A METHOD OF BRINGING IRON ORE, AND ALSO CALX OF IRON, INTO A METALLIC STATE, WITHOUT FIRST RENDERING EITHER OF THEM FLUID
Year: 1792

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,'SAMUEL
LUCAS, of the Town of Sheffield, in the West Riding of the County of York,
Refiner, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Eighteenth day of April, in the thirty-second year
of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the said Samuel Lucas, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, His special licence, that I, the said
Samuel Lucas, my executors, administrators, and assigns, during the term of
years therein expressed, should and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"A METHOD OF BRINGING IRON ORE, AND ALSO CALX OF IRON, INTO A METALLIC STATE,
WITHOUT FIRST RENDERING EITHER OF THEM FLUID;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Samuel Lucas, under my
hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one
one calendar month next and immediately after, the date of the said recited
Letters Patent, as by the said recited Letters Patent, relation being thereunto
had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Samuel Lucas, do hereby declare, that my said Invention of a Method of
bringing Iron Ore, and also Calx of Iron, into a Metallic State without
first Rendering either of them Fluid, is described in the manner following
(that is to say)
Take iron ore, or calx of iron, as for smelting, the richer the better, and for
this purpose the Lancashire or Cumberland ores will answer very well; the ore
or calx may then either be broken small, or put in its present state (unless the
lumps are very large) into the pots of a steel converting furnace (for any other
furnace in which it can receive a similar degree of heat, and be as well secured
from the action of the external air), together with a quantity of charcoal dust,
horne or bone dust, or other substance containing or yielding the inflamable
principal, or what is called by some chymists phlogiston. The charcoal or
other cementing substance may either be mixed with the ore or calx in almost
any proportions, or may be put into the pots in layers (that is to say), a layer
of the cementing matter, and then a layer of ore, and so alternately; three or
four bushels of the cementing substance to a ton of ore will be sufficient, and even
less if the pots are well secured from the admission of air; the pots should
not be quite filled with the ore and cementing matter, but a space of a few
inches should be left, which must be filled with moist sand, earth, or clay, and
beat hard down to prevent the access of air into the pots, the admission of which
would consume the cementing substance, and damage the operation. The fires
may then be lighted, and the process conducted the same as for converting iron
into steel; when this operation is ended, the ore thus cemented may be taken
out, and will be found converted into a metal, intermixed with the immetallic
earth of the ore, and adhering together in large masses. If the process has
been well conducted, and the ore good, the greatest part of the metal will be
found to be steel, and sufficiently converted for making into cast steel, and
may be run into ingots for that purpose.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Lucas, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand seven hundred and ninety-two.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twelfth day of May, in the
year of our Lord 1792, the aforesaid Samuel Lucas came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
5 written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the
tenor of the Statutes made for that purpose.