A New or Improved Artificial Manure or Fertilizer.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 16th Sept., 1896-Accepted, 21st Aug., 1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A New or Improved Artificial Manure or Fertilizer.
I, ANTON SCHLEPITZKY, of Landeck, Silesia, in the Empire of Germany,
Geologist, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement:-
The pharmacologist and physiological chemist Julius Hensel considers it
requisite, that the soil, in order to increase its fertility, should be treated with
natural carbonic materials, such as eccur in nature in the form of carbonate of
lime, chalk, magnesian limestone (Dolomite) and marl, or with felspar rock
material which is rich in minerals of various descriptions and, being the chief
source of the so very important alkalis, contains all the mineral matter required
for the growth of plants. The effect of felspar material in connection with
carbonic materials produces a fertility equal to that incited by wood ashes and
guano, and attained by no artificial manures, which are invariably composed in a
one-sided manner and can therefore have none but one-sided effects.
According to Hensel the natural lime and Dolomite as well as felspar material
should be strewn on the fields in the form of powder as fine as dust. This would
necessitate the existence of crushing and powdering mills, of which there is great
scarcity. Furthermore the working efficiency of such mills is not particularly
great, for a crushing or stamping mill cannot grind more than 10,000 Kilogram
of rocky material at most, in 24 hours. The erection and maintenance of an
establishment of this description is too expensive and no sufficient quantity can
be produced at the requisite low price, the more so as the raw material has to be
obtained by means of blasting, and the felspar rock, owing to the high degree
of its hardness, has to be subjected to a preliminary process of heating and
chilling to facilitate the crushing and powdering. This procedure is too circum-
stantial, not sufficiently productive and forms the obstacle preventing the general
introduction of the "Hensel" principle.
In order to obviate the disadvantages described, burnt lime or Dolomite is
used, according to my present invention, for fertilizing purposes and the carbonic
acid, of which the said materials have been deprived through the burning process
and which in conjunction with water forms the principal requisite for the growth
of plants and is also necessary for developing the various constituents of the soil,
is replaced by coal which has the advantage of containing, in addition to car-
bonate, a number of other descriptions of mineral matters, especially sulphur,
which are proved to be absolutely indispensable for growing plants. For the
said purpose are adapted not only pure coal but in an even higher degree impure
coal and also the mud separated from coal by the dressing process, and other
similar substances, as they contain larger proportions of the required minerals
than pure coal. Not only black and brown coal may be employed but also coal
slate, bituminous shale, clay coal, bituminous lime, bituminous marl slate, and

page_text: the like, that is to say, all descriptions of black and brown coal and lime- and
clay-bitumina and in either powdered or raw condition. In addition to carbon
the said coals also contain silicate of alumina, calcareous earth, phosphorus, sulphur
and the like and chemically bound water; some qualities of coal also contain
alkali and natron, and brown coal has an especially large percentage of sulphide
of iron, carbonate of ammonia and phosphorite. These substances except the
pure argillaceous earth, participate in the building up of the bodies of the plants.
The coal substitute absorbs heat from the sun, attracts and absorbs much moisture,
also a quantity of atmospheric air, equal to several times its own volume, and
therewith a great quantity of nitrogen; by compression of the absorbed moisture
it deprives the latter of the heat which causes the carbonate to unite with the
oxygen of the water, thus producing carbonic acid, which then causes the elimi-
nated hydrogen to attract atmospheric nitrogen and to unite with the latter
producing carbonate of ammonia, which is absorbed by and retained in the coal.
In the same independent manner the coal substitute produces nitric acid in
light and porous soil by the combination of oxygen and nitrogen, and the species
of saltpetre or nitrate by combination with calcareous earth, natron or alkali.
By employment of the substitute coal the expense for dear Chili nitrates
can therefore be avoided by agriculturists. Owing to these and the hereinafter
described qualities, the substitute coal with an admixture of from 100 to 200
per cent of burnt lime or Dolomite, or a mixture of burnt lime and Dolomite,
forms a very prominent manuring medium for the cultivation of every description
of plant, producing great fertility in healthy vegetable produce owing to its
hereinafter described action.
(1) It produces carburetted hydrogen which dissolves the not easily soluble
silicic, phosphate and sulphate constituents of the soil, thereby producing an
increased quantity of substances necessary for the nutrition of plants.
