IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR TREATMENT OF ARTICLES OF STEEL, AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Richardson and Richard
Allinson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 26th August 1862.
We, THOMAS RICHARDSON, of the Town and County of Newcastle-upon-
Tyne, Chemist, and RICHARD ALLINSON, of Moorgate Street, in the City of
London, Accountant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR TREATMENT OF ARTICLES OF STEEL, AND
IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
In the methods now generally adopted for the heating, annealing, and
hardening of steel, great experience and judgment are required in the workman
to maintain that degree of temperature most suitable for effecting the desired
purpose, and difficulties also occur in subjecting such steel to the temperature
necessary to effect such heating, annealing, and hardening processes, without
subjecting such steel to the oxidising action of the atmosphere. In order to
obviate these difficulties, we employ retorts, or closed heating apparatus, and
we prefer such an arrangement as will allow of the introduction and with-
drawing of the steel or the articles of steel into and from such retorts or
heating arrangements without their being subjected to a similar decarbonizing
action of the atmosphere, and also that each retort or other suitable heating
arrangement shall be so constructed as that a desired uniform temperature
can be maintained. The retorts may be constructed of any desired form;
they are provided with suitable arrangements for closing the two ends, and

page_text: with slides or dampers so arranged as that they may be divided into two or
more compartments, and so that such slides or dampers can pass into or out
of either the sides or through the upper portion of the retort or heating
apparatus. The spaces in the retorts through which the slides or dampers
enter are protected from the admission of the surrounding atmosphere by being
covered with suitable masonry, forming chambers or receptacles within which
the slides or dampers when withdrawn are received. In order to deprive the
atmospheric air which may from time to time gain access to the interior of the
retort of its decarbonising influence on the steel, we either place within
the retort a quantity of carbonaceous matter, such as charcoal, coke, or coal,
or in addition thereto, or in substitution therefor, we allow a current of
carburetted hydrogen or coal gas to pass into and through such retorts, or we
cause such retorts or heating arrangement to be lined, or partially lined, with
an admixture of clay and coke, or other suitable carbonaceous materials, or
with plumbago. The retort to be used for the heating and hardening of steel
may be set in any suitable manner, care being taken that the flues be so
constructed as that a desired uniform temperature can be maintained through-
out the whole or in a portion only of the retort. In the setting of these
retorts, which are to be employed for the purpose of annealing steel or articles
of steel, we prefer that the retorts should be so arranged that the temperature
will be highest at one end, and gradually diminish towards the other.
Our improvements further consist in effecting the hardening of such articles
of steel as have been submitted to the heating process by exposing them in an
iron cistern or retort, surrounded with cold water as near 82° Fahrenheit as
practicable, to an atmosphere in motion previously brought to as low a
temperature as possible; or we immerse the steel or articles of steel on the
frame or carriage in a cold liquid, by suitable machinery, as soon as they leave
the heating apparatus.