AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND, PUDDLED STEEL
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Mushet at the Office'
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th
December 1861.
I, ROBERT MUSHET, of Coleford, in the County of Gloucester, Metallurgist,
do hereby declare the nature of the said. Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT
OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND, PUDDLED STEEL," to be as
follows:-
When ilmenites or other titanium ores, which are titanates of iron, or
when titanium, ores which are oxides of titanium, or when titanic acid or
oxide or any mixture of these ores of titanium with each other or with
titanic acid or oxide, are smelted in a blast furnace or cupola in mixture with
ores of iron, ironstones, or oxides of iron, such as hematite iron ores, spathose
iron ores, or sparry carbonates of iron clay, ironstones and mill scale. or other
oxides of iron,. a species of pig metal is produced, which is essentially an alloy
of iron and titanium containing also carbon, or when spathose iron. ores. or
other manganesic iron. ores are employed and smelted in a blast furnace in
mixture, with the said titanium ores or oxides, the pig metal. obtained is an
alloy, of iron, manganese, and titanium containing also carbon. In either case
I call the pig metal obtained by smelting titanium ores or oxides of titanium
in mixture with iron ores or oxides of iron "titanic pig metal ;." also when
titanium ores. being, titanates of iron are smelted alone in a blast furnace
heated with coal, coke, or charcoal fuel, the pig metal obtained by the re-
duction of the titanates of iron is an alloy of iron and titanium which I call
titanic pig, metal. "

page_text: My Invention consists in adding to and puddling with ordinary pig iron,
cast iron, or refined iron in the puddling furnace a quantity of titanic pig
metal, in order by the said addition of titanic pig metal to improve the
quality of the bar iron or malleable iron or puddled steel which it is intended
to produce by puddling the said ordinary pig iron, cast iron, or refined iron in
the puddling furnace. The proportion of titanic pig metal added to a given
weight of ordinary pig iron, cast iron, or refined iron which it is intended to
puddle, may be varied at pleasure without departing from the nature of my
Invention; but I find in practice that from ten to fifty parts by weight of the
titanic pig metal added to every one hundred parts, by weight of ordinary pig
iron, cast iron, or refined iron, or any mixture of these substances, afford ex-
cellent results. I do not however confine myself to these limits of the pro-
portions of the titanic pig metal, to the ordinary pig iron, cast iron, or refined
iron or mixture of these substances employed, for the proportions may be
varied, and a much larger proportion of titanic pig metal may be employed.
I..prefer to introduce the titanic pig metal into the puddling furnace along
with the charge of ordinary pig, cast, or refined iron, or mixture, of these irons
with which the said titanic pig metal is intended to be puddled. The titanic
pig metal and the ordinary pig, cast, or refined iron are then melted down and
puddled in the usual manner, and when the charge has come to nature it is
balled up, and the puddled balls are taken from the furnace and subjected to
the action of rollers, hammers, or squeezers in the ordinary manner, in order
to form the said puddled balls into blooms or bars. Or the charge of
ordinary pig, cast, or refined iron, or of a mixture of these substances, may be
first melted in the puddling furnace, and the titanic pig metal may be sub-
sequently introduced either in a melted or in a solid state into the said
puddling furnace and be mixed with the charge of ordinary iron contained in
the puddling furnace, or the titantic, pig metal may be introduced-into the
puddling furnace and mixed therein with the charge of ordinary pig, cast, or
refined iron or with a mixture of these substances in any convenient manner.
I wish it to be understood that I do not claim any particular method of
making the addition of titanic pig metal to the charge of ordinary pig iron,
cast iron, or refined iron, or any-mixture of these irons in the puddling furnace,
for what I claim is simply the addition of titanic pig metal to and the
puddling of the said titanic pig metal with ordinary pig iron, cast iron, or
refined iron, or any mixture of these varieties of iron in the puddling furnace,
in order to improve the quality of the malleable iron, bar iron, or puddled steel
produced.
The titantic pig metal which I prefer to employ is that which has been

page_text: smelted in the blast furnace, from iron ores or oxides of iron in mixture with
the-titanium ore, called ilmenite, and which said ilmenite is abundantly found in
Norway and elsewhere, the said ilmenite being in the proportion of from about
five to about ten parts by weight to every one hundred parts by weight.of the
iron ore or oxide of iron smelted with the said ilmenite in the said blast
furnace; but I do not limit myself to these proportions for a lesser or a larger
proportion of ilmenite to iron ore or oxide of iron may be employed in order
to produce by the reduction of these ores titantic pig metal, neither do I
confine myself to the use of ilmenite for other ores of titanium or titanic acid
or oxide of titanium may be employed to produce when smelted in mixture
with iron ores or oxides of iron titanic pig metal. Scrap iron may be added
to the charge of the puddling furnace, and oxide of manganese and other.
fluxes may be employed in the ordinary manner, but the said additions of
scrap iron or fluxes form no part of my Invention.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in which
I prefer to carry it into effect, I declare that the essence of my Invention
consists in adding titantic pig metal, which I have herein-before described, to
ordinary pig iron, cast iron, or refined iron, or any mixtures of these, and
puddling the said titantic pig metal with the said ordinary pig, cast, or refined
iron or mixtures of the said irons, in a puddling furnace, in order thereby to
improve the quality of the malleable iron, bar iron, or puddled steel obtained
by puddling the said ordinary pig iron, cast iron, or refined iron or mixtures
of these irons in the said puddling furnace. The puddling furnaces I employ
are such as are made use of in the manufacture of puddled bar iron and
puddled steel by manufacturers of puddled iron and puddled steel.
ordinary pig iron, cast iron, and refined iron herein-before mentioned are the
pig iron, cast iron, and refined iron of commerce.
The