IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to. Alban Meredith, of No. 96, Newgate Street, in
the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alban Meredith at
the Office of the Commissioners. of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 28th April 1869..
I, ALBAN MEREDITH, of No. 96, Newgate Street, in the City of
London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Im..
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture
of iron and steel. At the present time the Bessemer process can only
be successfully applied to irons made from the hæmatite ores, and this
arises as I have found from other irons not developing sufficient heat
in the process of blowing for the separation of the impurities the
metal contains.
Now according to my Invention I raise the temperature of the iron-
to a very high degree before beginning to force the blast through it by

page_text: means of a refinery by fire in the usual way of making refined iron.
In this preliminary process the impurities are in great part sepa-
rated whilst at the same time the metal is raised to the heat necessary
for the successful action of the blast passing through it. When this heat
is attained the metal is at once run into the Bessemer vessel and treated
by the Bessemer process. The iron may be run direct from the blast
furnace into the refinery furnace. In some cases before running the
refined metal in the Bessemer vessel I introduce into it a quantity
of the cast iron known as spiegel eisen, or it may be other highly
carburretted iron, and I finish the metal by adding a further quantity
of spiegel eisen at the end of process. In the refining process I in
some cases introduce fluxes of an oxidizing or other nature into the
air tuyeres so as to cause such fluxes to be forced down into the metal.
In some cases I use steam together with the air in the refining process.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alban Meredith in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 26th October 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALBAN
MEREDITH, of No. 96, Newgate Street, in the City of London, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Alban Meredith, Her special licence
that I, the said Alban Meredith, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Alban Meredith, 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 AND STEEL," upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Alban Meredith, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should

page_text: 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 montlis
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alban Meredith, 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 has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
iron and steel. At the present time the Bessemer process can only be
successfully applied to iron made from the hæmatite ores, and this
arises as I have found from other irons not developing sufficient heat
in the process of blowing for the separation of the impurities the metal
contains,
Now according to my Invention I raise the temperature of the iron to
very high degree before beginning to force the blast through it by means
of a refinery fire in the usual way of making refined iron. In this pre-
liminary process the impurities are in great part separated whilst at the
same time the metal is raised to the heat necessary for the successful
action of the blast passing through it. When the metal is at the highest
heat attainable in the refinery the metal is at once run into the
Bessemer vessel and treated by the Bessemer process, which is conducted
in the usual way and regulated according to the appearance of the flame,
as is well understood.
In carrying this Invention into effect the iron may advantageously be
run direct from the blast furnace into the refinery furnace. In some
cases before running the refined metal in the Bessemer vessel I introduce
into it a quantity of the cast iron known as spiegel eisen or it may be
other highly carburetted iron, and I finish the metal by adding a further
quantity of spiegel eisen at the end of the
process.
The object of the first addition of spiegel eisen or highly carburetted
iron is to augment the heat in the Bessemer vessel, and I add more or
less according to the quality of the iron which is under treatment, and
the amount of heat which such iron is able to develope in the Bessemer
vessel. The second addition of spiegel eisen is made as is usual in the
practice of the Bessemer process mainly to adjust the proportion of
carbon in the metal according to the quality which is desired.

page_text: In the refinery process I, in some cases, introduce fluxes of an
oxidizing or other mixture into the air tuyeres so as to cause such fluxes
to be forced down into the metal. Nitrate of soda in a powder state may
in this way be blown in just at the end of refining operation; it serves
both to intensify the heat and to separate impurities from the metal.
When the metal under treatment is deficient in carbon charcoal may be
introduced in the state of powder into the blast, so as to allow the metal
being raised to a high temperature without too great a reduction being
made in the amount of carbon combined with it. Any scrap or sculls
or waste metal from previous process I work up by introducing them
into the refinery and there running them down with a fresh charge. In
some cases I use steam together with the air in the refinery process.
Although I have herein spoken of treating the highly heated metal
from the refinery by the Bessemer process I do not thereby wish to
imply that it is essential to adhere strictly to all the details of this
operation as usually practised, although I am not aware that they can be
modified with advantage, but I mean by the Bessemer process any
operation by which air or an oxidizing fluid is forced into the molten
metal below its surface and caused to rise up through it.
In witness whercof, I, the said Alban Meredith, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
ALBAN MEREDITH. (L.S.)