St. Julien Ravenel

Background

St. Julien Ravenel was born on December 19, 1819 in Charleston, South Carolina, the son of John Ravenel, of a prominent Huguenot family, and Anna Elizabeth Ford, of Morristown, New Jersey.

Education

He received his elementary education in the Charleston schools and then went to New Jersey for further study. He returned to Charleston where he read medicine in the office of a prominent physician, subsequently graduating from the Charleston Medical College in 1840. He continued the study of medicine in Philadelphia and in Paris.

Career

Upon his return to Charleston he was for a short time demonstrator of anatomy at the Medical College. Although he early developed great skill as a diagnostician, he disliked the general practice of his profession and turned from it to pursue his studies in science.

He was interested in natural history, but chemistry claimed his chief interest, and in the field of agricultural chemistry lay his life work. In 1857 he established at Stoney Landing on the Cooper River the first stone lime works in the state. He served through the war, first in the "Phoenix Rifles, " later as surgeon in charge of the Confederate hospital in Columbia, and, finally, in charge of the Confederate laboratory in Columbia where much of the medicine used for the Confederate army was made.

He designed the torpedo cigar-boat, Little David, which had an encounter with Old Ironsides. After the war Ravenel returned to Charleston and began to experiment with the phosphate deposits along the Ashley and Cooper rivers with the object of manufacturing commercial fertilizer. He originated a process which rendered the phosphate rocks readily soluble, and with the addition of ammonia to animal matter, he produced an ammoniated fertilizer.

In 1868 the Wando Fertilizer Company began the production of ammoniated fertilizer by Ravenel's process. He next turned his attention to the production of phosphate fertilizer without the use of ammonia. This he succeeded in doing, and the new fertilizer was known as acid fertilizer. It was soon found, however, that the free acid in this fertilizer destroyed the bags in which the fertilizer was packed for shipping. In working on this problem, Ravenel found that the addition of marl overcame the free acid and, at the same time, increased the fertilizing properties of the product.

While working as chemist for the Charleston Agricultural Lime Company, he found that the lime made from the marl mined on the property of this company contained a percentage of phosphate of lime, with enough silica to prevent caustic action on plants. The process which he developed for this company was also used by the Stono-Phosphate Company and the Atlantic Phosphate Company.

Another of Ravenel's contributions to the agriculture of the South Carolina low country lay in his discovery that the planting and plowing of leguminous plants restored to the wornout soil properties which made it produce larger crops. At the time of his death he was working on plans for irrigating the abandoned rice fields of the low country and for using these rich lands for the cultivation of grasses for hay. He proposed the artesian well system by which the city of Charleston is supplied with drinking water, and was especially interested in the boring of artesian wells to supply the needs of the mills and factories near the city.

Although he avoided all public recognition, he freely gave the results of his scientific study for the benefit of the state. The wide newspaper comment on his death, together with the numerous and varied resolutions of respect, indicated that his services to the people of the state were well known and appreciated.

Achievements

• During the American Civil War, he designed the torpedo boat CSS David that was used to attack the Union ironclad USS New Ironsides. Following the war, he helped pioneer the use of fertilizers in agriculture and led the growth of phosphate fertilizer manufacturing in Charleston, South Carolina.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Life and Times of William Lowndes of South Carolina, 1782-1822

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Charleston: The Place and the People (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Charleston: The Place and the People This b...)

  • Charleston: The Place and the People (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Charleston: The Place and the People This b...)

  • Life and Times of William Lowndes of South Carolina, 1782-1822

    (This work has been selected by scholars as being cultural...)

Connections

Ravenel married on March 20, 1851, Harriott Horry Rutledge, who with nine children survived him.

Father:

John Ravenel

Mother:

Anna Eliza Ford

Spouse:

Harriott Horry Rutledge

Uncle:

Edmund Ravenel

Daughter:

Helen Lowndes

Daughter:

Harriott Rutledge

Daughter:

Francis Gualdo

Daughter:

Lise R.

Daughter:

Anna Eliza

Son:

St. Julien

Son:

Edward Rutledge

Son:

Frances Gualdo

Son:

John