AN IM- PROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert John Carpenter, of Old Broad Street,
in the City of London, Merchant, for the Invention of "AN IM-
PROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL."-A communica
tion from abroad by Sidney Wright Hopkins and Frank Howard
C
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert John Carpenter
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 13th December 1869.
I, ROBERT JOHN CARPENTER, of Old Broad Street, in the City of
London, Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL," to be
as follows:-
This Invention relates to a new and improved mode or method of
using iron ore in puddling furnaces in the manufacture of wrought iron
or steel whereby either iron or steel can be manufactured out of the

page_text: same materials and at the same heat at the pleasure of the person
manufacturing the same.
The nature of the Invention consists in using an iron ore known in
the State of Pennyslvania, United States, as the Leader Hill iron ore,
or any other iron ore containing the same ingredients, as a flux for
removing impurities from the iron, and converting the iron into steel
while in the puddling furnaces, and the method or manner of using the
same is as follows:-The ore is placed or thrown into the furnace at the
time of charging and is melted and fused with the cast iron, and after
the orc and cast iron are thoroughly melted and combined then the
damper is lowered until the mass commences to thicken, then the
damper is raised and the mass is boiled, it having been worked with the
rubble from the time the ore and cast iron are melted and fused and
continually worked until the mass adheres and is ready to be removed to
the rollers.
In the manufacture of steel the metal is removed from the furnace,
put under the hammer or squeezer, and run through the rollers as soon
as it can be made to adhere and form balls or masses, and in the manu-
facture of iron the metal is allowed to remain in the furnace until it
becomes stronger in nature, thereby producing a superior quality of
malleable merchant bar iron.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert John Carpenter in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 13th June 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
JOHN CARPENTER, of Old Broad Street, in the City of London, Merchant,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of December, 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,
give and grant unto me, the said Robert John Carpenter, Her special
licence, that I, the said Robert John Carpenter, my executors, adminis
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert John Carpenter,

page_text: 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
"AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL," being a
communication to me from abroad by Sidney Wright Hopkins and
Frank Howard Collins, of New York City, in the United States of
America, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Robert
John Carpenter, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and scals, should par-
ticularly 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 Robert John Carpenter, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement (that is to say) :-
This Invention of improvements in the manufacture of iron and
steel relates to a novel and improved mode of producing steel and iron.
in the puddling furnace in which pig iron or cast iron may be converted
into steel without passing through the process of being made into
wrought iron and then converted by the subsequent process of cementation
into steel.
The Invention consists in using (in the puddling furnace) in com-
bination with ordinary pig or cast iron a proportion of an iron ore
known in the State of Pennsylvania (one of the United States of America)
as the Leader Hill iron ore. This ore is obtained by mining in the
County of York and State of Pennsylvania, and when mixed with the
cast iron and melted down in the puddling furnace in suitable pro-
portions it acts as a flux for removing such impurities from the iron as
would prevent the latter from being converted into good steel or wrought
iron of good quality.
In carrying out our Invention we proceed as follows:-We place on
the hearth of the puddling furnace about thirty-five kilos weight of the
Leader Hill iron ore (or other iron ore which on analysis may be found
to resemble it in character and constituents), and on the top of this orc

page_text: we place about one hundred and fifty kilos of pig iron. These substances
are melted down in the puddling furnace in the usual manner, and the
workman or puddler works the mass precisely as if he were puddling
ordinary molten pig iron in order to make wrought iron in the ordinary
way, the object being to thoroughly mix the iron ore and molten pig
iron. When the two ingredients are thoroughly well mixed the
damper is to be lowered and kept so until the mass commences to
thicken; the damper is then to be raised and the semi-molten mass is
to be boiled and well worked with the rabble until the metal has become
partly decarbonized and adheres to the tool; it will then be ready to
be balled up and removed from the furnace in order to be stamped,
hammered, or squeezed so as to remove the slag, and then it may be
rolled down into rails or bars, which when broken will be found to be
steel of good quality. If wrought iron be required the metal must be
allowed to remain a little longer in the furnace and be worked a little
more so as to still further decarbonize it. This will then produce a
superior quality of malleable bar iron.
Having now described our Invention of improvements in the
manufacture of iron and steel, and having explained the manner of
carrying the same into effect, we claim as our Invention, using in com-
bination with cast iron or pig iron Leader Hill iron ore (or any other
iron ore containing the same ingredients) as a flux in the puddling
furnace for removing (or facilitating the removal) from the cast iron or
pig iron (when in a molten or semi-fluid state) the impurities contained
therein, the combination of certain of the ingredients contained in the
ore with the purified cast iron enabling the workman to produce at his
pleasure from the same materials and during the same heat a superior
quality of steel or of malleable wrought iron, as herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert John Carpenter, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, the Thirteenth day of June, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
ROBERT JOHN CARPENTER. (L.S.)