IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Henry Johnson, of 47, Lincoln's Inn
Fields, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON."-A communication
from abroad by William Sellers, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in
the United States of America.
Scaled the 6th August 1872, and dated the 14th June 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Johnson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition;
on the 14th June 1872.
.
I, JOHN HENRY. JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County
5 of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON," a com-
munication to me from abroad by William Sellers, of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, in the United States of America, to be as follows:-
יו
.
In the practice of the art of puddling iron as conducted prior to this
> Invention the process is carried on and effected in furnaces of various.
constructions with adaptations of appliances equally varied, but the
"

page_text: majority of these furnaces are of the reverberatory type in which the
metal is manipulated by means of iron rabbles or tools controlled and
operated entirely by the workmen.
Attempts, however, have been made to lessen the manual labor by
mechanical devices for operating the rabbling tools, leaving the workmen
only to control and regulate the necessary changes of the direction in
which they work, and in another class of furnaces these tools have been
altogether dispensed with, their functions being fulfilled by the revolu-
tions of the furnace itself, and the workmen's labor being restricted to
the regulation of the speed at which the puddling vessel revolves (this
speed differing at different stages of the process) and to the determination
of the proper duration of the work.
In the puddling operation as ordinarily conducted, that is, with a
stationary furnace or puddling vessel, the boiling operation is first
completed, the iron is then worked into balls of suitable size by the
workman and removed one ball after another to the squeezer or hammer
for further manipulation, and after all the balls have been removed from
the furnace the cinder is tapped off. The operation is materially varied
from this when performed in a rotating vessel, where after the boiling
operation is completed and the iron has natured, as it is technically
termed, the cinder is tapped off and the speed of the rotating vessel
is increased so that the iron will be prevented from balling and the
small particles or lumps will be exposed to the action of the flame for
the purpose of sweating or burning out impurities such as sulphur or
phosphorous.
The rotating puddling vessel which it is preferred to use in carrying
out this Invention is one similar to or substantially the same as that
which is described and referred to in the Specification of Letters Patent
granted to me the Third of October One thousand eight hundred and
seventy-one, No. 2612.
When this operation has been continued long enough, which will be
determined in view of the amount of impuritics which it is desired to
thus expel, the speed of the rotating vessel is slackened so that the
metal will fall into a mass and be rolled into a single ball, which may
then be removed to the hammer or to undergo some other subsequent
operation.
•
When puddled in a stationary furnace the iron is protected from the
action of the air by the cinder so that the character of the flame is not

page_text: so important as it is in the rotating vessel where the metal is exposed,
and preferably so, to the action of the flame without any protection
whatever.
In rotating puddling vessels, however, it becomes most important to
5 regulate the character of the flame by controlling its constituents so
that the metal may be exposed to its action for purification without
being wasted. This control in the present state of the art can be best
exercised by the use of gaseous fuel, the relative proportions of its
constituents (air and gas) being regulated by valves, but the requisite
O intensity of flame cannot be obtained if the constituents of the flame are
brought to the place of combustion at the ordinary temperature of the
atmosphere.
In order, therefore, to produce the requisite intensity of flame and at
the same time control the relative proportions of the constituents thereof
b it is necessary that these constituents shall be previously heated either
one or both, and for this purpose it is proposed to employ the system
of heat regeneration or restoration and the apparatus therefore which
is described and referred to in the Provisional Specification lodged by
me at Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 6th of Jan³ 1872,
No. 50.
•
If, however, the gas should be brought to the place of combustion
at the temperature or nearly so at which it left the gas producer, and
the air which supports the combustion should alone be heated by the
waste products of combustion from the puddling vessel, a very effective
heat can be obtained.
I wish it to be explicitly understood, however, that the present
Invention, while contemplating the use of different rotating puddling
vessels and different regenerative apparatus, does not contemplate, nor
do I desire it to include any regenerative apparatus except such as use
gaseous fuel only with the necessary provisions for generating the gas
and delivering it to the point at which it is combined with the air and
consumed.
It is the object of this Invention to improve the art of mechanical
puddling, and to this end the Invention consists essentially in the com-
bination of a rotating puddling vessel and a heat restoring or regenerative
apparatus, substantially such as above described.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Henry Johnson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 14th December 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Joun
HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Mid-
sex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria; by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-two, in the 35th
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said John Henry Johnson, Her special license that
I, the said John, Henry Johnson, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said John Henry Johnson, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thercafter 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," a communication to me from abroad by
William Sellers, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States of
America, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John
Henry Johnson, my exccutors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, 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 Scal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Henry Johnson, do hereby.
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and.
by the following statement, reference being had to the accompanying.
Drawings and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to
say:―
In the practice of the art of puddling iron as conducted prior to this
Invention the process is carried on and effected in furnaces of various
constructions with adaptions of appliances equally varied, but the
majority of these furnaces are of the ordinary reverberatory type, in

page_text: which the metal is manipulated by means of iron rabbles or tools
controlled and operated entirely by the workmen."
Attempts however have been made to lessen the manual labour by
mechanical devices for operating the rabbling tools, leaving the workmen
only to control and regulate the necessary changes of the direction in
which they work, and in another class of furnaces these tools have been
altogether dispensed with, their functions being fulfilled by the revolu-
tions of the furnace itself, and the workmen's labour being restricted to
the regulation of the speed at which the puddling vessel revolves this
speed differing at different stages of the process) and to the determination
of the proper duration of the work.
In the puddling operation as ordinarily conducted, that is, with a
stationary furnace or puddling vessel, the boiling operation is first
completed, the iron is then worked into balls of suitable size by the
workmen and removed one ball after another to the squeezer or hammer
for further manipulation, and after all the balls have been removed
from the furnace the cinder is tapped off. The operation is materially
varied from this when performed in a rotating vessel, where after the
boiling operation is completed and the iron was "natured as it is
technically termed the cinder is tapped off and the speed of the rotating
vessel is increased, so that the iron will be prevented from balling and
the small particles or lumps will be exposed to the action of the flame
for the purpose of sweating or burning out impurities such as sulpher
or phosphorous.
The rotating puddling vessel which it is preferred to use in carrying
out this Invention is one similar to or substantially the same as that
which is described and referred to in the Specification of Letters Patent
granted to me on behalf of the said William Sellers and dated the Third*
of October One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, No. 2612.
When the operation has been continued long enough, which will be
determined in view of the amount of impurities which it is desired to
thus expel, the speed of the rotating vessel is slackened so that the
metal will fall into a mass and be rolled into a single ball, which may
then be removed to the hammer or to undergo some other subsequent
operation.
When puddled in a stationary furnace the iron is protected from the

page_text: so important as it is in the rotating vessel where the metal is exposed,
and preferably so, to the action of the flame without any protection
whatever.
In rotating puddling vessels however it becomes most important to
regulate the character of the flame by controlling its constituents so
that the metal may be exposed to its action for purification without
being wasted. This control in the present state of the art can be best
exercised by the use of gaseous fuel, the relative proportions of its.
constituents (air and gas) being regulated by valves, but the requisite
intensity of flame cannot be obtained if the constituents of the flame
are brought to the place of combustion at the ordinary temperature of
the atmosphere.
In order therefore to produce the requisite intensity of flame and
at the same time control the relative proportions of the constituents
thereof it is necessary that these constituents shall be previously heated
either one or both, and for this purpose it is proposed to employ the
system of heat regeneration or restoration and the apparatus therefore
described and referred to in the Specification of Letters Patent granted
to me on behalf of the said William Sellers and George H-. Sellers
bearing date the Sixth of June One thousand cight hundred and seventy-
two, No. 50.
If however the gas should be brought to the place of combustion at
the temperature or nearly so at which it left the gas producer, and the
air which supports the combustion should alone be heated by the
waste products of combustion from the puddling vessel, a very effective
beat can be obtained.
I wish it to be explicitly understood, however, that the present Inven-
tion, while contemplating the use of different rotating puddling vessels
and different regenerating apparatus, does not contemplate nor do I
desire it to include any regenerative apparatus except such as use
gaseous fuel only with the necessary provisions for generating the gas
and delivering it to the point at which it is combined with the air and
consumed.
.
It is the object of this Invention to improve the art of mechanical
puddling, and to this end the Invention consists essentially in the
combination of a rotating puddling vessel and a heat restoring or
regenerative apparatus substantially such as above described, and by

