IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL AND ARTICLES THEREFROM.
Year: 1875

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 7th March 1876, and dated the 13th September 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jacob Geoghegan
Willans at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 13th September 1875.
.
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 THEREPROM," to be as follows :—
.
My Invention relates, firstly, to the manufacture of a cast iron with
less contents. of silicon or phosphorus than usual. I do this by melting
down steel in contact with carbon in a cupola furnace. I sometimes
add a proportion of cast iron to the charge, but not so much as to equal

page_text: the weight of steel unless the cast iron be refined; in such case the
proportion may be greater. I use the molten metal direct from the
cupola, or I cast it into pigs or other shapes, or granulate it for future
use. I make castings from the cast iron so produced, especially those
_to be annealed for so called malleable castings. I also use this metal
in a granulated form in the manufacture-of-steel according to any of the
known processes of manufacturing steel from granulated cast iron.
My Invention relates, secondly, to a means of lessening the oxidation
and waste of heated iron or steel, and for rendering any oxide thereon
into a plastic or fluid state in order to produce a smoother surface
on the iron or steel in the rolling, drawing, or hammering. I do this by
admitting some sufficiently finely divided silicious (or it may be other
substance that will combine with oxide of iron) into the chamber
wherein the iron or steel is being heated in such manner that it will be
carried in by the draught or other gaseous current, and impinging on
the heated iron or steel will partly adhere thereto and thus form a pro-
tecting glass or covering against so much oxidation as heretofore. I
prefer to admit the fine silicious or other material above the surface of
the fuel so that it be carried along with the flame into the chamber
containing the iron or steel. I treat in like manner hot iron or steel
after its withdrawal from the heating furnace by distributing the
silicious or other substance over its surface by means of a current of air
or other fluid in order to convert the oxide thercon into a plastic or fluid;
condition, and thus afford a smoother surface.
My Invention further includes the application to the surface of
heated iron or steel for same purposes of non-volatile saline substances,
such as silicate of soda or potash and others that form with oxide-of-
iron at a red heat a fusible compound. In the manufacture of iron or
-steel tubes I-apply the silicious saline or other substance to the interior
of the tube and thus lessen the friction on the mandril..
--
My Invention refers, lastly, to a means for rendering steel castings
less honeycombed than usual. The steel used for this purpose whilst
undergoing 'or after melting is generally in contact with a slag which
contains oxide of iron. This has a continuous decarburetting action on
the molten steel underneath it, giving rise to the ebullition of gas
therefrom. My Invention is to place some coke dust or other carbon on
the top of the slag which covers the steel and so to deoxidise it and thus

page_text: prevent its further action on the steel, or I remove the slag containing
oxide and I substitute another slag (or material to make one) with little
or no oxide contents thercin.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 11th March 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JACOB
GEOHEGAN WILLANS, of 9, Saint Stephen's Crescent, Bayswater, in the
County of Middlesex, send greeting.
Victoria, by Her
September, in the
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Jacob Geohegan Willans, Her
special license that I, the said Jacob Geohegan Willans, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Jacob Geohegan
Willans, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of-Great
Britain and Ircland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL AND
ARTICLES THEREFROM," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Jacob Geohegan Willans, my executors or adminstrators, 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.

page_text: is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say :—
My Invention relates firstly to the manufacture of a cast iron, which
contains less silicon or phosphorous than usual. I produce such a cast
iron by melting down steel in contact with carborn in a cupola furnace,
whereby the steel absorbs so much carborn as to be converted into cast
iron. In some cases I-add therewith a good quality cast iron, but not
so much as to equal the weight of the steel unless the cast iron had been
refined of the greater part of its original silicon, or what is known as
"fine metal," in which case the proportion of it may exceed that of the
steel.
In carrying out the process, I prefer to proceed as follows:-I use a
cupola of fifteen feet in height and two feet across the twyeres, with two
twyeres of one and three-quarters inch. internal diameter placed at
fourteen 'inches from the bottom and a blast at one and a half to two
pounds pressure. After that the cupola is sufficiently heated and
charged with fuel, I charge into it three hundredweight small scrap
steel, such as punchings or short cuttings off bars, and one hundred and
thirty-five pounds of best coke and some broken limestone flux as
ordinarily practised in foundry cupolas. I prefer to mix part of the
above coke through the steel in the charging, say. about thirty-five
pounds of it in fragments of about six cubic inches each.
When adding pig or cast iron along with the steel, I prefer that it
shall be hematite Bessemer pig, in the proportion of one hundredweight
of it to two hundredweight of the steel, making together a change of
three hundredweight; but if refined cast iron be added the weight of it
may exceed that of the steel. This latter product will be servicable in
the manufacture of wrought iron by the usual puddling process.
4th
When I add cast iron I use.¼ to ½ less coke than when steel alone
is melted, I prefer to use a cupola such as that patented-by me, No. 157,
1875. I tap-the-molten cast iron so made out of the cupola when it
has accumulated, and-run it into pigs or other shapes, and it is adapted
especially for making castings to be rendered malleable by subsequent
treatment, or I pour this into moulds for castings, or I granulate or
otherwise divide the metal to prepare it for use in the manufacture of 3
steel by any of the known processes for melting cast iron-granules into
steel. I prefer to treat such granules to make steel from them in-the-

page_text: manner described in the Specification of my Patent No. 547, in the
year 1873. By the word granules I mean particles however divided.
I would have it understood that I do not claim the addition of steel
to a greater weight of unrefined cast iron, or making castings therefrom,
nor do I claim the mixture in any proportion of cast iron and steel in
melting pots, reverberatory furnaces, or in other vessels, but I do claim
the manufacture of castings from a cast iron produced in cupola
furnaces, by melting down steel in contact with carbon with or without
a lesser weight of unrefined cast iron charged therewith.
'
I also claim the production of cast iron made by melting down steel
along with refined cast iron or "fine metal" in cupola furnaces.
I also claim the manufacture of cast steel from granules or particles
of cast iron made in cupola furnace from steel alone, or in mixture with
cast iron as above described.
My Invention relates, secondly, to a means for lessening the oxidation
and waste of heated iron or steel, and for rendering oxide scale thereon
into a plastic or fluid state in order to produce a smoother surface on
the iron or steel in the rolling, drawing, or hammering. I effect this by
admitting some very finely divided silicious (or it may be other
substance that will readily combine with oxide of iron and form a fluid
slag) into the chamber wherein the heated iron is placed in such
manner that it will be carried in by the draught or other gaseous
current, and made to impinge on the iron or steel, the silicious or such
like powder will partly adhere thereto, and with the oxide form a glass
or covering protecting the metal to some extent against further
oxidation. This method of protection may conveniently be applied in
furnaces, such as reheating furnaces in which iron is piled, by having a
vessel containing some very finely divided silica or very finely powdered
blast furnace slag of good quality (of not too limy a character as free from
iron and sulphur as possible) placed at an elevation above the arch of the
fire-place, and having a metallic pipe of about one-quarter inch diameter,
or more, somewhat flattened at the end, and descending therefrom and
delivering into a clay pipe of, say three inches diameter, set upright into
the arch of the fire-place opposite and near to the fuel charging place.
The supply of the powder, which should be dry enough to flow freely,
may be regulated by a slide, and admitted whenever the furnace is

page_text: drawing air above the fuel, or when the charging door is opened. At
other times the supply may be cut off. I also apply the silicious or
other substance to hot iron or steel after its withdrawal from the furnace
in which it was heated by conveying it in the form of dust in a current
of air (or it might be of gas) on to the surface of the hot iron or steel
before it be hammered or rolled; this may conveniently be done by
dropping the powder or dust from-aný convenient apparatus or by the
hand before a blast directed on the iron or steel from a moveable pipe;
the dust will thus impinge on the heated surface and partly adhere, so
as to combine with the oxide scale and render it more or less plastic-or-
fusible; or the silicious powder or other substance may be added to the
water which is supplied to the rolls. I apply the silicious or other sub-
stance to the interior of heated iron or steel tubes by means of an air or
gaseous current to lessen the friction on the mandril used in the drawing
or rolling.
.
The quantity of the powder need be no more than to be distinctly
perceptible to cloud the air or water, but slight excess can do no harm.
I sometimes apply dissolved in water soluble saline substances, which
combine with oxide of iron at a red heat, such as silicate of soda or.
potash. The salt should be added in sufficient' quantity as to be per-
ceptible to the taste.
I claim the application to the surfaces of hot iron or steel by means
of a current of air, gas, or other fluid, of powdered substances which
combine with oxide of iron to form a glaze or covering protecting the
metal more or less from further oxidation.
I also claim the application to such surfaces of such substances
suspended or dissolved in water or liquid, so as to form a glaze or pro-
tecting covering.
I also-claim the application to the interior of heated iron and steel
tubes of such substances by the means described.
My Invention refers, lastly, to a means for rendering steel castings
less honeycombed than usual. Steel castings are now commonly pro-
duced by pouring molten steel usually from crucibles into loam or friable
moulds of the form or approximately of the form of the article required.
Steel for this purpose, whilst undergoing or after melting, is generally in
contact with a slag containing oxide of iron in considerable quantity;

page_text: this has a continuous decarburetting action on the steel, giving rise to
the formation of gas therein. My Invention is to place some coke dust
or other granular carbon in a layer of about equal thickness to the slag
on the top of the slag which covers the steel to deoxidise the oxide of
ron, and thus prevent its further action on the steel; or I remove the
lag containing oxide, and I substitute another slag (or a material to
make one) with little or no oxide contents therein.