IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND MELTING OF IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Frederick Parker, of Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, Chemist, and Edwin Sunderland, of Birmingham,
aforesaid, Manufacturer, for the Invention of."IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE AND MELTING OF IRON AND STEEL."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Frederick. Parker
and Edwin Sunderland at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 19th July 1870.
WC, JOHN FREDERICK PARKER, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Chemist, and EDWIN SUNDERLAND, of Birmingham, aforesaid,
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND MELTING OF IRON AND STEEL," to be
as follows:-
Our improvements in the manufacture and melting of iron and steel
consist in the processes or modes of treatment herein-after described.
i
In carrying our Invention into effect we take petroleum or other like
volatile oil and place it in an air-tight cistern surrounded with a covering

page_text: or jacket, and into the said jacket we introduce boiling water or by
preference steam. The top of the covering or jacket is provided with a
self-acting valve regulated to the desired pressure. Through an inlet
pipe we pass a current of air over the surface of the petroleum or volatile
oil, which air becomes thereby carburized or charged with the vapour of
the oil. By an outlet pipe we conduct the carburized air into a larger
pipe entering the tuyere of the blast furnace or cupola employed in the
manufacture or melting of the iron or steel. The inlet and outlet pipes
are each provided with a tap.
In a retort or close chamber exposed to heat we place the compound
called chloride of lime or bleaching powder intimately mixed with about
one-eighth its weight of dry crushed charcoal, coke, or other carbonaceous
matter. This mixture evolves chlorine and carbonic oxide. Or we
use chloride of lime or bleaching powder alone, which on being
heated evolves hypochlorous acid gas. Through an inlet pipe we pass a
continuous current of air over the materials in this retort or chamber,
and by an outlet pipe the gaseous mixture is conducted into the larger
pipe herein-before referred to, which receives the carburized blast and
conducts it into the tuyere of the blast furnace or cupola. The inlet
and outlet pipes are provided with taps respectively.
In another retort or close chamber exposed to heat we place equal
parts by weight of quicklime and nitrate of soda, which evolves uncom-
bined oxygen and nitrogen, nitrous acid, and nitrous oxide gases.
Through an inlet pipe we pass a current of air over the materials in this
retort or chamber, the gas or gases evolved being conducted by an outlet
pipe into the larger pipe receiving the carburized blast and the blast and
gas or gases from the first retort or chamber herein-before referred to,
and which larger pipe is the common conduit of the aforesaid
gases and
air. The inlet and outlet pipes are provided with taps respectively. The
residuum or non-gaseous portion from these last-named materials being
treated with boiling water yields a solution of caustic soda mixed with
lime. By subsidence these may be separated and utilized in any convenient
manner.

page_text: vapour into the said conduit by the natural draught only of the furnace
or cupola without pressure of air by artificial means.
The air charged with the vapour of petroleum or other like volatile oil
besides acting as gaseous fuel also acts powerfully as a reducing agent
and rapidly effects the reduction of the iron from the ore. The air
charged with chlorine or chlorine and carbonic oxide removes wholly or
mainly any sulphur or phosphorous with which the ore or reduced iron
may be contaminated, and the air charged with oxygen, nitrogen, and
nitrous acid and nitric oxide promotes combustion and rapidly raises the
materials to the temperature required. The air charged with vapour of
petroleum may be used throughout the smelting and melting processes,
and the air charged with chlorine or chlorine and carbonic oxide, as well
as the air charged with oxygen, nitrogen, and nitrous acid and nitric
oxide, are employed only during part of the smelting and melting.
processes.
་
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Frederick Parker and Edwin Sunderland in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 13th January 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
FREDERICK PARKER, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Chemist,
and EDWIN SUNDERLAND, of Birmingham aforesaid, Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-fourth year
of Her reign did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto us, the said John Frederick Parker and Edwin Sunderland, Her
special licence that we, the said John Frederick Parker and Edwin
Sunderland, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said John Frederick Parker and Edwin Sunderland, our 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 MANU-

page_text: or their hands and seals, cr under the hand and seal of one of us or them,
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 Edwin Sunderland, on behalf of
myself and the said John Frederick Parker, 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:
-
Our improvements in the manufacture and melting of iron and
steel consist in the processes or modes of treatment herein-after
described.
In carrying our Invention into effect we take petroleum or other
like volatile oil, and place it in an air-tight cistern surrounded with a
covering or jacket, and into the said jacket we introduce boiling water,
or by preference steam, or by means of a coil of piping within the
cistern and under the surface of the oil, through which piping steam is
passed, we raise the oil to the required temperature.
We prefer a
temperature of about 212 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer. The
top of the covering or jacket is provided with a self-acting valve
regulated to the desired pressure. Through an inlet pipe we pass a
current of air over the surface of the petroleum or volatile oil, which air
becomes thereby carburized or charged with the vapour of the oil. By
an outlet pipe we conduct the carburized air into a larger pipe entering
the tuyere of the blast furnace or cupola employed in the manufacture
or melting of the iron or steel, which larger pipe constitutes a common
conduit into which all the gases and vapours supplied to the furnace or
cupola at the tuyere are passed, and by which they are conducted to the
furnace or cupola. The inlet and outlet pipes are each provided with
a tap.
In a notant on aloca alamban nennend to boot wa lean the

