IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edwin Francis Jones, of Middlesborough-on-Tees,
in the County of York, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF IRON."
Sealed the 8th October 1870, and dated the 17th May 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edwin Francis Jones at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 17th May 1870.
I, EDWIN FRANCIS JONES, of Middlesborough-on-Tees, in the County
of York, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON," to be as follows:-
Attempts have been made to manufacture iron from raw Cleveland
ironstone in blast furnaces, but such attempts have failed and have been
abandoned, and it is the custom to calcine the Cleveland raw stone in
"clamps" or expensive kilns built specially for the purpose.
My Invention consists in entirely or partly dispensing with the ordinary
calcining process, and in using the Cleveland ironstone in the blast
furnace in its raw or natural state, either the entire charge, burthen,
or load of stone in the furnace raw, or part in a raw state and part

page_text: calcined, or mixed with other ores, as varying circumstances may
.require.
To carry out my Invention for using the raw stone wholly or in part
as named above it is necessary that the blast furnaces shall be not less
than fifty-five feet in height, so as to give space and time for the process
I have invented and discovered to be effectually accomplished, and the
result is great economy in the manufacture, increased fluidity, and
improved condition of the iron.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edwin Francis Jones in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 15th November 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWIN
FRANCIS JONES, of Middlesborough-on-Tecs, in the County of York, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-third
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Edwin Francis Jones, Her special license that I,
the said Edwin Francis Jones, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Edwin Francis Jones, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Edwin
Francis Jones, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
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 Edwin Francis Jones, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention and in what manner. the came is to be

page_text: performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement (that is to say) :-
In the manufacture of iron from Cleveland ironstone in blast furnaces
it has hitherto been the practice to calcine the stone in clamps or
expensive kilns built specially for the purpose before supplying the same
to the blast furnace, and though attempts have been made to manufacture
iron in blast furnaces by using Cleveland ironstone raw or uncalcined
such attempts have failed hitherto and have been abandoned, and not
only has it been deemed impossible to manufacture iron successfully in
blast furnaces from raw Cleveland ironstone, but it has been considered
injurious to the furnace and detrimental to the quality of the iron to
allow even a small quantity of uncalcined Cleveland ironstone to enter
a blast furnace, and special precautions have hitherto been taken to
prevent the casual entrance of such raw stone into blast furnaces. By a
series of experiments I have discovered that all or part of the entire
charge, burthen, or load of Cleveland ironstone may be supplied to the
blast furnace in its raw or uncalcined state, the preliminary preparation
of the ironstone for reduction, which has generally been done in the
clamps or kilns above mentioned before its introduction to the blast
furnace, being by my process effected in the furnace itself; but that the
proportion of the load or burthen which can be used raw or uncalcined
with the greatest economy and best result will depend mainly upon the
height and capacity of the furnace. It would be useless to attempt to
use raw Cleveland ironstone in very low furnaces, and there will be no
economic result, and I do not advise any attempt to use such raw ironstone
in blast furnaces of less than 5,5 feet in height, but above that height
it can be used with an advantage varying in degree and in proportion to
the height and capacity of the blast furnace, the best and most economic
result for any particular furnace being ascertained by experiment
beginning with low charges of raw in proportion to the calcined Cleveland
ironstone, and increasing the proportion of raw stone until the best result
is obtained..
In a blast furnace 73 feet high and having a capacity of about 10,000.
cubic feet, and with the blast at a temperature of about 1,050 degrees
Fah. from 37 to 50 per cent. of the entire burthen or charge may be
of raw and uncalcined Cleveland ironstone, the other part. of, the charge
being calcined Cleveland ironstone, and when using such charges of raw
Cleveland ironstone in such blast furnaces I find that the gases from
the furnace are almost exactly the same in nature and quantity as when

page_text: all the charge is calcined Cleveland ironstone. By using a part of the
charge of raw Cleveland ironstone greater freedom in working and a
more concentrated increased speed of reduction is attained, and the gases
from the blast furnace carry away with them much less of the dust which
tends so much to choke the hot blast stoves than when all the stone 5
supplied to the furnace is calcined, besides other advantages.
Below I give in a tabular form the average analyses of the Cleveland
ironstone to which my Invention refers in its raw and calcined state, and
also the analyses of furnace gases when all the ironstone is calcined and
when 50 per centum of it is used in a raw state.
1

page_text: It will now be seen from the above explanation that my Invention
consists in manufacturing iron in blast furnaces from Cleveland ironstone
by dispensing with the ordinary process and clamps or kilns for calcining.
such ironstone either with respect to the whole charge or burthen to be
supplied to the blast furnace or to a part of such charge or burthen, and
such raw Cleveland ironstone may be used according to my Invention
not only with calcined Cleveland ironstone but mixed with other ores as
may be required:
. I have now particularly described the nature of my Invention and the
mode of carrying it into effect, and claim as my Invention the process of
manufacturing iron from Cleveland ironstone in blast furnaces by
supplying them with raw or uncalcined Cleveland ironstone, either the
whole charge, burthen, or load in a raw state, or a part of the whole
charge in a raw state and part calcined or mixed with other ores, as
herein-before explained.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edwin Francis Jones, have hereunto
set my hand and scal, this Twelfth day of November One thousand