IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT
to Jacob Geoghegan Willans, of St. Stephen's
Crescent, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL."
of
Sealed the 21st July, 1868, and dated the 12th February 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the
the said Jacob Geoghegan
Willans at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 12th February 1868.
I, JACOB GEOGHEGAN WILLANS, of St. Stephen's Crescent, in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL," to be
as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in
in the manufacture
of iron and steel, and consists, firstly, in enveloping or coating cast-iron
granules or particles (either of crude cast iron or refined) with carbon

page_text: either vegetable or mineral, with or
without tar or pitch (or the
latter substances may be used alone), and heating the said metal
and carbon at or above a red heat in such a manner that air does
not consume the carbon but that by the intimate cementation the
metal will when afterwards molten be rendered more fluid and suitable
for some castings, also better adapted for conversion into steel by the
Bessemer process, and admitting of the better removal of impurities
during the elimination of its carbon by ordinary methods of manu-
facturing malleable iron.
In a Provisional Specification filed by me and dated the 19th day of
September 1867, No. 2637, I have described a process of treating
manganiferous iron ore for the manufacture of spiegel eisen. I have
since discovered that a similar process is also applicable to the treatment
of ordinary iron ores and oxides either containing no manganese or so
small a proportion thereof as to render them inapplicable to the manu-
facture of spiegel eisen.
According to the second part of my present Invention I form a
mixture of coal and the iron ore or iron oxide (with or without addition
of fluxes, tar, or pitch, or of other metallic substances) in such pro-
portions that the carbonaceous matter will be in excess of the quantity
needed for deoxidizing the iron, and that when first at a red heat either
by a previous coking or at the upper part of the furnace will form a
more or less cohering mass but insufficient in quantity of carbon to
yield heat by blast for melting the iron from said mixture, the requisite
heat being in all cases afforded by separate fuel in contact therewith,
and to which blast is applied, the iron and carbon compounds dimi-
nishing in carbon during their descent will on approaching the tuyeres
melt through the fuel. This method of sinelting iron by coal will
allow furnaces of less altitude and of simpler construction to be used
as the ores will not require so much time in the furnace as found
necessary by ordinary methods.
The third part of my Invention consists in mixing granulated or

page_text: in crucibles or in a gas furnace, or the cast metal may be first melted
and the granules added thereto, or the granules whether decarburetted
or not may be mixed along with oxide or other metal with such carbon
ns will hold together at a red heat, and blown down with or without
other fuel in a cupola furnace
a cupola furnace into steel or malleable iron, or the
materials may be mixed with such carbon separately and blown down
together in the furnace.
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 12th August 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JACOR
GEOGHEGAN WILLANS. of St. Stephen's Crescent, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most
Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
first year of Her reign, did for Herself. Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, Her
special licence, that I, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others, as I, the said
Jacob Geoghegan Willans, 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 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, 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:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture
of iron and steel, and consists, firstly, in the treatment of granules
or particles of cast iron (either unrefined or from cast iron which has
undergone any process of a refining nature however either of such
cast irons may have been produced) with carbon so that the cast iron
may be cemented with carbon and then melted without any air blast
acting thereon so as to consume the carbon, and is thus, if it be dark
grey cast iron that has been so treated, rendered better suited for the
pneumatic process. and if it be less grey, mottled, or white metal that has
been granulated and so treated it will be by the absorption of carbon
rendered more fluid and better suited for some castings, particularly
those in which white iron is employed. The granulating of cast iron
whether or not any impurities may have previously been removed by
any refining process and cementation of the granules with pure carbon
will be found to have acted beneficially on the quality after it has
passed through the ordinary process of manufacture into malleable
iron. Cast iron may be reduced to a finely divided state by other
means than granulation, but I prefer to granulate the metal by a
machine similar to but larger than that before described in my Patent
dated 8th March 1866, No. 702, placed at the foot of a cupola furnace
or a refinery. I prefer to use the granules or particles not exceeding
3th inches in diameter or thickness, but I do not confine myself to any
particular size of granule, and I mix charcoal dust with the same in
a dry state, or I first wet the granules with water or with any oily or
tarry fluid free from sulphur or other noxious matter before mixing
them up with the charcoal dust. so that the exterior of the "granule be
coated with carbon, the amount of which I prefer to be about th the
weight of the iron; other carbon such as pitch in a fluid or dissolved
state or coke dust if both be free from sulphur may be applied.
afterwards melt down
1.'
the mixture in a reverberatory furnace properly
constructed so as to prevent such access of air as would consume the
carbon before it had acted on the metallic granules, a Siemen's gas
furnace will answer, or pots or crucibles the same as used in the melting

page_text: of steel. The amount of carbon absorbed.may be varied and will be
influenced by the smallness of the granule and length of time the
mixture be exposed to heat before being melted. if the granules be
one-eighth of an inch diameter and less simple melting without
prolonged previous cementation will be found to answer for the purposes
above mentioned.
nor
I do not confine myself to the foregoing proportions or details
do I claim the addition of carbon to molten pig iron. nor the melting
down of cast iron in contact with charcoal, but I claim the enveloping
and covering cast iron in a divided state with carbon and melting
the metal from the mixture without blast acting thereon so as to
consume the carbon enveloping and covering the divided cast iron.
In a Provisional Specification filed by me and dated the 19th day
of September 1867, No. 2637. I have described a process of treating
manganiferous iron ore for the manufacture of spiegel eisen, 1 have
since discovered that a similar process is also applicable to the treatment
of ordinary iron ores and oxides either containing no manganese or so
small a proportion as to render them inapplicable to the manufacture of
spiegel eisen.
According to the second part of my Invention I form a mixture of
iron ore or iron oxide with bituminous caking coal, or such other coal
as may by the use of tar or pitch be made to form a cohering coke, in
such proportions that the carbonaceous matter will be in excess of the
quantity needed for deoxidizing the ore or oxide, but insufficient in
amount to afford heat, by means of blast for melting the iron therefrom,
the requisite heat being afforded in all cases by the blast acting on
separately added fuel. If the ores or oxides be not already in a fine
state of division able to pass through a inch sieve, crush them
into that state by rollers or other crushing apparatus, and I mix
intimately therewith about half their weight of caking coal ground to a
still finer state. Should the ore or oxide contain less than 50% of iron
I would add less than half their weight of coal. I prefer that 20 cwt.
of Wigan coal be applied to so much ore or oxide as contains 20 cwt.
of iron, but I am not confined to these proportions. The mixture is
then coked in any convenient manner, retorts will answer, before being
charged into the furnace, or the mixture may be made into bricks or
shapes by ordinary brick-making processes, applying water or other

page_text: suitable binding liquid such as tar if they do not otherwise cohere, and
the bricks may be charged into the furnace and become coked in their
descent. In the latter case I prefer to have the furnace somewhat
higher. If the ores contain little earthy matter lime may be added
in a divided state along with the ores and coal, but if they contain
about 15% I prefer to add the requisite amount of limestone broken
as small as wallnuts separately in the furnace.
I use a low furnace
such as would not be considered applicable for smelting iron ore into
cast iron in the manner usual with coal, but I do not confine myself
to the height or other dimensions herein specified. I prefer that the
furnace should be 14 feet high if the ready coked compounds be charged,
and 16 feet high if the uncoked bricks be charged. A circular furnace
may be used, but I prefer to have it rectangular (wider at top than
bottom by 18 inches each way), 2 feet wide at the tuyeres, 4 feet in
length at the hearth, 3 tuyeres at each side not placed exactly opposite
those on the other side, nozzles inches diameter, 15 inches from the
hearth bottom blast, 2 lbs. pressure if hot blast be used the nozzles
should be enlarged proportionately to the expansion of the air by
heating. I charge the furnace with layers of coke and these compounds
using half or three-quarters as much coke as is customary in smelting
similar ores in the high blast furnace. In this way sufficient carbon
is brought into intimate contact with the ores or oxide to insure its
better reduction, and at the same time there being but little excess of
carbon in the mixture it. is exhausted almost as soon as the metal is
reduced, so that the reduced ore is left free to run together and to
amalgamate with the fluxes at the lower part of the furnace where
intense heat is raised by the blast acting upon more homogeneous fuel.
This process will be expecially suitable for those ores or oxides that
are in a finely divided or easily friable state, such as the oxides resulting
from the roasting or burning of pyrites for the abstraction of its sulphur;
and from which the copper had also been extracted; or oxides of iron
in the form of cinder or slag resulting from metallurigical processes
after being crushed or divided; bog iron ores and the basaltic iron ores
of the county Antrim, both of which have a tendency to fall into small
pieces when heated; also those ores which have a tendency to scaffold
in the furnace from containing lime, such As some in Lincolnshire,
and for those coals or cokes that are not strong enough to stand great
pressure or friction in the high blast furnace. I am aware that it has

page_text: before been proposed to intermix crushed iron ores with caking coal,
and to use the coked compound as fuel to smelt its reduced ore contents.
In such case the amount of intermixed fuel is so large, and the ore so
disseminated throughout it, that the blast when oxidizing or consuming
the carbon surrounding the metallic particles reoxidizes the metal to
a great extent. I am also aware that iron oxides have been proposed
to be ground up with clay and sufficient coke or other carbon for
deoxidising the same before application in furnaces; but what 1 claim
as my Invention is the forming a mixture of iron ore or oxide either
containing no manganese or so small a proportion as to render it
inapplicable to the manufacture of spiegel eisen with such coal as will
cause it to cohere at a red heat, the carbon being in excess of the
quantity required for combining with the oxygen in the ore, but in-
sufficient to afford by blast the requisite heat for melting it after its
reduction, and the smelting such mixture by other fuel in low blast
furnaces to obtain cast iron therefrom.
The third part of my Invention consists in treating granules or
particles of cast iron (which has been made by any process of manu-
facture or refining, but I prefer that containing little phosphorous or
other impurity) by depriving the granules therefrom of more or less
carbon by means of an oxide with which they are placed in contact
at a red heat for a time, afterwards separating such oxide therefrom
and adding or mixing charcoal or other carbon necessary, in the manner
as described in the first part of this Specification; or adding cast iron
containing carbon, preferring that of a good quality containing man-
ganese or compounds of manganese and iron along with the cast iron;
or oxide of manganese, if desirable, may be added thereto as well as
other materials used by steel smelters; or the cast iron may be melted
and the decarburetted granules added thereto. I prefer to granulate
as before alluded to in the first part of my Specification, and that the
granules used do not exceed the th part of an inch diameter, as some
may be less size I sift them into different sizes that each may be treated
separately, as the necessary time at a red heat will be more or less in
proportion to the size of the granule; I then intermix therewith
three-fourths their weight of finely ground rich oxide of iron, preferring
the best hematite ore from Cumberland or Lancashire, reduced to a
finer state of division than the granules to which it is to be applied,

page_text: other oxides, such as oxide of manganese will answer; I then expose
the mixture to a good red heat but not so high as to fuse or agglutinate
the metal, it being desirable during the heat to have the mixture not
only exposed to air but also frequently stirred and turned over to expose
fresh surfaces of the ore to contact with the iron, but also to the air to
renew its oxygen taken out by the carbon of the iron, otherwise the
oxide might be brought into a fusible state; 1 prefer to heat it in a
reverberatory furnace allowing no smoky flame to touch the mixture
but keeping it at an oxidizing heat by the admission of sufficient air,
a gas furnace will suit, or it may be heated in open pipes or retorts
placed horizontally; after the first twenty minutes at a red heat
granules should frequently be withdrawn as samples so. soon as they
show malleability on the anvil, when cold the mixture may be with-
drawn and another charge put in; the oxide may afterwards be
separated in any convenient manner, such as by a sieve, and used again;
each charge should then be properly sampled, and so soon as a sufficient
number of charges had been so treated their samples, should be well
mixed so as to give an average of the bulk. A portion of this may
be melted in a crucible in the same manner that cast steel is now
melted. If it be of the required temper the bulk may be similarly
treated after being well intermixed, but if not so further portions may
be melted with the materials commonly used by steel melters for
modifying the quality of steel; if the granules are too soft charcoal or
cast iron or spiegel eisen with or without other materials (if desired)
may be used till the desired temper be attained. If the granules are
too hard not having been sufficiently decarburetted wrought iron or
oxide of manganese may be applied, as soon as the desired result is
attained the bulk may be treated accordingly. I prefer to use crucibles,
but any open furnace used for melting steel may be employed making
due allowance in the additions for any
such furnace from the crucible process.
pletely separated from the granules, or
be oxidized, it will be advantageous to have them wetted with a solution
of pure pitch in a pure solvent, such a suitable well refined mineral
oil free from sulphur, but the solution must not be so carbonaceous as
to yield in the melting more carbon than is required, and should the
decarburetted granules have to be kept long in a damp place this
coating with a hydrocarbon will be found useful in preventing oxidation.
.
variations that may be found in
Should the oxide be not com-
that the exterior of the granules

page_text: I do not claim the melting of granules of cast iron along with oxide
into steel, but I claim the manufacture of cast steel from granules or
particles of decarburetted cast iron after separation of oxide used in
decarburetting them without fusion.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jacob Georghegan Willans, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of August,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
eight
J. G. WILLANS. (L.S.)