IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL AND ARTICLES THEREFROM.
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jacob Geoghegan Willans, of No. 9, St. Stephen's
Crescent, Bayswater, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL AND ARTICLES
THEREFROM.
"
Sealed the 16th January 1874, and dated the 15th November 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jacob Geoghegan
Willans at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 15th November 1873.
I, JACOB GEOGHEGAN WILLANS, of No. 9, St. Stephen's Crescent,
Bayswater, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND
STEEL AND ARTICLES THEREFROм," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to improvements in heating or melting iron or
steel, in annealing cast iron or steel, and in making tubes therefrom.
In the heating or melting of iron and steel (as in reverberatory
furnaces) loss is occasioned by oxidation. I prevent the metal being so
much oxidised or wasted by admitting in small quantity into the furnace

page_text: or chamber wherein the iron or steel is placed, or between that and the
fuel, a pulverulent, volatile, or gaseous substance (such as oil, creosote,
carbonic oxide, or carburetted hydrogen gas, or finely divided carbona-
ceous matter), not as a fuel to generate the required heat, but in order
to combine with oxygen of the air present, and thus to prevent or lessen
its injurious action in the metal under treatment.
12
R
When coal dust is the fuel employed for heating or melting iron or
steel I have the coal or its dust previously heated to a temperature above
212 degrees Fahrenheit, but not so high as a red heat, to remove moisture
and render it more infamable and less liable to fall on the iron or
steel.
I anneal or soften cast iron or steel when in a state of division or in
castings without being imbedded in oxidising substances by bringing
into contact therewith at or above a red heat carbonic acid gas obtained
from limestone or other carbonate. I sometimes apply oxygen gas or
vapours containing oxygen, such as steam or nitrous acid.
In the making of tubes from steel the use of a soft steel with a low
per centage of carbon is liable to produce an unsound tube, and the
working of hard steel is attended with difficulties. My improvement
in this respect is to anneal the hollow ingot, or other steel with iron ore
or other oxidising agent to remove some carbon therefrom before it be
rolled at a suitable heat or drawn into a tube, or I so anneal the partly
made or finished tube. I sometimes entirely or in part complete the
formation of the tube by cold rolling or cold drawing. By abstracting
some of its carbon before or during the manufacture of the tube a
sounder steel may be used for the purpose.
I make tubes from cast iron or from a mixture of cast iron and steel
in the same manner, using more time in the annealing.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans in the Great Seal Patent 30
Office on the 15th May 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JACOB
GEOGHEGAN WILLANS, of 9, Saint Stephen's Crescent, Bayswater, in the
County of Middlesex, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three,
in the thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs
and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Jacob Geoghegan
Willans, Her special licence that I, the said' Jacob Geoghegan Willans,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Jacob Geoghegan Willans, my executors, administrators, and 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 AND
ARTICLES THEREFROM," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, should particularly 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
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what mannor
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :—
My Invention relates to improvements in heating or melting iron or
steel, in annealing cast iron or steel, and in making tubes therefrom.
In the heating or melting of iron and steel (as in reverberatory
furnaces) loss is occasioned by oxidation. I prevent the metal being so
much oxidized or wasted by admitting in small quantity into the furnace
or chamber wherein the iron or steel is placed, or between that and the
fuel a pulverulent, volatile, or gaseous substance (such as oil, creosote,
carbonic oxide, or carburetted hydrogen gas, or finely divided carbona-
ceous matter), not as a fuel to generate the required heat, but in order
to combine with some oxygen present that would be otherwise free to
unite with a portion of the iron, and thus I prevent or lessen its injurious
action on the metal under treatment.
I prefer to have the bridge of the furnace sufficiently hollow to admit
the insertion of three pipes, each about one inch internal diameter;

page_text: these pipes to convey carbonic oxide gas from an adjacent gas main
communicating with a gas generator. I prefer that one terminates in
the centre, and the others within three inches of each side of the furnace,
and all delivering the gas beneath the top of the bridge through an
aperture in the brickwork into and near the floor of the chamber in
which the iron or steel is being heated; each of these pipes to have a
valve or tap in an accessible position for regulating the supply of gas.
I allow these pipes to be in action whenever the iron or steel in the
chamber is at or above a red heat, and I regulate the supply of gas
through them according to circumstances. When the grate is freshly
charged with coal, or that a smoky flame exists, the supply may be
reduced, but when the fire be low in the grate or the door of the
chamber be open I have them in full action. Instead of carbonic oxide
gas ordinary coal gas or hydrogen gas may be applied through these
pipes. In those reverberatory furnaces in which iron is puddled, and
after it has come to nature, heated for the purpose of forming it into
balls, I prefer to use instead of gas a hydrocarbon, such as creosote, to
lessen the oxidation. I admit this in small quantity through the roof of
the furnace, not at the time the iron is being puddled, but after it has
come to nature. I prefer to have three openings in the arch or roof
near the bridge, one in the centre, and the others within three inches of
the sides, and to have clay pipes of three inches diameter closely fitted
thereto, and standing perpendicularly about two feet above the arch.
To the top of each of these clay pipes I fix closely to prevent access of
air a small metallic pipe supplied with creosote from a tank at a higher
level, and with sufficient opening to admit of a small quantity of creosote
falling perpendicularly through the pipe into the furnace beneath, but
not in such quantity as to diminish the heat. A few drops per second
through each pipe will be found beneficial.
Instead of applying the gas or creosote direct into the chamber
wherein the iron or steel is placed they may be applied on the surface of
the fuel itself, and thence carried on by the draught, provided air be
shut off from entering at or near samo place that would consume it.
The gaseous or carbonaceous substances so applied will lessen the waste
of iron and steel during the heating processes in reverberatory furnaces.
I claim in respect of this part of my Invention the injecting or
admitting from outside into reverberatory furnaces in which iron or steel
is being heated carbonaceous or hydrogenous substances such as described

page_text: unaccompanied by air for their combustion, the furnace itself being heated
by separate fuel, substantially as described.
Coal dust in an air current may be used as the fuel in furnaces in
which iron or steel is being heated or melted, its efficiency more or less
depending upon its fineness of division and inflammability.
My Invention further relates to a means of rendering coal more easily
divided, so that it may remain longer suspended in an air current, and
for increasing its inflammability. I have the coal or its dust heated
above 220 degrees Fahrenheit, but below a red heat before it be finally
ground to the desired fine state of division, namely, such as will remain
sufficiently suspended in a current of equal force to that in the furnace
chamber. I prefer to pass coal in a granular state through a pipe or
retort heated externally to between 400 and 450 degrees Fahrenheit,
turning over the coal during the process by any convenient means, and
not withdrawing it before it has been heated up to 350 degrees; this
may be ascertained by testing a sufficient sample with a thermometer.
The coal will then be more easily ground so as to remain better suspended
in the air current, also will be more inflammable.
I claim in respect of this part of my Invention, the application as a
dust fuel in furnaces in which iron or steel is being heated or melted of
coal ground subsequent to its being heated above 220 degrees Fahren-
heit, but below red heat, substantially as described.
My Invention further includes the annealing or softening iron and
steel castings when not embedded in substances yielding oxygen by
bringing into contact therewith at or above a red heat carbonic acid gas
derived from limestone or other carbonate. I sometimes apply oxygen
gas or vapours containing oxygen, such as steam or nitrous acid. In
carrying out this part of my Invention I prefer to have fire-clay D shaped
retorts, such as are used at gas works, but with mouth-pieces and lids at
each end. I place the castings in the retort, and heat them up to as
high a temperature as customary in the kilns or ovens heretofore used
for annealing castings. If the castings are such as would be injuriously
distorted by being heated without support I place along therewith, so as
to fill up the interstices or to form a bed for the castings, a number of
small balls of about 3 inch diameter made of fire-clay, and burnt.
When the castings are at a red heat I shut out all air by fastening the
lids, and I admit into the retort through a pipe inserted into the lower

page_text: •
part of its mouth-piece at one end a small jet or stream of carbonic acid
gas, supplied by means of pressure or exhaust, if necessary, through a
⚫ pipe communicating with a retort, chamber, or kiln in which limestone
is being calcined into lime. The gas after passing over and through the
castings is allowed to escape at the other end of the retort through an
opening in the upper part of the mouth-piece. The orifice opening into
one end of the retort may be about one-third of a square inch, and the
exit at the other end one-half of a square inch, and it may communicate
with a chimney. I prefer to have each charge of castings of nearly
uniform thickness or substance, and I have two or more short bars made
of same kind of cast metal and of about same thickness or substance
placed along with the castings under treatment, but so as to be accessible
for removal when required. I withdraw one of these occasionally, cool
it slowly, and examine it by fracture or otherwise in order to discover
how far the annealing has progressed so soon as judged to be sufficiently
80. I withdraw the castings with as little access of air as convenient,
and embed them and cover them with fine dry sand to allow them to
cool slowly. The retort will then be ready for another charge of castings,
which I prefer to heat up gradually to little short of a red heat before
placing them in the retort. If the retort be not fully charged with
castings limestone may be calcined therein and renewed as often as
required until the annealing be completed. Some moisture usually
exists in limestone, which will be given off along with the carbonic acid
during its calcination. Should the limestone be very dry I prefer to
have it well watered 24 hours before calcining it in order that the
carbonic acid gas conveyed to the castings may contain some aqueous
vapour. Carbonic acid gas obtained from a carbonate in any other
usual manner may be applied in place of the gas derived from the
calcination of limestone.
Steel castings of all sizes and iron castings that are of too great weight
or size to be placed in a retort may be placed in the annealing oven
commonly used for large steel castings, and heated by the direct action
of flame. So soon as brought up to a red heat the carbonic acid gas
obtained from the calcination of limestone or other carbonate may be
admitted into the chamber wherein the castings are placed.
softening of the castings will be facilitated.
By this the
I claim in respect to this part of my Invention the application to
iron and steel castings at or above a red heat of carbonic acid gas derived

page_text: from a carbonate in which the casting had not been both embedded
when cold, and afterwards heated in contact therewith, substantially as
described.
In the making of tubes from steel the use of soft steel with a low per
centage of carbon is liable to produce an unsound tube, and the working
of hard steel is attended with difficulties. My improvement in this
respect is to anneal the hollow ingot or other tubular steel with iron ore
or other oxidising agent used in the manufacture of malleable castings
for the purpose of removing some carbon therefrom before elongating it
into the required tube, or I so anneal the partly made tube before it be
finally drawn to the required size. By abstracting some of its carbon
before or during the manufacture of the tube a sounder steel may be
used for the purpose.
I make tubes from cast iron, also from a mixture of cast iron and steel,
first making hollow ingots or tubular forms and annealing them with
oxide as malleable castings are annealed, or with other decarburetting
substance. I then have them elongated at a temperature little short of
a red heat; this drawing or elongation may be performed partly on a
maundril under the hammer or between rolls, and afterwards by cold
drawing by means of hydraulic machinery and repeated heating as now
practised. Should the material of the tube be not sufficiently deprived
of carbon by a single annealing process with oxide it may be further
annealed in contact with an oxidising substance before being finally
drawn to the required thickness of tube.
I claim in respect to this part of my Invention the elongation or
drawing of tubular forms of iron and steel that had previously been
subjected to heat in contact with oxide of iron or other decarburetting
substance, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this 15th day of May 1874.