IM- PROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CASTING IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Haseltine, of the "International Patent
Office," Southampton Buildings, London, for the Invention of " IM-
PROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CASTING IRON AND STEEL." A com-
munication from abroad by Alexander Lyman Holley, of Brooklyn,
New York, United States of America.
Sealed the 7th July 1871, and dated the 11th January 1871.
5
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said George Haseltine at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 11th January 1871, pursuant to the 9th Section
of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO. ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE'
HASELTINE, of the "International Patent Office," Southampton
Buildings, London, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR CASTING IRON AND STEEL," and have petitioned Her

page_text: Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemu
declaration that it has been communicated to me from abroad by
Alexander Lyman Holley, of Brooklyn, New York, United States of
America.
'NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Haseltine, do hereby
declare that the following Complete Specification under my hand and
seal, fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings forming
a part of this Specification:-
Iron and steel ingots and castings have sometimes heretofore been
cast by arranging the moulds on a "distributing bottom" consisting
of an iron flask lined with loam and provided with passages through
which the iron or steel poured into the top of one mould would be
conducted to the bottoms of the other moulds, and would rise in them
all, thus filling them all at one operation. This operation is called
bottom casting, and to this my Invention refers. The said iron flasks
have usually heretofore been lined with loam, or moulded by inserting
a pattern on a follow-board' into the top of the flask, ramming the
loam against the pattern from the bottom of the flask, placing a bottom
plate over the loam thus rammed, withdrawing the follow-board and
pattern, and covering at proper points the passages thus moulded by the
pattern with cores. Fire-bricks are sometimes used for these cores. This
operation will be readily understood by moulders.
I find it more convenient and economical in practice to make the
flask solid, that is to say, without the removeable bottom plate, and to
mould it from the top by pressing the patterns into plastic loam or
suitable moulding material placed in the flask.
This first part of my Invention is illustrated by Figures 1 to 11
inclusive. Figure 1 is a top view of a cast-iron flask intended to
receive 8 ingot moulds and a centre or sprue mould. The flask may
be arranged for a larger or a smaller number of moulds, if required; or
it may be arranged to receive moulds either of iron or of refractory
material moulded in flasks, for making other castings than ingots, such
as tyre blocks, anvil dies, gearing frogs, and the like.

page_text: The flask consists of a plate suitably strenghtened by ribs, in which
are formed the depressions A, A, which I prefer to make about 4
inches wide (to fit an ordinary fire-brick) and about 5 inches deep.
I fill these depressions with plastic moulding material (by preference
equal parts of ground fire-brick, ground fire-clay, and loam mixed
with water): of such consistency that it will retain its shape after a
pattern pressed into it is withdrawn.. I then press the patterns shown
in plan by Figures 2,, 3, 4, 5,, and. 6. into, the depressions A, A. I
prefer to make these patterns of iron; they should be so smooth that
they will pull out. easily, and they should be oiled before being pressed
in so that the moulding material will. not stick to them; they may
be pressed in by any, suitable means, such as a heavy weight placed
upon. them, or a screw. press, or a. hydraulic press, and in such cases
the patterns may be made in one piece. In many cases, however,
it is more convenient to make the pattern in several pieces, each so
small that a workman standing on them or striking them with a bar
can. drive them down; I then remove with a trowel from the surface
of the flask the moulding material that has been, pressed out of the
depressions A, A, by: the entrance of the patterns, and I withdraw the
patterns by means. of the eye bolts a, Figures 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8. To
facilitate their withdrawal I sometimes prefer to run the point of a
trowel down between the moulding material and the patterns at several
points to loosen the patterns and to admit air beneath them. When the
patterns are withdrawn there will be left in the depressions A, A, the
moulded runner B, Figure 1, and also the places C which have been
moulded by the core prints D, Figures 6 and 7. I then place a core,
by preference a "split" fire-brick, in the places C. These cores are
arranged to cover the runner B at the points where the runner. passes.
between the bottoms of two ingot moulds.
71
The flask, moulded with the corcs in their places, is shown by
Figure 10, and two of the ingot moulds E', F', Figure 11, are shown
set on the flask.. Figure 9. is a section of the moulded flask on the
line A, B, Figure 10, and Figure 12 is a section on the line C, D, E, F ;
I then dry the flask thoroughly, by preference by baking it in a core
oven.. Any cracks that may occur in the moulded lining may be
stopped by painting a thick clay wash over them, by preference while
the flask is warm.. It will be observed that the moulding material forms

page_text: a complete lining to the parts of the flask in which the stream of steel
runs from mould to mould.
I set ingot moulds on the flask at E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, and M,
Figure 10; the flask and a part of these moulds are shown in clevation
at Figure 11. All these moulds may be the ordinary cast-iron ingot
moulds, but I prefer to make the centre or receiving mould M',
Figure 11, of iron lined with loam, or brick, or other refractory material,
because it has to conduct the liquid iron or steel to fill all the other
moulds, and is in this way much heated, and if made of unprotected
iron it is rapidly destroyed. I form the lugs N, N, P, Figures 10 and 11,
on the flask to guide the moulds to their places.
'
The advantages of using a "solid" flask, by which I mean a flask with
a fixed bottom instead of a bottom plate which can be removed for
the purpose of ramming up the flask, are the following:-First, the
flask can be made without lugs, pins, and other such projections on
the bottom as will become fixed in the iron or steel that runs out upon
and under the flask in case a mould bursts or a ladle stopper burns off,
or the metal is spilled from any cause; secondly, there is no opening
in a solid flask through which explosive gases can pass under the flask;
thirdly, the solid flask more securely holds the refractory lining in
place, and in case of the failure of the lining at any point the solid iron
flask will generally hold the liquid metal, whereas if a moveable bottom
plate is not closely and tightly secured to a flask the lining is more
likely to be defective, and the liquid metal will sometimes run through
the lining and through the opening between the bottom plate and the
flask.
My improvements farther consist in making pockets Q, Figures 10
and 12, by preference about 1 inches deep in the surface of the flask
where the ingots stand, and in ramming or pressing into these depressions
the above described or any suitable moulding material, and then
levelling off its surface even with the top surface of the flask. These
pockets are so situated that while the ingot moulds will stand on the
iron flask the ingots cast in them will stand on the material moulded
into the pockets. The object of this is to prevent the cracking of the
flask by the heat of the ingots. When the moulds are placed on the
flask the iron or steel is poured into the centre mould M', Figure 11,
whence it runs through the moulded runners B, B, Figure 10, into the

page_text: casting."
My improvements farther consist in the construction and arrangement
of moulds lined with refractory material, and hence specially adapted
to receive the iron or steel and conduct it to the other moulds. Iron
moulds and sprues have heretofore been lined by plastering or painting
refractory material upon their interiors, but these methods are not
always convenient or well adapted to very hot iron or steel. Ramming
up moulds of refractory material in a flask by means of a pattern is
sometimes too inconvenient and expensive. I make a lined mould by
placing bricks of suitable material into an iron case fitted to receive
them. I hold the bricks in place by means of a cover fastened down
tightly upon them, and I stop the openings between and around the
bricks by means of clay, kaolin, or other suitable refractory material.
This part of my Invention is farther explained by Figures 13, 14, 15,
16, and 17. Figure 13 is a side view, and Figure 14 an end view, of
an iron case R of suitable size to receive the ordinary split fire-
bricks S, T, U, which are laid into it in the manner shown to form a
continuous brick tube throughout the length of the case. Upon the
bricks U the cover V is wedged down by means of the lugs W, the
bar X, and the wedge Y, or in any other suitable manner. It will be
seen that the cover thus holds all the bricks in their places, and that
the case and the cover together with the bricks form a mould com-
pletely lined with refractory material. In order to stop the spaces
between the bricks I dip the bricks into a paste of kaolin and water,
as is usual in laying fire-bricks, and I also if necessary, press a paste
of fire-clay or other suitable refractory mortar into the larger spaces
with a trowel. I prefer also to dip the case and lining bodily into a
bath of kaolin or fire-clay made fluid or semi-fluid with water, so that
all the spaces around and between the bricks shall be thoroughly stopped.
I then dry the mould thus formed in an oven, or in any convenient
manner, after, which it is ready for use. After a sprue or other casting
is made in the mould I remove the cover V, and such of the bricks as
it may be necessary to remove in order to get out the casting. The
case may then be relined as before described. The same bricks may in
most cases be used several times. I prefer however to place new bricks
at the bottom where there is most heat and pressure.

page_text: Another arrangement of bricks to form a small mould is shewn by
Figures 15, 16, and 17, which are respectively a side view, a. bottom
view, and a top view of an iron case with a brick lining. The case is
enlarged at the bottom to receive one course of whole fire-bricks and
the rest is lined with split brick. The bricks are laid and held in place
by a cover substantially in the manner above described.. I sometimes
use common building bricks instead of fire-bricks, but prefer fire-bricks
for the bottom course as they are less likely to give way from the heat
of the fluid iron or steel poured into the mould.. In case a larger
mould is required than can be conveniently built up from bricks of the
usual sizes, and in case I require castings of cylindrical or other form,
I make the bricks of the proper sizes and shapes to form such castings..
In case the mould thus formed is too small: at the top to receive the
stream of iron or steel which is to be poured into it I set. a suitable
mouth piece upon it, by preference a conical iron box lined with loam
or other refractory material rammed into it around a pattern or plastered
upon
its interior surfaces as shown by Figure 18..
Having thus fully described the said Invention as communicated to.
me by my foreign correspondent, I wish it understood that I am. aware
crucibles, tuyeres, and other objects have heretofore been partially
formed by means of patterns pressed into plastic clay, and I do not
claim forming moulds by impressing patterns into plastic material, but
I claim,
1st. The apparatus for casting ingots and other articles consisting of
suitable moulds in combination with a solid flask and suitable runners:
in the said flask leading from one mould to another,, substantially as
described.
2nd. The combination with a flask of pockets for casting bottom
cast ingots and other articles filled with refractory material and arranged
with reference to the moulds, substantially as and for the purposes set:
forth.
3rd. A mould lined with bricks or any suitable refractory material in
removeable blocks, substantially as described.
4th. A mould formed of an iron shell lined with bricks or removable
blocks in combination with a cover capable of being pressed upon
the bricks or blocks to hold them in their places, substantially as
described.

page_text: 5th. The combination with a flask for casting bottom cast ingots
or other articles of a sprue. mould for receiving the iron or steel
lined with removeable bricks or blocks of refractory material, substantially
as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Haseltine, have hereunto
set my hand and scal, this Eleventh day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.
Witness,
E. C. JACKSON.
GEORGE HASELTINE. (L.S.)