IMPROVEMENTS IN THE REDUCTION OF METALLIC ORES AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL THEREFROM, AND IN THE WORKING AND WELDING OF SUCH STEEL, ALSO IN A COMPOUND OR FLUX TO BE USED THEREIN
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Gardner at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 6th September 1876. A communication from
abroad by Abraham Tuston Hay, of Burlington, ¿County des Moines, Iowa,
United States of America.
HENRY GARDNER, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and Company, of 166,
Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
REDUCTION OF METALLIC ORES AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL
THEREFROM, AND IN THE WORKING AND WELDING OF SUCH STEEL, ALSO IN A
COMPOUND OR FLUX TO BE USED THEREIN." A communication from abroad by
Abraham Tuston Hay, of Burlington, County des Moines, Iowa, United States of
America.
This Invention relates,-
Firstly. To the employment of a magnetic coil or helix in connection with a
cupola, or blast furnace, or other contrivance used for the reduction of ores or
purification of metals.
Secondly. To a means of facilitating the purification of iron, the product of the
ore reduced as aforesaid, and the manufacture of the same into steel, and the car-
bonizing of any particular part of a bar or mass of iron so as to combine iron on
the one side and steel on the other, or in the saine piece of metal to convert one end
into steel, the other end being iron
Thirdly. To a compound of flux to be used in reducing, purifying, or eliminating
injurious or foreign elements froin crude or cast iron for the manufacture of wrought
iron or steel, and for working or welding wrought iron and steel and for a pio-
tection to the metal in welding steel or scrap steel by the rolling process.
Referring to the first part of this Invention, viz., the reduction of ores and
purification of metals conductible wires are employed, which starting from one polo
of a battery are coiled around a furnace several times, and finally terminate at the
other pole of the battery, forming a closed circuit, and enclosing within the helix a
portion of or the entire reduction chamber, so that any substance contained therein
forms a magnetic core when a current of electricity is passed through the coils. The
entire chamber may be enclosed in one coil or helix, or there may be three or more,
separate and distinct helices. Thus three wires may start from the Z pole, the
first be made to coil around and embrace only the zone of fusion, the second may

page_text: likewise enclose and embrace only the zone of carburation, and the third similarly
embrace only the zone of reduction, the wire in each coil terminating separately at
the C pole of the battery.
Other coils still may be passed around other zones as that of heating and com-
bustion. These coils are all so arranged relatively that they may be united so as
to form one coil, or two of them may be operated in one direction, while the current
in the other or others may be reversed, or so that a portion of the chamber may
be taken from the direct influence of a coil by detaching its wire from the
poles.
There is no limit to the particular number of coils, nor to their relative arrange-
inents, nor to uniformity of direction of the currents, nor to any arrangement of
passing the coils around the outside of the furnaces, but must be understood as
claiming broadly the use of a coil in such a manner in connection with any vessel
for heating and reducing ores or minerals as to cause the substance acted upon to
form all or a part of the magnetic core, and it mattors not whether it be a crucible,
retort, open hearth cupola, or other furnace where heat is used for the purpose
reduction, melting, or purification of ores or metals, the same natural laws being
applicable in all cases. Heat promotes chemical affinity, chemical action sets free
electricity, and electricity developes magnetism, and upon this latter phenomenon-
depends in a great measure the effects produced upon metals and minerals under-
going reduction or purification
of
By the use of this magnetic appliance, reduction, fusion, or carburation, is
promoted, and metallic products (which are free from the usual impurities imparted
from coil or contained in ores or metals) are produced, including grades of carburets
of iron heretofore unknown, that are very valuable in the manufacture of wrought
iron and production of fine steel, as for instance, first by means of this magnetic
appliance use may be made of from 25 to 50 per cent. of ore with pig metal or
scrap, and. produce a uniform casting directly from the cupola; secondly, iron ore
may be mixed with pig or scrap in the proportion of one part pig to five of ore,
and ranging to one of metal and three of ore, which when poured into the open
moulds sponges up and purifies itself of all foreign matter except carbon, and a
heavy product is the result (a silver bright high carburet) that rings equal to the
best bar cast steel; thirdly, when clay and some other iron oros are used alone in
connection with a small per-centage of limestone, a light molton solution is obtained
that crystallizes into a dark brittle magnetic high carburet of mon that may be
remelted in a crucible or open hearth at a temperature below the welding heat of
iron. These two latter products heretofore unknown are very valuable when used
in connection with the manufacture of wrought on and stecl; fourthly, pig and
scrap metals rolled in flour of sulphur including free sulphur mixed with the coal
used under the influence of the above magnetic appliance in a cupola gives a
uniform soft grey iron product. Any kind of electrical apparatus for generating
electricity may be employed, as also any class of ores or combination of ores and
metals, the great novelty in this part of the Invention being the use of the coils
when made to enclose the substance to be acted upon.
