IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF OPEN HEARTH STEEL
Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Apr., 1886.
Complete Left, 1st Jan., 1887.
Complete Accepted, 25th Feb., 1887.
Improvem
We WILLIAM PENROSE, Gentleman, of No. 1 Bryn Villas Bryn Road, Swansea,
and WILLIAM HACKNEY, Gentleman, of No. 2 Bryn Villas, Bryn Road, Swansea do
hereby declare the nature of our invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF OPEN HEARTH STEEL to be as follows:-
In making steel, in the ordinary way, in an Open Hearth Siemens furnace, by
decarburetting melted pig iron by the addition to it of rich and pure iron ore, or of
an oxide in any other form, considerable loss of time occurs in effecting the decar-
burisation of the metal, so as to bring it to the condition of steel of the hardness
required, owing to the comparative slowness with which the oxide of iron, floating on
a surface, removes carbon from the metal below it.
Now, according to our invention, we avoid this loss of time, to a greater or less
extent, and bring the metal into the state of steel, of the hardness required, almost as
soon as it has become liquid, by charging the iron into the furnace, not in pigs of the
ordinary thickness, but in a more finely divided, by preference in a granulated form,
and mixed in many cases with a suitable proportion of crushed or powdered oxide or
other oxidized compound of iron.
We do not claim the mere granulating or the more or less minute division of pig
iron as being altogether new, nor do we even claim, generally, the plan of making steel
by melting together a mixture of granulated pig iron and oxide of iron, as this was
done long ago in crucibles, but the use of granulated or otherwise finely divided pig
iron in an open hearth furnace is, we believe, new, and is likely to be an important
improvement.
This method of granulating the pig iron to be made into steel is also of great value
when impure qualities of the metal are used and the greater part of the phosphorus
and sulphur contained in thein is removed, as is well known, by the basic mode of
working; as in this case the granulated pig iron, before it is charged into the furnace
be mixed with dry or wet lime, as well as with more or less oxide of iron, if this
be thought desirable, so that the removal of its impurities will begin as soon as the
granules commence to melt.
may

page_text: The pig iron may be finely divided or mixed with oxide of iron, as described, in
any convenient way, such as by forming blocks of alternate layers of pig iron and
iron ore, as is done in what is known as the Ellershausen Process, by shaking the
liquid pig iron with so much powdered oxide that it will solidify in seperate drops
which may then be removed, from the excess of oxide by sifting, by causing the
liquid metal to fall into any suitable vessel in seperate drops together with powdered
oxide, by shaking the liquid pig iron and keeping it in agitation until it has become
set, by running it into water, or by pouring it upon the surface of a rapidly revolving
horizontal table and causing the drops or spray into which the metal is thus divided
to fall either upon a dry floor or into water."
When pig iron is charged into a steel making furnace in any such finely divided
form, it is very conveniently dropped in, from hopper bottomed trucks, through a hole
or holes in the furnace roof, and in this way a large quantity may be introduced in a
comparatively short time and with little labour.
WILLIAM PENROSE.
WILLIAM HACKNEY.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Open Hearth Steel.
We, WILLIAM PENROSE, Gentleman of No. 1 Bryn Villas Bryn Road, Swansea
and WILLIAM HACKNEY, Gentleman of No. 2 Bryn Villas Bryn Road Swansea do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
In making steel in the ordinary way in an open hearth Siemen's Furnace by
decarburetting melted pig iron by the addition to it of rich and pure iron ore or of
iron oxide in any other form considerable loss of time occurs in effecting the decar-
buration of the metal so as to bring it to the state of steel of the hardness required
owing to the comparative slowness with which the oxide of iron floating on the surface
removes carbon from the metal below it.
Now according to our invention we avoid this loss of time to a greater or less
extent and bring the metal into the state of steel of the hardness required almost as
soon as it has become liquid by charging the iron into the furnace not in pigs of the
ordinary thickness, but in a more finely divided, by preference in a granulated form
and mixed in many cases with a suitable proportion of crushed or powdered oxide or
other oxydized compound of iron.
