CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jean Pierre Chambeyron, of No. 10, Rue de la
Fidélité, Paris, in the Empire of France, Gentleman, for the Invention
of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL"
of 46
Certain ImprovEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL"
Sealed the 13th January 1865, and dated the 27th July 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jean Pierre Chambeyron,
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
27th July 1864.
I, JEAN PIERRE CHAMBEYRON, of No. 10, Rue de la Fidélité, Paris, in the
Empire of France, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL," to be as
follows, that is to say :-
The Invention consists in the employment for the manufacture of steel of
carburetted azotic gases, obtained from the distillation of certain animal sub-
stances, such as the waste of wool and silk, old leather, horse, and other
animal hair, horn, blood, dried flesh, bones, and others analagous substances,
taking care to avoid animal substances containing phosphates. These sub-
stances are first dried in a suitable drying chamber to expel therefrom the damp-
ness they contain, and are afterwards divided and mixed by mechanical means,
they are then placed in retorts at the same time as the iron to be cemented,

page_text: and are distilled directly after having been mixed with treacle to make them
adhere to the metal.
The gases
first formed which contain water vapour are allowed to escape;
these gases are lighted and produce a cracking sound until aqueous vapours
are exhausted. I then stop the escape of gas and the cementation commences.
The substances serving to cement are added in excess to obtain a maximum
pressure, and this being obtained the gases are put in continuous circulation by
means of an air pump, which, when set to work, draws in the gases at one end
and forces them out at the other into collecting pipes and thence into the
retorts. By means of this circulation and continuous pressure the gases will
be forced to penetrate into the interior of the iron and will accelerate the
cementing process. When there is an excess of pressure in the chamber which
will be indicated by a steam guage, a safety valve will allow the escape of the
gas into a pipe adapted to a cylinder surrounding the valve, and thence into
the gasometer for containing it in reserve. If there should be too little pres-
sure in the retorts, the gas in reserve will be made to return from the gasometer
by the pump, the communication of which with the suction pipe connected with
the cementation chambers has been intercepted, and the normal pressure being
obtained the circulation of the gas will be restored. To prevent the loss of
gas the safety valve is enclosed in 'a cylinder shut hermetically and having no
other opening than that of the pipe corresponding with the gasometer.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Jean Pierre Chambeyron in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 26th January 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JEAN PIERRE
CHAMBEYRON, of No. 10, Rue de la Fidélité, Paris, in the Empire of France,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth year of
Iler reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Jean Pierre Chambeyron, Her special license that I, the said
Jean Pierre Chambeyron, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Jean Pierre Chambeyron, my executors, administrators,
or 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

page_text: 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 Inven
tion for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Jean Pierre Chambeyron,
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, or under the band and seal of one of them, 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 Jean Pierre Chambeyron, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereto annexed, and to the
figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say :-
. All the processes hitherto employed to manufacture steel by cementing ir
in the furnaces constructed for that purpose though successful within certai
limits are nevertheless liable to many defects.
D
I have by my new process obviated the whole of the known deficiencies in th
conversion of iron into steel, and which I manufacture with very great econom
and rapidity. Until now the means employed for cementing iron have all in."
view to place the iron in a medium rich with carbon and azote at a high tem-
perature. Under these two necessary conditions the penetration of the gases
into the red-hot iron takes place, and the saturation is slowly obtained with
the ordinary pressure from the surface to the centre of the metal.
:
My process consists in producing immediately the necessary azoto-carburetted
gases for the cementation, and to place them in contact with iron at a high
temperature under very powerful pressure. By these means, I produce steel
of a quality far superior to that hitherto manufactured.
Numerous experiments have convinced me that the best mode of producing,
the necessary gases for cementing consists in distilling a mixture of animal or
proteic substances, such as dessicated blood, wool, or silk wastes, old leather,
horse hair, horn, and other similar matters. It is to be observed that all
substances of an animal origin, and containing a large quantity of carbon and
azote, can be employed to produce cementing gases, provided they do not con-
tain any phosphor, by which the product of the cementation would be seriously
affected. The use of gases for cementing affords also a vast saying in the
manufacture of steel on account of the facility of collecting for fresh operations
gases already employed, if, by some means, the cementing properties they have

page_text: lost by previous operations, are regenerated. Under the ordinary atmospheric
pressure the cementing process is very slow and imperfect especially as it is
now performed.
My improvements consist, therefore, in obtaining by the gases the complete
saturation of iron in the most rapid manner; and, consequently, in constructing
furnaces capable of containing the cementing gases under the pressure of
several atmospheres; and to give to the said 'gases a movement causing them
to penetrate rapidly into the pores of the iron, so as to transform it into first-
rate steel; and, lastly, in renovating by means of successive saturation exhausted
gases, and rendering them available for fresh operations.
I will now describe the apparatus and the means by which I obtain the
herein-before stated results.
The apparatus is firstly composed of the heat generator, secondly, of two
stories of retorts for distilling and cementing placed one over the other. Each
story contains six retorts which are made with fire-proof clay, their internal
section is about two feet in width, by one foot eight inches in height. The
thickness of their sides is two and three-quarter inches. They are separated
horizontally and vertically by small galleries, five and three-quarter inches wide,
serving for the passage and distribution of the heat; some refractory earth stays
are set in these galleries at a short distance one from the other to support the
external sides of the retorts, and have about two and a half inches by three
inches and seven-eighths. The apparatus is surrounded on three of its sides
that is to say, the two lateral, front, and top, by a wall of about three feet
eight inches thick; a part of it made with refractory bricks is about one foot
three inches in thickness, and the external part is of ordinary bricks and two
feet five inches thick. The above described apparatus is entirely different in
its mode of construction to all others of the same kind. It is usual in the
construction of every kind of apparatus to avoid placing the joints of two
successive courses of bricks within the same vertical plane; but as I have to
construct an apparatus made to resist, not only the ordinary pressure, but that
of several atmospheres at a very bigh degree of heat, I construct the furnace
with the courses of bricks having the parallel joints set one over the other,
and lay them without any mortar.
The high temperature of the first operation will produce a contraction,
which will be counterbalanced by my mode of construction. It is necessary,
therefore, that the whole should be of refractory materials, "well set without
mortar on a layer of pulverulent refractory earth, metallic retorts could not bear
the pressure and the temperature herein-before stated united with the action of
the cementing gases. The furnace constructed as herein stated would not be

page_text: of a sufficient solidity, and capable of overpowering at the same time the heat
and pressure. The disunited materials would not resist the ordinary cases;
by which the furnaces are deteriorated if they were not bound in a rigid
manner by braces set internally. This bearing consists of a certain number of
T-shaped irons envelopping the brickwork in every way, and acting one over
the other by means of adjusting screws set at the junction of the vertical and
horizontal bars. The lower ends of the vertical bars are fastened by wedges
inserted between them, and cast-iron pieces bearing on a masonry wall which
they serve to support. The back part of the apparatus is provided with seven-
inch diameter pipe passing above the upper story of the retorts on their
fore part; the retorts of the upper story are in communication with those of
the lower ones, by means of small tubes having a diameter similar to that
herein-before described: For effecting the circulation of the azoto-carburetted
gases producing the cementation, I make use of a pump which sucks and
forces the gases within the retorts by means of a steam engine or any other
motive power. After their action on the iron the gases are collected in a gaso-
meter about nineteen feet in diameter, and constructed similarly to those
employed in gas works; however, as the contact of the water with the gases
would produce a combination by which the cementing power of the gases
would be lessened, it is necessary to pour on the surface of the water contained
in the gasometer a layer of oil by which the gases will be isolated from all
oxydating influences.
1
'
In order that my Invention may be better understood, I will now de-
scribe the best manner to put it into execution, reference being bad to the
annexed Drawing, in which the several letters of reference in the Figures
indicate parts which are similar.
Figure 1, represents the plan and two horizontal sections one passing through
the center of the retorts of the lower story, and the other through the center
of the stays separating the two stories; Figure 2 is a vertical section per-
pendicular to the direction of the retorts, and showing how the braces are set;
Figure 3 is an elevation of the furnace and retorts; Figure 4 is another
elevation showing the courses of the brickwork; Figure 5 is a lateral elevation
of the furnace; Figure 6 is a longitudinal section through the middle of the
retorts, and a second section passing through the space separating the retorts;
Figure 7 shows the working of the gases during the cementation; Figure 8
represents the gearing of the safety valve.
'
In these Figures a, a, represent the chambers for the distilling and cement-
ing; b, b, the galleries separating horizontally and vertically the retorts and

page_text: through which the heat passes; c, c, refractory earth stays to strengthen the
sides of the retorts; d, d, iron braces enveloping in every way the brickwork;
f.f, adjusting screws, set at the junction of the horizontal and vertical bars;
6, e, wedges inserted at the junction of the feet of the braces, and of the cast-
iron pieces; 9, 9, tubes placed over the upper story of the retorts; n, n, small
tubes for the communications between the retorts; o, safety valve.
The process of cementation is conducted as follows:-I begin to prepare the
gases which are obtained by the dry distillation of the animal or proteic sub-
stances, such as the wastes of wool and silk, old leather, horsehair, horns,
dessicated blood and flock, and other similar substances, provided they do not
contain any phosphates. The water contained in these substances. is at first
expelled, and for that purpose they are calcined in a dessicating stove, mixed
up together, mechanically divided, and finally set in the retorts at the same
time as the iron to be cemented. They are then distilled, having previously re-
ceived a mixture of molasses, which causes them to adhere on the metal.
The first gases formed will be allowed to escape if they contain any water
steam, produced either from the molasses or from the incomplete dessication
of the proteic substances. These first gases will be lighted, and will cause
some crackling until the watery vapours are fully consumed. Then their escape
will be stopped and the cementation will begin. The cementing substances
must be put in excess in order to obtain the utmost pressure.
The pump
will be thus set in motion, and on one side sucks and on the other side forces
the gases into the collecting tubes and thence into the retorts, by this operation
they will circulate without intermixture. This non-interrupted circulation and
the permanent pressure will force in the gases, and accelerate the cementation.
If an excess of pressure exists in the retorts, and which the steam gauges will
indicate, the safety valve will allow the eduction of the gases, which will pass
into a conduit in connection with the cylinder enveloping the valve, and hence
they will reach the gasometer into which they are to be collected. A similar
collection of the gases will take place after the cementation; their preservation
being one of the main advantages of my Invention. When on the con-
trary a real depression takes place in the retorts, the gases kept in reserve
in the gasometer will be forced in the retorts by the forcing pump through the
sucking pipe in communication with the cementing retorts. When the normal
pressure is recovered, the non-intermittent circulation of the gases will begin
again. To prevent the escape of gases, the safety valve is surrounded by ap
air-tight cylinder, having no other orifice but that of a pipe corresponding to
the gasometer.

page_text: According to my process, the operation will be much quicker and more per-.
fect than according to the actual process when either a complete or a partial
cementation is required. The gases having been used for one operation will
have been necessarily lessened of a certain amount of their cementing pro-
perties; I re-establish all their primitive richness by distilling into them
some substances full of azote and carbon, such as the essential oils, deteriorated
flour containing azoto-carburetted substances, and I distil them in a special
apparatus. The gases thus strengthened are sent into the gasometer, and
are intimately combined with those to which they bring a new force.
The cementing apparatus represented in the Drawing is constructed in
forms and proportions which may vary according to the dimensions and forms
of the articles to be cemented. The use of refractory materials will insure its
lasting, and by employing a convenient system of. furnace it will not be sub-
jected to a rapid deterioration. It will be for some time more advantageous
to operate separately the cementing gases, in those cases the distilling appa-
ratus will be constructed as herein-before described, but the gasometer will be
replaced by a cylinder, in direct communication with the distilling apparatus.
The gases will be sent by means of a machine into the cementing retorts, and
they will be withdrawn from them when necessary. This cylinder will have
the main advantage in the gasometre of preventing the condensation on account
of presenting much less surface. When the distillation takes place in a sepa-
rate apparatus the renovation of the gases must take place in it. When a
cylinder instead of a gasometer is employed, no water being required, the
combinations which may arise from the contact of the gases with the sides of
the upper part of the gasometer are avoided.
And having now described my Invention, and the best mode of putting the
same into execution, I would have it understood that I do not confine myself
to the exact details of forms, combinations, dimensions, or proportions described,
so long as the principle thereof is carried out, but what I claim is,-
Firstly, the cementation of iron in a current of gas at a high temperature
and with a very strong pressure.
Secondly, the production of cementing gases by means of a direct mixture
of proteic substances with iron, or separately within special apparatuses, as
herein-before described.
Thirdly, the renovating of exhausted gases by the distilling of certain sub-
stances either in special apparatus or in the cementing retorts, as herein-before
described.
Fourthly, the construction of cementing furnaces capable of resisting the

page_text: pressure and the temperature as herein-before described, reference being had
to the Drawing..
Fifthly, the mode of circulating and preserving the cementing gases as
herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jean Pierre Chambeyron, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
JN. PRE CHAMBEYRON. (L.S.)
Witness,
CH. MICHEL,
Agent Consulaire de S.M. Britannique,
à la Rochelle,
28, Jer 1865.