IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jacob Geoghegan Willans, of No. 9, St. Stephen's
Crescent, Bayswater, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 26th January 1865.
I, JACOB GEOGHEGAN WILLANS, of No. 9, St. Stephen's Crescent, Bayswater,
in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL," to be as
follows:-
As magnesia has a stiffening effect upon slags in comparison with pure lime
it will lessen the fluidity of siliceous iron ores or iron cinder in the blast
furnace, and thus by preventing their flowing down so rapidly will better
facilitate their sufficient deoxidisation before descent into the lowest part of
the furnace.
My Invention relates, first, to the treatment in the blast furnace by means of
a mineral chiefly composed of carbonates of magnesia and lime. Iron cinder
produced in the processes of manufacturing pig into finished iron or steel,
also of iron ores such as those raised at Seend, and Westbury, in Wiltshire,

page_text: and those found in the oolitic and greensand formations and hematite ores,
(in any of which the silica exceeds four times the amount of the other earths,
excepting lime). When such ores so siliceous or iron cinder are smelted
without the addition of a sufficiency of alumina to bring down the proportion
of silica present in the furnace to within three times the amount of the other
earths, not including lime, I apply in the furnace in the same way as ores
or limestone a magnesia and lime mineral containing at least magnesia in the
proportion of 21 carbonate of magnesia to 77 carbonate of lime, in place of
entirely or in part of the ordinary limestone. The quantity necessary to pro-
duce a satisfactory slag will vary, depending upon the chemical contents of the
ores or cinder as well as the proportions of magnesia to lime or amount of
other earths in the magnesian mineral. Should the magnesia exist in larger
proportion than before stated, or should the fuel or ores contain magnesia, or
should the slag be preferred to contain more lime and less magnesia, ordinary
limestone may be added in the furnace along with the magnesian mineral.
My Invention relates, secondly, to the manufacture of steel or iron from
granulated or divided cast or refined metal. This has hitherto been done by
heating and melting the said metal in contact with oxides of iron or manganese,
or with iron or manganese ores, as well as with other substances, in crucibles,
which is a costly mode of manufacture. My Invention is to place the afore-
said granulated or divided cast or refined metal together with the oxides,
ores, or other substances in vessels or cases made of iron or other suitable
material, and to charge cupola, reverberatory, or other furnace with such
vessels or cases, adding the fuel in the way that will be suitable for the furnace
employed, and to melt the matter contained in such vessels or cases along with
the vessels or cases themselves. By these means iron and steel may be manu-
factured on a large scale at comparatively small cost,
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 25th July 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JACOB
GEOGHEGAN WILLANS, of No. 9, St. Stephen's Crescent, Bayswater, in the
County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of Her

page_text: reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, Her special licence that I, the said Jacob
Geoghegan Willans, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, 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 Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL,"
upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,
or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain
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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to bo particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention relates, first, to the treatment in the blast furnace of such
iron ores from the greensand and oolitic formations, hematite ores and iron
cinder, as may contain four times as much silica as other earths, not including
lime. These when smelted without the addition of as much alumina as would
bring down the silica present in the furnace to within three times the amount
of the other earths therein, not including lime, would have the tendency when
partially deprived of oxygen to fuse and descend more rapidly than desirable.
In such case as a corrective, also as a flux, I add, in place of entirely or in part
of ordinary limestone, a mineral chiefly composed of carbonate of magnesia,
and carbonate of lime in the raw or calcined state, containing at least as much
magnesia to lime as exists in the proportion of 21 carbonate of magnesia to
77 carbonate of lime, or as 3 of the former to 11 of the latter. Should the
magnesia exist in larger proportion, or that the ores or fuel contain magnesia,
or that the slag be preferred to contain more lime, ordinary limestone may
be added along with the magnesia mineral. The quantity of the latter
required to produce a satisfactory slag will depend upon the amount and
chemical nature of the earthy contents in the furnace, and may be arrived at
in the usual way by furnace managers. I would have it understood that I do
not claim the use of magnesian limestone in the iron blast furnace as part of

page_text: my Invention, but I do claim the applying a mineral containing at least the
specified proportion of magnesia to lime for fluxing the iron cinder and iron
ores named under the condition above described.
My Invention relates, secondly, to the production of steel and iron by
decarburetting divided cast or refined metal to the required point in a more
certain manner by enclosing or encasing it in contact with malleable iron
(such as small scrap or crushed puddle ball) or with substance containing
oxygen, (such as iron ores, iron cinder, &c.) or with both, so that when sub-
jected together to heat the enwrapping material or case may impede the action
of the carbonaceous matter in the furnace upon their contents, and that when
the metal be partially or entirely deprived of carbon the cases or enwrapping
material may be melted or welded along with the contents. I divide or
granulate the cast metal (which I prefer to be manufactured from Cumberland
or Lancashire hematite ores and Irish aluminous and manganiferous iron
ores) by pouring it in a fluid molten state in a small stream upon a fire-tile
disc about 12 inches in diameter, making 1,500 to 2,000 revolutions per
minute, placed horizontally in a circular tank at least 7 feet diameter, con-
taining about 2 feet in depth of water, with overflow immediately below the
level of the disc, and having copious jets of water flowing down the entire
interior circumference, by which the metallic particles thrown off from the
disc by centrifugal force are cooled and remain separate, varying in size; these
I sift into 3 or 4 sizes, preferring to treat each separately, I then intermix
with the granules, as perfectly as possible, about th their weight finely
ground manganiferous iron oxide material, by preference the richest obtained
in the townland of Clenra county, Longford island, calcined, and I place
the mixtures in cases closed at the bottom, which I prefer to have of 24 gauge
sheet iron, about 3 inches diameter, and 12 to 15 inches deep (but suitable
clay that may be fused at a white heat will answer.) When filled, the cases
are closed at the top, but not so air-tight as to prevent the escape of gases.
I prefer to place these cases or vessels in a reverberatory furnace, previously
brought to a red heat until it reaches a strong white heat, with as little access
of air as possible, for about half an hour, after which the steel or iron pro-
duced may be withdrawn in any convenient manner for same after treatment
as similar qualities require in the usual course. The nature of the product
will mainly depend upon the size of the granules operated upon; the larger
producing more of a steely character and the smaller more of an iron character,
but the proportion and richness of oxide employed, as well as length of time
exposed to heat preparatory to being melted or withdrawn, will influence
results, which may also be modified by the addition of wrought iron in small

page_text: pieces, or of carbonaceous matter, the former promoting malleability, the
latter hardness and fusibility.
I would have it understood that I do not confine myself to the proportions
above named, or to any particular oxidizing substance or kind of cases or
enwrapping material, nor does my Invention consist in the heating divided
cast metal in contact with iron ore or malleable iron for the production of
steel or iron, but I claim the performance of the process by having the metal
particles and other substance enclosed or enwrapped by material which will be
in part or entirely melted or incorporated along with the more or less decar-
buretted metal granules or particles.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of July, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
J. G. WILLANS. (L.B.)