IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND ITS ALLOYS
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jacob Geoghegan Willans, of 9, St. Stephen's
Crescent, Bayswater, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND ITS ALLOYS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jacob Geoghegan
•
Willans at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 29th July 1870.
I, JACOB GEOGHEGAN WILLANS, of 9, St. Stephen's Crescent, Bays-
water, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND ITS
ALLOYS," to be as follows:-
I take cast iron (raw or refined), reduced to a state of division, either in
the form of round granules, flakes, or other small particles, such as
borings, or pulverised metal, I mix therewith oxides or other compounds
of manganese along with carbonaceous matter (either liquid, such as tar
or pitch, or solid, such as coal or charcoal, or a combination of both),
and melt the mixture down in any of the ways in which cast iron or

page_text: steel is melted in order to effect a combination of the metals. In some
cases I substitute for cast iron metallic iron in a state of division, such
as wrought-iron turnings, or I use deoxidised iron ores
or reduced
oxides in a state of division. I prefer to melt the mixture down in a
reverberatory furnace, and to use the fuel in the form of dust carried in
by air on the system known as Crampton's.
My Invention includes for this process and for other processes in the
manufacture of iron or its alloys, wherein dust fuel is used, the pro-
portioning of the supply of fuel to that of the air by causing the air or a
part of it on its passage to work the dust feeding apparatus. A machine
on the principle of the gas meter may be used to communicate the
motive power to the dust feeder. I also alloy manganese with iron by
fusing their oxides or other compounds together into a regulus, matt, or
slag, and this I afterwards smelt as iron ores are smelted. I prefer to
treat it in the manner described for treating iron ores in my Patents,
No. 1120, in the year 1859, and No. 481 in the year 1868, but the alloy
may be obtained therefrom by melting it down in a reverberatory
furnace or pots with a sufficiency of carbon intermixed, and at a high
heat. In case spiegel eisen or other alloys of iron and manganese made
by the foregoing or other processes do not contain the desired quantity
of manganese, I add manganese thereto by treating the spiegel eisen or
other alloy in the same manner as the cast metal above mentioned is
treated, so that on its being remelted in contact with a manganiferous
substance it may take up more manganese. When the spiegel eisen or
other alloy is to be brought to a divided state when hot I lessen the
oxidation of the manganese by the intimate contact or intermixture of
carbon particles therewith. The known methods of effecting a mixture
of cast iron and oxide of iron can be applied for this purpose. Instead
of melting the oxides down into a matt or regulus, and afterwards
smelting the same, I mix each oxide separately with carbonaceous
matter in the manner described in the foregoing Patents, and charge
both compounds into the furnace for reduction together into the metallic
alloy.
My Invention further includes the use of the ores, oxides, or salts of
titanium or chromium in the same manner as those of manganese should
it be desired to alloy the above metals with the iron.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 28th January 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JACOB
GEOGHEGAN WILLANS, of 9, St. Stephen's Crescent, Bayswater, in the
County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth 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 me, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, Her special license
that I, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, my
exccutors, 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-
FACTURE OF IRON AND ITS ALLOYS," upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that Í, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, 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 :-
My Invention relates in the first place to the manufacture of
spiegel eisen, and further to the manufacture of the alloy known. as
ferromanganese and of compounds of iron with chromium.
The process herein first described relates essentially to the production
of spiegel eisen. Spiegel eisen is cast iron containing a few per cent. of
manganese, and it is now made from manganiferous iron ores.

page_text: According to my Invention I take cast iron, preferably that rich in
carbon, in the combined state rather than in the graphitic state, and
bring it to a fine state of division by any of the well known means
(or this may have been done previously), I mix therewith so much tar,
oil, or other liquid, or pasty hydrocarbon as will coat the particles of
metal, an excess will not be prejudicial. I take oxide of manganese,
preferably in excess of the quantity necessary to give the amount of
metallic manganese in the spiegel eisen to be made, and I mix therewith
about one-seventh more charcoal dust than the amount required to
reduce the manganese therein to the metallic state. I then intermix
all the materials together, videlicet, the tar coated particles, charcoal
dust, and oxide of manganese, and blend them thoroughly together
with the intent that the iron particles shall be in intimate contact with
both carbon and oxide of manganese. I then put the mixed materials
into crucibles or a reverberatory furnace, such as is used for melting
steel. I prefer for this purpose the reverberatory furnace in which the
fuel used is in the form of dust carried in by a current of air. I melt
the materials down with as little access of air as possible. It will be
found that the iron, carbon, and manganese unite and form spiegel eisen,
which I run into cast-iron moulds or other shapes. For oxide of man-
ganese other compounds of manganese reducible by charcoal, such as
the carbonate, may be substituted. I prefer to use an ore as rich in
manganese as is readily obtainable, and should it contain above five % of
silica I add lime to flux it. In place of employing cast iron wrought
iron in a divided state, or deoxidised ores may be employed. I then
increase the proportion of carbon. I prefer, however, to use cast
iron.
For the foregoing process and other processes in the manufacture of
iron or its alloys, wherein dust fuel is used, my Invention further
includes the proportioning of the air to the fuel by causing the current
of air or a part of it on its passage to the furnace to work a rotating or
tinc

page_text: worked by power transmitted from such machine the amount of dust
supplied can be readily proportioned to the air admitted to the furnace,
and a carbonizing neutral or reducing flame obtained at will.
My Invention also consists in another process for the manufacture of
spiegel eisen, which may also be employed for the production of ferro-
manganese. I take an oxide or oxide compound of iron and also an
oxide or oxide compound of manganese; I mix these together and add
as much lime as there is earthy matter with the oxides; I melt the
mixture down in a reverberatory or other furnace into a matt or slag.
The fusion of the respective oxides with lime or other earthy matter
into a matt or slag will bring them into a state of intimate mixture
favorable for their reduction together into the metallic state and sub-
sequent union.
By the words matt or slag I mean the fused compound
of metallic oxides and earthy matter present therewith, and requiring
more carbonaceous matter for the reduction of the metal therefrom. In
mixing the oxides together as above I proportion their quantitics.
according to the amount of metallic manganese I desire to obtain in
the product. I add also a little carbonaceous matter and intermix it
with the oxides, using about sufficient to bring them to the protoxide
state (if not so already) and so their fusibility is increased. Both spiegel
eisen and ferro-manganese vary in composition, but in making the
former I prefer to use the oxide of manganese in such quantity as will
yield in the spiegel eisen about ten % metallic manganese.
In some cases in place of mixing ores or materials containing iron
and manganese, as above set forth, I employ ores or materials in which
the two metals already exist.
In making ferro-manganese the oxide of manganese should be in such
quantity so as to yield at least 18 to 20% of metallic manganese in the
alloy.
In order to obtain spiegel eisen from this matt or slag I prefer to
proceed as follows:--I break it up and treat it as an iron ore; I smelt
it with coke in the ordinary manner, or I take it preferably in the state
of fine division, such as is obtained by running the matt or slag when
fluid in a small stream into water, and I mix it with undried peat or
caking coal in the manners and proportions described in the Specifi-
cations of my Patents, No. 1120, in the year One thousand eight hundred

page_text: and fifty-nine, and No. 481, in the year One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-eight, and smelt it in a low blast furnace, preferably from
fifteen to twenty feet high, using fifteen hundredwight or more of coke
to the ton of metal. Should I desire to produce ferro-manganese I
prefer to take the fused matt or slag, prepared as before directed, and
bring it to a state of division, such as that of sea sand, by running it
when fluid in a thin stream into water, or by grinding. I mix there-
with one-fourth more carbon than the amount of oxygen present in the
materials, and I melt them together in pots or in a reverberatory furnace
constructed to give a high heat without an oxidizing flame. I prefer to
use salt as a flux or as a covering slag in this process, and salt may also
be employed in the production of speigel cisen.
My Invention further includes a process for adding manganese to
spiegel eisen, so as to increase the per-centage of manganese. In order
to do so I take spiegel eisen prepared by the foregoing or other processes
and I treat it in the manner herein-before described for cast iron; I
bring it to a fine state of division, and if this be done while the metal
is melted I lessen the oxidation of the manganese therein by excluding
the air, as far as possible from contact with the molten metal. The
granulation may be effected by means of a revolving disc, which may
be inclosed in a case from which the air is excluded by keeping it full
of nitrogen and other non-explosive gases obtained from the flue of a
furnace. I take the granules or particles and coat them with tar or
pitch in a plastic or fluid state; 1 add thereto in the necessary proportion
to give the desired amount of metallic manganese, oxide or other
reducible compound of manganese, with a sufficient quantity of carbon;
and I melt the materials down together in the manner already described
for the treatment of cast-iron granules for the production of spiegel
eisen.
My Invention includes the manufacture of spiegel eisen from ores
or oxide of iron and of manganese by the following method:-I mix
cach of the materials separately with carbonaceous matter, undried peat,
or caking coal by preference, to either or both of which tar or pitch may
be added in the manner and proportions described in the Specification
of my former Patents herein-before referred to. The manganese material
should be finely divided, preferably finer than sea sand. In this way
oxide of manganese may be mixed up with tar or pitch and undried
pcat or coal, and the bricks when dried may be broken and charged into

page_text: the furnace well intermixed with iron ore and coal or peat compounds.
The tar or pitch will have a beneficial effect. in the reduction of man-
ganese, and the iron ores may have no tar or pitch intermixed in case
these substances be scarce or too costly. The use of tar or pitch is not
however essential; it may be dispensed with if the carbonaceous matter
be very finely divided and well intermixed; I take these compounds
and charge them into the blast furnace with coke and limestone or
other flux; I proportion the quantities of the respective compounds so
_charged according to the amount of manganese I desire to obtain in the
product, and smelt them in the manner before described for the fused
matt or slag.
In order to obtain an alloy of iron and chromium I take a compound
of the latter, by preference the natural chromate of iron, and treat it as
I treat oxide of manganese in any of the foregoing processes when
adding that substance to iron, or making a matt or slag and reducing
the metals therefrom.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, I would have it understood that I
claim the manufacture of spiegel eisen by remelting granulated or
divided iron with charcoal or carbonaceous material and manganese
oxide or compound, substantially as described.
I also claim the construction of dust fuel furnaces for the manufacture
of iron and its alloys in such manner that the air current entering the
furnace is caused to pass through a measuring engine (which it drives
at a speed directly proportional to the quantity of air passing), such
engine giving motion to the feeding apparatus which delivers the dust
fuel into the furnace, substantially as described.
I also claim the manufacture of an alloy or compound of iron and
manganese by melting together the oxides of these metals and afterwards
smelting the matt or slag so obtained, substantially as described.
I also claim the manufacture of an enriched spiegel eisen by remelting
spiegel eisen with charcoal or carbonaceous material and manganese
oxide or compound, substantially as described.
I also claim the manufacture of spiegel eisen by mixing iron and
manganese ores or oxides separately with carbonaceous material,
moulding them into bricks or otherwise agglomerating them and
smelting them together, substantially as described.

page_text: I also claim the manufacture of alloys. of iron and chromium
substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jacob Geoghegan Williams, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of January,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
one