IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
BOURJOT, of Coleman Street, in the City of London, Merchant, 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 Third day of August, in the second year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Charles
Bourjot, His especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said Charles Bourjot, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Charles Bourjot, my exors, adññiors, 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, the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON," as communicated
to me by a certain Foreigner residing abroad; in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso that I, the said Charles Bourjot, shall cause a par-
ticular description of the nature of the 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
Charles Bourjot, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and

page_text: 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:-
The difference existing between cast iron and malleable or wrought iron is
known to consist in the former containing a quantity of carbon in different
metals (silicium, calenium, &c.) mixed with iron; that the iron is separated
from these foreign substances by heat, the effect of which is to burn the
carbon, the silicium and the calenium, which under the name of laitrir are
afterwards squeezed out of the pores of the metal by flattening. One of
the remarkable qualities of cast iron is that it is fusible at a low temperature,
whilst malleable iron is not to be melted even by the highest degree of heat
which can be obtained in furnaces, the cast iron is consequently easily moulded,
whereas malleable iron is not. If, therefore, it was possible to take away
from the cast metal its principal defect, which is that of being brittle, and
impart to it the principal qualities of malleable iron, namely, of being malle-
able, it would follow that by the simple process of moulding all the workman-
ship would be done away with, which in the case of certain objects and
articles is so laboriously bestowed on iron that the price of that metal is
easily encreased tenfold. This result is the object of the process which is

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE OVEN FOR THE TRANSMITTING OF CAST IRON.'
The oven employed for the above purpose is that used by potters and
porcelaine manufacturers, with certain fittings applicable to the object in view.
On the roof of the furnace house, which is open at certain distances to give
vent to the flames, are deposited squares of matter not fusible, which form
the ground plat or base of the oven. This last is closed on all sides by
pieces, which fit one after the other; these pieces are cast metal cases, three
lines thick, two inches deep, one foot long, and eighteen inches high. In
the interior the moulded earthen squares allow nails with large heads- to be
inserted. These cases are filled with tempered potters' earth mixed with
horses' dung, and this earth, retained by the heads of the nails, cannot detach
itself from the cases.. When the several pieces are gathered the cast metal face
is placed in the interior, and consequently the earth is found on the exterior.
The several parts are re-united by means of bolts or pegs running through
rings fixed to the cases. The oven is afterwards covered over again with
pieces disposed in the same order as those which form the sides. An oven
or case such as is here described, and the dimensions of which are four or
five feet long, and eighteen inches high, is capable of containing large pieces
of cast metal destined to be converted into malleable iron. This case being
covered over again the vessels containing the small pieces are filed thereon.
The flames arising from the coals surround the case on all sides and
underneath, they afterwards mount up to the surfaces of the vessel at the top
of the case.
APPLICATION.
The cast metal articles having been refined in the foregoing manner is
capable of being applied to most purposes of forged iron. It can be substituted
for bronze in all its varieties, for vases, statues, and objects of art, and orna-
ments, railings, and balconies, bolts and ironwork to ships, and pigots,
pullies, and blocks for the navy, wheels for machinery, wheelwork for clocks,
bridles and other articles for vehicles, and harness, coach and cart wheels,
tin covers, gas apparatus, tubes and pipes, casters, kitchen utensils, pottery,
and earthenware, shovels and tongs, household goods of all sorts, stamped
and embossed ornaments, and in short every article of ironmongery and
hardware.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Bourjot, have hereunto set my
CHS BOURJOT. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-ninth day of January,
in the year of our Lord 1839, the aforesaid Charles Bourjot 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.
T
Inrolled the Second day of February, in the year of our
thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.
Lord One