Referring to the second part of the said Invention, namely, the purification of
iron, and the manufacture of steel, and the carbonizing of any particular part of a
bar or mass of iron, it has been found, first, that if there is placed in a crucible or
closed retort, one part by weight of the heavy bright carburet of iron, three parts
by weight of the dark high carburet, or in other proportions (both of which products
are new and only obtainable by the process described as the first part of this
Invention) in connection with a small per-centage of the oxide of iron and free
lime, a molten bath or solution is produced below the temperature that wrought
iron fuses that will convert any piece of iron immersed therein, when at a bright
red or white heat into steel, while any portion of the said metal not immersed
will remain iron.
Secondly. In an open hearth under a coal fire these carburet products when

page_text: exposed to the blast intensify the heat, and at the same time give to iron heated
therein steel properties.
Thirdly. A molton solution of dark carburet alone imparts to iron immersed
therein a coating of new and apparently chemically pure white iron permeating its
pores that renders it less liable to oxidize when exposed to the air.
Fourthly. When common steel and the dark carburet are brought together in
connection with iron at a temperature in a blacksmith's fire that fuses steel, the
iron will take on steel properties.
Refrring to the third part of the said Invention, namely, a flux compound to be
used in reducing cast iron or crude for the manufacture of wrought iron or steel,
and for working or welding the same composed of metallic iron, aluminium,
oxygen, and silicon, with traces of carbon, sulphur, and phosphorus, which is
produced in the manner herein-after described, fifty parts by weight of artificial
peroxide of iron, of clay, or similarly constituted ores, ten parts of silicate of
alumina, such as clay, old fire bricks, to which may be added a small per-centage
of wood ashes with thirty parts of hard coke or carbon in any other form. This
compound is subjected to the action of the furnace herein-before referred to until
thoroughly melted and combined, or the compound may be melted and combined in
any other convenient manner, or apparatus to obtain a yellow molten fluid, which
when properly cast in iron or other moulds and cooled forms a compound ready for
uso. The flux thus obtained may be applied in any ordinary manner to the
reduction and purification of crude or cast iron for the manufacture of wrought iron
and steel, and for the reduction, cleaning, and purification of copper and its com-
pounds, and most of the metals and alloys used in the arts (as well as their ores),
or to the working and welding of wrought iron and steel generally.
If the compounds are applied to the reduction of cast iron for the manufacture of
wrought iron or steel, about five per cent. of the same are used with one per cent.
of lime or limestone, both of which may be pulverized to any degree with the
"straight red short" pig iron, or other pig iron of a similar nature. These are
placed in the ordinary charcoal, bloom, forge, or other reducing furnace, and worked
in the manner well known to iron workers until it yields a metal capable of being
rolled into bars or rods suitable for the finer grades of wire tinners' rivets, and the
like
When the compound is used for welding or working iron or steel, a "pile or
fagot" of spring or plain steel is formed, and about four per cent of the compound
as a flux in a pulverized condition. The pile or fagot is heated in the ordinary
manner until it arrives at a welding heat, when the mass can be rolled or otherwise
worked into solid homogeneous bars or rods, which will be admirably adapted for
the manufacture of wire and for other purposes, in which a low grade of steel is
required.
By the employment of the improved flux, old files and other high grades of steel
can be worked or welded in the ordinary blacksmith's forge with common "brassy
coal" when contaminated with free sulphur metallic paints, and other injurious
impurities which have hitherto been impossible owing to the formation of sulphur
compounds and deleterious metallic compounds which prevent a perfect weld. This
compound will also when used with melted cast iron in the proportion of about 6
per cent. before or after pouring, will clean it perfectly and will restore old burnt
castings to tough grey iron.