IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF IRON FOR ITS PURIFICATION AND CONVERSION INTO STEEL, AND IN THE FETTLING OF PUDDLING FURNACES
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Barnett, of No. 17, Harmood Street, Chalk Farm
Road, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE TREATMENT OF IRON FOR ITS PURIFICATION AND CONVERSION INTO STEEL,
AND IN THE FETTLING OF PUDDLING FURNACES."
Sealed the 15th August 1876, and dated the 10th March 1870
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Barnett at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 10th March 1876.
JAMES BARNETT, of No. 17, Harmood Street, Chalk Farm Road, in the County of
Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF IRON FOR ITS PURIFICATION
AND CONVERSION INTO STEEL, AND IN THE FETTLING OF PUDDLING FURNACES.
My Invention relates to the preparation and application of material for the
purification of iron while it is melted for the purpose of puddling; the said
material serving also to provide fettling for the furnace in which the operation is
carried on; and also to the purification and application of material for purifying
iron and converting it into steel.
I mingle common salt with carbon, either by moistening charcoal powder with a
saturated solution of salt and drying the same by evaporation, or by moistening
sawdust with the saturated salt solution, and after drying reducing the same to the
condition of charcoal. I throw the saline carbon powder thus prepared upon the
fused metal, distributing it as far as possible equably over it, and mixing it therewith
in the process of puddling, I obtain an iron cleared from the greater part of its
impurities; and farther, the cinder formed containing the saline matter or a portion
thereof subsiding on the bed of the furnace constitutes a fettling for it, which
renders other fettling unnecessary. In first starting a furnace for this operation, I
prefer to cover the metal bed with a saturated solution of salt, which when its
water of solution is evaporated forms a cake sufficient to protect the bed, or earthy
matter may be mixed with the salt solution. Thereafter, the additional saline
deposits resulting from each puddling operation serve to strengthen and repair the
bed so formed.
For the purpose of purifying iron and converting it into steel, I subject it to the
action of a mixture of salt and carbon along with oil, which mixture I prepare as
follows:-I soak either charcoal powder or sawdust, as before described, with a
saturated solution of salt and dry the same, reducing the sawdust to the condition

page_text: of charcoal; I then form a bath of the saline charcoal powder mixed with any
oleaginous material, and into this bath I plunge red hot iron, and allow it to remain
therein till it cools, whereby it is purified and converted into steel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said James Barnett in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 8th September
1876.
JAMES BARNETT, of No. 17, Harmood Street, Chalk Farm Road, in the County of
Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF IRON FOR ITS PURIFICATION
AND CONVERSION INTO STEEL, AND IN THE FETTLING OF PUDDLING FURNACES."
My Invention relates to the preparation and application of material for the
purification of iron while it is melted for the purpose of puddling (the said material
serving also to provide fettling for the furnace in which the process is carried on)
and also to the preparation and application of a material for hardening iron and
steeling its surface.
I make a saturated solution of salt, and pour a quantity of such solution, say one
or two ordinary bucketfuls, into the puddling furnace, in which an amount of cinder
may also be deposited. I moreover saturate the purple ore used as fettling with the
above saline solution, using such purple ore in the ordinary way, as fettling in
conjunction with "tap," "pottery mine," &c. I also pour into the furnace between
each heat a bucketful of the saline solution, to set the cinder with and to further
protect the bottom plate. I further take any earthy or any carbonaceous matter,
granulated or otherwise, and saturating the same with the saline solution, as above,
I burn it down at a slow heat into a granulated form, which material I again mix
as desirable, either with the above solution of salt or with water, and I throw this
on the bottom and at the sides of puddling furnaces, both as fettling and as a
purifier of the iron made. I also saturate with the said solution any vegetable or
any earthy matter, granulated or otherwise, and throw the same into the puddling
furnace, either before charging with the pig iron or as the metal melts; the saune
material serving as fettling, and also as a purifier of iron by means of equally
distributing salt, or salt and carbon, throughout the metal while the puddling
process is in force.
For the purpose of cleansing, hardening, and steeling the surface of manufactured
iron, I take carbon and boil it down in the above saline solution until the moisture
evaporates, or I take carbon steeped in the said saline solution, and burning the
same into a granulated forin I saturate it with any oleaginous matter and form a
paste; this I spread over the iron to be acted upon, and subject it to the action of
heat until the steeling process becomes complete.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I claim,--
First. The use of salt in the manner herein described, with or without the
admixture of carbonaceous or earthy matter, for the purification of iron when it is
fused for puddling and for the fettling of puddling furnaces.
Second. The use of a mixture of salt with carbonaceous and oleaginous matter
for cleansing and steeling the surface of iron, substantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Barnett, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Sixth day of September, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-six.
JAMES BARNETT. (L.S.)