(2) Carburetted hydrogen, chemically bound with carbonic acid, produces
saccharine which is the basis of growth in plants. Saccharine after conversion
of its carbonic acid and its water into carburetted hydrogen, produces oleine, or
pure hydrocarburet, while saccharine in combination with various earths produces
cell-forming i.e. celluliferous substance, this being an intermediate step in the
conversion of saccharine into oleine.
(3) Saccharine in combination with oleine and ammonia produces carbonate of
ammonia oleine which binds the air to the earthy substances and thus converts
them into fertilizing salts. Only on reaching the ratio of G-viz. 4 carburetted
hydrogen and 2 carbonic acid in accordance with the basis of vegetable saccharine
the formation of fructifying vegetable nitrogen products begins, and consequently
the limited quantity of carbonic acid present in the atmosphere does not suffice
for the growth of plants.
(4) Concurrently with carbonate of ammonia oleine, albumen or nitro-proteine
is produced; it combines with sulphur and phosphorus into composite albumen
and provides the leaves, fruit and seeds with albumen and gluten."
It is made obvious that the varieties of coal hereinbefore enumerated admit of
their being employed as independent manuring matters.
In order to avoid the crushing of the felspar material intended for manuring
purposes, by the aid of crushing mills, and as a substitute for said felspar material,
fertilizing earths containing felspar, such as are provided by nature but are only
found underground and therefore necessitate mining operations, may be employed.
These fertilizing earths, actually consisting of chemically decomposed rock
material, can be obtained without blasting and such like operations and therefore
admit of an output of large quantities at a low rate. They are found in the
primitive rock among the lime and dolomite strata in the region of composite
crystalline rock varieties. In the upper depth and before lime formation occurs,
only the sill or sole of the rock, being richer in lime, is found decomposed, in
the lower depth however, from where the rock strata have been converted into
lime stone, the roof of the strata being richer in silicic acid but more deficient in

page_text: lime, is also decomposed and in this manner two varieties of fertilizing earth
may be found in the same region, one richer in lime and poorer in silicic acid,
the other poorer in lime and richer in silicic acid. In a parallel relation to such
divergence in the ratio of silicic acid, contained in the said earths, stands the
ratio of their other mineral constituents, that is to say with richness in silicic
acid corresponds the ratio of argillaceous earth, potash, phosphorus, chlorine,
manganese, and with poverty in silicic acid the ratio of lime, natron, magnesia,
sulphur, fluorine, iron, which substances are essential for the growth of plants.
The mineral constituents of a given kind of rock material can therefore invariably
be correctly ascertained.
It is well known that the degree of hardness of felspar rock or quartz depends
on the one hand on the combination of their component parts with oxygen, on
the other hand on their combination with silicic acid. Oxygen condenses the sub-
stances and makes them heavy, while silicic acid provides the hardening medium
or cement. Upon dissolution of the silicic acid combination and the substances
being deprived of oxygen, as the natural process effects it by means of carbonic
water, the particular properties of each mineral substance are developed and act
together, the same as is the case with wood ashes.
Fertilizing earths are therefore produced by hydratic decomposition, the latter
corresponding with an anatomical decomposition by means of dissolution of the
silicic acid combination. In crushed-rock powder however the silicic acid com-
bination is not dissolved.
On the surface of the earth anatomical decomposition of rock cannot take
place on account of the decomposing mediums, viz: hydro-oxygen and hydro-
carbon, not adhering to the stone as they evaporate owing to the dryness of the
air, the rays of the sun and the wind; a complete chemical decomposition does
therefore not occur but only a partial chemical mechanical decomposition which
generally only reaches the formation of shingle or gravel, where the silicic acid
combination continues. It is absolutely necessary to have this description of
broken rock finely powdered in order to render it useful as manure, and it must
further receive an admixture of from 10 to 20 per cent. of powdered lime, chalk,
dolomite, or substitute coal to dissolve the silicic acid combination. The sub-
terranean decomposition is effected while air is excluded, the dissolving water
having full effect as its oxygen and carbonic acid cannot evaporate; the result is a
complete chemical-anatomical decomposition producing earths free of silicic
acid and impregnated with soluble silicic and hydrated oxydes. 'These
decomposed earths possess the proper disintegrated form for use as manure and are
of great importance, owing to their mineral composition, and of great value as
fertilizers, being quicker in their effect than powdered rock material.
