Figure 8. — Florida land-pebble phosphate mining. (From Carroll D. Wright, 7 lie Phosphate Industry of the 

 United States . . . , plate facing page 58.) 



Rothamstcd in 1842, John Bonnet Lawes obtained a 

 patent on the manufacture of superphosphate. 

 Other manufactures in England followed and were 

 successful, although James Muspratt (1793-1886) at 

 Newton lost much time and "some thousands of 

 pounds" on Liebig's idea of a "mineral manure." 



It was difficult enough to establish the efficacy 

 of bones and artificially produced phosphates in 

 promoting the growth of plants under special con- 

 ditions of soils and climate; therefore, the question as 

 to the action of phosphates in the growing plant was 

 not even seriously formulated at that time. The 

 beneficial effects were obvious enough to increase 

 the use of phosphates as plant nutrients and to call 

 for new sources of supply. Active developments of 

 phosphate mining and treating started in South 

 Carolina in 1867, and in Florida in 1888.'-' 5 



In a reciprocal action, more phosphate application 



to soils stimulated increasing research on the condi- 

 tions and reactions obtaining in the complex and 

 varying compositions called soil. The findings of 

 bacteriologists made it clear that physics and chemistry 

 had to be amplified by biology for a real understand- 

 ing of fertilizer effects. After 1900, for example, 

 Julius Stoklasa (1857-1936) pointed out that bacterial 

 action in soil solubilizes water-insoluble phosphates 

 and makes them available to the plants.-'' 



The insight into the importance of phosphorus in 

 organisms, especially since Liebig's time, is reflected 

 in the work of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). 

 This "re-valuator of all values" who modestly said of 

 himself: "I am dynamite!" once explained the human 

 temperaments as caused by the inorganic salts they 

 contain: '"The differences in temperament are per- 

 haps caused more by the different distribution and 

 quantities of the inorganic salts than by everything 



! Carroli I). Wright, The Phosphate Industry in the United 

 sixth spec i.il report of the Commissioner of Labor 

 (Wa hington, 189 I) 



■'' ]. Stoklasa, Biochemischet Kreislauj dei Phosphat-Ions im 

 Boden, Central blatt fur Bakteriologie . . . (Jena: Fischer, March 

 22, 1911), vol. 29, mis. 15 19. 



IS6 



HULI.ETIN 210: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM IIII. MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



