IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jacob Geoghegan Willans, of No. 9, Saint
Stephen's Crescent, in the Parish of Paddington, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL, AND IN
APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN."
Sealed the 8th June 1869, and dated the 1st March 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jacob Geoghegan
Willans at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 1st March 1869.
I, JACOB GEOGHEGAN WILLANS, of No. 9, Saint Stephen's Crescent, in
the Parish of Paddington, do hereby declare the nature of the said In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL, AND IN
APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
In my Patent No. 702, dated 8th March 1866, and in my Provisional
Specification, No. 326, lodged February 3rd 1869, I have described a
process for bringing granules of cast metal into a malleable condition by
exposing them first to an oxidizing and afterwards to a reducing flame.
I have since discovered that granules of cast iron may be made into
puddled balls of either iron or steel in puddling furnaces without

page_text: reference to the nature of the flame, whether the granules be of crude
or refined cast metal, or altogether or partially deprived of their carbon
by the following means, viz., by having the granules so small or the
heat so regulated that they do not melt into each other before the
cinder or oxide has acted sufficiently upon them, and by either throwing
them into a bath of liquid cinder or oxide, or by mixing cinder or oxide
therewith, either before or during the operation, in such way that it
will melt through the unfused granules and cause such a rapid decar-
bonization of the granules as will prevent them from melting into
each other. This may be done in an ordinary puddling furnace by
rabbling and turning over without reference to the nature of the
flame. I place the granules in the furnace in either a heated or cold

page_text: particles of metal or iron otherwise prepared may be similarly treated.
When granulating metal by a revolving disc my improvement is to
have the spindle of the disc hollow, to allow of water ascending and
striking on the under part of the disc to prevent its being overheated.
I also in some cases have the granulating disc driven by blast instead of
by steam or water.
filed by the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 1st September 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JACOB
GEOGHEGAN WILLANS, of No. 9, Saint Stephen's Crescent, in the Parish
of Paddington, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans Her special
licence that I, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Jacob Geoghegan
Willans, 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 THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL AND IN APPARATUS
EMPLOYED THEREIN," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Jacob Geoghegan Willans, 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 months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner

page_text: the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
In the Specification of a Patent granted to me dated the 8th March
1866, No. 702, and in the Specification of a Patent granted to me dated
3rd February 1869, No. 326, I have described a process for bringing
g.anules of cast metal into a malleable condition by exposing them first
to an oxidising and afterwards to a reducing flame.
I have since discovered that granules of cast iron may be made into
puddle balls of either iron or steel without reference to the nature of the
flame employed, whether the granules be of crude or refined metal, or
partially or altogether deprived of their carbon. To perform the process I
have either the granule so small (say about, inch diameter or substance)
or the heat so low (beneath the fusing point of cast metal) that the
granules cannot melt into each other before the oxide cinder has so acted
upon them as to prevent their fusibility. The process may be carried on
in an ordinary puddling furnace by first having a bath of liquid oxide
cinder and throwing the granules therein, either in a cold state or
previously heated, and stirring up the mixture so as to prevent the
granules forming a layer on the bottom of the furnace, or the granules
may be placed in the bottom of the furnace without any bath of oxide
cinder, and such cinder or oxide may be put in the granules or through
them in such a way that it will melt through the interstices of the
granules, and thus act upon them in their decarburation so as to prevent
them fusing into each other. In this way the granules may be decar-
buretted without their fusion, and the oxide or cinder fusing will enable
the granules to be collected into puddle balls. By regulating the degree
of decarburation before balling, as commonly practised in making
puddled steel, the balls may be of that material. Instead of decar-
buretting the granules in the puddling furnace they may be previously
decarburetted to any desired extent in any convenient manner and
afterwards placed in the puddling furnace wherein the necessary oxide
or cinder for balling them is melted. I am aware that granules of cast
iron have been puddled in ordinary puddling furnaces without having
cinder previously intermixed. In these cases the granules were so large
or the heat so high that they melted into each other, and the metal
required to be treated in the manner usual with molten pig, or they
remained in an unfused state until oxidized to such an extent as to form a
cinder from their own substance.

page_text: My Invention is so to apply oxide or cinder in the puddling furnace
to the granules as to prevent them melting into each other, and to
prevent the waste resulting from the forming the cinder needed for
balling to a great extent by the oxidation of the granules.
I claim the forming a mixture in puddling furnaces of granules from
cast iron and oxide or oxide cinder in such manner as will prevent the
melting of the granules into each other.
In the Specification of a Patent granted to me on the 12th February
1868, No. 481, I describe a process for decarburetting granules of cast
iron by heating them in contact with oxide, the latter remaining in a
friable state and easy of separation, I have since discovered that they
may be decarburetted by a liquid oxide cinder, and that the latter may
be made (if not so) of such a brittle nature when cold as to be
generally capable of removal by grinding or sifting, and that any of
the cinder still adhering to the granules may be removed if desired
by the action of chemical substances that will dissolve it, or the granules
may be heated to a good red heat with fusible silicates, such as
compounds of silica and soda or potash, or fluxing substances, such
as oxide of manganese, fluor spar, borax, &c., that will dissolve it.
In carrying out the process with a liquid cinder, or with oxide or
cinder that will become liquid during the process, I prefer that the
temperature be kept below the melting point of cast metal or the welding
point of malleable iron. The form of the granules will then be retained,
and the cinder will lie between the interstices of the granules, and when
cold the mass may be subjected to stamping or grinding, by which the
cinder will be crushed to a fine state of division, and it may be separated
from the granules by a sieve or other convenient means. I prefer to
decarburate the granules in an ordinary puddling furnace in the manner
described in the first part of this Specification, or it may be done
as described in my Patent No. 702, 1866, or in my Patent No. 481,
February 1868, and that when they be reduced to the mallcable state to
have them removed and set aside and protected as much as possible from
air, or the mixture of granules and cinder may be cooled suddenly in
water in small portions at a time. I prefer that the cinder be of a brittle
nature when cold. Or in place of thus separating the cinder from the
granules it may be separated therefrom by the action of suitable chemical
substances, or the granules may be heated with fusible silicates or
fluxing substances, as before described, that will render the cindor fluid

page_text: -
and allow it to drain off from the granules. A soluble silicate of soda,
siliceous manganiferous oxide cinder will be of this character. Granules
prepared in this way may be used for the manufacture of steel, also of
iron. Metal reduced to the malleable iron or steely state by any
puddling process by which both the metal and cinder are together in a
divided or granular form if not hammered or compressed whilst hot may
similarly have the cinder separated from the granules of iron or steel.
I claim the decarburetting granules of cast iron by a liquid cinder
and subsequently separating the cinder by the means above described.
I also claim separating cinder from balls or masses of puddled iron by
dissolving it in fusible silicates or fluxing substances.
In my Patent No. 3050, in the year 1868, I describe a process whereby
decarburetted granules may be compressed at a high heat into moulds or
shapes.
According to my present Invention I obtain a like result by placing
granules either in a cold or heated state into the moulds, and then
placing the moulds containing the granules into a retort or furnace or
other suitable heating apparatus until the granules be heated sufficiently
high to adhere to each other. The moulds may be capable of with-
standing the heat and allowing the contents to be removed, or they may
be broken off, or be of a fusible nature that will melt off. The mass or
shape of cohering granules may then (if not of the consistence or shape
desired) be compressed, rolled, hammered, or otherwise treated. I prefer
to place the granules in a cold state in moulds or shapes made of sheet
iron, or a clay that will melt, covering them over with coke dust to
prevent oxidation, and to place them in a reverberatory furnace, and to
,bring up the heat to the welding point, after which the cohering granules
or particles may be compressed or hammered.
I claim the making blocks or forms of iron or steel from decarburetted
granules by heating the granules in moulds or shapes.
By the term granules in this Specification I mean metal reduced
to a state of division whilst fluid, whether in spherical particles or
otherwise.
My Invention further relates to the apparatus used for making cast-
iron granules for steel and iron purposes. When granulating metal an
a horizontal iron disc I have found it difficult to keep the centre from

page_text: becoming so heated as to tend towards the cast metal accumulating
at that part.
My improvement is to have the spindle of the disc hollow to allow
the ascent of water up through it. I attach to the disc another disc
at some little distance (about ths to inch above it) the points of
attachment being, by preference, at some distance from the centre.
The metal falls on the upper disc, and underneath the centre of this
disc the water passing from the upper end of the hollow spindle is
caused to impinge, and by centrifugal action is driven out between the
two discs at their circumference; the bottom of the upper disc is thus
kept wetted and is then less liable to allow metal to adhere on its upper
surface.
I claim connecting the horizontal disc used for granulating iron
with a hollow axis through which water is supplied to cool the disc.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of August,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine.