IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON WHEN OXIDE IRON ORES ARE USED
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles McIlvaine Congreve, Merchant, of New
York, in the United States of America, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON WHEN OXIDE IRON ORES ARE USED."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles M.Ilvaine Congrève
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 19th April 1855.
.
I, CHARLES M°ILVAINE CONGREVE, Merchant, of New York, in the United
States of America; do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON WHEN OXIDE IRON ORES ARE USED". to
be as follows:-
This. Invention is applicable to the manufacture of iron when oxide iron ores
are used, and the Invention consists of feeding such iron ores by a screw from
a hopper into a slowly-revolving cylinder, which is externally heated by the
heat and products of combustion passing off from a reverberating furnace
below. The ore is in a reduced state and mixed with a quantity of carbon
when fed into the cylinder. The ore and carbon are moved from end to end
of the cylinder by a spiral, formed on the interior of the cylinder. The
materials under process as they arrive at the end of the cylinder descend

page_text: therefrom into a reverberatory furnace below, and are further heated therein,
and then moved to another part of the furnace nearer the fire, where they
become more highly heated, and are by the worknían made into a ball, suitable
to be removed and placed under a hammer or other machine, as is well
understood.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles McIlvaine Congreve in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 17th October 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
MILVAINE CONGREVE, Merchant, of New York, in the United States of
America, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Charles MoIlvaine Congreve, Her special licence that I, the said Charles
MoIlvaine Congreve, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Charles McIlvaine Congreve, 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 THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON WHEN OXIDE IRON ORES ARE USED,"
a communication from Charles Congreve, upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Charles McIlvaine Congreve, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles McIlvaine Congreve, 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 thereof (that is to say):-
This Invention is applicable to the manufacture of iron when oxide iron
ores are used, and the Invention consists of feeding such iron ores by a
screw from a hopper into a slowly-revolving cylinder, which is externally

page_text: heated by the heat and products of combustion passing off from a reverberatory
furnace below. The ore is in a reduced state and mixed with a quantity of
carbon when fed into the cylinder. The ore and carbon are moved from end
to end of the cylinder by a spiral, formed on the interior of the cylinder.
The materials under process as they arrive at the end of the cylinder descend
therefrom into a reverberatory furnace below, and are further heated therein,
and then moved to another part of the furnace nearer the fire,, where they
become more highly heated, and are by the workman made into a ball, suitable
to be removed and placed under a hammer or other machine, as is well
understood.
The nature of the Invention consists in a method of deoxydizing ores
preparatory to their being converted into malleable iron direct from said ores.
Figure I. represents an elevation of a deoxydizing apparatus connected with a
furnace which I have found, or which has been found, to answer a good
purpose in practice; Figure 2 represents a central longitudinal and vertical
section. through the same to show its interior arrangement; and Figure 3
Similar letters.
represents a vertical transverse section through the same.
where they occur in the several Figures denote like parts. To enable others-
skilled in the art to make and use the Invention, I will proceed to describe:
the same with reference to the Drawing.
.
Suitable piers of stone or brick (A), or cast-iron columns or supports, are:
first raised sufficiently high to admit of placing the furnace B underneath the
deoxydizing apparatus C, which is placed or supported on said piers, columns,
or supports.
The deoxydizer is composed of an iron cylinder C, of some twenty feet in
length and six feet in diameter, these proportions of course being varied with
the size of the furnace used. On the inner circumference of the cylinder C is
placed a spiral flange a, projecting about eight inches from said inner circum-
ference, and making about twenty turns in a cylinder of the dimensions above
stated. To add strength to the cylinder, I arrange longitudinal ribs or bars of
.iron b, which extend clear through the interior thereof, which should be rivetted
or otherwise fastened to both the shell of the cylinder and the spiral flange.
In that end of the cylinder near which the deoxydized ores escape into the
furnace, the head may be solid, but in the other end, in which the ore.. is
5 delivered, there is an opening through the journal or gudgeon c, on which said
cylinder turns. The ore is first subjected to a pounding or grinding process
until sufficiently fine, and there is mixed with it from seventeen to thirty per
cent. of pulverized or pounded coal, according to the quality of the ore.
This
mixed material is thrown into the hopper D, through the bottom of which

page_text: works a shaft d with a spiral thread thereon, which makes a forced feed, and
carries forward the material to the cylinder. The shaft d passes through the
hollow journal c, and has a suitable support within the cylinder, on which it
may freely turn and be adjusted if found necessary, and should extend into
the cylinder far enough to ensure its depositing the material which it carries
from the hopper within the cylinder. On the end of the shaft d is a pully e
over which a belt or chain may pass from any first mover to give.motion to
said shaft; or cogged gearing may be used, if preferred, for this purpose. The
cylinder of necessity being heavy in itself, regardless of the charge of ores and
coal which it must sustain, should have heavy cast-iron circular plates, on which
the journals on which it revolves are cast, firmly bolted to said heads on their
outsides, and arched bars on its or their insides, as the whole weight must come
on the journals, and consequently on the heads of the cylinder. These journals
are about twelve inches in diameter, and the opening in the hollow one about
six inches in diameter. On one of the journals c¹ is arranged a bevel cog wheel
E, into which a bevel pinion F on a shaft G takes, and through which a rotary
motion is given to the cylinder. The journals of the cylinder should be sup-
ported on substantial cast-iron pillar blocks, in which suitable boxes may be
arranged for said journals to turn in. The motion of the cylinder must be very
slow, and it must be geared down by worm gearing or otherwise from any
ordinary first mover. The charge should remain in the cylinder about six
hours, and thus, by twenty turns of the spiral a within it, it would require but
a single revolution in about eighteen minutes to carry the charge from one end
to the other, where it is periodically discharged by opening a sliding door
through the opening f and down the passage g into the rear part of the
puddling or working furnace B. The cylinder is enclosed in brickwork, and
(as seen in Fig. 3) two side flues h, h, run along underneath it, having
openings i, i, through them into the space H surrounding the cylinder, só as
to freely admit the heat, flame, or burning product in contact with the cylinder
to raise it or its contents to about a red heat. I is the fire chamber of the
furnace, and J the fire bridge, the furnace being of the kind known as rever-
beratory furnaces, having two or more reverberating surfaces on its roof, and
the fuel is fed into the side of the fire chamber for the purpose of saving the
fire bridge, which would be injured if the fuel were fed against it. The furnace
is provided with three doors, two being seen in Fig. 2 at K, which are on
one side, the other door being on the opposite side and intermediately placed
between those (K). The deoxydized material is introduced, as before stated,
into the rear of the furnace, where it remains until the carbon contained in
the charge is burned out, or nearly so; it is then worked forward (through the

page_text: first door by a bar or rabble in the hands of the workman) into another part
of the furnace nearer the fire, where it is worked by a bar passed through or
under the next door, and is finally worked into that part of the furnace imme-
diately behind the fire bridge where the heat is reverberated with the greatest
intensity, where it is worked until in proper condition to have a ball removed
and put under the hammer, where it is formed into a bloom, and thus the iron
is made direct from the ore.
I have represented two stacks L, M, into which the waste heat, &c. is
conducted; one only may be used by a proper arrangement of flues, but I
prefer two. The products of the furnace pass into the stack L, and the heat,
flames, &c. that heats up and surrounds the cylinder pass out of that one M.
The heat used around the cylinder comes from the furnace fire, and dampers
should be so arranged in their respective passages as that the amount of
heat required around the cylinder may be regulated at pleasure.
I have described the furnace as being placed underneath the deoxydizing
cylinder; this is not a matter of necessity, for the same results may be attained by
placing the furnace at the end of instead of underneath the deoxydizing cylinder.
The main feature rests with the forced feeding of the ore and coal into and
through a revolving cylinder, which is heated up to a proper degree to deoxydize
the ore, and prepare it for being converted into malleable iron in the furnace, as
described. The slow progress of the charge as it passes through the cylinder
completely mixes it, whilst every particle is subjected to an uniform degree of
heat, which fully prepares it for the furnace. There are many of the details
of the furnace which are common to many furnaces now in use, and need
not be here described, and many modifications of it will suggest themselves,
which may be used without changing the general principle or character of the
Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles MºIlvaine Congreve, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of August, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witnesses,
D. ARTHUR,
R. ELDER,
·}.
CHARLES MOILVAINE CONGREVE. (L.S.)
of New York.