IMPROVEMENTS IN PURIFYING IRON OR ANY OTHER METAL
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Antonio Brady, of Maryland Point, Stratford, in
the County of Essex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PURIFYING IRON OR ANY OTHER METAL."-A communication from abroad
by Edward Brady, 2031, Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
United States.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Antonio Brady at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th October 1869.
I, ANTONIO BRADY, of Maryland Point, Stratford, in the County of
Essex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PURIFYING IRON OR ANY OTHER METAL," a communication, to be as
follows:-
This Invention consists in mingling, mixing, and manipulating
sulphates of soda, potassa, and alumina, or any sulphates of the metals
of the alkalies, earths, or alkaline earths, and calcium, or the oxides or.
other compounds thereof, with any sort, kind, or description of melted

page_text: iron, ores of iron, or iron pyrites, or of any other melted metal or
mineral in an ordinary blast furnace by common mechanical means, or
the melted iron or other metals can be poured on to the sulphates in
suitable vessels, but the calcium should be added last, the chemical
changes and results consequent thereupon decomposing, evolving,
separating, combining, and depositing, by the laws of natural chemical
affinity, the impurities of carbon, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur, and the
like, and generating sulphurous and other acid gases, and forming a
slag. The oxygen becoming disengaged upon a decomposition of the
sulphates caused by contact with the melted iron or other metals or
consequent upon a fusion therewith will unite by chemical attraction
with a greater part or more or less of the carbon, phosphorus, silicon,
and a portion of the sulphur in the molten mass, and will form carbonic
acid gas, phosphorus acid gas, silicic acid in a liquidity, and sulphurous
acid gas, these gases escaping or passing off, or they may be conducted
into proper receptacles by some convenient methods, and the fluid acid
and the remaining sulphur having a much greater natural chemical
affinity for the calcium and for the other bases sodium, potassium, or
aluminium, than for iron will coalesce and make sulphides and silicates or
a slag which becomes disengaged from the iron or other metals by specific
gravity, leaving the hot iron or other metals pure, and the same can be
converted by the usual manners of proceeding therein into wrought or
malleable iron, or when a sufficiency of the carbon is left in the iron
into steel, and direct from the smelting furnaces without the inter-
vention of and dispensing with the processes known as "puddling or
second melting," which, however, may be resorted to if need be.
The quantities or proportions of materials and chemical agents or
ingredients to be used cannot be specified definitely because such
depends upon the greater or lesser amount or share of the impurities
contained in the molten metal which varies materially according to its
quality, thus requiring a larger or smaller quantity of the sulphates and
proportion of calcium to be determined by practical experience in every
instance.
In case too much carbon shall have been taken out or destroyed by
the before-mentioned process or processes I add such other ingredient
or material to the melted mass as may be necessary to put back such
portion of carbon to form any required quality of steel. One pound
cach of the dry sulphates of soda and potassa, or their equivalents, and

page_text: three pounds of calcium in the form of pulverized lime or other avail-
able form will produce a purifying change or beneficial effect upon one
thousand pounds of molten metal, but I do not desire to limit myself to
those or to any specific quantities of the chemical agents, and with iron
or other metal or mineral containing much sulphur an increased
proportion of calcium may be advantageous.
I wish it distinctly understood that I do not limit myself to iron
only, as the above chemical process is applicable to any other metal or
mineral.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Antonio Brady in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 20th April 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANTONIO
BRADY, of Maryland Point, Stratford, in the County of Essex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Antonio Brady, Her special licence that
I, the said Antonio Brady, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Antonio Brady, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PURIFYING
IRON OR ANY OTHER METAL," (a communication to me from abroad by
Edward Brady, 2031, Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United
States,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Antonio
Brady, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Antonio Brady, 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:-
The nature of this Invention consists in mingling, mixing, and
manipulating sulphates of soda, potassa, and alumina, or any sulphates
of the metals of the alkalies, earths, or alkaline earths, and calcium or
the oxides or other compounds thereof, with any sort, kind, or descrip-
tion of melted iron, ores of iron, or iron pyrites, &c., or of any other
melted metal or mineral in an ordinary blast furnace by common
mechanical means, or the melted iron, &c. can be poured on to the sul-
phates in suitable vessels, but the calcia should be added last, the
chemical changes and results consequent thereupon decomposing,
evolving, separating, combining, and depositing, by the laws of natural
chemical affinity, the impurities of carbon, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur,
&c., and generating sulphurous, &c. acid gases, and forming a slag. The
oxygen becoming disengaged upon a decomposition of the sulphates
caused by a contact with the melted iron, &c., or consequent upon a
fusion therewith, will unite by chemical attraction with a greater part or
more or less of the carbon, phosphorus, silicon, and a portion of the
sulphur in the molten mass, and will form carbonic acid gas, phosphorus
acid gas, silicic acid in a liquidity, and sulphurous acid gas, these gases
escaping or passing off, or they may be conducted into proper receptacles
by some convenient methods, and the fluid acid and the remaining
sulphur having a much greater natural chemical affinity for the calcium,
and for the other bases sodium, potassium, or aluminium, &c. than for
iron, &c. will coalesce and make sulphides and silicates or a slag which
becomes disengaged from the iron, &c. by specific gravity, leaving the
hot iron, &c. pure, and the same can be converted by the usual manners
of proceeding therein into wrought or malleable iron, &c., or a due
sufficiency of the carbon being left in the iron into steel, and direct
from the smelting furnaces without the intervention of the processes
known as "puddling," &c., or the iron may be puddled if desired.
The quantities or proportions of materials and chemical agents or
ingredients to be used cannot be specified definitely, because such
depends upon the greater or lesser amount or share of the impurities
contained in the molten metal, which varies materially according to its
quality, thus requiring a larger or smaller quantity of the sulphates and

page_text: proportion of calcia to be determined by a practical experience in every
instance. One pound each of the dry sulphates of soda and potassa, or
their equivalents, and threo pounds of the oxide of calcium pulverized,
or any other available form thereof, will produce a purifying change or
beneficial effect upon one thousand pounds of molten metal, but I do
not desire to limit myself to those or to any specific quantities of the
chemical agents, and with iron or other metal or mineral containing
much sulphur an increased proportion of calcia may be advantageous.
I wish it to be distinctly understood that I do not limit myself to
iron only, as the above chemical process is applicable to any other metal
or mineral.
What I claim as the Invention and desire to secure by Letters
Patent is, mixing the sulphates of the alkalies or alkaline earths, &c.,
and the oxide of calcium or any available form thereof with melted
iron or other metal or mineral, whereby the impurities of sulphur,
silicon, phosphorus, &c. are set free, substantially as above described
and set forth,
In witness whereof, I, the said Antonio Brady, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
ANTONIO BRADY. (L.S.)