IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF ROCKY SUBSTANCES FOR OBTAINING MINERAL MANURE
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Gedge, of No. 4, Wellington Street South,
Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF ROCKY SUBSTANCES FOR OBTAINING
MINERAL MANURE."-A communication from John Urfus, of Prague, in
the Kingdom of Bohemia.
Sealed the 24th December 1856, and dated the 6th October 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Gedge at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 6th October
1856.
I, JOHN GEDGE, of No. 4, Wellington Street South, Strand, in the County
of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF ROCKY SUBSTANCES FOR
OBTAINING MINERAL MANURE," communicated to me by John Urfus, of Prague,
in the Kingdom of Bohemia, to be as follows:-
I propose to analyze certain rocky masses (naturally produced) in order to
ascertain the presence therein of potassa, natron, and phosphoric acid. The
masses I propose to subject to treatment or manufacture are the phonolites,

page_text: which contain up to seventeen per cent. of potassia of natron, and some phos-
phoric acid; the trachytes, containing up to twelve; and the basalts, containing
eight to ten per cent. of potassa, and some phosphoric acid. These dunging
substances are with difficulty disengaged from the rock. I propose, therefore,
to subject the rocks, so analyzed and found fit, to a roasting process in a lime
kilm or other kilm or oven, after which they will be pounded or reduced to a
very fine powder, which powder, either alone as mineral manure, or mixed
with other matter, will be found to be an efficient and powerful assistant to
the growth of plants. The rocky masses I propose to treat for obtaining the
mineral manure powder are phonolite, basalt, porphery, trap, felspar, granite,
oyenite, gneiss, pearl stone, obsidian, pummice stone, the different species of
mica, hornblende, serpentine stone, ophite, pyroxene, and several species of
limestone.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Gedge in the 'Great Seal Patent Office on the
1st April 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
GEDGE, of No. 4, Wellington Street South, Strand, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, and in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Jolin Gedge, Her special license that I, the said John Gedge, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Gedge,
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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION
OF ROCKY SUBSTANCES FOR OBTAINING MINERAL MANURE," a communication 'from
John Urfus, of Prague, in the Kingdom of Bohemia, upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said John Gedge, my executors or adminis-
trators, 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
.

page_text: 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 John Gedge, 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 state-
ment:-
It is well known that the presence of a sufficient quantity of inorganic and
assimilable substances in the soil, together with organic substances, is indis-
pensable to the thriving of plants; the physiology of plants indicates these
inorganic substances, the most important of which are potassa, natron, and
phosphoric acid. These substances should be procurable as cheap as possible.
They are usually obtained from the dung of cattle, which contains, besides the
said inorganic substances, other materials favorable to the growth of plants.
Nature offers certain rocky masses containing the principal inorganic sub-
stances just mentioned, and some rocks contain them in very large quantity.
The phonolites, which contain up to seventeen per cent. of potassia of natron
and some phosphoric acid; the trachytes, containing up to twelve; and the
basalts, containing eight to ten per cent. of potassa, and some phosphoric acid,
therefore the soil formed by these rocks is usually very fertile. These dunging
substances contained in the different rocks are combined with other substances,
so that it is extremely difficult to disengage them. To effect this, the rocks
or substances (detailed in the claim closing this Specification) are subjected to
chemical analysis; if they contain potassa, natron, and phosphoric acid, are
roasted in lime kilns or other ovens, and after they are well glowed and burnt
reduced into very fine powder, which powder forms my mineral manure, which
is employed with advantage by mixing it with the winter corn, the atmosphere
operating during the winter the disengagement and solution of the dunging
substances contained in the powder; or, the powder may be mixed with fecal
matter, which by forming ammoniacal salts renders the manure very efficient.
Mixing it with ground bones or rapeseed cakes increases its efficiency when
the rock furnishing the powder does not contain a sufficient quantity of phos-
phoric acid, or with lime or gypsum if the quality of the soil requires such
mixture.
Having now described the nature of the Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I claim the exclusive manufacture or production of
a mineral manure obtained (after chemical analysis) by roasting and pulverizing
rocks or rocky masses containing potassa, natron, and phosphoric acid, such

page_text: rocks or rocky masses being phonite, basalt, porphory, trap, felspar, granite,
oyenite, gneiss, pearl stone, obsidian, pummice stone, the different species of
mica, hornblende, serpentine stone, ophite, and several species of limestone.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Gedge, have hereunto affixed my
hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
W. E. GEDGE,
4, Danes Inn, Strand.
JOHN GEDGE. (L.S.)