“P” is for Pratt, Nathaniel Alpheus (1834-1906)

“P” is for Pratt, Nathaniel Alpheus (1834-1906). Chemist, engineer, inventor. A Georgia native, Pratt earned his M.D. from Savannah Medical College. During the Civil War he was named assistant chief of the Confederate States Nitre and Mining Bureau at Augusta, Georgia. Pratt moved to Charleston at the end of the war with plans to construct a chemical plant to manufacture fertilizers. He organized the Charleston Mining and Manufacturing Company in 1867. In 1868 he organized the Sulfuric Acid and Superphosphate Company. That same year he published A pamphlet, Ashley River Phosphates… and Discovery and Development of Native Bone Phosphates of the Charleston Basin. In 1872 Pratt received three patents for improvements in treating phosphate of lime, phosphatic rocks and the manufacture of fertilizers with lime. Nathaniel Alpheus Pratt moved to Florida where he located and developed phosphate deposits.