IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL, PARTS OF SUCH IMPROVEMENTS BEING APPLICABLE TO OTHER METALLURGICAL PURPOSES
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Mallet, of Victoria Street, Westminster,
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF IRON AND STEEL, PARTS OF SUCH IMPROVEMENTS BEING APPLICABLE TO OTHER
METALLURGICAL PURPOSES."
Sealed the 14th December 1869, and dated the 7th July 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Mallet at the.
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
7th July 1869.
I, ROBERT MALLET, of Victoria Street, Westminster, Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL, PARTS OF SUCH IMPROVEMENTS BEING
APPLICABLE TO OTHER METALLURGICAL PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
An oxide of manganese, by preference the natural deutoxide or per-
oxide in the purest state as found in commerce, being the mineral called
pyrolusite, or the hydrated oxide called wad, is ground to a fine powder.
This powder, either in a dry or in a more or less moist state, or variously
[Price Sd.]

page_text: mixed as hereafter described, is strongly compressed in a suitably formed
mould of iron or other fit material by means of the hydraulic press or
other press of sufficient power. By this means the before incoherent
powder is caused to cohere and become a solid plate or piece of the
desired form. Such plates may be advantageously used for the partial
or temporary separation of molten cast iron and nitrates, chlorides, or
chlorates, where any of the latter are employed for the purification of
the cast iron or its conversion into wrought iron or into steel; and
the form which I prefer for the slate in such cases is that of a flat
disc perforated with holes, round or of other forms, and more or less
numerous and of dimensions best suited to the immediate end in view.
The size and thickness of the plate must then be such that it shall
sufficiently cover the surface of the nitrates or of the chlorides or chlorates,
or mixtures of the same, with which it is to be employed, and shall
sustain the column of insistent liquid iron if above the nitrates or the
before-mentioned chlorides or chlorates.
purpose
The form and details of the oxide of manganese plate for this
may however be largely varied; it may be convex or concave on its top
or bottom; be of variable thickness; have a raised rim round its edge of
any height, which when in use may look upwards or downwards; may
be made in one piece or in several separate pieces, which may be joined
when in place or united in various ways, or merely laid beside each other,
overlapping or not; or it may be even formed into a complete box or
lining for the entire bottom of the vessel, in which the nitrates or the
before-mentioned compounds are placed, and such may be in two or in
many pieces. And inasmuch as plates" formed as herein described
and thus applied are of less specific gravity than liquid cast iron it is
necessary to provide the means by which they or their parts shall be
held down and in place, so that when the liquid cast iron is run in over
or around them they shall not at once float up. This is readily done
either by iron hooks or pieces of baked refractory clay so contrived as to
catch the brick or other lining of the vessel holding the nitrates or the
before-mentioned compounds in a suitable manner or by various other
means, one of which consists in making the plate in segments, forming
when in place a plate with its concave side up and its circumference
abutting against the lining bricks. It will be advantageous sometimes
to mix other substances in fine powder with the oxide of manganese of
which the plate is chiefly composed, more particularly red or brown

page_text: hematite or ferruginous or manganesic ochres and clays, or spathic iron
ore. And for the production of certain sorts of iron or steel oxides of
chrome, of cobalt, of nickel; or of tungsten will be with advantage
occasionally added; or these metal may be introduced into the plate by
moistening the powdered peroxide of manganese with solutions of the
salts or other soluble combinations of those metals. Chlorate, perman-
ganate, or nitrate of soda or of potass, in fine powder or in solution, may
also be added for certain purposes with advantage to the other materials
of the plate; or the plate may be formed wholly of red or of brown
hematite with or without any of the foregoing materials mixed there-
with. I call the plate" the cover partial or complete for the nitrates
or other salts beneath or within it, no matter what may be its form, as
thus produced by powerful pressure of dry or moist powders, or by any
plastic or other methods by which the foregoing materials, of which
deutoxide of manganese or red or brown hematite are the chief, shall
have been made into coherent solid forms, whether by pressure alone,
or by pressure and heat, or by baking or burning with or without
pressure.
I prefer to employ these improved manganesic or hematite plates in
certain improved forms of converter. I adapt to the upper part of the
converter a moveable bottom properly brick lined, and provided with
tuyers and an air blast if necessary, so that by the consumption of the
requisite quantity of coke or of other solid or liquid or gaseform fuel the
temperature of the interior or lining of the convertor, wherever it is
to be touched by the liquid cast iron, shall be nearly at the temperature
of fusion of same prior to its introduction thereto. I so mechanically
arrange this moveable bottom that it can be readily and rapidly removed,
and as rapidly the other bottom containing the nitrates and the before-
mentioned compounds and the manganesic plate or covering shall be
applied and fixed in place. 1 run the liquid cast iron from the cupola or
other furnace, directly and at the highest attainable temperature, into
the convertor and above the manganesic plate, and I provide the means
whereby I may mix the metal in the converter, immediately after the
reaction of the nitrates of the before-mentioned compounds upon it,
with other liquid cast iron of other qualities, or with alloys of iron with
other metals, or combined with other materials, all being in a liquid state.
And, lastly, I provide suitable apertures in the converter by which the
metal, after the reaction upon it of these several agents or all of them,

page_text: can be tapped out and passed into other furnaces or made directly into
Lingots or blooms. ifliese plates may be made in many other forms and
applied to various other uses in bricks or blocks, and linings for crucibles
or other vessels, or for furnaces for the fuzion of cast iron or wrought
iron or of steel may be advantageously made of the foregoing compounds,
and by pressure or by plastic methods, the construction of crucibles or
other vessels, or for parts of furnaces for the fusion of cast iron, wrought
iron, or steel. The earths or oxides of alumina, magnesia, or lime,
consolidated by pressure into sufficiently strong coherent forms or other-
wise, as before described, in plates perforated or not, bricks, blocks,
hollow cylinders, or other hollow forms, and either alone or in combi-
nation with any of the before-mentioned other substances, may be with
advantage employed for parts of apparatus for various metallurgic
processes. Pieces of the metals, sodium or of potassium, may be
enveloped in coherent coverings of various forms, and by pressure or
otherwise, such coherent coverings being formed chiefly of deutoxide of
manganese, or of any of the oxides of chrome, cobalt, nickel, or tungsten,
or other suitable compounds of the same metals; and the sodium or
potassium so enveloped may be advantageously applied to the manu-
facture of steel by submerging such in liquid cast iron or wrought iron,
or certain classes of steel, and the like enveloped pieces of sodium or
potassium. The envelopes being formed of any of the above-named
metallic oxides or earths or other compounds, and either impervious to
liquids or gases or rendered more or less porous and permeable, may be
used with advantage in various other metallurgic processes, and with
other metals besides cast iron, wrought iron, or steel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Mallet in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 7th January 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
MALLET, of Victoria Street, Westminster, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent; bearing date the Seventh day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,

page_text: give and grant unto me, the said Robert Mallet, Her special license
that I, the said Robert Mallet, my, executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert Mallet, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL, PARTS OF SUCH IMPROVEMENTS BEING
APPLICABLE TO OTHER METALLURGICAL PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Robert Mallet, ny executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should parti-
cularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and 'in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be
filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar month's next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Mallet, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings
and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
According to my said Invention an oxide of manganese, by preference
the natural deutoxide or peroxide in the purest state as found in
commerce, being the mineral called pyrolusite, or the hydrated oxide
called wad, is ground to a fine powder. This powder, either in a dry
or in a more or less moist state or variably mixed as hereafter described,
is strongly compressed in a suitably formed mould of iron or other fit
material by means of the hydraulic press or other press of sufficient
power. By this means the before incoherent powder is caused to cohere
and become a solid plate or piece of the desired form. Such plates
may be advantageously used for the partial or temporary separation of
molten cast iron and nitrates, chlorides, or chlorates, where any of
the latter are employed for the purification of the cast iron or its con-
version into wrought iron or into steel, and the form which I prefer
for the plate in such cases is that of a flat disc perforated with holes,
round or of other forms, and more or less numerous and of dimensions
best suited to the immediate end in view. The size and thickness of

