IMPROVEMENTS IN SMELTING AND TREATING IRON AND IN BLAST FURNACES OR CUPOLAS FOR SUCH PURPOSES
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Prideaux, of Sheffield, in the County of
York, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SMELTING AND TREATING
IRON AND IN BLAST FURNACES OR CUPOLAS FOR SUCH PURPOSES."
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Thomas Prideaux at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and Decla-
ration, on the 28th September 1867, pursuant to the 9th Section of the
Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
PRIDEAUX, of Sheffield, in the County of York, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
SMELTING AND TREATING IRON AND IN BLAST FURNACES OR CUPOLAS POR SUCH
PURPOSES," and bave petitioned Her Majesty to grant unto me, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have
made solemn Declaration that I am the true and first Inventor thereof.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Prideaux, do hereby declare
that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and seal, fully
describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, in and by the following statement and accom-
panying Drawings, that is to say:-
My Invention relates to a new method for smelting iron from the ironstone
and entirely dispense with the water tuyeres as at present in use. I construct

page_text: a passage or pipe round the furnace between the inner and outer brick-
work under the boshing and above the level of the dam; from this passage
are a number of perforations into the interior of the furnace; the blast is let
into this passage and through the perforations, and thereby spreading over the
whole surface of the furnace. By this process great advantage is derived as
the passage around the furnace acts as a heating stone and thereby a great
degree of heat is attained before the air or blast passes through the perforations
into the interior of the furnace.
My improvements also consist in a method for drying or calcining the
ironstone before entering the furnace. To attain this I construct at the top
of the furnace vertical gratings with valves at the dip. The stone is tipped or
thrown on the gratings. The gases and heat from the furnace ascends through
the grating and thereby dries or calcines the stone as may be found necessary.
The valves at the dip of the grating are constructed for the purpose of
discharging the stone from the grating into the interior of the furnace.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 shows a sectional elevation of a blast
furnace with flue and metal chamber; Fig. 2 is a ground plan of the blast
furnace showing flue composed of steps (or in any other form) and furnace
with a metal chamber to receive the metal.
A is a blast furnace with two stages, the stage B is for the ironstone in an
uncalcined state; C, the grating fitted with valves to calcine the ironstone at
the bottom of the furnace D, the metal is run down the flue F composed of
steps where the metal runs into a metal chamber G. The object of this
.Invention is to make a better class of cast iron and for economy in coal, the
same being adapted to cupolas.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Prideaux, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
THOMAS PRIDEALLY
THOMAS PRIDEAUTY