IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Brown Wilson and'
Maurice Picard at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 2nd August 1862.
We, EDWARD BROWN WILSON, of Parliament Street, in the City of West-
minster, Engineer, and MAURICE PICARD, of Lyons, in the Empire of France,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL," to be as follows:-
The object of the present Invention is to run molten iron or steel directly
from a converting vessel mounted on trunnions (or otherwise capable of a
rotatory motion) in which it has been produced into moulds, or into
receivers placed over these moulds. The form of the receivers is such
as will admit of the metal entering the moulds under a very slight pressure,
and is so arranged as to facilitate the removal of the scoria floating on the
surface of the metal: For the practical carrying out of our process we have
three different systems.
The first consists in pouring directly out of the converting vessel into a
gutter in connection with the mould, thus entirely obviating the necessity of
employing a ladle. To obtain a large casting by this system we pour into
one mould, or into a receiver placed over this mould the iron or steel produced

page_text: in several converting vessels by means of conveying gutters, which gutters are
in communication with the converting vessels.
The second system consists in making the converting vessel easily. portable,
and capable of receiving an oscillatory or rotatory motion on a horizontal axis,
also a rotatory motion on a horizontal axis, and a motion in a perpendicular
direction. The converting vessel may be supported by an ordinary crane or
traveller, or mounted on wheels, or on a carriage on wheels, or otherwise
arranged so as to render it easily portable and removal from one part of the
shop to another. A casting of any weight may be made by this system by
carrying successively several converting vessels to one mould and pouring
alternately each vessel, but in such a manner that there shall never be any
interruption in the continuous flow into the mould.
The third system consists in bringing the moulds to the converting vessels.
The moulds are carried by a carriage on wheels, which may be conveyed on a
line of rails or otherwise alongside all the converting vessels, this carriage
being so made that the moulds. may be easily placed thereon, and brought
rapidly into position to receive the metal. The carriage may also be provided
with turntables, so that the castings may be rapidly made. These moulds
may be kept in a heated state until the moment of casting by the application
of a flame of gas or other heating medium. This line of rails may be laid
down as far as the furnaces in which the iron or steel is reheated before
being hammered and rolled. The cranes attached to these furnaces are used
to remove the mould from the ingot, which moulds pass again back to the con-
verting vessels on the same line of rails, or, if more convenient, on any other line
of rails. A casting of any size may be easily made in the following manner :-
A receiver, such as we have already mentioned above, is placed over the mould.
Two gutters arranged so as to receive the contents of two converting vessels
at once are supported on a platform on wheels. The first converting vessel of
the series is made to pour into the gutters, and before being empty the pouring
of the second converting vessel is commenced into the other gutter. So soon
as the first vessel is empty, the gutters are made to advance until the gutter.
into which the second vessel was being poured reaches the third converting
vessel of the series, which is then in its turn poured, the second still running
and having continued to run whilst the gutters were in motion; this can be
continued in like manner to any number of vessels. The receiver which we
employ in this and in the previous cases is constructed with one side very
much iuclined from a vertical position, and having the hole through which the
metal flows into the moulds on this side and very near the surface of the

page_text: metal; by these means a very small pressure of metal is brought to bear on
the aperture through which the metal flows, and also the scoria as they
approach this aperture are easily removed. The converting vessel may be so
constructed as to permit of the metal being run out of it under the advan-
tageous circumstances which attend the running out of the ladle; by this
means we avoid the necessity of the use of the ladle, and proceed directly to
run the metal out of the converting vessel into the mould.