IMPROVEMENTS IN PUDDLING IRON, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN."
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jacob Geoghegan Willans, of No. 9, St. Stephen's
Crescent, Bayswater, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PUDDLING
IRON, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 8th March 1866.
I, JACOB GEOGHEGAN WILLANS, of No. 9, St. Stephen's Crescent, Bayswater,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PUDDLING IRON, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
The Invention has for its object improvements in puddling iron, and in
apparatus employed therein. For these purposes when puddling iron, in place
of it being heated and melted, rabbled and balled, in the ordinary manner,
the cast iron is reduced to a granular or divided state and mixed with cinder
or iron oxide, which is heated in a furnace to a red heat, but not so ȧs.to
become melted, and the mixed iron and cinder or oxide of iron is subsequently
carried into another puddling or other suitable furnace, when a higher heat is
applied, and in which the balling is to take place, or the two operations may

page_text: It is preferred that such
a cylinder in an inclined
be conducted in different parts of the same furnace.
heating of the iron and cinder should be effected in
position, or otherwise arranged so as to have the iron and cinder or oxide
progressively moved from end to end, and thence into the furnace in which
the process of balling is to be performed, and it is preferred that the iron and
cinder or oxide as they are moved forward should be constantly subjected to
the action of atmospheric air, and when the iron and cinder or oxide come
into the furnace for balling they are subjected to the greater heat requisite.
In using rotating or reciprocating puddling furnaces it is found that the
interior or lining (usually made of fire-clay, or of fire-brick, or of ganister)
quickly becomes injured by the high degree of heat to which the same is
subjected in contact with cinder.
Now, according to my Invention, in place of using bricks which are moulded
or formed of plastic clay or other materials, or of pulverized ganister or other
substances, I employ blocks or forms cut or obtained from the following rocks
or stones, viz., aluminous or silicate of alumina minerals, magnesium or
silicato of magnesia minerals, lime or magnesian lime minerals, such as
bauxite or aluminous iron ore, clay, slate, mica slate, feltspathic minerals,
chlorite, talc, slate, soapstone, serpentine, limestone, and magnesian limestone,
and others of aluminous or magnesian composition. In some cases it is
desirable to burn these minerals before shaping them and building them into
their places in the furnace..
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 8th September 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JACOB
GEOGHEGAN WILLANS, of No. 9, St. Stephen's Crescent, Bayswater, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Jacob Geogbegan Willans, Her special licence that I, the said
Jacob Geoghegan Willans, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to

page_text: 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 PUDDLING IRON, AND IN APPARATUS
EMPLOYED THEREIN, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Jacob Geoghegan Willans, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment 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 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 Jacob Geoghegan Willans, 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 thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention relates, first, to dispensing with the rabbling of molten iron
and cinder.
Second, to rendering the interior lining of revolving or reciprocating
puddling furnaces better able to withstand the friction of the iron.
In order to carry out the first part of my Iuvention, I have the cast iron
in a granulated or divided state, mixed with oxide of. iron in a finer state of
division, and I expose the mixture to a good red heat, but not so great as
to fuse the metal or cinder, both of which should be kept in a friable state.
After that the metal has become decarburetted to a great degree, it is removed
into another place, where it is exposed to a higher heat until the cinder be
fused and any further decarburation (if necessary) accomplished.. I prefer
to take such metal or mixture of metals as now used to make good malleable
iron, and to granulate it by running a small stream out of a cupola furnace
or coke refinery (or foundry ladle) on a horizontal disk attached to the
spindle of a turbine in the centre of a wrought-iron tank about 7 feet
diameter and 4 feet deep, covered over with moveable iron top; the
turbine worked by either water or steam to a speed of from 1,500 to 2,000
per minute, the disk standing 3 feet high from the bottom and an overflow
to keep the surface of the water in the tank just below the under side of
the disk, copious jets. of cold water flowing down the entire interior circum-
ference, by which the metallic particles thrown off from the disk by centrifugal
force are cooled and remain separate; jets of cold water should also be
abundantly supplied to any other part of the tank if the operation be con-
tinued. long enough to heat that part too highly.. I prefer to use a wrought,

page_text: iron disk inch thick and 15 inches .diameter, allowing the stream of
'molten metal to descend perpendicularly with as little fall as possible upon a
point in the surface of the disk 3 inches from its centre, and to have a half-
inch jet of cold water thrown from above on the centre of the disk, also
two or more jets of cold water thrown on the under side of the disk to keep
it from being melted. A fire-clay tile disk well hooped with iron and fitted
on a wrought-iron disk will be found to answer especially with white metal,
but the water jets must not touch the tile. A high speed of the disk with a
small supply of metal will be found most conducive to obtaining the smallest
granules. The granules are afterwards sifted, and any that may exceed ths
of an inch in diameter are rejected. Instead of granulating the metal it may
be pulverised when heated to a little below the melting point and afterwards
sifted, but I prefer to have it granulated. I then intermix with the
granulated or divided cast iron th to rd of cinder in the state technically
termed bull-dog, previously crushed to a somewhat finer 'state of division;
but I do not confine. myself to that proportion, and I place the mixture
in a cylindrical flue or furnace made of wrought iron and lined. with
closely-fitting fire-brick of a tenacious and not friable description; the
flue or furnace being previously heated to a good red heat, and having an
oxidising flame produced by a large supply of air before entering and
revolving, so as to produce continuous change of surface and points of
contact in the charge. The heat must not be so great as to fuse or render
the mixture pasty. After that all parts of the mixture have been exposed to
a good red heat for about 30 minutes' the mixture may be removed in any
convenient manner to the bed of an ordinary puddling furnace, kept at the
.highest possible beat with a reducing or carbonizing flame by shutting off all
unnecessary air, so that any of the metal particles oxidised may be reduced
.to the metallic state; also that the cinder be brought more or less to the
same nature as before being calcined into bull-dog. As soon as the cinder
becomes fused also any apparent effervescence (or escape of gaseous matter)
has ceased the mixture may be balled in any convenient manner, and afterwards
hammered and rolled, when the iron will be found malleable. The interior
of the flue or beating furnace may be about 7 feet in length, egg-shaped,
2 feet 8 inches diameter in the centre, and 18 inches at the extremities,
placed horizontally, and charged with the mixture, but not in greater quantity
than sufficient to form a bed about 6 inches thick in its deepest part; or the
interior of the flue or heating furnace may be an esen cylinder of 2 feet
diameter of any greater length. up to 10 feet placed in a slightly inclined
position, and fed continuously at its upper end, allowing it to revolve at such

page_text: speed as would give each part of the mixture fully 30 minutes at a good red.
heat before its exit at the lower extremity. Access may be had to either
kind of flue or heating furnace at the end distant from the fire (where the
products of combustion are withdrawn into the chimney) by a sliding door in
the chimney, and the waste heat of puddling or balling furnaces may be
advantageously applied towards beating these cylindrical flues or heating
furnaces. Although I prefer to conduct the two operations in separatė
heating chambers or furnaces, as above described, it is not essential that they
should be so conducted, as if the heating chamber or furnace be of large size
the two heats may be applied at different parts or ends of one heating chamber
or furnace.
My Invention relates, secondly, to the interior lining of revolving or
reciprocating puddling furnaces in which the iron is brought to a fused or
pasty state in contact with fused cinder. Heretofore a difficulty has arisen in
such furnaces by the abrasion of the fire-proof lining, the granules or particles
rubbed off by the friction of the iron getting intermixed with the cinder and
worked up with the iron. Having discovered that the particles of such
earthy fire-resisting minerals as are found native in rocks possess greater
cohesion in their original structure than when crushed, tempered with water,
and moulded, I dispense with crushing and moulding by having the mineral
made into such shaped blocks or forms as will fit closely together in that part
of the furnace to which they are applied. I prefer to use the aluminous
mineral named bauxite, which is found in France, also in the county of
Antrim, Ireland, when the stones of it are fire-proof and sufficiently compact
after being fired. Another is the silicate of alumina minerals that are fire-
proof, such as many fire-clay rocks or beds of the coal measures, also some
of the clay slates; bricks or forms cut from these should be thoroughly dried
and very gradually brought up to a red heat, and where lamination or cleavage
exists they should be built in the furnace, so as to expose the edge of the
cleavage to the friction. Other silicates of alumina and silicates of magnesia
will answer if sufficiently fire-proof and compact after being fired. Limestone
and magnesian limestone, if found compact enough after burning, may then
also be sawn into bricks for the purpose.
I would have it understood that I do not claim as part of my Invention
the means for granulating or dividing cast iron, nor the use of the cylinder
apparatus for heating the mixture, as herein described, nor do I confine
myself to any particular size of granule or proportion of cinder or length of
time for heating them together; but I do claim, the heating a mixture of
cast iron and iron oxide, each being in a granulated or divided state, at a heat

page_text: below the fusing point of the cinder, and then removing the mixture into
another furnace (or it may be another part of the same; furnace), where it is
subjected to a heat which melts the cinder, and allows of the metal being
collected together into puddle balls..:
'I would also have it understood that I do not 'claim as part of my Invention
the use of any of the above-named minerals as fettling, or for moulding bricks
therefrom for puddling furnaces; but I do claim, the lining of that part of
revolving or reciprocating puddling furnaces which is exposed to the friction
of the iron in the charge whilst working with blocks or forms cut or shaped
from the minerals above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of September, in the year of
our Lord 'One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
J. C. WILLAND
ANS. (..)
WILLAND.
: