AN IMPROVED METHOD OD MARINA Day AND AD CARDURIZING IRON
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph John William Watson, of Old Kent
Road, in the County of Surrey, Doctor of Philosophy, and
William Prosser, of Adam Street, Adelphi, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD
OD MARINA Day AND AD CARDURIZING IRON "
.
.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Jolin
William Watson and William Prosser at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 1st January
1853.
I, JOSEPH JOHN WILLIAM WATSON and WILLIAM PROSSER, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF
MANUFACTURING STEEL AND OF CARBURIZING IRON " to be as follows'—
1. The use of electricity in producing carburisation in soft iron to
form steel and carburized iron. The electric current to be applied to

page_text: a mass of molten iron in the presence of or in mixture with charcoal
or any other form of carbon or carbonaceous matter in an insulated
vessel composed of any suitable non-conducting material, and con-
structed in any suitable form.
2nd. The use of an electric current to-form, from soft iron, steel and
carburized iron by applying the current to bars of iron imbedded in
charcoal or other carbinaceous matter in the ordinary converting
troughs, and disposed as in the manner ordinarily practised in steel
manufactories.
3rd. The making of the converting troughs non-conductors of elec-
tricity by any suitable mode of insulation.
4th. The application of an electric current to the production of steel
and carburized iron by applying the current to a suitably constructed
vessel of a good conducting nature, and well insulated, containing a
mass of iron, molten or-otherwise.-
5th. The use of graphite or any other form of plumbago and platina
as electrodes for conducting the current of electricity into an apparatus
for making steel.
6th. The use of the waste sulphate of manganese from the chloride
of lime stills with carbonaceous matter and lime to form steel in a
suitable vessel, either with or without the application of an electric
current..
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Joseph John William Watson and William
Prosser in the Great Seal Patent Office, on the 27th June 1853:
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we,
JOSEPH JOHN WILLIAM WATSON, of Old Kent Road, in the County of
Surrey, Doctor of Philosophy, and WILLIAM PROSSER, of Adam Street,
Adelphi, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of January, in the year
.

page_text: of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the six-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said Joseph John William Watson and William
Prosser, Her special licence that we, the said Joseph John William
Watson and William Prosser, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Joseph John William Watson
and William Prosser, our 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 Inven-
tion for "AN IMPROVED METEOD OF MANUFACTURING STEEL AND OF CARBU-
RIZING IRON," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
Joseph John William Watson and William Prosser, or one of us, by
an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the
hand and seal of one of us, 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 we, the said Joseph John William Watson
and William Prosser, do hereby declare the nature of the said "Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement, thereof
(that is to say):
Our Invention of an improved method of manufacturing steel and
of carburizing iron consists, first, in the use of electricity in producing
carburisation in soft iron to form steel and carburized. iron; and,
second, in using the sulphate of manganese (preferably the waste
sulphate from the chloride of lime stills) with carbonaceous matter
and lime to form steel, either with or without the use of an electric
current.
די

page_text: .
cupola we obtain by the usual means a mass of molten cast iron; to
this we then add carbonaceous matter of any kind in such excess as to
form with the metal the compound called carburet of iron by chemists;
to the mass thus obtained introduce two poles of carbon in the form
of graphite as obtained from the lining of the clay gas retorts. The
poles should be of sufficient length to suit the construction of the
furnace, one end to be in contact with the molten metal, and the other
attached to the terminal wires of a powerful galvanic battery. In the
construction of the furnace particular regard must be had to its being
built of materials which are good insulators of electricity. Welsh
lumps and fire bricks, united by good fire clay, and devoid of the intro-
duction or use of any oxide of a metal easily reducible at a high tempe-
rature, are the materials which we mostly prefer. We do not begin to
pass the current until the cast iron has been in contact with the carbo-
naceous matter about two hours. The action of the current is to drive
off a portion of the carbon combined with the cast iron, and to reduce
the hyper-carburet of iron to a carburet of iron containing 1.5 to 1 per
cent. of carbon, or, in other words, to a steel-of the composition and
properties of shear steel, which has been equalized in its texture and
composition by repeated tiltings. Moreover, the current has a distinct
action in driving off and removing the sulphur and phosphorus with
which the metal after its reduction from the orc is ordinarily contami-
nated, and by which when steeled it becomes injuriously for many pur-
poses brittle and hard. Secondly, we insulate by means of non-
conducting substances, such as fire clay and fire lumps, the ordinary
converting troughs for making bar iron into steel, and then pass an
electric current through the whole number of bars in contact with the
carbon or charcoal by uniting their separate ends by stout copper wire
of not less than half an inch in diameter clamped on to the ends of the
bars, which should be permitted to project through the end stones of
the cementing troughs about six inches. By passing an electric
current thus through the bars the operation of steeling is much
hastened, since bars which by the ordinary process of cementation
require from six to eight days to be made into shear steel may by the

page_text: passage of the current be steeled in four or five days. The action of
the current, however, has a perfectly novel effect, inasmuch as it
equalizes the steeling to an extent so as to prevent the formation of the
numerous blisters which are ordinarily formed on the cemented bars
from the exhalation of gaseous products generated and evolved from
within the substance of the inetal. Thirdly, we carburize iron by
making the carbonaceous matter in connection with the metal a con-
ductor of electricity by placing poles, either of graphite or platina, into
the cementing substance, such as charcoal, the current then passes
equably through the mass. By adopting this mode of carburizing, a
steel of moderate hardness is produced in about two days from the
commencement of the cementing process. This steel is highly useful
for the manufacture of saws and springs. By either of the foregoing
modes of using an electric current common English bar iron may be as
readily converted into steel as bars made of the finest Swedish iron.
In the foregoing processes we also prefer a temperature in the
cementing troughs of about 100° of Wedgewood's pyrometer for the
whole time that the carburizing influence is being excrted.
In our mode of converting iron into steel by the use of the waste-
sulphate of manganese (resulting from the chlorine stills in the manu-
facture of chloride of line) with carbonaceous natter and lime we
adopt the following process: we employ the shearings, clippings of
sheet iron, the broken pieces and fragments of bar iron, and the turnings
and filings of cast iron, as the description of metal to be operated on ;
for every twenty-five pounds of iron we use one hundred of charcoal,
and eight pounds of sulphate of manganese, and nine pounds of lime.
The charcoal, lime, and sulphate of manganese we mix intimately, and
then add in the proportions above described to the metal in quantities
sufficient to be contained and operated on in the ordinary steel pots.
The use of the lime is to form a base for the sulphuric acid from the
sulphate of manganese to unite itself to. The sulphate of lime so
formed floats at the top of the pot, and forms a slag which protects the
carburetted metal below from suffering oxydation. If a mass of such
iron clippings and the materials above specified be fused together in a

page_text: •
:
suitable furnace, and an electric current be passed through the mass in
the manner herein-before described for manufacturing steel from cast
iron, then all the earthy and other impurities of the iron, such as the
aluminum and silica, unite in the calcareous slag, which floats above the
metal, while the arsenic, phosphorus, and sulphur compounds are
volatilized and driven off.
-The use of manganese in the preparation of steel confers, as is well
known, the property of welding to soft iron.
In relation to the herein-before specified invention we claim,-
First, the use of electricity in producing carburisation in soft iron to
form steel and carburized iron.
Second, the application of an electric. current to a molten mass of
cast iron in the presence of carbonaceous matter in the manner and
for the purposes herein-before described.
..
Third, the use of an electric current to form steel by applying the
current to bars of soft iron (imbedded in charcoal or other carbonaceous
matter in the ordinary converting "troughs, and disposed as in the
manner ordinarily practised in-steel manufactories) in the manner and
for the purposes herein-before described:..
Fourth, the making of the converting or cementing troughs non-
conductors of electricity in the manner herein-before described.
Fifth, the application of an electric current to the production of
steel and-carburized iron by applying the current to the charcoal or
carbonaceous matter in which the bars to be steeled are embeded,
in the manner and for the purposes herein-before described.
Sixth, the application of an electric current to the production of steel
and carburized, iron by applying the current to a suitably constructed
vessel or furnace of good conducting power, and well insulated, con-
taining a mass of melted cast iron.
.
.:
.
Seventh, the use of graphite or any other form of carbon as elec-
trodes for conducting the current of electricity.in the manufacture of
steel in the processes herein-before described..
Eighth, the use of sulphate of manganese with carbonaceous matter
and lime to form steel and carburized iron, either with or with

page_text: out the application of an electric current, in the manner and for the
purposes herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph John William Watson,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day
of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-three.
Witness,
JAMES MURDOCH.
JOSEPH J. W. WATSON. (L.S.)