IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STERL
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Henry Cradock Monckton, of the
Oriental Bank Corporation, Threadneedle Street, London, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STERL."
Sealed the 25th September 1869, and dated the 19th June 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Heury Cradock
Monckton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 19th June 1869.
I, EDWARD HENRY CRADOCK MONCKTON, of the Oriental Bank
Corporation, Threadneedle Street, London, do. hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND
STEEL," to be as follows:-
1st. Iron direct from the smelting furnace or fused pig iron is to be
run into any suitable converter vessel or mould, fixed or moveable, and
superheated steam is then injected on or into the body of melted metal
till the desired amount of decarbonisation is effected.
2nd. In certain cases simultaneously with the above process in order
to remove excess of silica and phosphorous a mixture of charcoal with
one or more nitrates, such as those of potash, soda, or lime, together

page_text: with the addition of one or more chlorides, such as those of soda, potash,
or lime, with or without a further mixture of common carbonate of soda
or potash, or lime, or of caustic soda, potash, or lime, may be placed in
the converting vessel or be thrown on the melted mass.
3rd. The conversion may be made in a reverberatory or in a puddling
furnace where extra heat is required.
4th. Purified coal gas with or without an admixture of superheated
steam or air may also be forced on or into the melted metal with or
without the addition of the above-named salts.
5th. Superheated steam combined with superheated air may be in-
jected on or into the melted metal with or without the addition of the
above-named salts.
6th. The converting vessel may be so formed as to give a desired
shape to the converted iron or steel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edward Henry Cradock Monckton in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 4th November 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
HENRY CRADOCK MONCKTON, of the Oriental Bank Corporation, Thread-
needle Street, London, send greeting.
.WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of June, 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 Edward Henry Cradock Monckton,
Her special licence that I, the said Edward Henry Cradock Monckton,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Edward Henry Cradock Monckton, 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," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the

page_text: said Edward Henry Cradock Monckton, 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 Edward Henry Cradock Monckton,
do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:―
I now proceed to point out in detail the various parts of my Invention.
In order to procure iron direct from the smelting furnace in its state of
greatest purity, and also in a condition best suited for conversion into
cast steel, I construct my smelting furnaces in a manner totally different
from those hitherto made. I place fire-places outside a furnace (some-
what on the plan of a potter's furnace or of a brick kiln without special
regard as to shape) with flues through which the flame passes into the
interior; by this arrangement the ash remains outside and the flames and
gas alone passes within. Into each of these fire-places a steam air blast
controlled and regulated by proper taps or other suitable means is intro-
duced, which keeps up the heat to any desired intensity and forces the
flame into the furnace in a most concentrated form. As in all matters.
connected with heat the blow pipe principle is the most perfect, the heat
being thereby condensed into one determinate point, so by this process
the object of the arrangement is to obtain as much as possible a con-
centration of the flame into one point in the interior of the furnace, this
concentration being of the utmost importance to insure success. To
effect this a double blast may be used, the one playing on the fuel the
other on the flame after the manner of a blow pipe, or should it be pre-
ferred a single blast may be used. It is important to observe that though
the passing of a reverberating flame into the furnace produces heat, it
would by no means produce the same effect as the heat from the con-
centrated points of blow pipe flames; it must be borne in mind moreover
that in this flame there are two points widely differing from each other,
the oxydizing part and the reducing part, the latter of which only must
here be sought, so that the ore to be reduced shall be exposed directly to
the concentrated flame impinging on it on all sides. It is impossible to

