IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William George Valentin, of the Royal College of.
Chemistry, Chemist, and George Henry Benson, of Staleybridge, in the
the County of Chester, Mechanical Engineer, for the Invention of
66 IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William George Valentin
and George Henry Benson at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 5th October 1866.
We, WILLIAM GEORGE VALENTIN, of the Royal College of Chemistry,
Chemist, and GEORGE HENRY BENSON, of Staleybridge, in the County of
Chester, Mechanical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL," to be as
follows:-
Our Invention of improvements in the manufacture of steel relates to
improvements on the well-known process of converting iron into steel by
causing a blast of air to pass through a mass of molten iron placed in a
suitable vessel called a converting vessel.

page_text: In carrying out this process of conversion as now practised a very con-
siderable ebullition of the molten metal takes place at a certain stage of the
process, namely, when spiegeleisen is added, owing to the efforts made by the
gases formed during the process to escape from the mass. It has also been
frequently and in fact very generally found that ingot steel thus produced is
very much honeycombed and porous.
The object of the present Invention is to prevent this porosity and honey-
comb appearance in the ingot, and this is effected by the introduction into
the converting vessel of a regulated quantity of pulverized carbonaceous sub-
stances with the blast previous to the introduction of the spiegeleisen. The
kinds of carbon we prefer to use are graphite, or the carbon obtained from
gas retorts, or the carbon residuum left in the iron retorts of tar distilleries;
these latter would of course require to be pulverized and sifted. A similar
effect may be produced by the introduction with the blast (previous to the
introduction of the spiegeleisen) of the ferro or ferri cyanides of manganese
in a pulverized state. These ferro or ferri cyanides may be used either alone
or mixed with pulverized carbonaceous matters. Sometimes we propose to
dispense with the use of spiegeleisen in the converting process, and to employ
in place thereof the ferro and ferri cyanides of manganese well pulverized and
blown in with the blast.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Willlam George Valentin and George Henry Benson in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 5th April 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
GEORGE VALENTIN, of the Royal College of Chemistry, Chemist, and GEORGE
HENRY BENSON, of Staleybridge, in the County of Chester, Mechanical
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of October, in the year of our Lord
sixty-six, in the thirtieth year of IIer
One thousand eight hundred and
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said William George Valentin and George Henry Benson, Her. special
licence that we, the said William George Valentin and George Henry
Benson, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the
said William George Valentin and George Heury Benson, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,

page_text: 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
STEEL," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said William
George Valentin and George Henry Benson, our executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of our or 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 William George Valentin. and
George Henry Benson, 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, reference being
had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say) :-
.
Our Invention of "Improvements in the Manufacture of Steel" relates to
improvements on the well-known process of converting iron into steel by
causing a blast of air to pass through a mass of molten iron placed in a
suitable vessel called a converting vessel.
In carrying out this process of conversion as now practised in the Bessemer
apparatus a portion of the iron is unavoidably oxidized or burnt for the purpose
of getting up the necessary heat. At a given stage of the Bessemer process,
vizt., after the carbon of the iron has been removed by the oxygen of the
blast, iron becomes the exclusive fuel upon which the blast can feed, and it
is a well-known fact that a second and often considerable ebullition takes place
when the spiegeleisen is added. Now we have observed that if we "blow
short," that is to say, if we do not remove the whole of the carbon, less
ebullition takes place upon the addition of spiegeleisen or a ferro-manganese
alloy. This ebullition goes on even when the steel is transferred to the ladle,
and causes some portions of the steel to be violently thrown up into the ladle,
slag, or "crust," and thereby wasted; this ebullition also goes on in the ingot
moulds, sometimes causing the latter actually to burst, and arises from the
generation of carbonic oxide gas by the action of the carbon contained in the
spiegeleisen upon the oxide of iron in the metal. This gas if it does not find
an outlet must remain confined in the ingots or castings, and must cause the
latter to become honeycombed and unsound. And unless the ingot moulds

page_text: are rapidly and well stopped with sand and plates immediately after the steel
has been run in the ebullition is often found to be so violent that some of the
metal will boil over and is wasted. We also attribute to the presence of
the oxide of iron (evidence of which we have in the formation of the carbonic
-oxide gas as just referred to, and which oxide moreover can be detected on
examining Bessemer ingots,) the difficulty of casting sound small ingots for
various manufacturing purposes, and the defective welding power which such
steel often exhibits; large ingots have thus often to be cast in order to be
"reduced by a process of hammering or rolling in order to make sound
goods."
"
The object of the present Invention is to counteract waste or "scrap," and
prevent as much as possible the above-mentioned porosity and honeycomb
condition of the ingots. This we effect by the introduction into the converting
vessel of a definite and well regulated quantity of pulverized carbonaceous
substances with the blast after the "boiling up" or decarbonization of the
metal is over and previous to the introduction of the spiegeleisen. The kinds
of carbon we prefer to use are graphite, or the carbon obtained from gas
retorts, or the carbon residuum left in the iron retorts of tar distilleries;
these latter would of course require to be pulverized and sifted. A similar
effect may be produced by the rapid introduction with the blast (previous to
the introduction of the spiegeleisen) of the ferro or ferri cyanide of manganese
in a pulverized state. These ferro or ferri cyanides may be used either alone
or mixed with pulverized carbonaceous matters; we find it advantageous that
the pressure of the blast (when carrying in the carbon or the other pulverized
chemical agents) should be reduced to the minimum necessary to support the
column of molten iron. The carbon has a powerful reducing action upon the
oxide of iron, and the metallic manganese exerts as is well known a beneficial
purifying action, whilst by the oxidation of both carbon and manganese great
heat is generated, whereby a "thinner metal" and more fusible slag are
produced, and "skulls" are almost completely avoided. As spiegeleisen is
now introduced with a view to replace and supply the requisite amount of
carbon to make the iron into steel, and as the manganese of the spiegeleisen
is principally required to deoxidize the iron, we find that by using ferro or
ferri cyanide of manganese containing a much larger per-centage of carbou
and manganese than spiegeleisen, we can considerably reduce the proportion
or quantity of the latter, or do entirely without it, and employ in place thereof
good irons, such as hematite or spathose irons, in order to decarbonize the
metal; sometimes we propose to dispense with the use of spiegeleisen in the
'converting process, and to employ in place thereof the ferro and ferri cyanides

page_text: of manganese well pulverized and blown in with the blast. Various forms of
apparatus may be devised for introducing the pulverized carbon or cyanogen
compounds into the molten mass, we do not therefore intend to limit ourselves
to the use of any particular form or arrangement of apparatus for effecting
this purpose.
In the accompanying Drawing we have shewn one form of apparatus which
has been found to answer.
.
Fig. 1 is a vertical section of the apparatus, and Fig. 2 a plan view of the
same. a, a, is the blast pipe for conducting the blast of air under pressure to
the converting vessel, not shewn in the Drawing; b, b, is a close receiver for
containing the pulverized ingredients, which are charged into the vessel
through the opening at top. This vessel 6 is connected with the ordinary
blast pipe at some convenient part between the excentric valve and the
tuyere box. A small pipe c communicating with the interior of the blast
pipe a passes into the close receiver b, and terminates at the lower part of the
vessel with a perforated head c', the perforations of which are drilled in a
diagonal direction. The pipe c is provided with a stop-cock for the purpose
of cutting off the blast from the receiver or carbon box b. Another pipe d
connects the lower end of the receiver or carbon box with the interior of the
blast pipe a, which is provided with a valve a¹ for regulating the blast in the
pipe a, and causing it to pass down the pipe c when desired. The receiver or
carbon box 6 having been charged with finely pulverized carbon, ferro-cyanide
or ferri-cyanide of manganese, or a mixture thereof, to supply the pulverized
ingredients to the converting vessel, it will only be necessary to open the
cocks and on the pipes c and d, and turn the valve a¹ so as to throttle
the blast in the pipe a. A portion of the blast will then pass down the
pipe c into the pipe d, and will carry with it the pulverized ingredients at the
bottom or lower part of the receiver 6 into the blast pipe a, and from thence
through the tuyeres into the converting vessel. It will be evident that by
means of the throttle valve a' the quantity of blast allowed to pass down
the pipe c and into the receiver can be regulated, and consequently tho
quantity of the pulverized ingredients supplied within a given time can be
modified and regulated as occasion may require.
Having now described our Invention of "Improvements in the Manufacture
of Steel," and having explained the manner of carrying the same into effect,
we claim as our Invention the reduction of oxide of iron by the action of
carbonaceous matters of ferro and ferri cyanides of manganese in the molten
mass of iron contained in the Bessemer converting vessel previous to the
introduction of spiegeleisen, farro-manganese alloy, or other good irons.

page_text: Second, we claim the use of ferro or ferri cyanide of manganese, either by
themselves or together with hematite or spathose or other pure irons, in lieu
of spiegeleisen for the purpose of recarbonizing the Bessemer iron.
In witness whereof, we, the said William George Valentin and George
Henry Benson, have hereunto set our hands and seals, the First day
of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-seven.
WN. GEO. VALENTIN. (L.s.)
G. HENRY BENSON. (L.s.)
W. GEO. VALENTIN. (L.s.)
G. HENRY BENSON. (LS.)