Bone manure was formerly one of the most important fertilizers in agriculture. The value of bones as manure arises chiefly from the phosphates and nitrogenous organic matters they contain; and where the soil is already rich in phosphatesbone is of little use as manure. It is of most service therefore where the soil is deficient in this respect, or in the case of crops whose rapid growth or small roots do not enable them to extract a sufficient supply of phosphate from the earth, turnips, for instance, or late-sown oats and barley. There are several methods for increasing the value of bones as manure, by boiling out the fat and gelatine, for instance, the removal of which makes the bones more readily acted on by the weather and hastens the decay and distribution of their parts, or by grinding them to dust or dissolving them in sulphuric acid, by which latter course the phosphates are rendered soluble in water.
Bones have long been used as manure in some parts of England, but only in a rude, unscientific way. It was in 1814 or 1815 that machinery was first used for crushing them in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and bone-dust and dissolved bones were then largely employed as manures, great quantities of bones being imported into Great Britain for this purpose. Before being utilized in agriculture they were often boiled for the oil or fat they contain, which was used in the manufacture of soap and lubricants. Research Bone Manure
Thomas Graham was a Scottish chemist. He was born in 1805 at Glasgow and died in 1869. Educated at Glasgow and Edinburgh, in 1827 he commenced teaching private mathematical classes in Glasgow, and in 1829 succeeded to the lectureship of chemistry in the Mechanics' Institution. 1830 he was appointed professor of chemistry in the Andersonian University. In 1831 he established the law that gases tend to diffuse inversely as the square root of their specific gravities. He afterwards made a series of investigations into the constitution of ar-seniates, phosphates, and phosphoretted hydrogen, and into the function of water in different salts.
In 1837 he was appointed professor of chemistry at University College, London, , and soon after settling in the metropolis he was appointed assayer to the mint, holding the post at University College until 1855 when he became master of the Mint. Thomas Graham was the first president of the Chemical Society, founded in 1841.
In 1846 he assisted in founding the Cavendish Society, over which be presided. He read the Bakerian lecture in 1849 and in 1854, the subject of both being the diffusion of liquids, which he further treated before the Eoyal Society in 1861. He distinguished the crystalloids and colloids in liquid solutions, and gave to their separation the name of dialysis, In a subsequent paper, Philosophical Transactions, 1866, he applied these discoveries to gases, under the name of atmolysis. The passage of gases through heated metal plates and the occlusion of gases were also ably investigated by him. Research Thomas Graham
Fluorine is a very poisonous greenish-yellow gaseous element with the symbol F belonging to the group known as the halogens. It is the most chemically reactive element (many substances ignite spontaneously in it), and for this reason it is never found uncombined. Fluorine was isolated in 1886 by Moissan by the electrolysis of a solution of potassic fluoride in hydrofluoric acid. Fluorine has also been detected in the bones, teeth, blood, milk, and urine; in plants; in volcanic sublimates;
in rocks; in coprolites and mineral phosphates and in a variety of minerals. Research Fluorine
Guano is a manure consisting of the excreta of fish-eating sea-fowl, such as gulls, cormorants, and penguins, and of walruses, seals and the like together with other animal remains including birds' feathers and bones.
Guano is high in nitrogenous substances and phosphates and other chemicals. Research Guano
Phosphoric acid can exist as a crystal or clear liquid. It is an oily, thick, colourless, and odourless liquid, or a thick, colourless, unstable crystalline solid. It is used in the manufacture of phosphates, such as salts, soaps, and detergents; fertilizers; yeasts; fire control agents; opalglass; electric lights; dental cements; waxes and polishes; gelatin; ethylbenzene, propylene, and cumene; and soft drinks. It is used as an acidcatalyst, soil stabilizer, antioxidant in food, acidulant and flavour agent in jellies and preserves, bonding agent for refractory bricks, and petrol additive. It is also used in the rust proofing and polishing of metals, cottondyeing, tile cleaning, extracting penicillin, hot stripping for aluminium and zinc substrates, ceramic binding, water treatment, process engraving, electro-polishing, coagulating of rubberlatex, operating lithography and photoengraving operations, and pickling. It is used to manufacture the phosphoric acidelectrolyte fuel cell system which has created the largest fuel cell built and has been used to treat lead poisoning.
Phosphoric acid is incompatible with strong caustics and most metals. It readily reacts with metals to form flammable hydrogen gas. The liquid can solidify at temperatures below 21 degrees C. It is corrosive to ferrous metals and alloys. It is soluble in alcohol and hot water. It can form three series of salts: primary phosphates, dibasic phosphates, and tribasic phosphates. It is deliquescent and hygroscopic. It is a chelating agent. It has a low vapour pressure at room temperature. Phosphoric acid is also known as orthophosphoric acid, metaphosphoric acid, and white phosphoric acid. Research Phosphoric acid
Vinegar is a four percent solution of acetic acid also containing small amounts of phosphates and other extractive matters. It is generally made by fermenting decoctions of malt, first with yeast, and then converting the alcohol into acetic acid by means of micro-organisms. Research Vinegar
Triphylite is a mineral of a greyish-green or bluish colour, consisting of the phosphates of iron, manganese, and lithia. A salmon-coloured or clove- brown variety containing very little iron is known as lithiophilite. Research Triphylite
Vivianite, named after the English mineralogist J G Vivian who discovered the mineral in Cornwall, England, is a rare mineral of secondary origin, associated with pyrite in copper and tin veins. It forms as a weathering product from primary iron- manganesephosphates in pegmatites, and is a hydrous phosphate of iron of a blue to green colour, growing darker on exposure to the air. It occurs in monoclinic crystals, also fibrous, massive, and earthy. It is also found in beds of clay and has a relative hardness of 1.5 to 2. Vivianite was confirmed as a distinct species of mineral in 1817. Research Vivianite
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Bone Manure