page_text: the plate must then be such that it shall sufliciently cover the surface
of the nitrates or other salts with which it is to be employed, and shall
sustain the column of liquid iron if above the nitrates or other salts. :
The form and details of the oxide of manganese plate for this purpose
may however be largely varied; it may be convex or concave on it
top or bottom; be of variable thickness; have a raised rim round its edge
of any height, which when in use may look upwards or downwards; may
be made in one piece or in several separate pieces, which may be joined
when in place or united in various ways, or merely laid beside cach
other, overlapping or not, or it may be even formed into a complete
box or lining for the entire bottom of the vessel in which the nitrates
or other salts are placed and such may be in two or in many pieces.
And inasmuch as "plates" formed as herein described and here applied
are of less specific gravity than liquid cast iron it is necessary to provide
the means by which they or their parts shall be held down and in
place, so that when the liquid cast iron is run in over or around them
they shall not at once float up. This is readily done either by iron hooks
or pieces of baked refractory clay so contrived as to catch the brick or
other lining of the vessel holding the nitrates or other salts in a suitable
manner or by various other means, one of which consists in making
the plate in segments, forming when in place a plate with its concave
side up and its circumference abutting against the lining bricks.
will be advantageous sometimes to mix other substances in fine powder
with the oxide of manganese of which the plate is chiefly composed, more
particularly red or brown hæmatite or ferruginous or manganesic ochres
or clays or spathic iron ore, and for the production of certain sorts
of iron or steel oxides of chrome, of cobalt, of nickel, or of tungsten
will be with advantage occasionally added, or these metals may be
introduced into the plate by moistening the powdered peroxide of
manganese with solutions of the salts or other soluble combinations
of those metals before or after compression. Chlorate, permanganate, or
nitrate of soda or of potass in fine powder or in solution may also be
added for certain purposes with advantage to the other materials of the
plate or the plate may be formed wholly of red or of brown hæmatite,
with or without any of the foregoing materials mixed therewith. I call
the cover partial or complete for the nitrates or other salts beneath or
within it "the plate" no matter what may be its form as thus produced
by powerful pressure of dry or moist powders, or by any plastic or other
It

page_text: of
methods by which the foregoing materials, of which deutoxide
manganese or red or brown hæmatite are the chief, shall have been
made into coherent solid forms, whether by pressure alone or by pressure
and heat, or by baking or burning with or without pressure.
I prefer to employ these improved manganese or hæmatite plates in
certain improved forms of apparatus. I adapt to the upper or fixed part
of the apparatus, to be herein-after more particularly described, a
moveable furnace or hearth properly brick lined and provided with
twyers and an air blast if necessary, so that by the consumption of
the requisite quantity of coke or of other solid or liquid or gaziform
fuel the temperature of the interior or lining of the fixed part of the
apparatus, wherever it is to be touched by or be near to the liquid
cast iron, shall be nearly at the temperature of fuzion of the same prior
to its introduction thereto. I so mechanically arrange this moveable
furnace or hearth that it can be readily and rapidly removed, and as
rapidly another bottom or vessel containing the nitrates, chlorates, or
chlorides and the manganesic plate or covering shall be applied and
fixed in place. I run the liquid cast iron from the cupola or other
furnace by preference from a refinery furnace, in which the cast iron
shall be deprived of the chief part of its silicon and carbon directly,
and at the highest attainable temperature, into the fixed part of the
apparatus and above the manganesic plate, and I provide the means
whereby I may mix the metal in the same immediately after the reaction
of the nitrates or other salts upon it with other liquid cast iron of
different qualities, or with alloys of cast or wrought iron with other
metals or combined with other materials, all such being in a liquid
And lastly, I provide suitable means by which the metal, after
the reaction upon it of these several agents or all of them, can be tapped
out or decanted out and passed into other furnaces or be made directly
into ingots or blooms. These plates may be made in many other forms
and applied to various other uses in bricks or blocks and linings for
crucibles or other vessels, or for puddling or refinery furnaces, or for
furnaces for the fuzion of cast iron or wrought iron or steel may be
advantageously made of the foregoing compounds, and by pressure or by
plastic methods be employed for the construction of crucibles or other
vessels or for parts of such, or for parts of furnaces for the fuzion of cast
iron, wrought iron, or steel or for other metallurgic purposes. The
earths or oxides, alumina, magnesia, or lime consolidated by the pressure
state.

page_text: into sufficiently strong coherent forms or otherwise, as before described,
in plates perforated or not, bricks, blocks, hollow cylinders, or other
hollow forms, and either alone or in combination with any of the before
mentioned other substances may be with advantage employed for parts of
apparatus for various metallurgic processes. Pieces of the metals, sodium
or of potassium, may be enveloped in coherent coverings of various forms,
and by pressure or otherwise, such coherent coverings being formed
chiefly of deutoxide of manganese or of any of the oxides of chrome,
cobalt, nickel, or tungsten, or other suitable compounds of these metals
and the sodium or potassium or any alloys of either so enveloped may
be advantageously applied to the manufacture of steel or of improved
cast or wrought iron by submerging such in liquid cast iron or wrought
iron or certain classes of steel with a view to combination, and the like
enveloped pieces of sodium or potassium. The envelopes being formed
of any of the above-named metallic oxides or earths or other compounds,
and either impervious to liquids or gases or rendered more or less.
porous and permeable may be used with advantage in various other
metallurgic processes and with other metals besides cast iron, wrought
iron, or steel, and as the vapours evolved from the nitrates or chlorates
of soda or of potass or from the sodium or potassium in the action of
the same on cast iron or on other metals in the way herein described
may be of value, and may wholly or in part be. condensed or be caused
to react as chemical agents for various metallurgic or other purposes,
suitable apparatus may be provided whereby such vapours or gases or
metals in a volatile state so evolved shall either be condensed by cooling
or by passing through liquids suited to their absorption or preservation
from oxidation, or shall at common or at high temperatures be passed
over or amongst various bodies so as to effect deoxidation or other
desirable chemical changes in the same.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood, I shall
now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose
shall refer to the several Figures on the annexed Sheets of Drawings,
the same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts in all the
corresponding Figures.
Referring to Sheet 1 of my Drawings Fig. 1 shows in vertical section
one form of the nitrate vessel. The vessel of plate iron A is lined with
refractory brick or clay or gannister B, within which is bedded a
complete lining of oxide of manganese C, mixed or not with. other

page_text: materials, as described, and formed by pressure or otherwise into a wide
sort of crucible, the lower part of which contains an aperture for tapping
out, stopped with a manganesic plate D. above a plug E of refractory.
material, which until needed to be withdrawn and let to drop or be
otherwise perforated is held securely in place by means of a bottom plate
of iron and a cross bar or latch G or other suitable fastening. The
nitrates, chlorates, or other salts being placed within this manganesic
crucible, are then covered with the flat perforated manganesic plate M,
which is then secured in place by means of the more or less complete
ring of pieces of refractory brick R; R, inserted above it and below the
top iron flange of the nitrate vessel.
Figs. 2 and 3 show in vertical section and in plan respectively another
form of the manganesic nitrate vessel. In this the interior crucible
lining within the refractory clay or common lining is formed in one
piece and without aperture below the, brim. The covering manganesic
perforated plate M is here formed in segments (eleven being shewn in
Fig. 3), which when laid into place on the top of the nitrates, chlorates,
or other salts in the crucible are concave towards their upper side, and
by this form and arrangement, and by means of the more or less
complete ring of refractory brick R, R, R, are kept from rising when the
liquid cast iron or other metal is above them.
Fig. 4 shows another form of manganesic nitrate, vessel, which is like
the last, except that the perforated covering manganesic plate M is
formed convex and in one piece; it is held down and in place by the
same partial ring R, R, of refractory bricks.
The nitrate vessel, Fig. 1, is, as already described, arranged to tap out
its contents at the bottom without being overturned, but those in Figs. 2
and 4 are arranged to be turned over or kanted in the manner of large
iron foundry crane ladles, so as to deliver their more or less fluid
contents; and for safety the larger vessel, Fig. 2, is provided with an
endless screw and worm wheel H to kant it by, in the manner well
known as applied to crane ladles.
Fig. 5 shows in vertical section an improved form of crucible for
melting cast steel or other metals in which an ordinary clay or plumbago
or other crucible has got a lining inserted in the same parallel to its
interior contour, and of the depth that may be required.
This lining
may be formed, whether by pressure or otherwise, of oxide of manganese
with or without mixture, or of hæmatite, or of magnesia, lime, or

