IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND MELTING OF IRON, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE FOR EVAPORATING FLUIDS AND DISINFECTING OILS
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANGIER
MARCH PERKINS, of Great Coram Street, in the County of Middlesex, En-
gineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Sixteenth day of March, in the sixth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Angier
March Perkins, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Angier March Perkins, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Angier March Perkins, my exors, admors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
AND MELTING OF IRON, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE FOR EVAPORATING
FLUIDS AND DISINFECTING OILS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso that I, the said Angier March Perkins, shall cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear..

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Angier March Perkins, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention relates,-
First, to applying a blast of steam passed through a heating apparatus to
the purposes of smelting iron, stone, mine, or ore, and also to melting iron in
a cupola or other furnace;
Second, my Invention relates to the application of steam passed through
heating apparatus to the purpose of evaporating fluids, whether such heated
steam be used by being introduced into the fluids in a stream or streams, in
the manner in which air has heretofore been used, or whether such heated
steam be used by being introduced into or over the fires used for evaporation,
in order to improve combustion;
And thirdly, my Invention relates to applying a stream or streams of steam
passed through a heating apparatus, and then in contact with oils, to disinfect
the same.
And in order that my Invention may be most fully understood, I will
proceed to explain the means pursued by me.
In applying my Invention when making or melting iron, I use a blast of
highly heated steam in place of a hot or cold of blast air, as now employed, and
I have found that the quantity of steam required to raise the temperature of
the furnace to the melting point of iron is about in the proportion of one
hundred pounds of steam to one hundred pounds of coke, and that with
one hundred pounds of coke five hundred pounds of iron has been melted
in two hours in a cupola of the capacity of about two feet cube. I have also
found that a nozel three sixteenths of an inch in diameter, when the steam is
at a pressure of about sixty pounds to the square inch and afterwards heated
to a temperature of six hundred degrees Fahrenheit, is sufficient to produce the
above effect. The tuyere of such a furnace is about two inches diameter on
the inner side, diverging outward at an angle of about sixteen degrees, making
a conical tube seven inches long, six inches being the larger diameter. The
nozel is placed about nine inches from the inner openings of the tuyere. At
about this distance sufficient air is drawn into the furnace by the blast of steam
to make up the necessary quantity of oxygen not supplied by the steam. The
pillar of blast of heated steam may, however, be varied, as is the case with air
according to the furnace, and the charge thereof as heretofore when using hot
or cold blast of air; and, if persons wish it, heated steam may be used con-
joined with the use of air, thus combining heated air and highly heated steam

page_text: in the same furnace. I prefer the use of high-pressure steam, about sixty
pounds on the square inch, in the boiler. The steam boiler or boilers used to
a particular furnace I consider best to be of such dimensions as to generate as
many cubic feet of steam, of the pressure of sixty pounds to the square inch,
as will be equal in weight to the fuel necessary for the purpose of smelting
iron, stone, mine, or ore, or for manufacturing or melting iron; and it will be
proper to have a valve or slide to the steam pipo leading to the heating appa-
ratus, in order to regulate the quantity of steam passing off from the boiler.
The steam in passing from the steam boiler or boilers is to pass through a
proper heating apparatus in order to be heated to a high degree of temperature
before it passes into the blast or other furnace used in the smelting, manu-
facturing, or melting iron; and the apparatus used for so heating the steam,
which I have found best adapted, is a coil of wrought iron pipe, one inch
external diameter and five eighths of an inch internal diameter, surrounded
by a case of cast iron similar to a water tuyere iron; and I have found
about thirty feet lineal of such pipe a proper proportion for heating the above-
mentioned quantity of steam to six hundred degrees, but an apparatus similar
to any of the varieties employed in obtaining a hot blast of air may be used;
and I have found it desirable to heat the steam to upwards of six hundred
degrees of Fahrenheit, as may readily be ascertained by melting lead, as is
practised when using hot blast of air; and in like manner I heat steam when
carrying out the second and third parts of my Invention. And when a stream
or streams of heated steam are to be passed into fluids to evaporate them, or
into oils to disinfect them, I prefer to use a tubular apparatus, consisting of
numerous small tubes (and, in case where the heat of such pipes would
be injurious to the fluid, these small tubes may be surrounded by larger tubes.
made air-tight at the lower part, so as interpose a stratum of air between the
tube containing the heated steam and the fluid to be operated upon),
descending to near the bottom of the vessel containing the fluid, from one or
more main tubes placed above the fluid, so that the heated steam passing into
the main tube or tubes will descend and be divided into many small streams
by the smaller tubes, and then ascend through the fluid in like manner to
what has before been practised with streams of air; or, when desired, one or
more streams of heated steam may be introduced into or over the fires used for
evaporation, in order to improve combustion and prevent smoke; and it will be
found that in thus using a stream or streams of heated steam, combustion will
be improved and smoke prevented, and evaporation will be accelerated; and
when heated steam is introduced into or brought in contact with oils, the same
will be disinfected.

page_text: Having thus described my Invention, I would remark, that I am aware that
steam has been introduced direct from a boiler into fires and furnaces used in
the making of iron and other purposes; I do not, therefore, claim the using of
steam when the same is not passed through a heating apparatus before passing
into a furnace, and in smelting, making, or melting iron, or for the purposes
of evaporation; and I do not confine myself to any particular construction of
heating apparatus for heating the steam after it has passed from the boiler or
boilers in which it has been generated, and before it is passed into a furnace;
and although I have mentioned sixty pounds to the square inch as the
pressure, and six hundred degrees of Fahrenheit as the temperature used
by me, I do not confine myself thereto. But what I claim is,-
First, the mode of manufacturing and of melting iron by applying steam
passed through a heating apparatus ;
Secondly, I claim the application of steam passed through a heating appa-
ratus to the purposes of evaporating fluids;
And thirdly, I claim the application of steam passed through a heating
apparatus, and then in contact with oils, to disinfect them.
In witness whereof, I, the said Angier March Perkins, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-three.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of September,
in the year of our Lord 1843, the aforesaid Angier March Perkins came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Sixteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord One