IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Phillips, of Penhoe, in the County of
Devon, Chemist, and James Bannehr, of Exeter, in the same County,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Phillips and
James Bannehr at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 27th October 1859.
We, HENRY PHILLIPS, of Penhoe, in the County of Devon, Chemist, and
5 JAMES BANNEHR, of Exeter, in the same County, do hereby declare the nature
of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
manure. For these purposes wood sawdust or other vegetable matter in a
divided state and uncleaned is applied in urinals or other receptacles of
human urine in such manner as to become charged or saturated with such
urine. The sawdust or other uncleaned vegetable matter thus saturated is
allowed to stand in heaps or masses for a considerable length of time in order
that decomposition may take place. The product thus obtained is then dried
so as to evaporate the moisture, and the dried matter is then again satuated
with urine by being placed in urinals or vessels used to receive human urine,

page_text: or is otherwise saturated with such urine, and the product is again allowed to
stand for a time and is again dried. The processes of saturation and of
drying being repeated till the desired degree of concentration is obtained.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Phillips and James Baunehr in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 27th April 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, HENRY
PHILLIPS, of Penhoe, in the County of Devon, Chemist, and JAMES BANNEHR,
of Exeter, in the same County, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Henry Phillips and James Bannehr, Her special licence that we, the
said Henry Phillips and James Bannehr, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Henry Phillips and James
Bannehr, our 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANURE," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Henry Phillips and James Bannehr, our executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and
seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 we, the said Henry Phillips and James Bannehr
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 statement thereof, that is to say:-
manure.
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
For these purposes wood sawdust, or other vegetable matter in a
divided state and uncharred, is applied in urinals or other receptacles of human
"

page_text: urine, in such manner, as to become charged or saturated with such urine,
The sawdust or other uncharred vegetable matter thus saturated is allowed to
stand in heaps or masses for a considerable length of time, in order that
decomposition may take place. The product thus obtained is then dried so as
to evaporate the moisture, and the dried matter is then again saturated with
urine by being placed in urinals or vessels used to receive human urine, or is
otherwise saturated with such urine, and the product is again allowed to
stand for a time, and is again dried. The processes of saturation and of
drying being repeated till the desired degree of concentration is obtained.
Having thus stated the nature of our said Invention, we
will proceed
more fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
It is preferred to employ wood sawdust for the purpose of the Invention,
though other vegetable matters may be used (and in as dry a state as possible,
but not charred). And it is preferred to employ the hopper forn of urinals
now commonly used at railway stations, for the purpose of saturating such
vegetable matter with urine, though other forms of urinals and vessels may be
resorted to for collecting urine, and for saturating the dry sawdust or other
vegetable matters. When applying such a hopper-shaped urinal, a false
bottom is introduced therein, of wood or other material, perforated with
numerous holes, over which is placed a layer of straw or other vegetable
matter, and then the dry wood sawdust or other vegetable matter. The object
of applying such perforated false bottom and layer of straw or other vegetable
matter is to allow the urine to percolate into a drain, or else to be collected in
a suitable vessel to be afterwards applied as hereafter described. The vegetable
matter is to be allowed to remain in the urinal till well saturated with urine
or until it appears desirable to replace the whole or a portion of it in con-
sequence of its emitting an offensive odour, when it is removed and placed in
a heap with other quantities, and allowed to stand for a week or more to
become decomposed, when the saturated sawdust or vegetable matter is to be
spread about six inches deep on a drying floor in a suitable shed or building
to be dried, and the same is to be turned from time to time to facilitate the
drying; such dried urinous sawdust or vegetable matter may be then replaced
in urinals or receptacles in order to its being resaturated, but we prefer that
fresh sawdust or vegetable matter should be put in place of what has been
removed from such urinals. It is preferred that the drying should be accom-
plished as far as possible by a free circulation of atmospheric air at its natural
temperature, when the season will admit of the same, but artificial heat inay
be applied to a moderate extent, and we recommend that when using artificial
heat that the temperature of the saturated vegetable matters should not be

page_text: above 90° Fahrenheit. In collecting urine in open urinals, we recommend
that they should be subject to an artificial draft, applied to them either by a
chimney or otherwise, so that the draft may be away from the persons using
them. When the saturated sawdust or other vegetable matters have been well
'dried, they are to be again saturated with urine, and again heaped up, and
again dried, and so on, again and again till the desired degree of concentration
has been arrived at.
In witness whereof, we, the said Henry Phillips and James Bannehr,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-third day of April,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
'Witness,
PAUL COURTI, Jun'., Jeweller,
Exeter..
HENRY PHILLIPS. (L.S.)
JAMES BANNEHR.
(L.S.)