IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING MANURE AND OBTAINING ACCESSORY PRODUCTS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Oldfield Ward, of Cork Street, Burlington
Gardens, London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING
MANURE AND OBTAINING ACCESSORY PRODUCTS."-Partly a communication
Luane Dundovia Wamente aciding in Delrium
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Frederick Oldfield Ward,
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 5th December 1857, pursuant to the 9th Section
of the Patent Law Amendment Act 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
OLDFIELD WARD, of Cork Street, Burlington Gardens, London, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MANUFACTURING MANURE AND OBTAINING ACCESSORY PRODUCTS," and have peti-
tioned Her Majesty to grant unto me, my heirs, executors, administrators,
and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn
declaration that the same is partly my own Invention, and partly a commu-
nication from a foreigner named Frederic Wynants, residing in Belgium,
and that the same is not in use by any other person or persons in Great
Britain or Ireland to the best of my knowledge and belief.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Frederick Oldfield Ward, do hereby
declare that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and seal,
fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, that is to say:-

page_text: This Invention relates to the manufacture of manure and the recovery of
accessory products from certain kinds of mixed materials, partly azotised and
partly unazotised. In a Provisional Specification lodged by myself and
Frederic Wynants for improvements in the manufacture of manure, on
December the Ninth, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, digestion
in water, under pressure, was indicated to reduce azotised organic matter to
manure, and the employment of acidulated water and fermentation was
proposed to destroy the cohesion of any unazotised vegetable fibro inter-
mingled with such azotised organic matters. In a Provisional Specification
lodged by myself and Frederick Wynants for improvements in manufacturing
manure and obtaining accessory products, on June the Sixth, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-seven, the disintegration of the azotised ingredients
of mixed materials and the recovery of intermingled vegetable fibre was
proposed by a treatment whereof the application of superheated steam formed
part; but I and Frederic Wynants bad not at that time perfected, nor did
we specify as the means of applying a steam atmosphere to effect that object,.
the use of the closed boiler or high-pressure digester in conjunction with
certain other appliances which further experience has shewn to be necessary
and which it is my present purpose to set forth.
The present Invention has for its object the treatment of certain kinds
of mixed refuse or materials by a novel combination of means not heretofore
proposed by other Inventors, nor by myself, the result being to obtain from
such refuse or materials better products at less cost than by any previous
modes, including those of myself and Frederic Wynants.
The only sorts of mixed refuse or materials to which the present Invention
relates are those containing azotised matter not readily putrescible (as wool,
leather, silk,) mixed or combined with vegetable fibre (as cotton, flax, hemp,)
or with greasy matter (as oil). Mixed rags are the most important example
of materials containing azotised matter not readily putrescible together with
vegetable fibro; the refuse of the wool manufacture, called shoddy, is the
principal mixed material containing such azotised matter imbued with oil.
I expressly disclaim treating readily putrescible organic matter, such as
refuse fish; I also disclaim treating bones and other materials used in the
manufacture of glue.
Previous Inventors in reducing mixed rags to manure have either dis-
integrated and ground to powder, the entire mass, vegetable fibre, and all,
or have endeavoured to dissolve the azotised matter by digestion in about
twice its weight of water at a very high temperature (corresponding to about
thirteen atmospheric pressure), and the viscous imperfect solution thus

page_text: obtained they have endeavored to separate by straining from intermingled
vegetable fibre.
This wet process of separation proving on trial to be imperfect, it has
been attempted to replace it by what may be termed the dry separation of
azotised matter from intermingled vegetable fibre, but the means to this end
so far as hitherto developed have proved unsatisfactory, as including no
provision against the injurious action of condensation water in excess, and as
otherwise essentially imperfect.
The present improvements are intended to remedy these defects and to
accomplish more economically and completely than by any mode previously
proposed, the separation of the azotised from the unazotised ingredients of
the mixed materials in question, for which purpose I employ a novel com-
bination of means having for their result to bring the azotised portion of
mixed materials quickly and at little cost into a peculiar condition, in which,
while retaining their form, they are hydrated or increased in weight by the
fixation of a proportion of water, at the same time being rendered crisp
or incoherent, and undergoing a marked change as to their chemical
composition and qualities; becoming, for example, soluble to a great extent
in water, capable of yielding rapidly when applied to the soil (among other
things) ulmic acid, ulmine, and ammonia, and forming when pulverised a
portable manure of very superior quality. A further result of this new
combination of means is to shorten and facilitate the process of treating such
materials when manufacturing manure and recovering products therefrom.
In carrying this Invention into effect I employ a closed boiler or digester
of any convenient form and size, preferring a cylindrical form with hemi-
spherical ends set with its long axis vertical and having sufficient capacity
to hold a ton of mixed rags. This digester has the usual fittings, such as
a cover (which may be formed of one of the hemisperical ends) with its
hermetical fastenings, stop-cocks, for letting in and blowing off steam, a
discharge cock for water at bottom, a pressure guage, a safety valve, and a
thermometer tube, all which are matters well understood. There must also
be provided either in the structure of the digester itself or as part of the
apparatus used therewith suitable appliances to protect the materials under
treatment from the injurious action of condensation water in excess.. Theso
appliances may vary, but the form thereof which I prefer consists in an inuer
case or cradle, rather less in height and diameter than the cylindrical portion
of the digester, into which it may be let down, and from which it may be lifted
out by means of a crane.
The sides of this case or cradle should be perforated with numerous holes

page_text: to admit steam, but its lid and its lower part should be unperforated, the
object of the case or cradle being to hold the materials under treatment and
to protect them from tho contact of any condensation water that may be
formed in the interior of the digester and run down its sides, or accumulató
at the bottom, or drip from the lid.
To obviate, as much as possible, loss of heat by radiation, which involves
formation of condensation water (and consequently, waste of fuel), the digester
should be carefully clothed with nonconducting material.
Should it be desired to facilitate the lifting of the materials in and out by
dividing the weight, this can be readily effected by providing several cases or
cradles of similar diameter but less height, made to fit one on the other in
the digester, each serving as a lid to the one beneath, and the top one having
a lid of its own. The mixed rags or other such materials containing azotised
matter mixed with vegetable fibre, after being well beaten (preferably in a
paper maker's rag beating machine) to separato inert Just and grit, are put
into the cradle or cradles and lifted into the digester, the lid of which is then
screwed down steam-tight. Steam from a generator is then turned on
through a tubo and stop-cock in the usual way, at a temperature and for a
time which may vary within wide limits. I have obtained good results, for
example, with steam at from three to seven atmospheres pressure, kept up for
from two to four hours time, the time being lengthened when the temperature
and pressure are diminished and vice versâ; but I recommend, as a good
working average, steam at about five atmospheres pressure, continued for
about three hours time. The effect of these arrangements I have found to
be, on the one hand, most effectualy to defend the materials from the contact
or drip of any excess of condensation water that may form as aforesaid, and
on the other hand to admit to the materials a sufficiency of steam to hydrató
their azotised ingredients and to produce the above described peculiar
transformation thereof. It will be readily understood that the mode of
protecting the material under treatment from excess of condensation water
is susceptible of many variations; thus, for instance, the digester may be con-
structed with an outer jacket, and be beated by steam' circulating in the
space between it and the outer jacket in which space, consequently, any con-
densation water formed through radiation of heat will be retained, while tho
materials introduced into the interior of the digester and supplied with a duly
regulated quantity of steam or of moisture to create & maintain around
them, the requisite steam atmosphero may thus also be effectually protected
against the bad effects of condensation water in excess. Similar arrangenients
may be adopted, and a similar result obtained, when tho digester is heated

page_text: by the circulation of steam through a closed coil of pipes placed within it ;
other modifications of detail will readily occur to persons conversant with
steam apparatus, I prefer, however, the mode first described, though I do not
confine myself thereto. Any condensation water that may accumulate in tho
digester should be discharged from time to time by the stop-cock below, and
as soon as the digesting process is finished steam should be suffered to blow
off a little while through the steam cock above. The materials may thus 'be
obtained dry from the digester, or if taken out while still damp they may be
dried by exposure to a current of hot air in a drying chamber in any of the
usual inodes preferably by means of an endless apron passing around and
stretched between two rollers, so as to be carried forward by their rotation in
such manner that the materials may be continuously fed in damp at one end
and delivered dry at the other, all which is well understood and needs no
detailed description here, especially as it forms no part of my claim.
The mechanical means available for separating the manure product from
the fibrous product ȧre, it will be readily understood numerous and susceptible
of many modificatians. I have obtained excellent results by passing the
dry product of digestion between fluted wooden cylinders, such as are used in
scutching flax and afterwards through an ordinary paper makers' rag beating
machine. Care must of course be taken to enclose dust-tight the space
which receives the valuable azotised powder beaten out, so that none of it
may be blown away and lost, and the machinery should be worked by steam
or other power at sufficient speed & force thoroughly to separate the
azotised dust from the fibrous vegetable matter without injuring the staple of
the latter or wastefully wearing it away.
It will of course be understood that the fibrous products may be purified
and prepared for use in the arts by any of the usual modes, and that the
azotised product may be mixed with any other material or materials at the
operator's choice to form a compound manure.
In dealing with greasy refuse, such as the oily waste of the wool manu-
facture called shoddy, I proceed in the same manner merely omitting the
final cylindering, beating and sifting process, as being in this case unnecessary,
and instead thereof, subjecting the material to a preliminary process of
pressure to extract the oil, such pressure being (preferably) applied by means
of a hydraulic press, aided in some cases by moisture and heat to facilitate
the running out of the oil. The cake left in the press is digested with the
appliances and precautions above set forth, and makes a superior manure,
more portable, and richer in azote than when encumbered with oil, which has
no fertilising properties; on the other hand, the oil extracted will be found

page_text: applicable to a variety of useful purposes, especially when purified by any of
the ordinary means.
Having thus described the present Invention, and set forth its essential
features, its points of contrast with previous Inventions, and the best means
with which I am acquainted for carrying it into effect I would have it under-
stood that I do not claim generally and separately the use either of the closed
boiler, or of the beating or pressing machinery or of superheated steam in
manufacturing manure and obtaining accessory products from mixed materials;
on the other hand, I do not confine myself to the precise details of the mode
of operating, as herein-before set forth; but, I claim the exclusive right of
carrying the Invention into effect with any inessential. variations, so long as
its essential characters be substantially retained. And I claim as constituting
this Invention, and now first made known, the following five-fold combination
of means for obtaining manure and accessory products from mixed materials,
as above described, viz., the combination of,-
Firstly, the digestion of such materials in an atmosphere of superheated
steam, as described.
Secondly, the use of a closed boiler or digester for the more economical
application and retention of such steam atmosphere around the materials.
Thirdly, the application of means, as described, to protect the materials
from being wetted by excess of condensation water during digestion.
Fourthly, the application of means such as beating, pressure, sifting, and the
like, as described, for mechanically separating the azotised from the unazotised
ingredients, such separation being effected after digestion, & in the dry
state, when the unazotised ingredient is vegetable fibre, but before digestion
and either in the moistened or ordinary state, at choice, when the unazotised
ingredient is of an oily nature.
Fifthly, and lastly, the conduct of the operation in such manner as to effect
the peculiar transformation of the azotised matter as described.
In witness whereof, I, the 'undersigned Frederick Oldfield Ward, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fifth day of December, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
FREDERICK OLDFIELD WARD. (L.S.)