Improvements in the Manufacture of Steel.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application (in United Kingdom), 5th Oct., 1894
Complete Specification Left, 5th Oct., 1894-Accepted, 10th Nov, 1894
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Steel.
1, BENJAMIN TALBOT of Pencoyd, County of Montgomery, State of
Pennsylvania, United States of America, Metallurgist, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
My mvention relates to the manufacture of steel and particularly to an
improvement in the method of charging open hearth furnaces whereby considerable
Saving of tume in this step in the manufacture is effected, with a consequent
economy in the production of such metal.
It is the custom generally, in the making of steel by the acid or basic open
hearth process, to use pig iron and scrap as the material for the charges in the
Siemens fuinnce in which the said material is to be melted and converted into steel.
This scrap consists of various kinds and shapes of steel or iron, such as crops of
blooms, rails, bars, angles, plates, sheets, &c, and is charged separately from the
Such a miscellaneous material both in form and weight when used in its
pig iron.
ordinary condition for charging consumes a great amount of valuable time in
the introduction to the fui nace as it is now invariably charged by being thrown
or pushed in by men in small quantities This operation being so tedious and slow
it is at once apparent that with furnaces of large capacity it takes several hours to
charge them and that the furnace necessarily cools down very much while the doors
are open allowing a large quantity of cold air to be diawn into the furnace,
thereby reducing its temperature materially.
To overcome these objections I propose by my invention not only to standardize.
the sciap charges so that they may be readily introduced into the furnace with the
least possible loss of time, but I also effect a further saving of the heat by raising
the temperature of the cold scrap while preparing it for charging. It is of course
obvious that the saving of this heat which wastes during the process of charging as
now practised, results in a saving of the fuel, and the decrease in the time requited
for making a charge with this saving of heat, will necessarily increase the output,
all of which contribute materially to reduce the cost of production.
In carrying out my invention I take the scrap which consists of various kinds
and forms of decarbonized metal, her embefore stated, and place it in a suitable
mold, pouring molten cast on obtained from a blast, cupola, or other Imnace in
among the scrap filling the interstices between the various pieces so that as the
liquid metal solidifies it binds all the pieces together in a conglomerate mass. This
block or ingot is then removed from the mold and transported to the open hearth
furnace and introduced into it by suitable changing devices preferably while the
block is a heated condition. The liquid metal as it mingles with the scrap
imparts thereto while solidifying a sufficient degree of heat to raise the temperature
of the scrap to a red heat. When the block is charged in this condition a less

page_text: amount of heat 18 required in the subsequent melting down and conversion into
steel, thus saving fuel
Any suitable form of mold may be used for the purpose of casting the ingot or
block, but prefer to cast it in a mold made of four plates clamped together so as
to form a flask or mold of the shape of a truncated quadrangular pyramid, with the
base resting on an iron bottom plate forming the mold bottom, thereby rendering it
easy to lift the flask from the block or got after the metal has sufficiently set to
bind the scrap together As soon as the metal is set at the outside edges, the
clamps should be loosened because the cold metal in heating expands, bringing
considerable pressure on the inold, and making it difficult to remove the same at
the proper time.
I am aware that it has been proposed to bind the borings and turnings of
machine shops with molten iron for the purpose of forming a protecting envelope
of these fine scraps in order to ensure their melting in oidmary furnaces where
they would otherwise be buiued without melting to form iron, but my invention
differs from this in that its object is to standardize larger separate pieces of scrap
of decarbonized metal, such as her embefore mentioned, so as to make a charging of
the open hearth furnace less tedious and slow with a resulting increase in the
output, and in the consequent economy in production
I may state that I have used in practice an got about five feet long, eighteen
inches wide at the bottom, tapered to fifteen inches at the top, and twelve inches
thick, with a weight of between three thousand five hundred to four thousand
pounds, but such dimensions may be varied within certain lumits as desned. It will
be readily seen therefore, that by using an ordinary charging machine blocks of this
size can be rapidly introduced into the furnace and a great amount of tune and
laboun heretofore spent in this operation 13 saved as above stated.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, 1 declare that what I
claim is.
The herein described improvement in the manufacture of steel which consists in
standardizing the scrap charge for open hearth furnaces by casting the scrap with
liquid cast on in suitable inolds forming blocks of uniform size and removing the
mold when the liquid iron has set and bound the scrap, and charging the furnace
with the blocks thus formed while in a heated condition, substantially as and for
the purposes described.
Dated the 5th day of October 1894.
PHILIP M. JUSTICE,
55 & 56, Chaucery Lane, Loudon, Chartered Patent Agent,
For the Applicant.