IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING CAST IRON
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Erasmus Thomas Horsley, of Pye Bridge, Alfreton,
in the County of Derby, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN TREATING CAST IRON."
Sealed the 14th January 1868, and dated the 7th August 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Erasmus Thomas Horsley
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
7th August 1867.
I, ERASMUS THOMAS HORSLEY, of Pye Bridge, Alfreton, in the County of
Derby, Engineer, do hereby declare, the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING CAST IRON," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in treating cast iron. The
object to be attained is by fluxing and purifying the cast iron whilst in a state
of fusion either as it runs from the blast furnace or from other remelting
furnaces to convert it into a clear and hard substance for the casting of steam
and other cylinders, and for bearings, retorts, and other articles, and to produce
iron-more-convertible-into-steel, and for making steel. I attain these ends
by the use of borates of the fixed alkalies (or alkaline earths), or mixtures of
same with the alkalies, alkaline earths, or their carbonates, or mixtures of
boracic acid with the alkalies, alkaline earths, or such of their salts as when
the

page_text: heated with boracic acid yield fusible borates.
fusible borates. I work with or without a
current of electricity from a battery.
The following proportions may conveniently be employed:-Borax, 7 ozs.
to 1 cwt. iron; or borax, 7 ozs., carbonate of soda 3 oz. to 1 cwt. iron; or
borax, 7 ozs., salt 2 oz., to 1 cwt. iron. By preference these materials are
put at the bottom of the ladle or pot into which the molten iron is run from
the furnace; the metal is to be stirred with them as long as anything rises to
the surface, and the change is then found to be effected.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Erasmus Thomas Horsley in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 7th February 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ERASMUS
THOMAS HORSLEY, of Pye Bridge, Alfreton, in the County of Derby, Engineer,
send, greeting...
11.
T
I
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by, Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Erasmus Thomas Horsley, Her special licence that I, the said Erasmus
Thomas Horsley, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as; I, the said Erasmus, Thomas Horsley, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should, at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING CAST IRON," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Erasmus Thomas Horsley, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed; and cause
the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar inonths
next and immediately after the date of the, said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW 'YE, that I, the said Erasmus Thomas Horsley, do hereby
declare the nature of the said. Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
'following statement thereof, that is to say:-

page_text: This Invention has for its object improvements in treating cast iron. The
object to be attained by fluxing and purifying the cast iron whilst in a state
of fusion either as it runs from the blast furnace or from other remelting
furnaces to convert it into a clear and hard substance for the casting of steam
and other cylinders, and for bearings, retorts, and other articles, and to produce
iron more convertible into steel, and for making steel. I attain these ends
by the use of borates of the fixed alkalies (or alkaline earths), or mixtures of
the same with the alkalies, alkaline earths, or their carbonates or mixtures of
boracic acid with the alkalies, alkaline carths, or such of their salts as when
heated with boracic acid yield fusible borates. I work with or without a current
of electricity from a battery. I by preference employ for purifying the iron
about 7 oz. of borax to 1 cwt. of iron. The borax is by preference thrown
into the ladle or into the iron whilst running. If a small quantity only,
say 1 cwt. of metal, is to be acted on I by preference throw the borax into a
ladle containing the material; or if a comparatively large quantity, say 1 ton
of metal, is to be acted on I by preference scatter the borax upon it as it is
running into or from the ladle. For some processes, such as the making of
steam cylinders, paper rolls, and bearings for shafts or gas retorts, which
require the metal to be barder than the borax will make it, I use carbonates
or other salts together with the borax; for example, say, to 7 oz. of borax
about 2 oz. of common salt; or to 7 oz. borax about 2 oz. sea salt or lime; or
to 7 oz. of borax about 2 oz. of carbonate of soda and 1 oz. of common
salt; or in some cases I use the borax together with nitrate of potash, say 7
Oz. of borax to about 1 oz. of nitrate of potash. The above quantities are
used by preference to each 1 cwt. of iron. The proportion of carbonate or
other salt used together with the borax will depend upon the degree of
hardness of metal required.
In witness whereof, I, the said Erasmus Thomas Horsley, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fifth day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
ERASMUS THOMAS HORSLEY. (L.S.)