POWDER WHICH IS APPLICABLE TO THE PURPOSES OF DISINFECTING NIGHT SOIL AND CERTAIN OTHER MATTERS, AND FACILITATING THE PRODUCING OF MANURE
Year: 1835

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
HENRI JEROME POITTEVIN, of Craven Street, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth, by
His Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Seventeenth day of July..
in the sixth year of His reign, did grant unto me, the said Joseph Henri
Jerome Poittevin, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Joseph Henri Jerome
Poittevin, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said Joseph
Henri Jerome Poittevin, my exors, admors, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times hereafter
during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, and also in all His said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, an Invention communicated to me by a certain foreigner residing
abroad, of a "POWDER WHICH IS APPLICABLE TO THE PURPOSES OF DISINFECTING
NIGHT SOIL AND CERTAIN OTHER MATTERS, AND FACILITATING THE PRODUCING OF
MANURE;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that I,
the said Joseph Henri Jerome Poittevin, shall particularly describe and ascer-
tain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, by an Instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be enrolled
in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as,
reference being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Joseph Henri Jerome Poittevin, do hereby declare and describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed as follows (that is to say)

page_text: I calcine (in as dry a-state as convenient, the dryness making the process
less expensive and troublesome) river or pond mud or other mud, or any other
earth having or containing animal or vegetable matters capable by calcination
of producing carbon, in vessels capable of sustaining a red heat, as, for example,
such as those employed in the calcination of animal charcoal. I heat these
vessels to redness by the ordinary process of furnaces, and during the incan-
descence a flame is produced therefrom, and when this flame has appeared the
fire must be discontinued and the whole be left to cool. A black matter will
be thus produced in the vessels, which I subsequently pulverize by the ordinary
process of pulverization. The powder thus produced is the Invention men-
tioned in the title of the Patent, and which said powder must be put up and
preserved for use in closed casks, barrels, or any other fit and proper enclosure,
so that the atmospheric air may be excluded as much as possible. This
powder I mix with night soil or other animal or vegetable matters in a state
of decomposition, which mixture will then disengage strong odour, and their
humidity will be greatly absorbed, and they will then become disinfected and
be valuable manure. In case of earths not having or containing any or
sufficient animal or vegetable matter to produce by calcination carbon, I add
to them animal or vegetable matters (say ten per cent., varying according to
the earths so used) to furnish sufficient carbon to the same, and then pursue
with such admixture the process before pointed out.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, the Sixteenth
day of January, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred