IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Callender Hinde, of Fownhope, near
Hereford, Colliery Proprietor, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL.”
Sealed the 12th July 1872, and dated the 24th January 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Callender
Hinde at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 24th January 1872.
I, THOMAS CALLENDER HINDE, of Fownhope, near, Hereford, Colliery
Proprietor, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL," to be as
follows:-
: My Invention consists of the improvements herein-after described in
the process of decarbonizing cast iron or refined iron for the purpose of
converting the said cast iron or refined iron into malleable iron or steel
according as the decarbonization is more or less complete.

page_text: In effecting the said decarbonization according to my Invention I
take ordinary cast iron (commonly called pig iron), or I take cast iron
which has been partially deprived of its carbon by having been treated
in the refinery furnace (the said iron being commonly called refined
iron), and I crush or stamp the said pig or refined iron so as to reduce
the same to a granular state or to small fragments. This is easily
effected when the pig or refined iron is red hot, as its cohesion then is
very small.
.
The crushing or stamping may be effected immediately after the iron
has been run from the blast furnace or refinery, or the pigs or slabs if
cold may be heated by a separate heating process. The crushing may be
effected either by rolls or stamps. The crushed cast iron is roasted,
calcined, or decarbonized in a reverberatory or other close furnace, the
combustion in the furnace being so conducted that there is excess of
oxygen present, and the chamber containing the crushed iron is
pervaded by an oxidizing atmosphere. The crushed iron may be treated
in the furnace either alone or mixed with oxides of iron or manganese or
other oxidizing bodies.
If malleable iron be required the decarbonization is carried as far as
practicable, but if it is wished to make steel the decarbonization must be
carried on to a less degree and regulated by the quantity of steel which
is required. The furnace for this decarbonizing operation may be either
of the ordinary reverberatory kind or may be a rotating hollow cylinder.
The combustion in the furnace is so regulated that the crushed iron is
raised to the highest temperature practicable short of incipient fusion, it
being important for the successful working of the process that the iron
be not heated to such a temperature as that any agglutination of the
particles will take place. As soon as the required decarbonization has
been effected the iron is transferred from the decarbonizing chamber into
another chamber placed at a lower level and heated to a much higher
degree. If the pig or refined iron be decarbonized down to the point
which reduces it to malleable iron, the particles of the said decar-
bonized iron are gathered together by the workman and balled into
blooms ready for the hammer or squeezers, or this part of the operation
may be effected in a rotating cylinder lined with suitable refractory
materials.
If steel be required the iron decarbonized to the required degree is
transformod from the decarbonizing nant of the furnace to the lower

page_text: chamber and there brought to a full melting heat, the temper of the
steel being adjusted if necessary by the addition of spiegel eisen or other
analogous material.
Both the upper and lower chambers of the furnace may be heated
either by gas furnaces or by furnaces of the ordinary description, and fed
with either heated or cold air.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent;
filed by the said Thomas Callender Hinde in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 20th July 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
CALLENDER HINDE, of Fownhope, near Hereford, Colliery Proprietor,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the
thirty-fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Callender Hinde, Her special
licence that I, the said Thomas Callender Hinde, my executors, dminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Callender
Hinde, 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 Thomas Callender Hinde, 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 Thomas Callender Hinde, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same

page_text: is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
of
My Invention consists of the improvements herein-after described in
the process of decarbonizing cast iron or refined iron for the
purpose
converting the said cast iron or refined iron into malleable iron or steel
according as the decarbonization is more or less complete.
In effecting the said decarbonization according to my Invention I
take ordinary cast iron (commonly called pig iron), or I take cast iron
which has been partially deprived of its carbon by having been treated
in the refinery furnace (the said iron being commonly called refined
iron), and I crush or stamp the said pig or refined iron so as to reduce
the same to a granular state or to small fragments. This is easily
effected when the pig or refined iron is red hot, as its cohesion then is
very-small.
The crushing or stamping may be effected immediately after the iron
has been run from the blast furnace or refinery, or the pigs or slabs if
cold may be heated by a separate heating process.
The crushing may be effected either by rolls or stamps, and the
crushed cast iron passed direct if convenient into a furnace where it is
roasted, calcined, or decarbonized; the combustion in the furnace being
so conducted that there is excess of oxygen present, and the chamber
containing the crushed iron is pervaded by an oxidizing atmosphere.
The crushed iron may be treated in the furnace either alone or mixed
with oxides of iron or manganese or other oxidizing bodies.
If malleable iron be required the decarbonization is carried as
far as practicable, but if it is wished to make steel the decarbonization
must be carried on to a less degree and regulated by the quality of steel
which is required. The furnace for this decarbonizing operation may be
either of the ordinary reverberatory kind or may be a rotating hollow
cylinder. The combustion in the furnace is so regulated that the
crushed iron is raised to the highest temperature practicable short of
incipient fusion, it being important for the successful working of the
process that the iron is not heated to such a temperature, as that any
agglutination of the particles will take place. As soon as the required.
decarbonization has been effected the iron is transferred from the:
decarbonizing chamber into another chamber placed preferably at a
lower level and heated to a much higher degree.

page_text: If the pig or refined iron be decarbonized down to the point which
reduces it to malleable iron the particles of the said decarbonized iron
are gathered together by the workman and balled into blooms ready for
the hammer or squeezers. Or this part of the operation may be effected
in a rotating cylinder lined with suitable refractory materials in the
same manner in which a stationary puddling furnace hearth is lined;
that is, by melting down a scrap ball on it, thereby coating it with pure
oxide of iron or by "fettling" with Lancashire ore, bull dog, or other
material consisting essentially of oxide of iron.
If wrought steel be required the process is the same as for malleable
iron excepting that the decarbonization is stopped when the carbon is
reduced to the point necessary for producing the character of steel
required.
If cast steel be required the iron decarbonized to the required degree is
transferred from the decarbonizing part of the furnace to the lower
chamber and there brought to a full melting heat, the temper of the steel
being adjusted if necessary by the addition of spiegel eisen or other
analogous materials.
For cast steel the hearth of the furnace instead of being constructed
as a puddling furnace hearth is of iron plates coated with oxide of iron,
is made of the best fire bricks or fire sand called ganister in Yorkshire
and dinas sand in Wales, or other similar material,-and-partially glazed
or vitrified by the intense, heat of the furnace before putting in the
charge of decarbonized or partially decarbonized iron.,
Both the upper and lower chambers of the furnace may be heated
either by gas furnaces or by furnaces of the ordinary description, and
fed with either heated or cold air.
The furnaces and apparatus described and represented in the
Specification of Letters Patent granted to me on the Twenty-fifth day of
November, A.D. 1870, No. 3099, may be employed in carrying my
present Invention into effect, but I do not limit myself to the use of
any special furnace or apparatus.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I
do not limit myself to the precise details herein described, as the same
may be varied without departing from the nature of my Invention. But

page_text: I claim as my Invention the improvements in the manufacture of
iron and steel herein-before described, that is to say, decarbonizing cast
or refined iron for converting it into malleable iron or steel by first
reducing the said iron to a granular state or to small fragments, next
roasting, calcining, or decarbonizing (alone or mixed with oxides of
iron or other oxidizing bodies), the said crushed or granular iron in a
furnace pervaded by an oxidizing atmosphere to a point short of
incipient fusion, in order that no agglutination of the iron particles may
take place, and finally transferring the said decarbonized iron particles
into another furnace or chamber where they are heated to a much higher
degree, and malléable iron or steel manufactured therefrom, according
to the degree to which the decarbonization has been carried and
regulated in the decarbonizing chamber, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Callender Hinde, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of July,
in the year of our Lord "One thousand eight hundred and
seventy-two.
·THOMAS: CALLENDER HINDE. (L.S.)
Witness,
THOMAS LLOYD DAVIES,
2, Mount Street,
Swansea.