The deposits of fertilizing earth are found in strata extending longitudinally
over the whole declivity of mountains, their development in depth generally at
about the middle of the mountain slope and continues in considerable depth
below the valley. In a cross-sectional direction the stratum usually sets in with a
depth of about 30 metres and increases in depth with the thickness of the super-
posed rock. When the latter amounts to about 80 metres, the cross-sectional
depth of the zone of decomposition usually reaches 200 metres.
in
Fertilizing earths originate not only in primitive rock but also in coal strata
which are intersected by eruptive or volcanic rock, and in the latter case without
that lime or dolomite is previously formed, as the requisite carbonic acid, which
in primitive rock is supplied by moistened lime, dolomite or graphite, is supplied
in coal strata in even larger quantities by the continually moist coal seams.
the process of decomposition the carbonic acid is furnished by lime and dolomite
but in coal formations a like indirect supply is not required as the coal seams
themselves give off very large quantities of said gas effecting decomposition of
extraneous varieties of rock, even volcanic rock, which latter does not undergo this
transmutation before first having been transformed into primitive slate, and lime
formation, having set in.

page_text: Primitive rock principally consists of the following three varieties of primitive
stone:
(1) Eruptive or volcanic stone of composite-crystalline solid structure.
(2) Composite-crystalline slate.
(3) Simple crystalline stone of solid structure.
The basis of volcanic and primitive slate is felspar which originally is the
product of a fusion of silicie earth, lime-earth, clay-earth and alkalis (natron and
potash). There is a further principal constituent in which occur silicic earth,
lime-carth and clay-earth, but no alkalis, but among its component parts are also
found magnesia, manganese, iron, sulphur, fluorine, chlorine and other substances.
In this case magnesia appears as a substitute for the omitted alkalis. All com-
ponent parts are silicic compositions or silicates.
The final resultant of the process of decomposition is calcareous alumina or
clay-marl, impregnated with soluble silicic acid, containing all the mineral con-
stituents of the rock in a state of decomposition.
The sediments of the sea dating from a later epoch comprise the so called
sedimentary rock varieties. These sediments are deposited in layers and their
bulk is without structure i.e. amorphous. Clay sand and lime not having been
separated simultaneously but successively, thus forming the slate deposits or
strata, these sedimentary layers are deposited suchwise as to present only one of
the component varieties towards the surface, so long as no disturbance may have
interfered with their original disposition, and in consequence only clay or lime
or sand will be uppermost although composition of varieties i.e. two varieties in
process of intermingling or transition may be met with. Clay earth silicic earth
and lime are the principal constituents of the composite crystalline rock variety
produced by intermingling the component parts of the bottom of the sea, caused
by upheavals and undermining. The said varieties of primitive rock in juxta-
position to a sedimentary soil accordingly form the components of a complete
tripartite group that is to say a mineral mass three times larger, especially as
the primitive sediments, from which the primitive rock has been produced by
plutonic activity, have contained not only a larger quantity but also a greater
diversity of mineral substances.
The high value and importance of decomposed or disentegrated earths as
fertilizers is rendered evident by the foregoing statement, for the greater the
diversity of mineral substances present in a limited space in a field of arable land
the more chemical processes take place in the soil owing to the mineral com-
ponents acting upon each other with their electro-magnetic powers, the more the
heat is developed in the soil, whereby the climate is improved, and the greater
are the prolificness and opulence of the plants.
Disentegrated or decomposed felspar material has, like phosphoric compositions
or compounds, sulphate of lime, dolomite, carbonate of magnesia, protoxide of
iron and other substances, the advantage of not being soluble in pure water, and
that carbonic water and carburetted hydrogen dissolve only the quantity required
by the plants and chemically bound by saccharine cell-forming i.e. celluliferous
substance and albumen, so that damage or loss through it being washed into the
subsoil or carried away by continued heavy rains, or surcharging the plants with
potash, natron, lime or silicic acid as to render them deleterious to health are
obviated.
Immediately upon admixture of carburetted hydrogen and their being hydrated
by the action of carbonic water the not easily soluble earths are converted into
saccharine. These saccharine earths in combination with ammonia form the
most sanitary fertilizing salts.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this invention
ara in what manner the same is to be performed declare that what I claim is:
1 A manure consisting of black or brown coal lime- or clay-hitumina in either

page_text: powdered or raw condition as a substitute for other fertilizing media or as an
independent fertilizer.
2. A manure consisting of burnt lime or burnt dolomite or a mixture of both,
in combination with the coal described and claimed in Claim 1.
3. A manure consisting of felspathic, naturally disintegrated or decomposed
earths.
Dated this 16th day of Cantantion 1906: