AN IMPROVED METHOD OF ELIMINATING PHOSPHORUS FROM IRON, OTHER METALS, AND THEIR ALLOYS
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Mortimer Moir, of 2, Branch Hill-side, Hampstead,
in the County of Middlesex, for an Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD
OF ELIMINATING PHOSPHORUS FROM IRON, OTHER METALS, AND THEIR ALLOYS."
A communication from abroad by Julien Deby, at present residing at Huelva,
in the Kingdom of Spain.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Mortimer Moir at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 23rd February 1880.
ROBERT MORTIMER MOIR, of No. 2, Branch Hill Side, Hampstead, in the County
of Middlesex. "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF ELIMINATING PHOSPHORUS FROM
IRON, OTHER METALS, AND THEIR ALLOYS." [A communication from abroad by
Julien Deby, at present residing at Huelva, in the Kingdom of Spain.]
This Invention refers to the elimination, partially or wholly, of phosphorus or its
combinations or compounds from iron, other metals, and their alloys through the
action upon them while in a molten state of gases which are blown through them
while held in a Bessemer convertor, blast or other furnace, receiver, or cupola.
The gases specially referred to compriso such only as have a definite reducing
action on the combinations or compounds of phosphorus in contradistinction to such
other gases as have an oxidizing action similar to atmospheric air applied in blast.
And this Invention consists in temporarily substituting for the atmospheric
blasts now in use, in order to eliminate the phosphorus from the molten metals, a
blast containing carbonic oxide, ammonical vapours, or some other reducing gas,
innnufactured specially or to be obtained from waste products of a liquid or volatile
nature, such as result from the treatment of ores, or metals, or the manufacture of
coal gas or other industries.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Robert Mortimer Moir in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 21st
August 1880.
ROBERT MORTIMER MOIR, of No. 2, Branch Hill Side, Hampstead, in the County
of Middlesex. "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF ELIMINATING PHOSPHORUS FROM
IRON, OTHER METALS, AND THEIR ALLOYS." A communication from abroad by
Julien Deby, at present residing at Huelva, in the Kingdom of Spain.
This Invention refers to the elimination, partially or wholly, of phosphorus or its
combinations or compounds from iron, other metals, and their alloys through the
action upon them, while in a molten state, of gases which are blown through them.
By this Invention iron containing phosphorus may be converted into steel in the
Bessemer converter or any other suitable vessel or furnace, and this may be done
simultaneously during the operation of dephosphorizing or subsequently to this
operation, the main object of my Invention being to enable phosphoric iron to be
used in the manufacture of steel.
My method of working the process is as follows:-
Through a mass of molten phosphorized iron I blow alternately with atmospheric
air, or previously or subsequently to it, a certain quantity of a reducing gas pro-
portionate to the contents in phosphorus of the iron under treatment, and in
preference to other gases I prefer to use bydrogen gas in the nascent state, as
obtained from the decomposition of ammonia, or from other sources, or carbonic
oxide gas, these gases to be used either alone or in conjunction.
This I do in a converter, cupola, or other suitable vessel, the shape or form of
which is of no special consequence, the gas being introduced below the surface of
the inolten metal through tuyeres or through a Bessemer bottom under a sufficient
pressure of blast.
propose obtaining the ammonia from the waste products of
gas or other works, and the carbonic oxide from the products of combustion of
blast furnaces, cupolas, boiler fires, soda furnaces, or other producers of this gas.
The whole apparatus needed for my process in addition to the ordinary Bessemer
plant or other melting furnace consists in one or more receivers or gasometors of
ordinary form for the collection of the gases, and in a blast apparatus, independent
of the air blast, for conveying the gas or gases from the receiver through the
molten metal.
It is inferred that the phosphoric acid will thus be reduced and become
separated from the metal by volatilization, either as phosphuretted hydrogen or as
phosphorus.
The blast apparatus I use is either the ordinary Bessemer plant generally
employed for the purpose, or I operate by means of injectors or blow jacks of well
known construction.
What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is, the application
of reducing gases, such as ammonia, as a source of nascent hydrogen or of carbonic
oxide gas, either separately or in conjunction, blown through iron, or other metal
or alloy in a molten state, as a means of eliminating the phosphorus contained in
this molten metal.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Mortimer Moir, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of August, in the year of our Lord One