IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1852

page_text: AL
W
HESE PRESENTS SHALL
COME, 1, JEAN
ERNEST BEAUVALET, Gentleman, of Paris, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twelfth day of June,
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the fifteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Jean Ernest Beauvalet, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, Her especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Jean Ernest Beauvalet,
my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Jean Ernest
Beauvalet, my exors, adññiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL," being a com-
munication from a Frenchman residing in France; in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Jean Ernest Beauvalet, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my

page_text: hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Jean Ernest Beauvalet, do hereby declare that the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that
is to say:
The Invention consists in a process for manufacturing malleable iron and
steel from cast iron, by heating it in contact with a metallic oxide (or it may
be a carbonate, which will act by reason of its oxide), and afterwards extending
it by rolling or under the hammer, but without puddling it. Any sort of cast
iron may be employed in the manufacture of iron and steel according to the
Invention, but it will be found that the quality of the product will vary with the
quality of the cast iron employed. The cast iron to be converted should first
be cast-iron bars or plates (according as the one or the other of these forms
is to be produced), in such a manner that the impurities and bubbles which
come to the surface in casting may form the end of the bar or sheet, and thus
be cut off with the rough end or edge when the bar or plate is finished, in
place of being distributed over the surface of the bar or sheet. The bar or
plate should also be cast of such a form and dimension as to produce the bar
or plate required, after being extended by rolling to the extent desired, which
should be at least five times, and for the best qualities as much as fifteen times.
The casting may either be made in moulds of metal, in which case they should be
heated, or of sand, so that in either case the metal may be of a gray colour on
cooling. For the decarbonization of cast iron, the substances which I prefer
are the protoxide of zinc and calamine. I can also employ the oxides of iron,
the red oxide of manganese, the deutoxide of copper, the peroxide of tin, or the
oxides of lead, but with the exception of the protoxide of zinc, calamine, and the
oxides of iron, they will all be found to alter permanently the character of the
iron, in consequence of an alloy being formed between the iron and the metal
liberated from the oxide during the process. Oxides of iron will succeed if they
are pure, but if the contain silica, as they usually do, they will be found to be too
fusible. As zinc is volatile, the oxide of zinc and calamine constantly expose
fresh surfaces to the iron, which is an advantage not possessed by the other
oxides. The bars or plates of cast iron to be converted are placed, together
with the oxide to be employed, in a cementing case similar to that generally

page_text: used in the manufacture of steel, the cast iron being completely enveloped in
the oxide. The quantity of each oxide to be employed, according to the
quantity of carbon which it is desired to remove, is shewn by the following
table-
or calamine has been employed, it
The case containing the cast iron and the oxide is now to be raised to a
cherry-red heat in a suitable furnace, and this heat is to be continued until
the process is complete; the time required will depend upon the size of the
plates or bars, the cementation proceeding at the rate of about one third of
a line per 24 hours from each surface. When the iron is to be converted
into steel, the same is to be less decarbonized, either by using a less quantity
of the oxide or operating for a less time. When this process is complete, if
pure iron is required, and oxide of zinc
will be necessary to drive off the zinc (a small part of which will have
combined with the iron) by continued heat in a slow furnace (a reverberatory
furnace is very suitable) until no more zinc is expelled from the iron. In the
case of steel made with oxide of zinc or calamine, it will be found desirable to
continue the cementation for a short time with charcoal in the ordinary
manner, this will expel the zinc and equalize the carbonization of the steel.
After this the metal when hot is to be extended, by rolling or under the
hammer to the extend desired. The rough ends containing the impuritics
may be cut off, and the metal is then ready for the market.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I do not confine myself
to the precise details herein-described, so long as the character of the Invention
be retained. But what I claim is the manufacture of iron malleable and steel
from the decarbonated cast iron without casting it, by heating cast iron in

page_text: contact with a metallic oxide, and afterwards extending it by rolling or under
the hammer without puddling.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jean Ernest Beauvalet, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Third day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.
JEAN ERNEST (L.S.) BEAUVALET.
Taken and acknowledged by Jean
Ernest Beauvalet, (party hereto, at
Paris, in the Republic of France,
this Third day of November, 1852,
Consul's
Seal.
THOMAS PICKFORD,
Her Britannic Majesty's
Consul at Paris.
A.
This is the Specification referred to in the Affidavit of Samuel Carpmael,
sworn before me, this 25th day of November, 1852.
D. DREW.
I, Samuel Carpmael, of Lincoln's Inn, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, maketh oath and saith, that he is acquainted with the manner
and character of the handwriting of Thomas Pickford, Her Britannic
Majesty's Consul at Paris, in the Republic of France. And this Deponent
further saith, that the signature "Thomas Pickford," set, subscribed, or
written in the margin of the Specification hereunto annexed, marked A, and
dated the Third day of November now instant, and purporting to be executed
by Jean Ernest Beauvalet, of Paris, Gentleman, whereby it is stated that the
said Specification was acknowledged by him, the said Jean Ernest Beauvalet,
before the said Thomas Pickford, on the said Third day of November, at Paris
aforesaid, is of the proper handwriting of the said Thomas Pickford.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the oath of Samuel Carpmael, the
Specification aforesaid was enrolled word for word as above written.
And
also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute made for that purpose.