page_text: one-eighth its weight of dry crushed charcoal, coke, or other carbonaceous
matter. This mixture evolves chlorine and carbonic oxide. Or we use
chloride of lime or bleaching powder alone, which on being heated.
evolves hypochlorous acid gas or a mixture of chlorine and oxygen.
When we use chloride of lime or bleaching powder without carbonaceous
matter we prefer to use quicklime intimately mixed therewith in the
proportion of one part by weight of quicklime to three parts by weight
of chloride of lime. This admixture of quicklime with the chloride of
lime facilitates the discharging of the retort and the separation of the
gaseous portion of the chloride of lime from the lime.
pipe we pass a continuous current of air over the
retort or chamber, and by an outlet pipe the gaseous mixture is con-
ducted into the larger pipe hercin-before referred to, which receives the
carburized blast and conducts it into the tuyere of the blast furnacę
or cupola. The inlet and outlet pipes are provided with taps respec-
tively.
Through an inlet
materials in this
In another retort or close chamber exposed to heat we place equal
parts by weight of quicklime and nitrate of soda, which mixture evolves
uncombined oxygen and nitrogen, nitrous acid, and nitrous oxide gases.
Through an inlet pipe we pass a current of air over the materials in this
retort or chamber, the gas or gases evolved being conducted by an
outlet pipe into the larger pipe receiving the carburized blast, and the
blast and gas or gases from the first retort or chamber herein-before
referred to, and which larger pipe is the common conduit of the afore-
5 said gases and air. The inlet and outlet pipes are provided with taps
respectively. The residuum or non-gaseous portion from these last-
named materials being treated with boiling water yields a solution of
caustic soda mixed with lime. By subsidence these may be separated
and utilized in any convenient manner.
"
Or instead of driving currents of air over or through the different
cisterns, retorts, or chambers charged as described air may be admitted
through openings in them. Outlet pipes leading into the larger pipe
acting as the common conduit conduct the air charged with the gas or
vapour into the said conduit by the natural draught only of the furnace
5 or cupola without pressure of air by artificial means.
For the purpose of storing and equalizing the flow of the gases from
the chambers or retorts described a reservoir or holder may be inter-

page_text: posed between each chamber or retort and the common conduit by which
the gases and vapours are conducted to the cupola or furnace. Taps or
stop-cocks situated between the retorts and their respective reservoirs
or holders and other taps or stop-cocks between the said reservoirs or
holders and the conduit give complete control over the relative quantities
of the gases or vapours admitted to the furnace or cupola.
We do not think it necessary to describe or represent the retorts and
reservoirs or holders referred to, as no special construction of the same is
required, retorts and holders such as are used for like purposes being
suited for use in carrying our Invention into effect.
The air charged with the vapour of petroleum or other like volatile
oil besides acting as gaseous fuel also acts powerfully as a reducing
agent, and rapidly effects the reduction of the iron from the ore. The
air charged with chlorine or chlorine and carbonic oxide removes wholly
or mainly any sulphur or phosphorus with which the ore or reduced
iron may be contaminated, and the air charged with oxygen, nitrogen,
and nitrous acid and nitric oxide promotes combustion, and rapidly
raises the materials to the temperature required. The air charged with
vapour of petroleum may be used throughout the smelting and melting
processes, and the air charged with chlorine or chlorine and carbonic
oxide, as well as the air charged with oxygen, nitrogen, and nitrous acid
and nitric oxide are employed only during part of the smelting and
melting processes.
Having now described the nature of our Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, we wish it to be understood that
we do not limit ourselves to the precise details herein described, as the
same may be varied without departing from the nature of our Inven-
tion; but we claim as our Invention, the improvements in the manu-
facture and melting of iron and steel herein-before described, that is to
say, the use of air charged with the vapour of petroleum or other like
volatile oil in blast furnaces and cupolas for the manufacture and
melting of iron and steel; also the use in the blast furnace or cupola of
air charged with hypochlorous acid, chlorine, or chlorine and carbonic
oxide for removing sulphur and phosphorus, and the use of air charged
with oxygen for rapidly raising the heat of the blast furnace or cupola to
the required point for the smelting and melting of the iron and steel,

page_text: the said gases and vapours being used substantially in the manner herein-
before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edwin Sunderland, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
EDWIN SUNDERLAND. (L.S.)