IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Parry, of Ebbw Vale, Iron Works, in the
County of Monmouth, Furnace Manager, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL"
.!.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Parry at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 18th
November 1861.
:
'I, GEORGE PARRY, of Ebbw Vale Iron Works, in the County of Monmouth,
Furnace Manager, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL," to be as follows:
This Invention, has for its object the production of a superior bar or wrought.
iron to that now produced in the ordinary manufacture of iron, as well.as, the
production of cast steel in large masses of a superior quality to that produced
by the direct decarbonization of crude pig iron as now.carried out... To,
accomplish these objects. I take wrought iron which, from having, previously.
undergone the puddling process, has been purified by the expulsion of sulphur
and phosphorus; or I take wrought-iron scrap, and introduce it, together with
coke or other fuel and proper fluxes, into a blast furnace similar in form to
that ordinarily used for melting pig iron, but instead of laying the tuyeres in a
horizontal position, I incline one or more of them downwards, so as to blow
upon
the molten iron as it descends and accumulates at the bottom of the

page_text: furnace; or I blow air through the metal, but I prefer the former mode. By
this means I get a much higher temperature in the furnace than is required
for merely melting the iron, and am thereby enabled to effect the rapid and
economical carbonization of the wrought iron under treatment.
When manu-
facturing my improved wrought or bar iron, I use such a proportion of coke
or other fuel as will communicate to the iron under treatment about two or
two and a quarter per cent. of carbon. When thus carburetted,.Lrun the iron
from the converting or blast furnace into any suitable form, and submit it to the
puddling process, by which means a further portion of sulphur and phosphorus
is removed, and the iron is increased in strength and value; this iron may, if
.thought desirable, be again carbonized, and puddled again for the third time.
In order to convert the bar or scrap iron into cast steel, I introduce into the
-converting or blast furnace a smaller proportion of coke or fuel than is required
for manufacturing the improved iron. The proportion may be so regulated
as to communicate to the wrought iron the desired degree of carbon known to
exist in the various classes of cast steel, from hard cast steel to soft cast steel;
and I run this steel out of the furnace into ingots, or into any desired forms.
In carrying out this part of my Invention, I prefer, however, to make a hard
steel in my converting furnace, and to run it out into another furnace or
receiver, and there reduce it to the required degree of softness by passing air
through it from below, as first pointed out in the Specification of Mr.
J. G. Martien's Patent, dated 15th Sept 1855 (No. 2082) for the treatment
of crude pig iron, or I blow air down on the surface of the metal as practised
in the old refineries. To effect this object, and should the steel now be found
too soft for the purpose required, I harden it by the addition thereto of a
proper proportion of the hard steel in a fluid state from the converting furnace.
In the manufacture of cast steel direct from crude pig iron as lately introduced,
by removing a portion of the carbon, sulphur and phosphorus remain behind,
and it is difficult to get crude pig iron free from these injurious elements. In
this my process for manufacturing cast steel by adding carbon to wrought-iron
(which has previously been puddled) nearly all the pig iron produced in this
country becomes available for the manufacture of cast steel in any converting
furnace,. the greater proportion of the sulphur and phosphorus originally
contained in the iron having previously been eliminated in the puddling
process.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Parry in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
17th May 1862. .
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
PARRY, of Ebbw Vale Iron Works, in the County of Monmouth, Furnace
Manager, send greeting.
.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said George Parry, Her special license that I, the said George
Parry, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said George Parry, my 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 IRON AND STEEL," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said George Parry, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain 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.
J
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Parry, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to
the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
This Invention has for its object the production of a superior bar or
wrought iron to that obtained in the ordinary manufacture of iron, as well as
the production of cast steel in large masses of a superior quality to that
obtained by the direct decarbonization of crude pig iron, as now carried out.
To accomplish these objects I take wrought iron which, from having pre-
viously undergone the puddling process, has been purified by the expulsion of
sulphur and phosphorus; or I take wrought-iron scrap, and introduce it,
together with coke or other fuel and proper fluxes into a blast furnace-similar-
in form to that ordinarily used for melting pig iron, but so arranged, with

page_text: respect to the tuyeres as to ensure the maintenance of a much bigher tem-
perature in the furnace than is required for merely melting the iron. By this
means I am enabled to effect the rapid and economical carbonization of the
wrought iron under treatment. When thus carburetted I run out the iron
from the converting or blast furnace into any suitable form, and submit it to
the puddling process, by which means a further portion of sulphur and phos-
phorus is removed, and the iron is increased in strength and value. This iron
may, if thought desirable, be again carbonized, and puddled again for the
third time.
In the accompanying Drawings Fig. 1 shews in vertical section the furnace
which I employ for converting or carbonizing wrought iron. A is the opening
for charging; B, a tuyere blowing horizontally; C, a smaller tuyere inclined
downwards at an angle of about thirty to forty-five degrees; D, D, are tuyeres
placed near the bottom of the furnace for blowing air through the metal when
required (two of which only are shewn in the Drawing); E, E, are blast
boxes for supplying the tuyeres D, D, and which are. connected with the
blowing engines by pipes F, F.
.
In carbonizing the wrought iron I propose to make it take up two per cent.
or thereabouts of carbon from the coke, when it will be ready to undergo the
subsequent treatment of puddling, which will convert it into what I term s
"purified wrought iron." Sufficient fuel having been supplied to the furnace
for the purpose of getting up the heat, I charge the furnace with about seven
hundredweight. of coke (with sufficient lime to flux the ash of the coke) to
every ton of wrought iron, applying these materials in, successive quantities of
from one and a quarter hundredweight to one and a half hundredweight of
coke to four hundredweight of iron, which will be found a convenient quantity
for each charge. The converting furnace being filled and the blast put on, the
furnace should be kept nearly full during the continuance of the operation, or
the iron will not have taken up a sufficient dose of carbon, and unless this be
_done_the_subsequent treatment-of-the-iron-in-the-puddling-furnace-will-be-
useless; the presence of a certain amount of carbon in combination with the
metal being necessary. to. produce the "boil," without which no efficient
refining of the iron will take place. With a small furnace two and a half feet.
square, rounded at the angles, and from ten to fifteen feet high, blown by one
horizontal tuyere having a nozzle of two and a half inches diameter, and one
inclined tuyere of one inch and a quarter diameter, with a pressure of blast
of two pounds and a half to three pounds on the square inch, I have been
enabled to carbonize and run out one ton of iron per hour.
this part of the process I prefer to blow down into the iron
In carrying out
through one or

page_text: more tuyeres C (not using the lower tuyeres D, D). The nozzles of these.
tuyeres C may be changed for others of larger or smaller bore in a few
seconds when required, the exact amount of blast required being soon ascer-
tained by a little practice, the want of a sufficient blast being indicated by
the carbonized iron when run off not being sufficiently fluid. G' is the cinder-
hole at the back of the furnace, and H the tap-hole. With converting
furnaces of larger dimensions the number of both horizontal and inclined
tuyeres must be increased so as to diffuse the blasts of air more uniformly
over the enlarged area of the furnace. The whole of the tuyeres may be
inclined downward with nearly the same effect, if thought desirable, but
must be put at a lesser angle of dip. I prefer, however, the mode of blowing
as above described. There is little or no loss of metal in carying out this
carbonizing process when clean wrought iron is employed, the small quantity
of iron oxidized, and which passes off with the slag, being replaced by carbon:
The minute portion of silicon in this carbonized wrought iron, as compared
with that contained in crude pig iron, does not admit of slag being formed to
any extent when air is blown into it while in the fluid state; but the oxide
formed would pass out at the top of the furnace as a dense brown smoke, and
entail a loss were it not that the column of incandescent fuel above reduces it
to the metallic state and intercepts it. I find that a height of furnace from
eight to ten feet is sufficient to effect this reduction, and prevent the loss of
metal by sublimation.
When the charge of scrap or puddled iron has been subjected to the blast a
sufficient time to bring down, say a ton of the carbonized metal; I tap the
furnace, and run the metal into moulds as is usually done with pig iron
intended for puddling, and I otherwise treat it in a similar manner to iron
prepared for puddling (that is to say), I now submit the carbonized wrought
or scrap iron to the operation of puddling in an ordinary puddling furnace, and
by that means cause it to give up or part with the impurities remaining therein
after the first puddling process. The metal I remove as puddled balls, which
may then be submitted to the ordinary rolls, for the purpose of being reduced
to the form of merchant or other bars. This completes (in general) the
process of making my "purified wrought iron," which may be subsequently
converted into cast steel in the manner presently to be described, or applied to
other uses. When, however, a still-purer quality of iron is required;-I repeat-
the converting or carbonizing process, and then subject the metal to the
puddling process as before.
I would here remark, that by taking the thoroughly puddled iron from the
furnace in small balls or pieces, the cost. of rolling the same into bars; and