page_text: attain to this great heat in ordinary furnaces on account of the inter-
mixture and subdivision of the blast and with it the flame among the
pieces of ore, lime, and fuel, which prevents any chance of concentra-
tion. The iron contained in the ore from the latter not being in contact
with the fuel is less likely to partake of its volatile impurities, which
can hardly be avoided where it is closely packed, stratum super stratum,
with it as in ordinary blast furnaces in which these volatile impurities as
they rise from below are continually still further impregnating the
superincumbent heated mass with their vapours, and thus always super-
adding foul matter which did not originally exist in the ore or iron,
and which has therefore subsequently to
be extracted. By
using furnaces of this construction small coal and even coal of an
inferior quality may also be used, because, though impure, the body
remains outside while the volatile parts are driven off; again, by
enlarging the fire-places wood may be used without its conversion
into charcoal. The flame having done its work is now by preference
to be passed into raised chambers or into pits containing crude ore, which
will thus be roasted and have any volatile impurities driven off, and
at the same time may be rendered a condenser of heat, through which
the steam and air constituting the blast may be made to pass prior to
entering the fire-places and furnace. The spent gases after having
passed through the furnace and the ore chambers, if it be desired
to have them so utilised, are to be conducted into chambers containing
various chemical absorbents, dry or moist, such as alkalies or acidulated
water, &c., so as to leave behind them, prior to their final exit by the
vent or chimney, more or less of the products of combustion, such as
sulphur, arsenic, nitrogen, ammonia, &c. A jet of steam is made to play
into the chimney or vent, in order both to aid the flow of the spent gas
over and into the chemicals (which latter may be kept stirred) and also
to regulate in combination with the steam air blast, the length of flame
playing into the furnace, whether absorbent chemicals are used or not.
I will now describe some methods which it may in certain
cases be found convenient to use for preparing the ores prior to
smelting them. Iron ore being for the most part either argillaceous
or else combined with lime, and alumina or clay being known to flux
more easily in combination with lime, where these two sorts of ore
are readily procurable it is customary to flux them together; but as
they are in many instances not to be had together I proceed in the
one case to use clay as a flux for the lime ores, and hydrated lime as a

page_text: flux for the clay ones. Thus the ore being coarsely crushed, if it
contains lime clay is added with some small coke, coal, or charcoal,
and if it contains clay hydrated lime is mixed in the same manner;
the balls are then dried and are ready for smelting. Ores vary so much
that it is not possible to state the exact proportions of either clay in
the one case or of lime in the other to be used; a little practice with the
ores most commonly used in a locality will soon give the proportion
that fluxes most readily. In some cases I make an addition of other
fluxing materials, such as the slag from smelting furnaces and also
alkaline nitrates, chlorides, and carbonates with pulverized coal, coke,
or charcoal; the quantities to be used are necessarily small, and depend
on the nature of the ore and its component parts. The iron having
thus undergone its previous preparation, being fused, and the scoria
run off, may then and there be at once converted into steel by a
proper regulation and appliance of the steam blast driven on or into
the melted metal, this blast being communicated to it either through
the flues of the fire-places, the fires being lowered, or by separate
channels, proper openings being arranged for taking samples and for
viewing the interior; or, if preferred, the fused iron may be run into
a separate converting chamber always kept ready heated by the waste
heat from the furnace passing through it (prior to going to roast
the ore, &c.), and into which the steam, air blast, hot or cold, being
admitted is impinged on or into the metal. In some cases I prefer
placing a mixture of alkaline carbonates, nitrates, and chlorides with
charcoal, coal, or coke in the bottom of the converting furnace. I use
ilmenite as a good material for forming these bottoms. I also add the
best cast iron pounded in some cases to the above mixture of chemicals
in order to regulate the action of the flux and make it more uniform.
Simultaneously with the above processes of smelting the iron ores or in
the conversion of cast iron into steel I apply the electric current. The
ore called ironsand that is imported from New Zealand, America,
Jamacia, and elsewhere reduced by these processes forms steel at once.
Iron run into moulds may also be therein converted into steel, and be
subjected to the electric current, by which it will be rendered homogene-
ous, and the moulds may also be made movable, so that the metal while
hot may be subjected to rolling or hammering. The steam blast is gene-
rated by a high pressure boiler with a superheater attached, and the
air drawn in as a part of the blast is brought through flues after taking
up any waste heat either from the roasted ore or from any other source.

