IMPROVEMENTS IN REWORKING THE SHEARINGS OF IRON AND STEEL PRODUCED IN THE PROCESSES OF TIN AND BLACK PLATE MANUFACTURE."
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Henry Rogers, of Highfield House, Llanelly, in the
County of Caermarthen, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN REWORKING
THE SHEARINGS OF IRON AND STEEL PRODUCED IN THE PROCESSES OF TIN
AND BLACK PLATE MANUFACTURE."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Rogers at the
Office of the Cominissioners of Patents on the 6th March 1880.
JOHN HENRY ROGERS, of Highfield House, Llanelly, in the County of Caermarthen.
IMPROVEMENTS IN REWORKING THE SHEARINGS OF IRON AND STEEL PRODUCED IN
THE PROCESSES OF TIN AND BLACK PLATE MANUFACTURE."
This Invention has for its object improvements in reworking the shearings of
iron and steel produced in the processes of tin and black plate manufacture.
These shearings, on account of their thinness, are not easily reworked, except
with great waste of material. At present they are to some extent used in the
charcoal fineries, and a Patent was granted to me, No. 1883, in the year 1878, for a
process of reworking them, consisting in forcing them into moulds, so as to form
compact masses or blocks, which were then releated and worked under the
hammer. Nevertheless, in consequence of the limited utility of these shearings,
they fetch but a low price in proportion to the intrinsic value of the metal which
they contain.
Now according to my present Invention I employ compacted masses or moulded
blocks of shearings in the manufacture of steel. I dissolve them in a bath of molten
cast iron in a Siemens or such like furnace, operating in the same way as when
rail ends and other like metal is at present used in the manufacture of steel. By
the employment of moulded shearings in this process, in addition to the advantage
which I obtain in the substitution of a low priced material for one of higher value,
other economies and advantages result. The furnace process occupies less time, and
is accomplished with a smaller expenditure of fuel; the proportion of cast iron,
which compared with rail ends is the cheaper material, can be increased, and the
shearing being usually of metal of very good quality, better than the material for
which they are substituted, the resulting steel is of improved quality.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said John Henry Rogers in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 6th
September 1880.
"
JOHN HENRY ROGERS, of Highfield House, Llanelly, in the County of Caermarthen.
IMPROVEMENTS IN REWORKING THE SHEARINGS OF IRON AND STEEL PRODUCED IN
THE PROCESSES OF TIN AND BLACK PLATE MANUFACTURE.”
This Invention has for its object improvements in reworking the shearings of
iron and steel produced in the processes of tin and black plate manufacture.
These shearings, on account of their thinness, are not easily reworked, except
with great waste of material. At present they are to some extent used in the
charcoal fineries, and a Patent was granted to me, No. 1883, in the year 1878, for
a process of reworking them, consisting in forcing them into moulds, so as to form
compact masses or blocks, which were then reheated aud worked under the
hammer. Nevertheless, in consequence of the limited utility of these shearings,
they fetch but a low price in proportion to the intrinsic value of the metal which
they contain.
Now according to my present Invention I employ compacted masses or moulded
blocks of shearings in the manufacture of steel. I dissolve them in a bath of molten
cast iron or metal, in a Siemens or other furnace, or Bessemer converter or other
vessel, in which a sufficiently high temperature can be obtained, operating in the
same way as when rail ends and other like metal is at present used in the manu-
facture of steel. By the employment of moulded shearings in this process, in
addition to the advantage which I obtain in the substitution of a low priced
material for one of higher value, other economies and advantages result. The
melting of the moulded shearings occupies less time than is required for the melting
in like manner of a similar quantity of rail ends, and when the operation is con-
ducted in a furnace it is accomplished with a smaller expenditure of fuel, and the
shearings being often of metal of very good quality, better than the material for
which they are substituted, the resulting steel is of improved quality.
The shearings which I employ are such as are produced in the manufacture of
tin or black plate, whether of iron or steel, and other like thin cuttings of iron or
steel. I compact these shearings and mould them into blocks by driving them, by
means of a steam hammer like apparatus, into a suitable mould in all respects as is
described in the Specification of iny former Patent, No. 1883, in the year 1878. In
place however of forging these moulded blocks under the hammer, as practised by
me under my said former Patent, I now dissolve them in a bath of molten cast iron
or metal. I melt cast iron in 'a suitable furnace in which a high temperature can
be maintained; I employ a regenerative gas furnace, such as the well known
Siemens furnace or the Pernot or the Ponsart furnace, and in the same furnace I
heat the moulded blocks of shearing to a white heat, and then immerse them in the
bath of molten cast iron or metal and dissolve them in the bath in the same way as
when rail ends and similar masses of metal are commonly employed in the steel
making process. But the operation of dissolving the moulded blocks of shearings
occupies less time than is required when rail ends are used, as the molten metal of
the bath is able to some extent to permeate the moulded blocks, and there is less
occasion for the introduction of iron oxide ore or oxidizing material into the bath.
I also dissolve moulded blocks of shearings in the Bessemer converter, cast iron
(of suitable quality, as is well understood) is run into the converter, and the metal
is blown until the carbon is nearly consumed. The moulded blocks of shearings are
then put in and the blowing is completed, by which time, if the addition has been i
made in suitable proportion, the blocks of shearings will be found to be completely
dissolved.
The proportion of moulded shearings to cast iron depends on the conditions
which at present regulate the addition of rail ends and Bessemer scrap to the

page_text: charge of the Bessemer converter, and these conditions are well understood by the
steel manufacturer.
The steel which is produced by my process when moulded blocks of shearings
are thus substituted for rail ends and the like is, as I have already stated, often of
improved quality. This is the case especially when the shearings from charcoal
sheets are used.
The word "metal" is used in the Specification to mean generally "iron," without
reference to the state in which the iron for the time may be, whether it be in a
state in which it might be called "cast iron,'
""malleable iron," or "steel," or by
other name.
Having thus described, the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I claim the method herein
described for reworking thin shearings of iron and steel, such as are produced in
the processes of tin and black plate manufacture, such method consisting in moulding
the said shearings into compact blocks, and dissolving these blocks in molten iron
or metal, thereby producing steel at a reduced cost or of improved quality,
substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Rogers, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty.
J. H. ROGERS. (L.S.)