page_text: cutting those bars up by shears into pieces suitable for undergoing a second
carbonization, or for conversion into hard or soft steel will be avoided. The
pieces of wrought iron intended for carburation should not be too large, not
much exceeding the size of a railway bar cut up into lengths of four to six
inches. Cinder iron, of which nearly the whole of the railway bars laid down
have been manufactured, becomes by sufficient carburation in my converting
furnace, and subsequent puddling, equal in value to the best brands of mine
iron, and may be used for the like purposes, or be converted into cast steel ;
thus the iron rails now in use, as they successively become worn out, may by
this Invention be converted into durable cast steel rails.
In order to convert bar or scrap iron into cast steel, I introduce into the
converting or blast furnace a smaller proportion of coke or fuel than is
required for manufacturing the purified wrought iron. The proportion may
be so regulated as to communicate to the wrought iron the desired degree of
carbon known to exist in the various classes of cast steel, from hard cast steel
to soft cast steel, and I run this steel out of the furnace into ingots, or into
any desired forms.
In the manufacture of cast steel from wrought iron, I use the same kind of
converting furnace as that described for making the more highly carburretted
metal; but I reduce the quantity of coke to about five hundredweight to every
ton of wrought iron used when making a bard steel, and to about four and a
half hundredweight when producing a soft steel, the proportions varying
somewhat according to the quality of the coke or other fuel used. In making
hard steel, I prefer using the tuyeres B and C, Fig. 1, without the tuyeres
D, D; but I increase the size of the nozzle of the blowing-down tuyere C,
making it about one and a half to one and three quarters inches in diameter,
so as to discharge more blast into the metal at the bottom of the furnace than
is required when preparing the carburetted iron for the puddling process.
The proper quantity of air required will be found by a little practice, for if too
-little-be-blown-down,-the-steel-will-prove-deficient-in-fluidity.-
In making soft cast steel, I prefer using two or more of the tuyeres D, D,
together with the ordinary tuyere B of the blast furnace, with or without the
tuyere C. The tuyeres D, D, being below the surface of the fluid, converted
wrought iron or molten steel must be supplied with blast of sufficient pressure.
to force through the head of metal, and I find that three pounds to the
square inch is enought for every six inches of depth of metal. The state of the
metal in the bottom of the furnace may be partly judged of by passing a small.
rod of iron into it through the tuyere C, or more exactly by tapping out a
small quantity of it. If too hard, the blast should be slackened on the tuyero

page_text: B, the blast on the other tuyeres being either continued unaltered or some-
what increased. If found too soft, a portion of hard steel or any pure pig
or carburetted iron may be run into it through the tuyere C, where also any
manganesic or other desirable alloy may be passed in (by moving the blow
pipe back) just previously to tapping the furnace. It is best not to run the
steel direct from the furnace into the moulds, but first into a funnel, from
whence it may be passed out with greater regularity on removing the funnel
stopper, as is usually done when large castings of steel are made from the
accumulated pourings of numerous crucibles. The steel may also be mixed
or alloyed with any other metals or substances in this funnel, instead of in the
furnace; the moulds may be placed on a turn-table, which is made to revolve
beneath the funnel, thus bringing each mould in succession beneath the orifice
of the funnel to be filled, and the funnel made large enough to receive the
contents of two or more converting furnaces, if required.
Instead, however, of making soft steel in the converting furnace as just
described, I prefer to produce it at two operations. Thus, I first make a bard
steel in the converting furnace, and then run it out into another furnace or
receiver, where I reduce it to the required degree of softness by passing air
through the fluid metal from below, as first pointed out in the Specification of
Mr. J. G. Martien's Patent, dated Fifteenth September, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-five (No. 2082), for the treatment of crude pig iron, or I
blow air down on the surface of the metal as practised in the old refineries, and
should the steel now be found too soft for the purpose required, I harden it by
the addition thereto of a proper proportion of the hard steel in a fluid state
from the converting furnace:
•
Fig. 2 represents in sectional elevation the furnace or receiver into which I
run the bard steel from the converting furnace.
I would here remark that it may be convenient to make this furnace of
sufficient capacity to hold the runnings of two or more converting furnaces, as
by that means large masses of cast steel may be readily produced.
E, E, are two blast boxes, of which there are several placed around the
furnace; they are made either cylindrical to hold but one tuyere each, or are.
widened out around the furnace so as to hold a greater number. G, G, is the
main blast pipe which passes round the furnace and feeds the blast boxes by
the pipes F, F; D, D, are two of the tuyeres for blowing air through the
molten metal, and H the tap hole for discharging it when reduced to the
required degree. of softness. This furnace or receiver may be made of two
truncated cones of sheet iron joined at the base (or better of a curved or
parabolic form, as shewn in the Figure), and lined with fire-resisting material,

page_text: which is shewn at I, I, I. The charge of hard steel or carburetted wrought
iron is run in a molten state into the furnace through the opening J at the top
after the blast has been turned on.
.
The furnace may conveniently be heated by means of a gas blow pipe shewn
in vertical section at Fig. 3. A is the fuel chamber of this blow pipe, charged
up to the line D with breeze or small cokes, cinders, or refuse from the
fires, together with a portion of lime to flux the clinker and ash, and which
runs out at the cinder hole C; B is a blast pipe for generating the gas, and II
another for effecting the combustion of the gases while passing through the
pipe I to the furnace, Fig. 2; or the blast of air for consuming the gases may
be introduced at K directly into the pipe I. This gas furnace is lined with
fire-brick and closed with a brick cover L, or it may be, surmounted by a
charging hopper. The pipe I is also lined with loam or other bad conductor
of heat. This gas blow pipe is mounted on wheels for the convenience of
removing it from the furnace, Fig. 2, when desired. After a few minutes
blowing into the receiver (the exact time requisite being very accurately
ascertained by the workman after a little experience) the steel will have
become sufficiently softened, and may be tapped and run out into a funnel and:
dealt with as before described. Previously to tapping the furnace alloys may
be run in at the top J, or what is better the alloying material may be poured
into the funnel as the steel is running. It may also be hardened when made
too soft by the addition of hard steel or of any pure pig or carburetted iron
(which may also contain the alloy) in the same manner.
In the manufacture of cast steel direct from crude pig iron as lately intro-
duced, by removing a portion of the carbon, sulphur, and phosphorus remain
behind, and it is difficult to get crude pig iron free from these injurious
elements. In this my process for manufacturing cast steel by adding carbon
to wrought iron (which had previously been puddled) nearly all the pig iron
produced in this country becomes available for the manufacture of ast steel.
in my converting furnace, the greater proportion of the sulphur and phosphorus
originally contained in the iron having previously been eliminated in the
puddling process.
From some years experience-in-the-analysis-of-irons,-L-have_always_found
that the effect of puddling is to reduce the quantity of sulphur to about one-
third, and of phosphorus from one-fourth to one-fifth of that originally
contained in the pig iron. It will thus be seen that when such purified iron.
has been sufficiently carburetted in my converting furnace and again puddled,
the impurities above named become almost entirely removed, and the iron is
fitted for conversion into best cast steel by this Invention.

page_text: I have found it desirable when using sulphury coke in the converting
furnace to add as much lime as the ash will bear, as a flux, but not such an
excess as to thicken the cinder and clog up the furnace. The coke should
also when in a dry state be immersed in brine or a so lution of carbonate of
soda for a few days previous to use. The brine or carbonate of soda when
thus intimately diffused through the whole substance of the coke will
effectually seize the sulphur and carry it off in the slag, and thus prevent the
contamination of the metal. Carbonate of soda or any other cheap alkali (in a
dry state) may also be introduced at the top of the furnace with the charges,
but the use of alkalies for seizing the sulphur of the coke forms no part of my
Invention.
When the kind of wrought iron called puddled steel is used in the converting
furnace for conversion into cast steel, the proportion of fuel expended will be
less than that given above. The same remark also applies when hot blasts
are employed; in the latter case the tuyeres which are placed above the
surface of the metal may be of the kind well known as "water tuyeres," but
with cold blasts, brick or refractory firestone tuyeres are best. The tuyeres
placed below the surface of the metal are conveniently made of very thin sheet
iron ("black plate") slightly tapering, having good fire-sand or clay rammed
around them. The best materials for these purposes are the more siliceous
underclays of the coal measures, or as small a proportion as possible of the
fat or aluminous clays, mixed with powdered white sandstone, as well as for
the lining of the furnaces.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improvements in the
Manufacture of Iron and Steel," and explained the manner of carrying the
same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above in part
recited Letters Patent I claim the processes above described, whereby I
am enabled to produce purified wrought iron and hard or soft cast steel in
large masses in an economical manner.
In witness whereof, I, the said George, Parry, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Fifteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
Witness,
5
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane..
GEORGE PARRY. (L.S.)