page_text: In some cases gas from coal, and in others the vapours rising from heated
oils and hydrocarbons, with or without vapour rising from heated acids,
are driven and impinged by the steam blast on and into the fused iron,
and heat is also applied in some cases by the steam air blast directed
on the flame of methylated spirits or alcohol. Though some of these
materials may appear costly yet the quantities used are small compara-
tively with the effect produced, and it is a mere matter of calculation
whether the product sought will pay or not for their use; thus coarse
steel suited for rails, armour plates, and cannon would probably not be
considered to require them, whereas fine cast steel would pay well if
made by such a rapid means. By injecting steam into fused carburet of
iron decomposition takes place, and the hydrogen yields fuel while the
oxygen combines with the carbon. By injecting air by means of steam
the oxygen from both air and steam combines with the carbon, while the
nitrogen from the air combines with the nascent hydrogen of the steam
and forms ammonia, especially when subjected to the electric current;
this, together with nitrogen or hydrogen uncombined and with carbonic
acid or carbonic oxide, &c., pass over into the chemical chambers, in
which all that is valuable is retained while the rest passes away. It is
thus hoped that these apparently refuse products will go far to reduce
the cost of iron smelting and steel making; thus if sulphate of ammonia
were largely produced on the one hand and nitrate of potash on the
other, no improbable results, the iron would would become a secondary
product really of less value per ton.
As I deem electricity a most important element or ingredient I will
describe my method of forming cheap batteries. A long cistern is
formed with brick work in the ground, and portioned off into as many
cells as are required with brick walls; these are then plastered and
pitched over; a sulphide, as of iron, is then powdered, and moistened,
and placed on one side of a cell between it and a wall of powdered and
moistened gas carbon or hard coke packed between two canvas frames,
the canvas being stretched on wooden frames fitting across the cell or
else packed between frames of fine wickerwork, which carbon then acts
both as porous cell and electrode; nitric or other suitable acid is then
poured into the other part of the cell; thus both electrodes are of carbon,
or else the moistened carbon powder is packed along one side of the cell
within a wicker or canvas frame, and the remainder of the cell is filled

page_text: with the powdered sulphide; the acid is then supplied from a vessel
outside furnished with a tap and tubes, which being inserted into the
carbon wall at various depths keep it always supplied with liquid, and
thus cause it to perform the double function of porous cell and electrode,
the carbon electrode on the other side being inserted into the sulphide
or into pieces of carbon intermingled with it, which thus causes a more
extended surface. The spent and waste acids after having been used
for dipping and otherwise now let run to waste could be easily brought
into use for this purpose. Any waste heat could be further brought into
use by heating thermo-electric piles, and any superfluous steam might
be economised by being used to excite an hydro-electric machine. By
the battery, however, first mentioned a very great amount of electricity
exceedingly constant and lasting over many days can be obtained, and
the products of the battery when exhausted would, if nitric acid was
used, yield sulphur, sulphuric acid, and nitrate of iron, which latter
would on distillation yield back its acid, which could be used over again.
Condensers of electricity may also be used. By a judicious appliance of
great battery power the use of proper mixture of ores with the chemicals
above described, and the application of the concentrated flame on the
blow pipe principle, a pure result ought to be at once obtained without
any other processes, and the iron should be fit for further treatment
without puddling. The rapidity with which good results can be
attained with even dear materials is often of far greater commercial
value than a cheaper crude produce which loses bulk at each subsequent
manipulation, and then often yields a very inferior result. In order to
produce a more intense heat the steam blast may be placed within a
tube in connection with an apparatus for producing on a large scale
dialysis of the air, by which means the oxygen with a little of the
nitrogen is drawn into the interior of the apparatus and passes on with
the steam, while part of the nitrogen remains outside in the atmosphere.
For this purpose I use coarsely prepared vulcanized india-rubber bags
supported from within to prevent collapse with shavings; or else I
prepare chambers composed of a thin porous material, such as unglazed
tiles cemented together of an extent sufficient to admit the rapid
filtration of the oxygen to the exclusion more or less of the nitrogen.
I use coke by preference that has been purified during the process of its
manufacture by being subjected to the electric current.
I do not confine myself in carrying out the above processes to any
particular form of construction, nor to any special methods of applying

page_text: the materials, and I claim, the application of the novel combinations as
detailed above of many well-known processes to produce improvements
in the manufacture of iron and steel.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Henry Cradock Monckton,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Second day of October,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine.
EDWARD HENRY CRADOCK MONCKTON. (L.S.)