IMPROVEMENTS IN FETTLING FOR PUDDLING AND BOILING FURNACES
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Thomas Holland, of Llanelly, in the
County of Carmarthen, Earthenware Manufacturer, for the In-
vention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FETTLING FOR PUDDLING AND BOILING
FURNACES."
Sealed the 27th January 1874, and dated the 3rd December 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Thomas.
Holland at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 3rd December 1873.
I, WILLIAM THOMAS HOLLAND, of Llanelly, in the County of Car-.
marthen, Earthenware Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FETTLING FOR PUDDLING AND:
BOILING FURNACES," to be as follows:―
My Invention substantially consists in the manufacture and employ-
ment of fettling for puddling and boiling furnaces, whether rotary or
otherwise, made of a siliceous base, such as sandstone or silica, in com-
bination with some vitrifiable material or materials, all as hereafter
described.

page_text: The bases or chief ingredients of the fettling may be cither, for
example, sandstone or silica, millstone grit, fire-stone, ganister, silver
sand, white or native silica and its combinations, calcined flint stones,
quartz, stoneware, fire and other clays after being fired and pulverized,
or other materials, possessing similar qualities; or I employ potters'
saggers, old fire-brick, or other refractory material.
In some cases I use pulverized earthenware, china, and parian made
or produced from broken pitchers in biscuit state, as well as glazed, and
sometimes in order to prevent the fettling made from earthenware,
china, and parian being too vitreous I mix sand with it.
The vitrifiable cements or materials which I employ are either
Cornwall china stone, Jersey china stone, Middleton Hill stone, felspar,
fluorspar, soda, potash, salt, pulverized or ground glass, glassy slag
from iron works, pumicestone, boracic acid and its combinations,
oxides and carbonates of lead, or other substances of an equivalent
nature.
To produce a fettling according to my Invention I take material of one
or other of the bases before mentioned, sandstone for example. I
pulverize or crush the sandstone and then sift or screen it in any con-
venient manner; this done I take a vitrifiable material, say Cornwall
china stone, which I finely pulverize in any convenient way, but I find
it is best done by grinding it in water, then drying and screening it
finely, the two ingredients, viz., the sandstone and the china stone, are
subsequently thoroughly incorporated the one with the other in a dry
or wet state and by the aid of any convenient and suitable machinery.
The proportions in which the base of the fettling and the vitrifiable
material are used vary according to the nature of the vitrifiable material
employed, but I have found that when making a fettling according to
my Invention from sandstone and Cornwall china stone, as before
described, that from six to seven per cent. of the china stone is sufficient
to produce a good and durable fettling material that will set firmly with
the heat of the furnace and be much more durable than any fettling
material now known; but of course these proportions must be varied
according to the particular quality of the stone or other vitrifiable
material employed.

page_text: Sometimes to the above ingredients I add a small proportion of
manganese, and particularly when the fettling material is intended for
use in steel works and in the puddling of certain classes of iron.
In some cases where I have used pulverized fired articles for a base
I have found that by a judicious combination of the different classes of
these fired articles that I have been able to dispense with wholly, or as
nearly so as possible, the especial addition of any vitrifiable cement
whatever.
Sometimes I find it convenient to mix some of the vitrifiable materials
aforesaid, such as soda, potash, boracic acid, and the like when in a
liquid state with the base.
In making a fettling of some of the materials before mentioned, for
example, when I use silver sand combined with Cornwall china stone I
find it advisable and in some cases requisite to employ or to add to the
mixture a little clay, or by preference a farinaceous or other mucilage
in order to cause the better adhesion of the particles together while
being spread on the furnace or applied thereto.
Fettling material made according to my Invention may either be
applied to the furnaces when cold or it may be used or applied when the
furnaces are at work, and by this means it is not necessary to cool down
the furnaces in order to apply the fettling material, nor is it necessary
to fettle the whole furnace as often as when the ordinary fettling is used.
I find morcover that defective parts when they do occur can be easily
and quickly repaired while the furnace is at full heat.
In order to cause or to insure the better adhesion of the fettling
material I sometimes where found advisable apply a powder or wash
made from some of the vitrifiable materials to the sides and other parts
of the furnace previous to the application of the fettling material
thereto.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-seventh year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said William Thomas Holland, Her special licence that I,
the said William Thomas Holland, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said William Thomas Holland, my
executors, administrators, 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 FETTLING FOR PUDDLING AND BOILING FURNACES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Thomas Holland, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Thomas Holland, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention substantially consists in the manufacture and employ-
ment of fettling for puddling and boiling furnaces, whether rotary or
otherwise, made of a siliceous basc, such as sandstone or silica in com-
bination with some vitrifiable material or materials, all as hereafter
described.
The bases or chief ingredients of the fettling may be either, for
example, sandstone or silica, millstone grit, fire-stone, ganister, silver
sand, white or native silica and its combinations, calcined flint stones,
quartz, stoneware, fire and other clays after being fired and pulverized,
or other materials possessing similar. qualities; or I employ potters'
saggers, old fire-brick, or other refractory material.
In some cases I use pulverized earthenware, china and parian, made
or produced from broken pitchers in biscuit state, as well as glazed, and

page_text: sometimes in order to prevent the fettling made of earthenware, china,
and parian being too vitreous I mix sand with it.
The vitrifiable cements or materials which I employ are either
Cornwall china stone, Jersey china stone, Middleton Hill stone, felspar,
fluorspar, soda, potash, pulverized or ground glass, glassy slag from iron.
works, pumice stone, boracic acid and its combinations, or other sub-
stances of an equivalent nature.
To produce a fettling according to my Invention I take material of one
or other or a combination of the bases before mentioned, sandstone for
example. I pulverize or crush the sandstone and then sift or screen it
in any convenient manner; this done I take a vitrifiable material, say
Cornwall china stone, which I finely pulverize in any convenient way;
but I find it is best done by grinding it in water, then drying and
screening it finely, the two ingredients, viz., the sandstone and the china
stone, are subsequently thoroughly incorporated, the one with the other,
in a dry or wet state and by the aid of any convenient and suitable
machinery.
The proportions in which the base of the fettling and the vitrifiable
material are used vary according to the nature of the vitrifiable material
employed, but I have found that when making a fettling according to
my Invention from sandstone and Cornwall china stone, as before
described, that from six to seven per cent. of the china stone is sufficient
to produce a good and durable fettling material that will set firmly with
the heat of the furnace and be much more durable than any fettling
material now known; but of course these proportions must be varied
according to the particular quality of the stone or other vitrifiable
material or combination of materials employed.
Sometimes to the above ingredients I add a small proportion of
manganese and particularly when the fettling material is intended for
use in steel works and in the puddling of certain classes of iron for
special purposes.
In some cases where I have used pulverized fired articles for a base
I have found that by a judicious combination of the different classes of
these fired articles that I have been able to dispense with wholly, or as
nearly so as possible, the especial addition of any vitrifiable cement
whatever.
&

page_text: Sometimes I find it convenient to mix some of the vitrifiable materials
aforesaid, such as soda, potash, boracic acid, and the like when in a
liquid state with the base.
In making a fettling of some of the materials before mentioned, for
example, when I use silver sand combined with Cornwall china stone I
find it advisable and in some cases requisite to employ or to add to the
mixture a little clay or by preference a farinaceous or other mucilage
in order to cause the better adhesion of the particles together while
being spread on the furnace or applied thereto.
Fettling material made according to my Invention may either be
applied to the ordinary puddling furnaces when cold or it may be used
or applied when the furnaces are at work, and by this means it is not
necessary to cool down the furnaces in order to apply the fettling
material, nor is it necessary to fettle the whole furnace as often as when
the ordinary fettling is used. I find moreover that defective parts when
they do occur can be casily and quickly repaired while the furnace is at
full heat.
In order to cause or to insure the better adhesion of the fettling
material I sometimes where found advisable apply a powder or wash
made from some of the vitrifiable materials to the sides and other parts 2
of the furnace previous to the application of the fettling material there-
to; or I form the surface with ribs, as will be more particularly here-
after described.
To fettle a rotary furnace, such for instance as furnaces known as
Danks' Patent revolving puddling furnaces, with any one or combination :
of the base materials specified mixed in varied proportions with one or
more of the vitrifiable cements specified I proceed as follows:--I first
wash over the interior of iron cylinder and other parts where a protective
lining is to be applied with a coating of either ground Middleton Hill
or Jersey china stone, to which a little dissolved crystal soda has been pre-
viously added, then I take for example best quality of fire-stone crushed
roughly, and add about ten per cent. of Jersey china stone by weight,
but ground in water, and to this whilst in a liquid state some mucilage
is added to assist the setting, the whole is then mixed well up together,
not using more water than requisite, I then apply this stiff composition
to the interior and sides of the cylinder taking each compartment as it is
turned for the purpose; I fill and ram well in every part between the

page_text: flanges or hollow ribs first and cover these to the depth of one or two
inclics throughout and leave the form cylindrical, with rough or smooth
face, as may be desired, I then pass the heat from the fire through the
cylinder, which is caused to revolve slowly and gradually till the lining
is well dried, then I bring it up to the heat quickly for fusing the
vitrifiable cement and subject the whole to a higher heat than the
puddled iron is likely to be subjected to. When allowed to cool a little
the charge of molten pig iron can be put in for the rotary puddling.
"
If the lining is required to be deeper and rougher or raised this can be
done at one firing, or preferably by a second firing by proceeding with
the same materials, or a different composition may be used, and adding
to or fixing on the first lining raised transverse ribs across the cylinder
with regular spaces between; or two or more raised ribs can be carried
round the cylinder, leaving hollow or grooved spaces for three or more
blooms to be worked, and with or without any shallower transverse ribs
in the grooves. When well fired and firmly set this fettling will be
durable. The raised ribs when used are intended to be continuous on
the lining and not in pieces; and when any portion of the lining is
worn down to the iron ribs the lining can be repaired without cutting
out the whole by proceeding as above indicated, and various compositions
from the materials indicated may be used as a wash or powder over the
surface to give a more vitreous coating as may be desired.
If any support is required during the firing and fixing of the raised or
second lining this can be done by using fired rings or tubes of fire-clay
with any similar fire-clay packing requisite to sustain the lining in
position.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention and the
manner of performing same I wish it understood that I do not limit
myself to the precise proportions or to the exact materials given, pro-
vided equivalents are used, but I claim as my improvements in fettling
for puddling and boiling furnaces,―
First. The manufacture and employment of a fettling or fettlings
consisting of silicious bases in combination with vitrifiable material or
materials, substantially as herein-before described, together with any
mere modifications thereof.
Second. The manufacture and employment of fettling or fettlings by
the combination of different classes of fired and other articlos with the

page_text: }
use or addition thereto of a very small proportion of vitrifiable cement,
and in some cases without any vitrifiable cement at all, substantially
as described.
Third. The method and means described for causing the adhesion and
ready application of the fettling material or materials.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Thomas Holland, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this First day of June, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.