IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Onions, of Devon Place, Newport, in the
County of Monmouth, Engineer and Ironfounder, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Onions at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
15th June 1867.
I, JOHN ONIONS, of Devon Place, Newport, in the County of Monmouth,
Engineer and Ironfounder, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL," to be as
follows:-
My Invention consists, first, in utilizing the products of combustion, the
unconsumed gases, vapours, and part of the heat from steam engine furnaces,
applying the said products either separately or mixed with similar or other
gaseous products or vapours derived from separately prepared orother fires,
mixing the said products respective ly by causing them to pass through a
receiver so placed and arranged as to allow of its being heated sufficiently
for the production of hydrogen gas (by or from iron shavings or other
ingredients), in order that the said gases or gaseous compounds may aid iu
[Price Sd.]

page_text: From
producing a bettor quality of iron or steel or in improving the same.
the receiver the above-mentioned products, gases, and vapours (hydrogenized
or not) are passed into and through or partially through a purifier which is
divided into compartments containing dry, wet, or slacked lime, and from
thence through a regulator for regulating the temperature to the blowing
cylinder. In order to protect the working parts of the blowing cylinder from
the heat the piston and rods are made hollow so as to allow water to pass
through the same or to circulate therein.
Secondly, in combining the working of the blast furnace, refining or
remelting, and puddling furnaces. In this combination I place the three
furnaces one above the other, the blast furnace being the highest, and the
puddling furnace the lowest, with the refining or remelting furnace between
them, so as to allow the molten metal to gravitate through the whole; (the
said furnaces may however be placed level with each other or otherwise and
the metal be raised by hand or other means. The first or blast furnace into
which the products, gases, or vapours heated as before mentioned are blown,
may be of any of the usual forms. The second or refining furnace or cupola
I construct in the following manner:-
:-Upon a suitable base I form a crucible
and enclose the same above by an arch or vault, through the upper part of
which the molten metal is admitted, while the blowing engine at the same time
drives a soft blast together with the gases or volatile products driven from a
fire of wood charcoal, anthricite, plumbago, or other carbonaceous matters
commingled with potash for evolving cyanides or cyanogen gas suitable for
transforming or changing iron into steel. The metal admitted through the
top of the arch or vault falls upon a disc or wheel which is caused to rotate
with great rapidity so as to cause the metal to be thereby finely divided into
small drops, or the particles to be disseminated as the metal falls through the
gases in the chamber, thereby affording great facility for the said gases and
metal to combine, by which combination, impregnation, and action, the
quality of the metal is considerably improved, and while in the molten state is
run off at the bottom of the crucible either into shot moulds, oringots, or into
the puddling furnace. The third or puddling furnace, in which the metal is
finally treated, consists of an arched chamber in which there is a circular
crucible which is provided with a hollow trench or gutter for receiving the
molten metal from the other furnaces above described; this crucible when
circular has a rotatory motion imparted to it(it may however be formed with
segmental or straight trenches and have a reciprocating motion); the troughs
have one or more fire-hearths round them or at their sides, the flames from
which fires are caused to pass over or act upon the metal and keep it in a

page_text: molten state while the puddling operation is progressing. A chimney in
which there are suitable openings is placed in the centre, either rising from
the crown of the furnace arch or from the bottom of the furnace. In the
arch immediately over the moving troughs suitable apertures are formed for
the puddling and dividing bars to be passed through for puddling or dividing
the metal into balls or lumps. Suitable doors are provided for drawing off
and openings provided for regulating the current of air from below for
preventing the injurious effects of the heat upon the furnace or its parts.
My Invention also consists in the mixture of crude pig or scrap cast iron
with a certain quantity of wrought scrap iron, and with a certain portion of
charcoal, ammonia, potash, salt, or other chymical ingredients by machinery
properly adapted for the purpose as will be well understood. The proportions
of the various materials above mentioned will be varied according to the
quality of the metal desired to be produced as will be well understood.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Onions in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
14th December 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN ONIONS,
of Devon Place, Newport, in the County of Monmouth, Engineer and Iron-
founder, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Onions, Her special licence that I, the said John Onions,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
John Onions, my 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 Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL," upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said John Onions, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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

page_text: Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediatel
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Onions, do hereby declar
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to b
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
The Invention consists in the mixture of crude pig or scrap cast iro
with a certain quantity of wrought scrap iron and with a certain portion o
charcoal, ammonia, potash, salt, or other chymical ingredients containing one
or more of the last-named materials. The proportions of the various
materials above mentioned will be varied according to the quality of the
metal desired to be produced.
And in order that my Invention may be more fully understood and readily
carried into effect I will proceed to describe the means I prefer to employ in
carrying the same into effect.
The mode in which I prefer to proceed is as follows:-I place over the
charge of coke in a cupola or blast furnace a quantity of charcoal, varying
from about three pounds weight and upwards to the hundredweight of crude
pig or scrap cast iron or ores, according to the quality of iron desired to be
obtained; next to or on the top of the said charcoal, and under the general
charge of crude pig or scrap cast iron or ore, I place a quantity of wrought
scrap iron, varying from about four to ten per cent. of the crude pig or scrap
cast iron or ore, the proportions of wrought scrap iron being regulated
according to the quality of iron required to be produced. The cupola or
blast furnace employed may be of any of the usual constructions, and in the
manufacture of iron by the above-named means I employ a forced blast of from
about five pounds and upwards to the square inch, and I employ potash or salt
with lime as a flux. By the above-named means I also obtain iron of a quality
suitable to be employed in the manufacture of steel, in which case I employ
a larger per-centage of wrought scrap iron and charcoal than in the manu-
facture of iron for other purposes. When manufacturing steel from iron
obtained in the manner above mentioned, I prefer to pass it direct from the
blast furnace into a refining furnace through an opening in the top thereof,
from which it falls on to a disc to which a rapid rotary motion is given in any
suitable manner, whereby the metal is divided into small particles and thence
falls through cyanogen gas generated in any suitable mauner in the refining
furnace, and I prefer to run the metal direct from the refining furnace into a
puddling furnace, or it may be placed in a cold state in the puddling furnace
in which it is treated in the usual manner, and when to about a boiling

page_text: condition I add about half a pint of ammonia and about five pounds of bay
salt to a charge of about four hundredweight of metal.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Onions, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.