IMPROVEMENTS IN MAKING AND PRESERVING MANURE
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Dewar, Doctor of Medicine, residing in
Kirkcaldy, North Britain, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MAKING AND PRESERVING MANURE."
Sealed the 24th July 1868, and dated the 24th April 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Dewar at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th April 1868.
I, JAMES DEWAR, Doctor of Medicine, residing in Kirkcaldy, North
Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MAKING AND PRESERVING MANURE," to be as follows:-
Fish, blood, viscera, offal, and such like animal substances, and also
vegetable substances and vegetable refuse have already been used as
manure.
My Invention consists in making manure from these substances
in an improved manner, and in preserving these substances for manure

page_text: in an inoffensive and innocuous condition. I prepare fish for manure
by drying it thoroughly and then grinding it up into a meal or powder.
In this state the inherent fertilizing properties of the substance are
preserved, while it can be transported more easily and applied to the
land more efficaciously and cheaply than in the forms in which it
has been heretofore employed. I also make manure by mixing fish
prepared as above mentioned with blood, viscera, and offal of animals
or with draff or dreg, and I find great advantage to arise from the
nitrogenous matter in the fish being combined with the other fortilizing
agents in the blood and other substances above mentioned. The fish.
and such other substances may cach be dried and reduced to powder
before being mixed (which I prefer) or they may be mixed together
and then dried and reduced to powder. To preserve for manure in an
inoffensive and innocuous condition animal and vegetable substances,
such as the blood, viscera,. and offal of cattle and other animals and
fish and their viscera, and also vegetable substances suitable for making
manure and vegetable refuse, such as draff and dreg, which are the refuse
of grain used in distillerics and breweries, I subject these substances
to the action of sulphurous acid. For this purpose I use the aqueous
solution of sulphurous acid commonly manufactured of specific gravity
about 1.012, which I find to be of suitable strength when diluted
with an equal bulk of water, or I use the acid in the form of a sulphite
or bisulphite dissolved in or reduced to powder and mixed with the
substances intended to be preserved. The acid may be applied to the
substances in their natural condition, or as respects substances which
are dried and ground up it may be applied either before (which I
prefer) or after they have been so treated. After the acid has been
applied in either form above indicated the substances may be preserved
for a considerable time either in a moist condition or in a state of desicca-
tion, but I consider the latter preferable. I find that even although
the substances intended to be preserved have become somewhat stale
and offensive before being subjected to the acid, they are when treated
according to my Invention rendered inoffensive and preserved in a
condition innocuous in a sanitary point of view.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Dewar in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 23rd October 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
DEWAR, Doctor of Medicine, residing in Kirkcaldy, North Britain, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said James Dewar, Her special licence that
I, the said James Dewar, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said James Dewar, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 MAKING AND
PRESERVING MANURE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said James Dewar, 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 James Dewar, 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 :-
T-L

page_text: in an inoffensive and innocuous condition by the action of sulphurous
acid.
The manner in which my Invention is to be performed is as follows:-
First. As respects my improvements in making manure I dry fish
and then simply bruise it or grind it up into a meal or powder, in
which condition it is ready for use as manure.
I also mix fish pre-
pared as above-mentioned with blood, viscera, and offal of animals or
with draff or dreg (by which I mean the refuse of grain used by
brewers and distillers) also dried and bruised or ground up as above-
mentioned, and I find great advantage to arise from the nitrogenous]
matter in the fish being combined with the other fertilizing agents
in the blood and other substances above-mentioned. The fish and
such other substances may be dried separately and bruised or reduced
to powder before being mixed (which I prefer) or they may be mixed
together and then dried and bruised or reduced to powder.
By the improvements in making manure above specified the fertilizing
properties of the substances used are retained more completely, and
the manure can be transported more easily and applied to the land
more efficaciously and comparatively more cheaply than in the forms
in which artificial manure has been heretofore employed.
Secondly. As respects my improvements in preserving manure. To
preserve as manure in an inoffensive and innocuous condition the
blood, viscera, and offal of cattle and other animals, fish and their
viscera, and other animal matter and refuse, and also draff, dreg, and
other vegetable substances and refuse suitable for making manure, I
subject these substances to the action of sulphurous acid. For this
purpose I use the aqueous solution of sulphurous acid commonly manu-
factured, say of specific gravity about 1·012 which I mix with the
substance to be preserved, and I find that for that purpose the solution
above-mentioned may be used advantageously when diluted with water
. as herein-after mentioned. I also use the acid in the form of a sulphite
or bi-sulphite mixed with the substances intended to be preserved.
The acid may be applied to the substances in their natural condition,
or after they have been treated in the manner directed in the earlier
portion of this Specification, and as respects substances which are
dried and bruised or ground up it may be applied either before (which
I prefer) or after they have been so treated. After the acid has been
applied in cither form above indicated the substances will be preserved

page_text: for a considerable time whether in a comparatively moist condition or
in a state of desiccation, but when the manure is desired to be kept for
a long time I prefer that it should be preserved in a state of
desiccation. I find that even altho' the substances intended to be
preserved have become somewhat stale and offensive before being sub-
jected to the action of the acid, they are when treated with the acid
according to my Invention rendered practically inoffensive and pre-
served in a condition innocuous in a sanitary point of view. My
experience is that the most suitable sulphite or bi-sulphite to be used
for the above-mentioned purposes is the sulphite or bi-sulphite of soda.
In regard to the quantities of sulphurous acid and of sulphites or bi-
sulphites which I employ, I find that one ounce by measure of the
aqueous solution of sulphurous acid of the ordinary commercial strength
say of specific gravity 1.012, diluted with five ounces of water is
sufficient for the preservation of one pound in weight of the substances
intended to be preserved for manure, and that one ounce by weight
of the sulphite or bi-sulphite is sufficient for the preservation of the
above-mentioned quantity of the substance to be preserved. Sulphites
and bi-sulphites may be used in combination with each other, and
with the aqueous solution, but I prefer the separate use of those
several forms of sulphurous acid.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Dewar, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
JAMES DEWAR. (L.S.)