any suitable source of waste heat a convenient cistern or
vessel, in which we mix a phosphatic material as free from animal matter as
may be, with its equivalent of sulphuric or muriatic acid, until decomposition
has been effected; and the better to accomplish this, it is preferred to use
dilute acid. The mixture is conveyed to a reverberatory furnace, and the
water is evaporated until the mass becomes thick, when the above preparation
of animal matter is added, or some of the dryers above mentioned. In thus
using muriatic or sulphuric acid, the heat is to be prevented rising to near the
red heat, and the mixture is to be constantly stirred.
And in order that our said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, we will proceed to describe the method in which we
prefer to conduct the processes :-
We submit coprolites, bone ash, animal charcoal, or any other material con-
taining an earthy phosphate to a chemical analysis, after it has been reduced to
a fine powder, with or without previous calcination. We agitate this powder
with very dilute muriatic acid, containing about one per cent. of real acid, in

page_text: any convenient tank or vessel, taking care not to employ more than 74
parts of real muriatic acid for every part of carbonate of lime indicated by
analysis. It is immaterial whether this operation be performed in the cold or
with the aid of heat, but it is important that every part of the solid body be
brought into repeated contact with the acidulated liquid. When due attention 5
is paid to this precaution little or no phosphate of lime is dissolved by the aoid
liquid; but should such prove to be the case, as is ascertained by adding
ammonia to a small portion of the liquid, then lime water is added in excess to
precipitate any phosphate so dissolved. The whole contents are allowed to
rest, the clear supernatant liquid is syphoned off, and the residuum is washed
with one or two additions of fresh water to remove all the soluble or saline
matters. This residuum is now ready for use in the manufacture of super-
phosphate of lime, or it may be dried or heated to redness and employed as a
substitute for these materials containing phosphate of lime in common use for
the manufacture of manure. By thus preparing coprolites and other sub-
stances with muriatic acid previous to the manufacture of superphosphate of
lime therefrom, a great saving of sulphuric acid is effected in this latter
process.
We will now proceed to describe the part of our Invention which relates to
the preparation of animal matters to be used in the manufacture of manure :-
We take a solution of soda salts, known as "red liquor" in the alkali trade,
or a similar preparation made by melting a mixture of―
56 parts sulphate of soda,
10
39
lime,
24
"
carbonaceous matter,
in an ordinary reverberatory furnace, and lixiviating the fluid mass till all
soluble matter has been taken up. In place of the liquid prepared as above
described, the red liquor of alkali works may be employed; in either case it
must be brought to a strength of 45° of Twaddell. The alkaline solution is
heated nearly to boiling temperature, and old leather, shoddy, waste cuttings of
hides, hair, blood, or any other forms of animal matter is then added from time
to time, until an uniform mass is obtained. This semi-fluid mass is thrown or
run into a reverberatory furnace and carefully heated to drive off excess of
moisture without destroying the animal matter, and finally dried up by the
addition of sawdust or the husk of trefoil sced, called cobb or cosh, or malt
chives, or similar drying materials. The quantity of the above alkaline solu-
tion necessary to dissolve animal matter depends entirely on the nature of the
latter; for example, in the case of old shoes or leather, equal weights are
necessary, but when shoddy is employed the same solution is capable of dis-

page_text: solving twice its weight. The substance prepared in the way above described
we use for drying up solutions of superphosphate of lime, as will be hereafter
mentioned.
To prepare a superphosphate of lime for use as a manure, we throw into
any shallow convenient tank or vessel a quantity of our phosphate of lime
prepared as already described, or any other phosphatic material as free from
animal matter as, possible, the composition of which has been previously deter-
mined by analysis. With this phosphatic material we mix sulphuric acid in
the proportion of *8 parts of dry acid for every per cent. of carbonate of lime,
and from 25. to 77 parts of acid for every per cent. of phosphate of lime, and
we prefer to employ weak sulphuric acid of about 1-09 specific gravity. The
contents are heated and agitated from time to time to insure a perfect decom-
position. As soon as this has been accomplished the whole of the materials
are run into a reverberatory furnace, where we cautiously evaporate off the
excess of water until the mass becomes thick and pasty, when we add, in order
to dry it up, a dryer, such as sawdust and the other substances before men-
tioned, and which has previously been used for absorbing prepared animal
matter, as before described; or the drier may be used without being so pre-
pared. Afterwards the heat is continued for some time to dry the mass as
much as possible, but the temperature must never rise to that of a red heat,
and as the mass dries it must be kept in constant agitation; as soon as the
aqueous vapor ceases to escape the whole contents must be withdrawn from
the furnace; unless these precautions are employed the surface of the liquid
will become salted over, and it will be impossible to prevent tho reconversion
of the soluble phosphate of lime into the insoluble form.
When muriatic acid is substituted for sulphuric, the quantity required for
1% carbonate of lime is 77 parts real acid;
1% phosphate of lime may vary from 23 to .44 do. ;
and the same precautions are necessary, but in practice it is impossible to pre-
vent the formation of some insoluble phosphate, as this mixture has so great a
tendency to salt rapidly and thickly over the surface.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, we would have it understood that we do not confine ourselves
to the exact details described; but what we claim is,-
First, the separating carbonate of lime from coprolites, bone asb, animal
charcoal, or other material containing earthy phosphates by muriatic acid, as
herein described, to prepare it for being manufactured into a manure.
Second, the preparing animal matter for use in the manufacture of manure
by "red liquor," as herein described.

page_text: Third, the preparing superphosphate of lime by decomposing coprolites or
other phosphatic material by sulphuric or muriatic acids, and, when the
decomposition is complete transferring the mixture to a furnace to evaporate off
the water.
In witness whereof, we, the said Thomas Richardson and Manning
Prentice, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Fifteenth day of
October, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-seven.
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL
THOMAS RICHARDSON. (L.S.)
MANNING PRENTICE. (L.B.)