page_text: alumina, or with any one or more of these bodies mixed with oxides of
nickel, cobalt, chrome, tungsten, and the like, and covers for crucibles.
may be made in like manner, or vessels for metallic or other decom-
position, distillation, or sublimations, wherever it is desirable either to
have the interior of such crucibles or vessels as little acted on as possible
by the materials heated within them, or to insure certain oxydizing or.
other reactions of the lining upon the materials within them, according
to the chemical nature and relations of the substances thus employed for
these linings. These crucible linings may be either partial, as shewn in
Fig. 5, or with a suitable form of crucible; the entire interior may have
such linings, which may be formed within the crucible itself, or prior to
insertion by pressure, and in one piece or in several parts or segments
fitting together, and luted or not.
Fig. 6 shows a manganesic cell or closed vessel of the sort already
described for the purpose of enabling sodium or potassium or their alloys
to be immersed in fuzed metals of whatever sort in order to effect
chemical changes in the same. When such cells are formed of oxides
of manganese, with or without mixture, or with oxides or salts of cobalt,
nickel, chrome, or tungsten, they can be advantageously employed to
cause the more or less complete deoxidation of the materials of the cell
and the combination of the metals, the bases of the oxides or salts of
which the cell is composed to unite or alloy with the fuzed cast iron,
wrought iron, or steel, or other metal in which the cell is immersed and
heated.
Figs. 7 and 8 show in plan and longitudinal section a portion of the
sole or bed of a puddling furnace or other furnace for melting or treating
iron in any of its states or any other metals wherein the lining is formed
of manganesic bricks or blocks, or of such united with hæmatite, or of
bricks or blocks formed of magnesia, lime, or alumina, or combinations
of these, the same being formed by pressure in a moist or dry state, and
baked or not previously or after pressure. One of the arrangements of
apparatus for the production by pressure of these manganesic plates. is
illustrated by Figs. 9, 10, 11, and 12, the particular apparatus shown
being that for producing flat perforated manganesic plates, such as those
of Figs. 1 or 2, and by slight modification equally applicable to the
convex plate in Fig. 4.
Fig. 9 is a vertical section, Fig. 10 a lateral elevation, Fig. 11 a half
plan of the press on the top, and Fig. 12 a sectional plan on the line 1, 2,

