THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



31 



To the remark that any farmer can adapt the same means 

 himself to the purification of the water for his cattle, I may 

 observe that my last patent secures to me, amongst other 

 things, the exclusive right to the use of all mechanical powers 

 for the conveyance of water through the filtering medium : 

 that since the water in most farms is derived from ponds or 

 reservoirs sunk below the surface of the surrounding ground, 

 such mechanical power is necessary ; and that even if no such 

 impediment existed, it could no more be expedient for each 

 individual to make bis own filtering apparatus than it would 

 he to manufacture his own plough or thrashing-machine. I 

 make no secret of the process I use, which was fully described 

 in the circular I refer to, and am so confident of the advantage 

 every one will find from having the process worked out by * 

 competent person, with all the facilities of knowledge, experi- 

 ence, and mechanical appliances at his command, that I will 

 be happy to afford, to such of your readers as desire to try the 

 experiment of manufacturing for themBelves, any information 

 in my power as to the best means to adopt. 



As yet this question is in its infanc)'. Each day will add 

 to the number of believers in the necessity for the extension 



to animals of the well-known sanitary tules now applied to 

 man ; but the early practical appliers of their belief in this, as 

 in all other afi'airs of progress, will be comparatively few : and 

 it will be only from finding in the most unmistakable way the 

 exemption from epidemic disease and improvement in con- 

 dition of the cattle supplied with pure and wholesome 

 water, that I can look for any general adoption of my 

 views. 



With this belief, I would earnestly impress upon the minds 

 of those advanced agiiculturists, to whose unselfish and untir- 

 ing efforts the proud position of British agriculture is so much 

 due, the desirability of instituting a series of experiments 

 conducted on such a scale and in such a manner as to be con- 

 vincing to the convictions of their less advanced brethren, in 

 which good work I will gladly offer my most strenuous co- 

 operation, and in which I venture to hope for your powerful 

 advocacy and assistance. 



I remain, sir, yoar very obedient servant, 



F. Danchell, Civil Engineer. 



9, Greal Qiieen-slreet, Westminster, Nov , 1860. 



PRODUCTION OF VALUABLE MANURE FROM THE AIR. 



BY MM. MAKGUERITTE AND DE SOURDEVAL. 



The value of guano and most other concentrated manures 

 consists to a considerable extent of the ammonia which tliey 

 contain. As three-quarters of the atmospheric air consists of 

 nitrogen, and as hydrogen forms one-ninth of all pure water, 

 if some cheap means could be found for inducing the hydro- 

 gen of water to enter into combination with the nitrogen of 

 the ait in the form of ammonia, this valuable manure could 

 be produced in unlimited quantities, and the agricultural 

 products of the world enormously increased. The efforts to 

 do this have been at last crowned with success, as will be 

 seen by the following abstract of some recent continental 

 researches. 



Since the remarkable labours of Messrs Liebig', Schalten- 

 mann, and Kuhlmann, on the fertilising action of ammoniacal 

 salts, the production of ammonia at a low price has become a 

 problem of the highest interest to agriculture. But to arrive 

 at this result it is necessary to obtain the nitrogen elsewhere 

 than in the nitrogenous matters ; which may, for the most 

 part, be employed directly as manures, and of which the limited 

 quantities and elevated price permits iu any event only re- 

 stricted and costly manufacture. 



Atmospheric air is an inexhanstibie and gratuitous source 

 of nitrogen. However, this element presents so great an in- 

 difference iu its chemical reactions, that, notwithstanding the 

 numerous attempts which have been made, chemists have not 

 heretofore succeeded in combining it with hydrogen so as to 

 produce ammonia artificially. This result, so long desired, has 

 been reserved for MM. Margueritte and De Sourdeval, who 

 have obtained it by employing an agent of which the re- 

 markable properties and neat and precise reactions have per- 

 mitted them to succeed where all others bad failed. This 

 agent is baryta, of which notice has recently been taken on 

 account of the recent applications that M. Kuhlmann has 

 made of it in painting, but of which no person suspected the 

 part that it was to be called to play in the development of the 

 agricultural riches of our country. The manufacture of am- 

 monia is based on a fact entirely new, the cyanuration of 

 barium. It had been believed until the present time that 



potash and soda alone had the property of determining the 

 formation of cyanogen ; that the earthy alkaline bases — baryta, 

 for example — could not, in any case, form cyanides. 



Messrs. Margueritte and De Sourdeval have ascertained 

 that this opinion is entirely erroneous, and that baryta, much 

 better than potash or soda, fixes the nitrogen of the air or of 

 anirasl matters in considerable proportions. It is already un- 

 derstood that, for the preparation of Prussian blue, the 

 cyanide of barium presents ^reat advantages over that of po- 

 tassium, for the equivalent of baryta costs only about the one- 

 seventh of that of potash. Thus do we find practically and 

 really obtained the result first announced by Desfosses and 

 vainly pursued in France and England — the manufacture of 

 cyanides from the nitrogen of the atmospheric air. This so- 

 lution, BO important, depends on the esjential difference which 

 exists between the properties of baryta and those of potash ; 

 the first is infusible, fixed, porous, and becomes deeply cya- 

 nuretted without loss , the second is fusible, volatile, and be- 

 comes cyanuretted only at the surface, and suffers by volatili- 

 sation a loss which amounts to 50 per cent. After the cyanide 

 of barium was obtained, the grand problem for Messrs. Mar- 

 gueritte and De Sourdeval to resolve was the transformation 

 of the cyanide into ammonia by means at the same time 

 simple, rapid, and inexpensive. The following is the opera- 

 tion :— 



In an earthern retort is calcined, at an elevated and sustained 

 temperature, a mixture of carbonate of baryta, iron filings in 

 the proportion of about 30 per cent., the refuse of coal tar, 

 and sawdust. This produces a reduction to the state of an- 

 hydrous baryta, of the greater part of the carbonate employed. 

 Afterwards is slowly passed a current of air across the porous 

 mass, the oxygen of which is converted into carbonic oxide by 

 its passage over a column of incandescent charcoal, while its 

 nitrogen, in presence of the charcoal and of the barium, 

 transforms itself into cyanogen and produces considerable 

 quantities of cyanide. In effect, the matter sheltered from 

 the air and cooled, and washed with boiling water, gives with 

 the salts of iron an abundant precipitate of Prusaian blue- 



