US1212573A - Manufacture of fertilizers. - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT omen.

DAVID SHIELDS, OF EDGEWOB'IH, PENNSYLVANIA.

MANUFACTURE OI FERTILIZERS.

In Drawing.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DAVID SHmLns, residing at Edgeworth, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, a citizen 5 of the United States, have invented or discovered certain new and useful Improvements inthe Manufacture of Fertilizers, of

which improvements the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in the manufacture of fertihzers. Letters Patent of the United States, No. 913,922 (March 2, 1909,) and No. 1,196,889, (September 5, 1916,) have heretofore been granted me in this field.

My present invention consists in improvements in the method of manufacture which is described in the later of the two patents named, No. 1,196,889, and particularly concerns the matter of the temperature to which the mixture of coal and subterranean salt water is subjected, whereby I am enabled to dispense with the step of aging as described in the patent. These and other 25 matters indicating adaptations of my invention will appear in the ensuing description.

As in my earlier invention, I take coal or other carbonaceous material, and, ifnot already in finely divided condition, I bring it finer; softer carbonaceous substances, such as peat and lignite, need not be ground so' fine. In the usual commercial operations at anthracite mines, the mined coal is washed and a great deal of coal in finely divided state is washed away; some of this is reclaimed; but some of it, formerly carried away in streams and rivers, is now, because of the requirements of state laws, deposited as silt. This silt deposit; of anthracite coal has no present commercial value. I find it well adapted to my purpose. Imix, as before, with the finely divided carbonaceous material a solution of mineral salts, which preferably is, or at least is essentially like. the well-known subterranean waters which flow from oil and gas wells. I have found that such subterranean water, when used in the operation here described, while serving the desired end, doesnot leave in the result.- ing fertilizer any harmful substances. The

density of this natural water varies con- Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed November 28, 1916. Serial No. 132,998.

to such condition. My preferred material Patented Jan. 16, 1917.,

siderably, and in any case considerable latitude 1n proportlons is permissible; ordinarily five ounces by weight of this subterranean water will on evaporation leave two ounces of salts. I have found that good results are obtained by combining with every thirty pounds of ground coal six pounds of the dry salt, or fifteen pounds by weight of the native subterranean water of the degree of concentration indicated.

The mixed mass is heated for a sufiicient time to cause the salts to impregnate the coahleavmg the particles of coal in softened conditlon. This is advantageously accompllshed by placing the mixture of coal and salt water in a closed vessel and subjecting it to a hot water bath. In my earlier Patent No..1,196,889, I recommended a tempera ture not exceeding 130 F. continued for 18 to 20 hours. I have since discovered that by ra1sing the temperature to the boilingpoint of water or to approximation thereto, the perlod of heating may be diminished. and need not be continued only from about 8 to 12 hours, and furthermore, after such treatment at higher temperature the ultimate step of the operation as previously descrlbed, that is the step of aging, becomes unnecessary. I find that in this matter of temperature the best results are attained by maintaining the water bath at a slow boil.

After the mixture has been heated as above described, I mix with the impregnated coal powdered clay or a similar substance. The clay which I prefer to use is a fine clay commonly found in and often immediately beneath deposits of bituminous coal, but other clay may be used with success. The carbonaceous slate commonly found in coal mines associated with the coal, and constituting with clay the mine refuse called by the miners gob, I have found to be an excellent material for use here. The slate is of course reduced to finely divided condition, to the condition of clay, in fact,,and is then mixed with the impregnated coal. It is preferred to'mix the impregnated coal and clay (or slate) together in proportions of about twoto one b weight of the coal component to the clay or slate) component; nevertheless a less precentage of the impregnated coal may be mixed with the clay (or slate) and desirable fertilizing qualities obtained.

I have here indicated that the slate (particu- 110 as clay is used to mix with the coal-to accomplish my invention. In the ensuing claims I mean to include in the term clay not only material found disintegrated in native state but also clay such as I produce by grinding the slate which I have here mentioned.

The material so prepared is ready for service, and does not re uire the aging which is a feature of the met 0d described in my earlier Patent No. 1,196,889.

A further feature of my present invention is this, that instead of mixing the clay (or slate) with the coal after the latter substance has been treated with saline water, the clay (or slate) and the coal may be mixed first, and the saline water may be added to the mixture,- and the whole may then be heated, in like manner as the coal has already been described to be heated.

I claim as my invention:

1 The method of manufacturing fertilizer wh ch 0011515135 in mixing carbonaceousmater1al 1n finely divided condition withsubterranean salt water, subjecting the mixture to a temperature a proximating the boilingpomt of water, an adding to the so-treated material clay in finely divided condition.

2 The method of manufacturing fertilizer which consists in subjecting the carbon component of a mixture of finely divided coal and finely divided clay tothe action of subtefng'ageair salt water while at a temperature 0 In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

DAVID SHIELDS. Witnesses:

FRANCIS J. TOMASSON, RoBER'r H. KOHL.

1th hereby certified that in Letters Patent No. 1,212,573, granted January 16 1917, upon the application of David Shields, of Edgeworth, Pennsylvania, for en impmveinent inthe Manufacture of Fertilizers," errors eppeu in the printed specifioetion requiring correction as follows: Page 1, line 80, strike out the word "not;

same page, line 112, strike out the word "which; and that the aid Letters Patent lhould be raid with these corrections therein that the name may conform to the reeood of the one in the Patent Oflice. end sealed this 6th day of February, A. 1):, 191?.

[IIAL] I R. F. WHITEHEAD,

Acting Oomme'eeioner of PM.