IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF AMMONIACAL SALTS AND MANURES
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edwin Pettitt, of Kingsland, in the County of
Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
Sealed the 31st December 1852, and dated the 1st October 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edwin Pettitt at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
..on the 1st October 1852.
I, EDWIN PETTITT, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF AMMONIACAL SALTS AND
MANURES" to be as follows:-
I take the solid parts of animals which contain nitrogen, or the
whole animals (as, for example, the offal of meat or refuse fish), and I
dissolve or decompose such nitrogenous animal matter in suitable pans
or apparatus by means of sulphuric or other acid, with or without the
aid of heat. By this means the whole or a portion of the nitrogenous
matter is converted into ammonia which combines with the acid. The
liquid is then drawn off, or squeezed, or washed out of the remaining
solid matter (if any), and the salt or salts of ammonia are separated by

page_text: evaporation and crystallization, or by sublimation or distillation with
lime, or in other suitable manner.
I treat the solid nitrogenous parts of animals or the whole animals
(particularly fish) with-sulphuric or others acid as above described,
in suitable apparatus adapted for the purpose; and I employ the
resulting compound, either in a dry or pasty state, or diluted with or
suspended in water,-as-a-manure for manuring land. I also employ
as manure this. compound mixed with ashes, bituminous shale, peat,
peat charcoal, coal dust; chalk, gypsumn, or other suitable substance, ac-
cording to the desired quality of the manure, and by- which means
the pasty mixture may be reduced to a pulverulent state convenient
for transport. "..
}
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edwin Pettitt in the Great Seal Patent Office,
on the 30th March 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
EDWIN PETTITT, of Kingsland, in the 'County of Middlesex," Civil
Engineer, send greeting.-
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the sixteenth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her 'heirs and successors, give and
grant 'unto me, the said Edwin Pettitt, Her special licence that I,
the said Edwin Pettitt, my executors, administrators, and assigns; ori
such others as I, the said Edwin Pettitt, 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,
fand Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFAC-
'TURE OF AMMONIACAL SALTS AND MANURES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Edwin Pettitt, by an instrument in writing
Tunder my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain

page_text: the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was tor
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.
J
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edwin Pettitt, 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 thereof, that is to say!
My Invention relates, firstly; to a new mode or modes of manufac-
turing ammoniacal salts from certain animal matters.
And, secondly, to a new mode or modes of manufacturing manures.
from certain animal matters.
.
1
Firstly, for the better understanding of these my several.improve-
ments I will now proceed to give a full description of my mode of pro-
ceeding for the manufacture of salts of ammonia, and as examples I will
describe how I proceed to obtain the sulphate and the muriate of am-
monia. I select such animal matters or soft nitrogenous solids as fish,
or the flesh of marine or land animals, and proceed in the following
manner: I place one hundred pounds weight of the animal matter, to
be treated (which I will suppose to be herrings or sprats) in a leaden:
tank or other suitable vessel, and pour over the mass about five-
pounds weight of the concentrated: sulphuric acid of conimerce,! and;
allow the mixture of fish-and-acid:toustand, stirring it occasionally,
until the mass assumes a homogeneous pasty consistency, which opera
tion may sometimes be advantageously facilitated by applying heat>>
The acid liquid or pickle formed by the acid, and the aqueous particles.
extracted from the fish, after it has been in contact with. the animal
matter a sufficient length of time varying with temperature, strength of
acid, and quality of the fish, is drawn off, or pressed, or washed out of
the remaining.solid matter, and the acid liquid being next evaporated
almost to dryness, the sulphate of ammonia inay be separated by
crystallization and purified in the usual way. To obtain muriate of:
ammonia. I take the pasty mixture- aforesaid, or the acid liquid drawn
off from it, and after adding lime 1 distil the same nearly to dryness
at a good heat, passing the products, of distillation through. a solution of.

page_text: muriatic acid or muriate of iron contained in vessels of earthenware, or
other suitable material of the kind known as Woolf's apparatus, and
arranged in the same manner. The muriate of ammonia may then
be separated in the usual way by crystallization.
And, secondly, in the manufacture of manures I proceed exactly as
in the preparatory part of the last process, by reducing the animal
matters or soft nitrogenous solids, such as fish or the flesh of marine or
land animals, to a pasty or pulpy consistency by incans of sulphuric
acid, and when in that state I dry the mass by means of artificial heat.
Or I dry the fish or animal matter first, then grind, and afterwards
treat with three per cent. or thereabouts of sulphuric or muriatic
acid to act as an antiseptic. These preparations are then in a proper
state to be used as manures. I also employ as manure the dry or
the pasty compound aforesaid mixed with peat charcoal or superphos-
phate of lime or ground coprolites or any other suitable substances,
according to the desired quality of the manure and the nature of the
soil for which it is intended.
I would here observe, that some fish will appear to be wholly dis-
solved by the operation of the acid, and others only partially, or
to the extent of causing the flesh to separate freely from the bones,
which then may be taken away.
Fish and marine animals abounding
in oil should have the blubber removed, and indeed it is desirable to
operate on the fishy matter generally with the presence of as little oil
as is practicable. I therefore sometimes boil or steam the fish, strain
off the liquid obtained, and the solid boiled portion free from the larger
bones may then be treated as before named.
I prefer employing the fish and other animal matters in as fresh
a state as possible, as they lose much of their valuable properties in
the course of putrefaction.
It is obvious that the manures thus prepared may be variably
compounded, and it is therefore necessary to understand that the
proportion of acid may be varied, and that the acid may be employed
in a diluted state, but which, however, would only retard the operation.
I am also aware that fish and animal matters have been used when
in a putrescent state as an ordinary manure, and that such substances

page_text: have been differently treated with a view to improve them as fertilizers,
but never in the manner and for the purposes that I have herein
specified.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood
that I do not restrict myself to the precise details herein- before described
so long as the general character of the Invention be retained. But
what I claim as my improvements are,-
Firstly, the mode or modes herein-before described of manufac-
turing ammoniacal salts from fish and animal matters.
Secondly, the mode or inodes herein-before described of manufacturing
manures from fish and marine animals.
Thirdly, the mode or modes herein-before described of manufacturing
manures from the flesh and soft solid nitrogenous parts of land animals.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edwin Pettitt, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
EDWIN PETTITT. (L.S.)
Witness,
CHARLES COWPER,
20, Southampton Buildings,
Chancery Lane,
London.