page_text: advantages:
First. He is enabled to utilize to any desirable extent that capacity of
the rotary puddler for maintaining the iron in such a state of division
as is utterly impracticable in a stationery puddling vessel.
Secondly. He is enabled to maintain the iron in this state of division
without wasting it, which would be impracticable except with such a
regenerative apparatus.
Thirdly. By maintaining the iron in this state of division and exposing
it to a properly regulated flame he is enabled to deprive it of impurities,
such as sulphur and phosphorous, which could not be expelled except
under these two co-operating conditions.
Fourthly. By this combination of apparatus he is enabled to produce
from a given material a quality of iron superior to what could be produced
from the same material by a regenerative apparatus and a stationary
furnace or by a rotating puddling vessel without such regencrative
apparatus.
And in order that the said Invention may be fully understood, I
shall now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that
purpose shall refer to the several Figures on the annexed Sheets of
Drawings, the same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts
in all the Figures.
Figure 1 (Sheet 1) of the Drawings is a sectional elevation of a heat
regenerating apparatus such as I have herein-before referred to, com-
bined with a rotary puddling machine such as I have herein-before
referred to, the said Figure illustrating the operation of this Invention
in the best form which has been used by the Inventor, and in what he
deems the best form for attaining all the advantages of his improvement.
Figure 2 is a transverse vertical section, taken along the line 1-2 in
Figure 1.
Figure 3 (Sheet 2) is a sectional plan taken along the line 3-4 in
Figure 2.
Figure 4 is a vertical section taken along the line 5-6 in Figure 3.

page_text: Figure 6 (Sheet 3) is an elevation, of the puddling machine and
the upper part of the regenerator containing the flues in connection
with such puddling machine; and Figure 7 is a plan of the same
showing in dotted lines the flucs communicating with the regenerative
apparatus.
The construction and operation of the regenerative apparatus having
been set forth and described in the Specification of my said Patent bearing
date the Sixth of January One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two,
No. 50, I therefore deem it unnecessary hercin to describe more than
the following particulars to enable those skilled in the art to which
this Invention pertains to combine and use the two elements of this
Invention
-
The revolving puddling vessel A is preferably constructed mounted
and operated as described in the Specification of my said Patent,
No. 2612, Anno Domini One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.
The currents of air and gas are brought respectively through the
flues F and G¹ from their heating chambers A and B', Figures 1 and 3,
to the point S, at which they unite and burst into flame, and the
products of combustion pass downward into the regenerative apparatus
through the flues T, T, as described in my said Specification, No. 50,
A.D. 1872.
The axis of vibration of the frame which carries the puddling vessel A.
is the pintle (Figures 6 and 7), which is so situate with reference to
the flues S and T that when the puddling vessel is in the position shewn
in full lines in Figure 7 the mouth of the vessel shall enclose the
openings of these flues. The same position will be seen by reference to
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings, so that the flame which issues
from the flue S will pass around the interior of the puddling vessel A,
and the products of combustion will pass through the flue T in the
direction of the arrows to the regenerative apparatus (see Figure 1).
The connection between the puddling vessel A and the flues S and T so
as to permit the revolution of the puddling vessel whilst the escape of
flame shall be prevented is made by the flat ring R (Figures 1 and 7),
which surrounds the openings of the flues. The surface of this ring is
made sufficiently broad to correspond with the surface of the open end
of the vessel A, so that when the vessel is brought up to the ring these
broad surfaces, without being in actual contact, will be so close together
as to prevent the escape of flame between them. The back of the ring R

page_text: is so secured to the casing of the flue as to prevent the escape of the air
or gas on that side.
Having thus described and particularly ascertained the nature of the
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used
or carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider
to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured
to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the com-
bination of a heat restorer or regenerative apparatus, substantially such
as hercin-before described, and a rotating puddling vessel, substantially
such as herein-before described.
In witness whercof, I, the said John Henry Johnson, have to this
my Specification set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of
December One thousand cight hundred and seventy-two.
T HENRY JOHNSON