page_text: Figs. 9 and 10, of the hydraulic press and dies for the production of
these plates.
Of the hydraulic press itself as here shown it is un-
necessary to describe the details, these. being well known, the only
peculiarity here being the construction and arrangement in relation to
the form of these dies. Upon the upper part p, p, of the plunger of the
hydraulic press is fitted a cylindrical block b of cast iron, with as many
cylindric or other shaped parallel holes vertically formed in it as there
are to be perforations in the manganesic plate. This lower die, as well
as the plunger of the press, are precluded from any twisting movement
round their vertical axis by the guides g, g.
The holes in the lower
die b, b, b, are conical, largest below and larger than the intended
diameter of the holes to be made in the manganesic plate, and to the
upper end of each hole in this die is fitted in a recess a gun metal or
other turned and bored collar, the apertures in which are equal in
diameter to the holes to be made in the manganesic plate. From the
upper die u, u, u, depend as many cylindrical plugs r, r, of iron or other
suitable material as there are holes in the lower die, and these are
detachable for repair or change as well as the collars of the lower die.
The plunger p of the press being lowered so that the points of the plugs
r, r, r; are nearly but not quite withdrawn from entering the collars
in the lower die b, a deep but thin sheet iron hoop or band H, H, Fig. 9,
made in two halves, with flanges and screw bolts to unite these, is put
round the top part of the lower die b. Into the space or trough thus
temporarily formed on the top of the lower dies the pulverulent or plastic
material which is adopted to make the perforated plate from is filled in
by hand and bevelled, and spread carefully and without vacuities
between and around the plugs r, r. The plunger of the press is now
worked up until its parts reach the position shown in Fig. 9, when the
manganesic perforated plate will have been compressed and formed as
seen in section at s, s, s, s, Fig. 9. As the plunger works up the
hoop H, H, comes in contact with the lower side of the top die and there
is stopped, and may be removed as soon as the lower die has entered the
upper one. To prevent adherence between the surfaces of the dies and
the perforated plates when thus pressed it is advantageous to interpose
a sheet of thin paper cut previously to the shape and perforations of the
plate one above and another below the material of the plate. The press
being lowered, these two sheets are threaded through their perforations
or holes upon the plugs r, r, T. The press is then raised until the
plugs r, r, just enter the lower die; the lower sheet of paper is then

page_text: pressed down gently on the top of the lower die, and upon it the material
of which the perforated plate is to be formed is spread, as before
described; the upper sheet of paper is then slipped down gently over the
plugs upon the material, and the compression of the plate is proceeded
with. In lieu of this it is often sufficient to coat the surfaces of contact
of the dies with whiting or chalk or aluminous clay diffused in water
and at once dried off by a current of heated air. Various other methods
also, which will readily occur, may be adopted to prevent any adhesion to
the dies of the materials pressed in them. The pressure required depends
on the size of the perforated plate, and on its material, and the purpose
in view for it, so that it shall have sufficient hardness and coherence
with more or less porosity, as may be desired. A pressure of from 50 to
100 tons per square inch of surface I have found to cause sufficiently
great coherence with oxide of manganese or any of the other materials
named for use in this Specification, but the pressure to be employed may
be more or less. Where the number of perforated plates is large and the
demand constant the press will be best worked with an accumulator in
addition to the ordinary pumps. It is not necessary to keep the
materials of these plates for any great length of time under pressure to
produce sufficient coherence. The plugs, r, r, are made with taper
parts where they give the final form to the perforations of the manga-
nesic plate.
When the plate is formed and the plunger lowered down to
the position shown in Fig. 10 the perforated plate s, s, s, as seen on
edge s, s, in that Fig. and in plan in Fig. 12, is then clear of the
plugs, ; it is then pushed off laterally from the lower die b, b, and
removed upon the platform of the small carriage K, K, adapted at the
right hand to receive it.
..
It is not necessary to describe in detail the modifications of dies which
can be applied in a generally similar manner to the hydraulic press for
the
purpose of producing perforated plates of the forms shown in Figs. 2
and 3 or other forms, or for the purpose of compressing into a coherent
form crucibles such as those shown lining the nitrate vessels in those
Figs., or for linings of crucibles or sodium cells, or variously shaped bricks
or blocks for furnace linings or other uses, as shewn in Figs. 5, 6, 7,
and 8, from dry or plastic materials, such modification of apparatus for
such purposes being already well known to mechanicians as applied. to
pressing into shape brick clays and the like.
In Sheet 2 of my Drawings is shown the train of apparatus and the

page_text: general distribution of parts which I have designed for the treatment of
crude pig iron with nitrates or chlorates or permanganates by the use of
these manganesic plates. Fig. 1 is a vertical section of the entire iron
cupola; and Fig. 2 is a plan thereof. A is the fixed part of the
apparatus, lined with refractory brick; B is the nitrate vessel below it,
the same as that already described and referred to as Fig. 1 on Sheet 1;
C is a lateral flue or main pipe provided with an adjustible slide or stop
valve W for leading away such vapors or gases as may be evolved in the
cupola when in action; D is the iron dome, lined with refractory brick
for closing the top of the cupola; its lower edge of iron dips into a
circular trough of iron filled with dry sand, which makes it sufficiently
staunch when in place. At the top of the dome there is dropped into a
conical seat a conical plug of refractory material F to act as a safety
valve in the event of any explosive burst of vapor or gases; this is so
caged in, as seen in Figs. 1 and 2, that it cannot be projected to a
distance. The dome is hung by chains r, r, and a counterbalance T, so
that it can be readily thrown up or lowered into place.
Referring to Figs. 3, 4, 5, and 6, the fixed part A of the cupola is seen
in its place in Fig. 3; it is permanently supported by four columns,
two of which are seen at K, K, (Figs. 3 and 4) with the girders q, q,
connecting the same, so as to be quite clear and free above and below.
At the points H and N as centres are placed the balance cranes or arms
by which respectively the two moveable lower parts of the cupola are
manipulated. P, Figs. 5 and 6, is the moveable vessel to contain fuel
provided with a blast pipe Q, the current of air for which comes up
through the centre H and passes by the jointed pipe Q into the hollow
belt R, R, formed in the iron casing, and thence into the fuel through
twyer holes formed in the brick lining of the same; fire being kindled in
this vessel, it is swung round from the position P (Fig. 6) to A (Fig. 4),
and then adjusted close up to the open bottom of the fixed cupola -A by
the liberation of the arms of the lever or crane f, f, in the vertical plane
upon the centre H, and kept thereby the balance weight V, the general
construction of this crane being similar to that on the other centre N
(Fig. 4). The dome D being raised more or less, the blast is now turned
on and the interior of the cupola raised to a high temperature, about that
of the fuzing point of cast iron, at its lower portions. The nitrate
vessel B, covered with it manganesic plate, being prepared and ready as
already described, and resting by its trunnions upon the crane. N (Fig. 4),
.

page_text: and this last being adjusted to the proper level by means of the
elevating screw t (Fig. 3) and gear at the centre, is then at once brought
into its place under the fixed part A, and the junction with such fixed
part of the apparatus being luted with a thin roll of tempered clay, the
nitrate vessel is forced up against the bottom of the fixed part A, and
maintained there by running out the balance weight J of the crane N.
The dome D is now fully raised, and the crude cast iron to be operated
upon is run by a shoot direct into the fixed part A on the top of the
manganesic plate. The dome D is at once lowered, the valve W
(Figs. 1 and 2) being open, and the reaction is allowed to proceed.
I melt the crude pig iron always, if possible, in a furnace constructed
like the well-known" finery furnaces" used in ironworks, so as to burn
out as much of its contained silicon and carbon and other impurities
as possible prior to submitting the liquid metal to the action of the
nitrates or other salts and manganesic plates. The ready prepared lower
vessels B are brought by a tramway or otherwise to the position L, L,
(Fig. 4), whence they are picked up in succession by the crane N'after
each reaction; the vessel B which has been employed and is now full of
refined metal (wrought iron or steel) is swung round to the place M, M,
(Fig. 4), where its contents are delivered out by either of the methods
already described, and either run directly into ingots or passed into a
melting furnace, where the contents of several such vessels may be
united by fuzion. The heating vessel P is applied with fresh fuel added
either after every reaction by nitrate or less frequently, according as the
temperature of the fixed part A may require, the important point being
always to keep this as hot as the iron to be run into it.
The empty
lower vessel B after it has discharged its contents is deposited at N, N,
ready for removal and preparation again for use. The vapor or gases
disengaged in these reactions are passed off by the main or flue C, C,
(Figs. 1 and 2), and may be conveyed by it to any suitable apparatus, by
which they may be made use of. For example, on Sheet 3, in Figs. 1, 2,
and 3, is shown in longitudinal, transverse, and horizontal section an
arrangement of earthen or other retorts A, A, to be heated in a furnace,
and within which ores, metals, or other substances may be placed in a
pulverulent or other state, and through which retorts and over said
materials the vapors or gases may be passed from the main C, C, before
referred to so as to react on the same at a high temperature. But it may
also be valuable to be able wholly or partially to condense those vapors
or gases, or to cool them, or finally to condense parts of them, and

