IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Evans at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 6th September 1878.
WILLIAM EVANS, of the Firm of William Molineaux and Company, of Moxley,
near Wednesbury, in the County of Stafford, Ironmasters. "IMPROVEMENTS IN
FURNACES USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL."
My Invention consists in combining or arranging in the manner herein-after
described the parts of furnaces to be used for melting, refining, and puddling pig
iron for the manufacture of wrought iron or steel.
According to my Invention I arrange near the fire-place of the furnace a melting
and refining chamber, in which the iron is melted and refined, and I construct near
the said melting and refining chamber the puddling chamber, the flame and heated
air from the fire-place first passing over the melting and refining chamber, and next
over the puddling chamber.
The said melting and refining chamber is separated from the fire-place by a
bridge, and from the puddling chamber in advance of it by a second bridge, the
melting and refining chamber being constructed between the said bridges.
The melting and refining chamber is situated at a higher level than the puddling
chamber, and the connection between the two chambers is effected by a pipe or
passage inside the furnace, or in the side of the furnace.
The reverberatory arch of the furnace is made inclined or curved to follow the
varying levels of the two chambers, that is, the said arch is highest over the fire-
place and refining chamber, and lowest over the puddling chamber. Over the crown
of the arch at the melting and refining chamber is a cross main pipe, and combined
with the said main pipe is a series of branch pipes, which pass through the said
crown of the arch, and open on the inside thereof. By means of these branch pipes
a series of jets of air may be projected on to the surface of the melted iron being
refined in the refining chamber so as to refine the said iron.
The jets of air by mixing and combining with the gaseous products of combustion
from the fire-place, passing over the bridge of the refining chamber, promote their
combustion and produce an intense heat.
Instead of jets of air steam may be used, or jets of steam and air may be used.

page_text: The pig iron to be manufactured into wrought iron or steel being placed in the
melting and refining chamber, it is melted by the heat from the fire-place, and
refined by the action of the jets of air or steam upon it delivered in the manner
before described. The iron having been sufficiently refined, the connecting pipe or
passage between the refining chamber and puddling chamber is opened, when the
refined iron runs by the said pipe or passage into the puddling chamber, where it is
puddled in the usual way. The charge of refined iron having been removed from
the melting and refining chamber, another charge of pig iron is placed therein, and
melted and refined, and conveyed to the puddling chamber, the puddling operation
being effected in one chamber, while a second charge is being melted and refined in
the other chamber.
Furnaces arranged according to my Invention are efficient and economical in use,
and the iron or steel produced is superior in quality to that produced in ordinary
furnaces.
My improvements may be applied either to single or to double furnaces.