CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LANCELOT
POWELL, of Clydach Works, in the County of Brecon, Ironmaster, send
groeting.
.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by .Her Royal
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the
Twenty-fourth day of April, in the fourth year of Her reign, did give and
grant unto me, the said Lancelot Powell, and to ROBERT ELLIS, of Clydach
Works aforesaid, Agent, our exors, adñiors, and assigns, Her special licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the said Lancelot Powell
and Robert Ellis, our exors, admors, and assigns, during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within that part of Her United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called
England, Her Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON;" in which
said: Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging us, the said Lancelot
Powell and Robert Ellis, particularly to describe the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument
in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us,
to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar.

page_text: months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, as in
and by the said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Lancelot Powell, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention of
us, the said Lancelot Powell and Robert Ellis, and the manner in which the
same is to be performed, are ascertained and described in and by these
Presents:-
Our said Improvements in the Manufacture of Iron consist of a certain
improved process or certain improved processes for reducing iron to a malle-
able state. In order the more conveniently to describe such our Invention,
we will first explain several other processes which have been heretofore
adopted for rendering iron malleable, neither of which other processes is the
subject of our claim. One of such processes, and that most generally in use,
is, to take the pig iron, when cold, as produced from the blast furnace in which
the iron ore, or other combination of iron with other substances, has been
smelted, and to melt and refine the same in a furnace known as a refinery, in
which it is subjected to fusion, and to the action of a stream or streams of air,
and from which it is run out into moulds, and so becomes what is termed
finers' metal. Such finers' metal, when cold, is broken into pieces, and is then
puddled and rendered malleable in a furnace called a puddling furnace, from
whence it is taken and subjected to the process of squeezing or hammering,
and then rolled into bars. Another process heretofore used for reducing iron
to a malleable state is, to take the iron, when cold, as produced from the blast
furnace, and, without subjecting the same to the process of refining as afore-
said, to place it in a furnace known as a boiling furnace,. in which, by means
of considerable boiling or extreme fermentation, in addition to the ordinary
processes adopted in the puddling furnace, the iron is rendered malleable, an:l
so prepared for squeezing or hammering and rolling into bars as aforesaid.
The use of the boiling furnace (to which in describing our said Invention we
shall herein-after particularly refer), though partially adopted at several iron
works for reducing cold, pig, or cast iron to a malleable state, has not hitherto
become general or very extensive, and we will therefore briefly describe its
construction. The form of such boiling furnace is very similar to that of the
puddling furnace, differing therefrom principally in the following particulars :-
In the puddling furnace. the floss bridge or altar, which is a shelf or rising of
brickwork at the extremity of the sole or hearth farthest from the fire-grate,
is only from. two. to. three inches in height; or thereabouts, and over such
shelf the scoria or cinder from the furnace flows towards the floss-hole or

page_text: opening at the bottom of the flue, through which floss-hole or opening the
scoria or cinder ultimately escapes, and is discharged from the furnace;
whereas in the boiling furnace such floss bridge or. altar is twelve inches high,
or thereabouts, and is raised to a level with the bottom of the principal door-
way or opening into the furnace, by that means preventing the iron, when
boiling and fermenting, from running or escaping towards the floss-hole or flue
opening; and inasmuch as the scoria or cinder is thus also prevented in the
boiling furnace from discharging itself through the floss-hole, another hole or
opening is constructed at or near the bottom or sole of the furnace, below the
principal doorway before mentioned, or in some other suitable position, for the
purpose of drawing off through the same the scoria or cinder from such boiling
furnace, which latter hole or opening is stopped up with clay or other similar
substance, except when opened from time to time for so drawing off such
scoria or cinder as aforesaid. Besides the processes before explained, other
methods have been heretofore adopted for renducing iron to a malleable state.
One of such methods is, to take the iron in a molten state, as first produced
from the blast furnace, and to run or convey the same whilst continuing in
such molten state immediately into the refinery, and so to produce finers'
metal, and to subject such finers' metal, when cold, to the process of puddling,
and the other subsequent processes, as herein-before explained. And another
method consists in taking or conveying the iron, whilst in the melted or fluid
state, direct from the blast furnace into the ordinary furnace, known as:a
-puddling furnace, to be there puddled and brought to a malleable state.
.
Having thus explained some of the methods heretofore used for rendering
iron malleable, we will now proceed to describe the Invention which we claim.
Our Invention is twofold. One part thereof consists in and is limited to the
operation of boiling, in the furnace known as a boiling furnace, in addition to
the ordinary operations performed in the puddling furnace, iron brought or
conveyed to such boiling furnace whilst in a molten or red hot state imme-
diately from the blast furnace. And our said Invention does not extend to its
introduction into the puddling furnace, or to the puddling thereof.in the same,
in which latter description of furnace we believe such process cannot be advan-
tageously or profitably performed, inasmuch as the structure thereof.does not
permit of sufficient boiling and fermentation for the proper decarbonization or
purification of such iron as has not undergone the process of the refinery.
And we distinctly disclaim as our Invention, as well the introduction into and
puddling in the puddling furnace of molten or fluid iron brought direct from
the blast furnace, as also the boiling and puddling of cold iron of any
description in either the puddling or the boiling furnace.

page_text: The other part of our said Invention consists in subjecting the iron, whils
boiling and fermenting in such boiling furnace, to the action of a stream of
blast or atmospheric air, for the purpose of correcting the red short quality to
which iron is liable which has not undergone the process of the refinery, and
for more quickly and perfectly purifying the iron, and bringing the same to a
malleable state. The blast or atmospheric air should be passed or driven
upon and over the surface of the materials with which the furnace is charged,
as soon as such materials have begun to assume a boiling state, and should be
continued during the operation of boiling and fermenting, and discontinued
previously to the metal being brought or converted into balls. The method
.we have hitherto pursued for its application has been to introduce a stream of
blast by means of a pipe inserted in, a tuyere, the interior orifice whereof
about six inches from the principal doorway of the furnace on the side thereof
next the fire-grate, and nearly level with or a little above the bottom of the
doorway, such pipe pointing towards the flue, and inclining towards the sole or
bed of the furnace. We have found in the manufacture of malleable iron from
the Welsh ores that with a charge of four and a half hundredweight of iron, a
stream of air. introduced into the furnace through a pipe of one inch diameter,
with a pressure of one and a half to two pounds on the inch, leads to a benc
ficial result; but the quantity of air to be used will necessarily vary with the
different circumstances attending every operation. And we do not intend to
limit ourselves to the quantities and positions we have mentioned, which may
be varied, as before observed.
The means and modifications of apparatus for effecting the processes herein-
before mentioned are too well known to practical engineers and workmen of
ordinary skill, employed in the manufacture of iron, to require any more par-
ticular description or definition of the same than is herein-before given or,
contained to enable such workmen to practise our Invention with success.
:
We claim as our Invention the manufacture of malleable iron by subjecting
to the operation of boiling, in addition to that of puddling and fermentation,
iron brought whilst in a molten or red hot state immediately from the blast
furnace to a boiling or reverberatory furnace, of the particular description or
construction above mentioned or referred to (or of any other suitable con
struction to admit of the process of sufficiently boiling, as well as puddling and
fermenting the materials therein), and by the subjecting of "such iron, as afore-
said in such boiling furnace to the.action, of blast or atmospheric-air as
herein-before mentioned or described.
-
We also claim as our Invention. the passing or driving, a stream or streams
of blast or atmospheric air upon and over the surface of the materials for the

page_text: purpose of assisting in the purification of iron, and in rendering the same
malleable whilst under the operation of boiling, puddling, or fermenting, in a
reverberatory furnace of any description or construction, but under no other
circumstances whatsoever.
In witness whereof, I, the said Lancelot Powell, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-one.