IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND REMELTING OF IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Stenson at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 13th December
1866.
I, JOSEPH STENSON, of Duston, in the County of Northampton, Gentleman,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE AND REMELTING OF IRON AND STEEL," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to change the character of iron whilst in a
fluid state from that of ordinary cast iron to a metal more or less either hard
or malleable. This object is effected by introducing or forcing into the blast
furnace or cupola with the blast of air materials such as spiegel eisen, titanic,
or other iron ores, manganese, clay, lime, limestone, chloride of calcium, pot
or pearl ash, the cyanides of potassium, soda ash or carbonate of soda and
salammoniac. These materials or any of them in a pulverized state are
placed in a close hopper, tube, or vessel situated above the blast pipe, from
which, by suitable feeding apparatus, the necessary quantities are introduced
to the blast pipe with or without the addition of pulverized carbonaceous
matters; these pulverized materials are carried into the furnace by means of
the blast in any desired quantity according to the quality of iron or steel it is
desired to produce, and depending upon the nature of the iron to be operated
upon.
I propose to use the aforesaid materials separately or in such combination
and in such quantities as the character of the metal intended to be produced
may require.

page_text: I do not intend to confine myself to any particular arrangement of apparatus
for introducing or supplying the pulverized materials to the blast pipe, but
I prefer to use for this purpose a closed hopper, pipe, or chamber, which is
filled from time to time with the pulverized ingredients; at the bottom of this
hopper, pipe, or chamber is placed a feed roller, in which are made recesses
to contain a certain quantity of the pulverized materials, so that by causing
this feed roller to rotate at any desired speed the quantity of pulverized
ingredients supplied to the furnace may be regulated to a nicety with great
facility.
Every iron and steel manufacturer will know that iron ores differ so widely
in their character that different ores will require totally different treatment,
and that ores of a somewhat analogous character will differ so widely in the
proportions of the impurities mixed with the metal as to require widely
different proportions of the purifying ingredients; for instance, in order to
render iron harder and give it a steely character I introduce into the furnace
from 10 to 40 per cent. of spiegel eisen or titanic iron in a pulverized state, or
the iron sand of New Zealand and other countries in its natural state.
order to produce a tough soft iron I introduce from two to ten per cent. of pot
or pearl ash, or soda ash, or carbonate of soda. For the purpose of dephos-
phorizing iron I use chloride of calcium and salammoniac in the proportion
of from one to ten per cent. of the mixture to one hundredweight of iron.
In
In order to give a steely character to iron, and at the same time hardness
and strength for castings, I use from 10 lbs. to 25 lbs. to the hundredweight
of iron of the following mixture:- Manganese 100 lbs., clay 15 to 30 lbs.,
cyanide of potassium from 5 to 10 lbs., quicklime 10 lbs., but for metals con-
taining a large quantity of silica the lime may be increased to 50 lbs., and if
limestone be used the proportion may be further increased.