The granulation of pig iron to be made into steel is also of great value when
inferior qualities of the metal are used and the greater part of the phosphorous and
sulphur contained in them is removed as is well known by the basic mode of working,
as in this case the granulated pig iron before it is charged into the furnace may be
mixed with dry or wet lime as well as with more or less oxide of iron if this addition
be thought desirable, so that the removal of its impurities will begin as soon as the
granules commence to melt.
The pig iron may be finely divided and mixed with oxide of iron in any convenient
way, such as by shaking up the liquid pig iron with so much powdered oxide that it
will solidify in separate drops which may then be removed from the excess of oxido
by sifting by causing the liquid metal to fall into any suitable vessel in separate
drops together with powdered oxide and keeping the whole in agitation until the iron
has become set by running it into the water, or by pouring it upon the surface of a
rapidly rotating horizontal table whereby the metal will be divided into separate drops
that can be collected on a moistened floor.
When pig iron is charged into the steel melting furnace in any such finely divided
form it is very conveniently dropped in from hopper bottomed trucks through a hole
or holes in the furnace roof, and in this way a large quantity may be introduced in a
comparatively short time and with little labour.
The proportion of peroxide of iron required to remove from pig iron (such as is
commonly used in steel making) in the course of melting, the greater part of the
carbon and silicon that it contains is theoretically between one fourth and one fifth of

page_text: the weight of the pig, varying with the composition of the pig and ore used, and
practically it varies also with the fineness of division of the metal, the extent to which
its surface may have been oxydized by exposure and the character of the flame in the
furnace, so that it may be best determined in each special case by trial. A smaller
proportion of ore than that theoretically needed to reinove all the carbon and silicon
from the pig iron should be used first and more added in subsequent charges if the
liquid metal obtained in the first instance be found to be too hard. The point to be
aiined at in each case is that the metal as soon as it has become liquid should be ready
or nearly ready for tapping needing little length of exposure to the flame and little
or no further addition of iron ore to make it sufficiently soft.
Along with the mixture of finely divided pig iron with ore, various proportions of
scrap steel may be melted as is usually done in the manufacture of steel on the
open hearth.
In order that the part of our invention which relates to the mode of charging the
finely divided pig iron through a hole or holes in the melting furnace roof may be
more clearly understood, we add a drawing shewing a row of such furnace of a
somewhat old design in which one form of this mode of charging is employed. An
old and well known type of furnace is shewn as the precise form of the melting
furnace to be used forms no part of our present invention.
In this drawing A A shew in section parts of three furnaces, B B are the charging
holes in the furnace roofs-CC are heaps of granules already charged-D and E E
are branches of the tramway leading over the tops of the furnaces. F and G G are
turn tables connecting the branches with the main line H of tramway, and I I are
the foot plates for working the catches of the turn tables. Each table has two lines
upon it at an angle to each other one of which keeps the main line continuous when
the truck upon the table is turned like that supposed to be upon the table F so as to
be in line with the branch siding D.
When a charge is to be dropped in through any hole it is loaded into one of the
charging trucks and the gas and air having been turned off from the furnace, one of
the charging holes opened and a wrought iron funnel about twelve inches square at
the larger end dropped into it, a truck is brought down, turned on the table leading
to the hole to be charged through, pushed on to the branch, and when over the funnel
the charge dropped in. When no more metal is to be dropped through any hole, the
funnel should be removed and the hole covered with a fire slab made as tight as
possible either by dry sand drawn round its edge, if the furnace arch be built of silica
brick, or by powdered lime if it be built of basic brick.
We make no claim to any process for granulating pig iron or mixing it in finely
divided form with ore for the purpose of making steel, but, having now particularly
described and ascertained the nature of our said invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed we declare that what we claim is
The herein described process for the manufacture of open hearth steel, which
consists in melting in an open hearth furnace an intimate mixture of finely divided
pig iron with a suitable proportion of iron oxide along with basic agents when
necessary for eliminating impurities.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicants.