IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PUDDLED IRON BARS AND EVERY DESCRIPTION OF MALLEABLE IRON."
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Thompson Crawshay, of Cyfarthfa Iron
Works, in the County of Glamorgan, Ironmaster, and Isaac Arriston
Lewis, of Cyfarthfa Iron Works, in the County of Glamorgan, Agent,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PUDDLED IRON
BARS AND EVERY DESCRIPTION OF MALLEABLE IRON."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Thompson Crawshay
and Isaac Arriston Lewis at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 20th March 1865.
We, ROBERT THOMPSON CRAWSHAY, of Cyfarthfa Iron Works, in the County
of Glamorgan, Ironmaster, and ISAAC ARRISTON LEWIS, of Cyfarthfa Iron
Works, in the County of Glamorgan, Agent, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PUDDLED IRON
BARS AND EVERY DESCRIPTION OF MALLEABLE IRON," to be as follows:-
The objects sought by our Invention are the production of No. 1- or puddled
bar iron direct from the pig without recourse to the "finery" process, giving to
the iron in the puddling or rather boiling and all subsequent processes &
degree of malleability and strength fully equal if not superior to that obtained
by the old and more expensive method of introducing the iron into the puddling

page_text: furnace partly in the state of 'pig iron and partly in the state of finers' metal,
to more thoroughly revive the iron and thus obtain a better yield, and to
facilitate the separation of foreign matters from the iron, thus increasing the
amount of work to be done or the quantity of No. 1 bar, or any class of
finished iron, to be produced within a given time. In the manufacture of
wrought from cast iron the end sought is the separation of foreign matters
from the iron, and the best process is that which is most efficient and
economical and leaves the particles of the metallic mass in the condition most
favorable to the operation of the laws of cohesion. The processes hitherto
practised have attained this end only partially, and are dependent on the
direct action of heat and atmospheric air. The liquefaction in the high
temperature of the boiling furnace of the mass operated on prevents nearly
altogether the action of the elements of the air, the surface only being exposed
to them except when agitated by mechanical means. Here, therefore, is
apparent a defect in one essential point professedly sought in the operation.
Moreover, were the subjection of the whole mass to the action of air attained,
simple atmospheric action would be ineffectual, as the above impurities are not
separable thereby. The chemical affinity between them and the iron requires
to be overcome by the presence of other elements for which they have a
greater affinity, and which would not combine with the iron. By the introduc-
tion into the boiling furnace at the proper stage and in proper quantities of
any material or materials fulfilling the conditions implied above as necessary,
the purification and consequently improvement of the quality of the iron will
be accomplished. We have to consider, therefore, the characters chemically
of the materials to be removed, having due regard to the cost of production,
the materials eligible as re-agents.
Our Invention for the production of puddled bars and malleable iron
consists in mixing and introducing into the iron while in a molten state
sulphate of iron and oxide of lead, the proportions of which should be about
12 ounces of each of these ingredients to a ton of pig iron. The chemical
changes produced by these ingredients are, 1st, the conversion of the carbon
of the mass into sulphuret of carbon by the decomposition of the sulphate and
its removal by sublimation; 2nd, the separation of the siliceous and argillaceous
substances by the lead of the oxide, forming by their union a matrix from
which the iron readily precipitates; 3rd, a rapid elevation of the temperature
of the mass operated on by the evolution of oxygen from the acid of the
sulpbate of iron and the oxide of lead producing suddenly a greater liquefaction,
which facilitates the separation.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Thompson Crawshay and Isaac Arriston Lewis in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 20th September 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ROBERT
THOMPSON CRAWSHAY, of Cyfarthfa Iron Works, in the County of Glamorgan,
Ironmaster, and ISAAC ARRISTON LEWIS, of Cyfarthfa Iron Works, in the
County of Glamorgan, Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Robert Thompson Crawshay and Isaac Arriston Lewis, Her special licence
that we, the said Robert Thompson Crawshay and Isaac Arriston Lewis, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Robert
Thompson Crawshay and Isaac Arriston Lewis, our executors, administrators,
and 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
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 MANUFACTURE OF PUDDLED IRON BARS AND
EVERY DESCRIPTION OF MALLEABLE IRON," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said Robert Thompson Crawshay and Isaac Arriston Lewis, or one
of us, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our,
or one of our, 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 we, the said Robert Thompson Crawshay and
Isaac Arriston Lewis, do hereby declare the nature of our 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:
.
The objects sought by our Invention are the production of No. 1 or puddled
bar iron from every description of pig iron direct from the pig without recourse
to the "finery" process, giving to the iron in the puddling or rather boiling
and all subsequent processes a degree of malleability and strength fully equal
if not superior to that obtained by the old and more expensive method of

page_text: introducing the iron into the puddling furnace partly in the state of pig iron
and partly in the state of finers' metal, to more thoroughly revive the iron and
thus obtain a better yield, and to facilitate the separation of foreign matters
from the iron, thus increasing the amount of work to be done or the quantity
of No. 1 bar iron, or any class of finished iron, to be produced within a given
time. In the manufacture of wrought from cast iron the end sought is the
separation of foreign matters from the iron, and the best process is that which
is most efficient and economical and leaves the particles of the metallic mass
in the condition most favorable to the operation of the laws of cohesion The
processes hitherto practised have attained this end only partially, and are
dependent on the direct action of heat and atmospheric air. The liquefaction
in the high temperature of the boiling furnace of the mass operated on prevents
nearly altogether the action of the elements of the air, the surface only being
exposed to them, except when agitated by mechanical means. Here, there-
fore, is apparent a defect in one essential point professedly sought in the
operation. Moreover, were the subjection of the whole mass to the action of
air attained, simple atmospheric action would be ineffectual, as the above
impurities are not separable thereby. The chemical affinity between them and
the iron requires to be overcome by the presence of other elements for which
they have a greater affinity, and which would not combine with the iron. By the
introduction into the boiling furnace at the proper stage and in proper quantities
of any material or materials fulfilling the conditions implied above as necessary,
the purification and consequently improvement of the quality of the iron will be
accomplished. We have to consider, therefore, the characters chemically of the
materials to be removed, and, having due regard to the cost of the production,
the materials eligible as re-agents.
Our Invention for the production of puddled bars and malleable iron consists
in mixing and introducing into the iron while in a molten state sulphate
of iron together with oxide of lead, the proportions of which should be about
twelve ounces of each of these ingredients to a ton of iron. The chemical
changes produced by these ingredients are, first, the conversion of the carbon
of the mass into sulphuret of carbon by the decomposition of the sulphate and its
removal by sublimation; second, the separation of the siliceous and argillaceous
substances by the lead of the oxide, forming by their union a matrix from
which the iron readily precipitates; third, a rapid elevation of the temperature
of the mass operated on by the evolution of oxygen from the acid of the
sulphate of iron and the oxide of lead producing suddenly a greater liquefaction,
which facilitates the operation.
And having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in what

page_text: manner the same is to be performed, we declare that we are aware that
metallic lead, or oxides or carbonates of lead, have heretofore been proposed
to be mixed with iron and steel in a melted state, and that therefore we make
no claim thereto; but we claim as our Invention mixing with iron while in a
molten state sulphate of iron together with oxide of lead in or about the
proportions and for the purposes herein-before named.
In witness whereof, I, the said Isaac Arriston Lewis, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of September, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-five.
I. A. LEWIS. (L.B.)