IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
AUGUSTUS TULK, of Seaton and Lowca Iron Works, Cumberland, Iron
Master, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-sixth day of August, in the third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Augustus Tulk, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said John Augustus Tulk, my exors, adiñors, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said John Augustus Tulk, my exors, admors,
or assigns, should at any time agree. with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use,. exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of." IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF IRON; in which said. Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the
said John Augustus Tulk, shall cause a particular description of the nature
of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large, appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Augustus Tulk, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention,

page_text: and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof (that is to say) :-
:
According to the ordinary means now resorted to for manufacturing of iron
by smelting iron ores in blast furnaces, the descriptions of ores known as
argillaceous ores are and have heretofore been those which have necessarily
been employed, notwithstanding their being exceedingly poor of metallic iron,
and it is only from the circumstance of the poverty of such ores that the
process now resorted to can be worked with advantage in the manufacture of
iron by the use of pit coal, or coke, or anthracite. And such process of
manufacturing iron from argillaceous ores as now practised is inapplicable
to the making iron in blast furnaces from the rich ores or oxides of iron known
as hæmatites, found in Cumberland and other parts, and such ores have only
been used heretofore in the blast furnace to a very small extent in conjunction
with poor argillaceous ores, and in some cases with the cinder of reverberatory
furnaces used in the manufacture of iron. I believe that such rich ores or
hæmatites have seldom, if ever, exceeded one tenth of the ores in the blast
furnace at one time, the quantity, however, may be more.
Now the nature
of my Invention is such that iron may be made by the use of a blast furnace
wholly from the rich ores or hæmatites or oxides of iron; or such rich ores
may, with greater advantage, be mixed in larger, and, indeed, in any desired
quantities with argillaceous ores than could be practised by the means
ordinarily pursued in reducing argillaceous ores with slight admixture of
hæmatites. It is well known to iron masters in the process of smelting
argillaceous ores in blast furnaces that lime is used as a flux, and that the
result of working is, first, the metallic or cast iron (carburet of iron) and a
glass or slag which is produced by the combination of the lime used as a flux
and the silica and other impurities of the argillaceous ores, and the furnace
manager judges by the appearance of the glass slag. whether his furnace is
working as he desires in order to produce the description and quality of iron
he wishes to make, and he accordingly applies more or less lime, by which he
ensures the conversion of more or less of the ore into carburet of iron, and
consequently the silica and the other impurities into glass, and such glass
protects the metallic iron from the prejudicial effects of the blast. Now on an
examination or analysis of the rich irou ores or hematites, they will be found
to possess a very small proportion of silica or materials for glass making,
consequently unless the requisite quantity of glass for protecting the metallic
iron when separated be obtained from some other source than itself, hoema-
tites cannot be employed in large quantities even when mixed with poor

page_text: argillaceous ores, because those poor ores cannot be advantageously worked
if the glass slag produced therefrom be proportionably much reduced from
that which now results from the present working, which would be the case if
large quantities of hematites were to be used with a given quantity of argil-
laceous ores.
i
My Invention therefore consists in employing glass or materials for glass
making in proportion to the hematites used in a blast furnace, by which
means such rich ores may be reduced with facility and advantage, and the
cast iron or carburet of iron protected by the requisite quantity of glass, and
the glass slag obtained in the process may be used over and over again. And
I would remark, that I do not confine myself to the employment of any
particular description of glass or materials for glass making in carrying out
this my Invention, as the same may be varied according to the materials
which can be most advantageously obtained in the vicinity of the particular
iron works where my Invention is to be employed; thus nearly pure stand-
stone with lime are the materials I have employed, because such sandstone
and lime can conveniently be obtained by me near the works where I have
matured my Invention; but other materials may be used, such as the slag of
glass works, and the glass or slag from the blast furnaces of iron works,
obtaining such slag or glass as free from sulphur as possible; and I particularly
mention these matters because they have heretofore been treated as refuse
matters in the works, and may therefore be had at small cost in comparison
-with other known materials for glass making.
Having thus stated the nature and object of my Invention, I will proceed to
describe the means of making cast iron (carburet of iron) wholly from hoema-
tites or such like rich ores by means of blast furnaces, as pursued by me; and
in doing so I would remark that the ores which I have worked with are the
Cumberland and Ulverston ores, which are very rich, and on analysis contain
in one hundred parts of ore about sixty-seven and two tenths parts of iron,
twenty-eight and eight tenth parts of oxygen, and only about four parts
silica, consequently there would be very little glass slag produced by such a
quantity of silica when brought into combination with lime or other proper
material for making glass slag; and it should be stated that in using more or
less rich hematite ores, allowance is to be made for the quantity of silica
and other impurities in the ores, and such is the case in respect to combining
the use of hoematite ores with argillaceous ores in larger proportions than can
now be done when dependent on the glass slag which will be produced from
the silica and other impurities contained in the ores, but such allowance will
readily be made in practice after a little experience, the object being to

page_text: employ such a quantity of lime or flux as will convert the whole of the silica
into glass, and carry off other impurities in order 'to' prevent a silica of iron
being formed. In describing the process as pursued by me, I will suppose
that the furnace used is an ordinary blast furnace (and I prefer to employ hot
blast). The glass mixture I have employed for smelting the very-rich ores
above alluded to are, ninety-three parts of silica to one hundred and one parts
of lime, but I prefer to employ these fused into glass to using the glass mixture
in the blast furnace. According to the quality of cast iron I desire to make!
I use more or less of the glass or slag, and I prefer in all cases to use the glass
or slag to employing the matters for glass making separately before being con-
verted into glass; but, as before stated, the glass slag being once produced
from this glass mixture, it may be used over and over again, the workman
judging by the appearance of the slag, and applying lime as heretofore. In
charging the furnace I first throw in the coke or coal or anthracite as usual,
and then the glass or slag materials for glass' making is thrown in, then' again
the coke, &c., then the hoematites or such like ores broken small- to about the
size of hen's eggs, then more coke, &c. is thrown in, and in such manner that
the ore will be between the two layers of coke, and so on, and I employ about
a like quantity of coke, &c. in this process' for a given yield of iron to that
employed in reducing argillaceous, ores. In charging the furnace wholly with
hoematites and with glass slag, I use about one part by weight of hoematites to
two parts by weight of glass slag, and if there be' much silica in the licematites,
I mix therewith some lime sufficient to convert the silex into glass, and carry
off the other impurities; and it will be evident that as the hoematites' contain
more silica, and will consequently produce more glass from itself, the glass
slag supplied into the furnace is to be reduced in proportion; the furnace in
other respects is to be worked as heretofore practised.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that what I claim is; the
mode herein described of applying glass (or the materials of glass making) with
hæmatites or such like rich iron ores in the manufacture of iron, so as to
make such ores applicable to the making of iron in a blast furnace in a
manner not hitherto practised.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Augustus Tulk, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of February, in' the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty.
JOHN AUGUSTUS (L.S.) TULK.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighteenth day of February,
in the year of our Lord 1840, the aforesaid John Augustus Tulk came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-fifth day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty.