IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John James Bodmer at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
7th January 1809.
I, JOHN JAMES BоDяER, of Newport, Monmouthshire, do hereby
declare tho nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in a process by which one or more balls from
puddling furnaces or other furnaces, or apparatus, or a whole charge
or part of a charge, either formed into balls or in the state of spungy
iron or steel before being balled, may be shingled, hammered, or
compressed into one bloom, or such balls or spungy iron or steel together
with iron or steel in pieces or bars may be so treated. It is a process
altogether different from the so-called "doubling;" in doubling, the
first ball is tapped or flattened before the second ball is added to it,
the first two balls together may then be so treated & a third ball may
he added to them, & so forth.

page_text: In working my new process however the whole weight or quantity
of iron or steel, or of both, which is is to be formed into a bloom is put
into a mould & is forged or compressed into a bloom. One or more
holders or receivers are charged from one or more puddling furnaces
or other apparatus & are "coached" to the mould, which may be placed &
under a hammer or press or other compressing apparatus, & their
charge or charges may be tipped or put into the mould; or the mould
itself may be conveyed to the furnace or apparatus, containing the iron
or steel, & be fitted there & taken to the hammer or other com-
pressing apparatus; or a stationary or moveable compressing apparatus 1
may be used at each furnace.
1
In cases in which it may be desirable to have different qualities of
iron or steel, or iron and steel, in the same bloom, such iron or steel
may be charged in pieces or bars at a welding heat, put into its position
in the mould, & the balled or spungy iron or steel may be added.
Pressure may then be applied by one or more hammers or by one or
more hydraulic rams, or by a combination of both, or in any other
convenient way. The mould may be provided with slits or perforations
or hollow parts for the escape of the slag. End plates in the shape of
gratings or perforated may also be used for the same purpose. When
the bloom is formed, it may be be got out of the mould in any con-
venient manner, the mould may be lifted & the bloom be made to
drop, or the mould may be swivelled horizontally, & the bloom be
pushed out; or the mould & compressing apparatus may be swivelled
together, & the bloom in that manner be pushed out. The bloom
may then be finished off or used in the usual way. Such blooms.may
be used in the manufacture of armour plates, boiler plates, rails, &
other articles, & more especially in cases where perfect weldings-are
of importance. It is a well-known fact, for instance, that iron rails as
a rule are not used out through a fair wearing off of the rolling surface
but generally by laminating. Most specifications for rails require
the use of thick top slabs, these top slabs themselves being rolled out
from piles or from blooms obtained by doubling are necessarily subject
to flaws in the welds, & thereby to lamination & to spreading out
sideways. But besides that the heat which the whole rail pile is
subjected to in the heating furnace is generally either insufficient
for the so-called No. 2 "or rough down" top slab, or it is too strong

page_text: for the puddle bars underneath the same. All these defects are
avoided by my process, & whether rails be made of one bloom.or
of two the heads of the same may in every case be made to consist
of one solid piece of iron or steel, & a class of rails may thereby be
5 manufactured which will never laminate.