page_text: pass these into liquids, or cause the vapors wholly or partially to pass
through liquids at various temperatures to effect reactions. For this:
purpose employ the apparatus with various modifications illustrated in
Figs. 4, 5, and 6, Sheet 3. Fig. 4 is a longitudinal vertical section,
Fig. 5 a transverse vertical section, and Fig. 6 a plan of a range of
cooling pipes immersed in a cistern of water constantly renewed at the
bottom, and flowing off at the top. The vapors or gases from the
main C, C, pass alternately forth and back through the double row of
pipes K, K, and reach the main T, whence they escape beneath a
perforated plate a in the vessel V partly filled with any desired liquid.
If it is desired to condense sodium from the vapors after these shall
have been deprived by cooling or absorption, or both, of some of their.
other constituents, then the vessel V is partly filled with heavy naptha
or coal oil, so as to preserve the sodium from oxidation.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used
or carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that inasmuch as
the application of nitrates for the refining of crude iron in fusion (the
metal operated upon being placed above the nitrates) is old and well
known, and inasmuch as the use of a perforated plate of iron for
separating the same is already the subject of a Patent I make no claim
to these; but what I consider to be novel and original, and therefore
claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent is,-
First. The production of plates, perforated or not, of hollow vessels, of
crucibles, of bricks or blocks formed by means of pressure of oxide of
manganese or of the same combined with other oxides or salts, as
herein-before described.
Second. The application of any such plates, vessels, crucibles, bricks
or blocks to the manufacture of iron or steel, substantially as herein-
before described.
Third. The combination of perforated dies with plugs or pins in
connexion with hydraulic or other pressing apparatus for the purpose
of moulding or compressing powdered substances into coherent per-
forated masses, as herein-before described.
Fourth. The peculiar construction of vessel as shewn at Figs. 1 and 2,
Sheet 2, of the Drawings, for the purpose herein-before described.

page_text: Fifth. The peculiar construction and arrangement of balance cranes
as shewn at Figs. 3, 4, 5, and 6 of Sheet 2 of my Drawings, arranged
and worked substantially as herein-before described.
Sixth. The production by powerful compression of the dry or moist
powders of plates, hollow forms, bricks, or blocks from alumina or
magnesia, either alone or in combination with lime or with other oxides,
and the use and application of the same to linings for crucibles for
melting cast steel, or for refinery hearths or furnaces, for iron foundry
cupolas, or for puddling or other furnaces.
Seventh. The production by powerful compression of cells for
metallurgic or other applications of sodium or potassium, or other highly
oxidable metals formed of the dry or moist powder of oxide of
manganese, or of alumina, or magnesia, either alone or combined with
lime or with other oxides or porous materials chemically neutral under
the conditions of use of such cells.
Eighth. The application of oxide of manganese alone, or of oxide
of manganese chiefly, combined with alumina, magnesia, oxide of
iron, clays, or other oxides, for the manufacture of plates, crucibles,
bricks, blocks, or other forms for use in metallurgical purposes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Mallet, have to this my
Specification set my hand and seal, the Seventh day of January
One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
ROBERT MALLET. (L.S.)