IMPROVEMENTS IN THE STEELING AND CEMENTATION OF METALS
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Henry Johnson, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields,
in the County of Middlesex, and of 166, Buchanan Street, in the City of
Glasgow, North Britain, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE STEELING AND CEMENTATION OF METALS."-A communication from
abroad by François Auguste Dufey, of Paris, in the Empire of France,
Ironmaster.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Johnson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
28th January 1860.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, and of 166, Buchanan Street, in the City of Glasgow, North
Britain, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE STEELING AND CEMENTATION OF METALS," a communication
from abroad by François Auguste Dufey, of Paris, in the Empire of France,
Ironmaster, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a simple and economic mode of steeling or
cementing metals, and of improving the quality of inferior steel, and consists
in effecting such processes by the vaporization resulting from the boiling of a
combination of animal, vegetable, and mineral substances, into which vapour
the metal to be treated is to be immersed. This vaporization may be prepared

page_text: by combining powdered charcoal, fatty matter of different kinds, animal or
vegetable oils, saltpetre, horn, prussiate, soot, sea salt, pounded slate and ores,
burnt leather, black lead, and other substances of similar natures, in different
proportions, but the mixture which has given the best results in the trans-
formation of cast and wrought iron into fine and hard steel consists of the
following ingredients in the following proportions:―
Grease
Oil
Charcoal
Prussiate
500 parts by weight.
500
"
-
350
"
-
250
"
-
330
"
-
800
دو
Horn
Saltpetre
By the above mixture the cementation of cast iron of all kinds may be
obtained in a few minutes. The same system of vaporization and immersion
of the metal therein is equally applicable to the hardening of various parts of
machinery or tools, whether of wrought or cast iron, and to the hardening of
the rails of permanent ways of railways, and the wheels, springs, and other
portions of the rolling stock which from their constant wear require at present
frequent removal. Inferior steel may be greatly improved in quality by an
immersion into vaporization vessels.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Henry Johnson in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 28th July 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex, and
of 166, Buchanan Street, in the City of Glasgow, North Britain, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Henry Johnson, Her special license that I, the said
John Henry Johnson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said John Henry Johnson, my executors,. administrators,
or 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

page_text: 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 STEELING AND CEMENTATION OF METALS," a com-
munication from abroad by François Auguste Dufey, of Paris, in the Empire
of France, Ironmaster, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
John Henry Johnson, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
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 I, the said John Henry Johnson, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, that is to say:-
My improvements relate to a method of converting into steel or for the
steeling of wrought or of cast iron, which I effect by submitting articles
manufactured either of wrought or of cast iron to what I call the vaporisation
process, namely, to the action of certain vapours produced by the application
of heat to mixtures herein-after mentioned, or by the immersion of articles
manufactured of wrought or of cast iron in the bath from which the vapours
before mentioned are obtained. These processes offer considerable advantages
over those ordinarily employed for effecting the "steeling" or the conversion
of objects made of wrought or of cast iron into steel.
The bath which is employed to produce the vaporisation is composed of
charcoal dust, grease, and fatty matters of all kinds, animal and vegetable,
together with fish oils, saltpetre, horn, or other azotized bodies, prussiate of
potash, soot, sea salt, powdered slate and ores, burnt leather, black lead, and
other substances of similar natures, but mixtures of these materials may be
modified as required. The mixture which I prefer consists of,-

page_text: that is admirably adapted for the manufacture of articles of warfare, harness
work, and for the several industrial appliances of steel, rails, wheels, springs,
and all other pieces and parts connected with or belonging to railways which
are subjected to great friction, and which are consequently soon destroyed, and
require frequent renewal, may be hardened and converted into steel by this
*process, and so obviate the difficulties and inconveniencies attendant on the use
⚫of iron.
I also obtain results similar to those obtained by the cementing process now
in use, and I produce steel of good quality, hard, ductile, and pliable, by
plunging cast iron or castings into a bath prepared for the vaporisation process.
Two objects or two pieces of metal may be operated upon at the same time by
immersing one of such objects in the bath before described, and submitting the
'other to the action of the vapours resulting from the bath by the action of
heat, and their conversion may be effected in a few minutes. In the same
manner and by the same processes I improve ordinary steel, and impart to it
qualities appertaining to steel of superior quality.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to be novel and
original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent, is, the conversion into steel or the
"steeling" of iron or of cast iron, and the improvement of ordinary steel, by
subjecting them or any of them to the vaporisation process, or to immersion
into a bath prepared for the vaporisation process before mentioned, in the
manner and for the purpose described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Johnson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of July, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty.
J. HENRY JOHNSON. (L.s.)