A NEW METHOD OR PROCESS OF CASE-HARDENING IRON
Year: 1840

page_text: ROBERTS' SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
ROBERTS, of the Township of Bradford, near Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Blacksmith, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-fifth day of November, One thousand eight hundred and
forty, in the fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Robert Roberts, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Robert
Roberts, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others as I, the
said Robert Roberts, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no other, from time to time and at all times during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, and Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW METHOD OR PROCESS OF CASE-HARDENING
IRON;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said
Robert Roberts, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be enrolled
in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at.
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Roberts, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following explanation thereof (that is to say): —
My Invention of a new method or process of case-hardening iron consists
of a new mode of combining or uniting wrought-iron with cast-iron and
by which wrought-iron of any manufactured form or dimensions may be
readily case-hardened. In order to perform the operation of case-hardening
iron according to my improved method or process, I prepare an ordinary
furnace, in which is formed or placed a vessel or compartment to contain
cast or molten iron, heated and molten by the furnace in such a state as it
would be used for running or casting into moulds. In the same furnace I
place in a separately heated chamber or compartment the article of wrought-
iron intended to be hardened, say, for the (sake of illustration;) the tyre of a
wheel. The furnace may be of almost any form or diinensions, and must be
suitably constructed to the form or dimensions of the wrought-iron to be
hardened; or, the wrought-iron to be hardened may be dipped, or put into, or
passed through the cast or molten iron, or coated or covered therewith in any
manner. The furnace being enclosed and the cast-iron in a state of fusion, the
wrought-iron tyre must, when at a complete red heat all over, be lowered into
the fluid cast-iron in the vessel chamber or compartment below, and gently
rolled or turned round in it, when the cast-iron will completely case over the
wrought-iron tyre with any required thickness of cast metal from one-sixteenth
to half an inch more or less, which, upon being removed from the furnace and
immediately immersed in cold water, will be entirely case-hardened or steeled.
It will be necessary to observe that the iron, as it comes out of the
furnace, should be so immersed in water that its entire surface should be
covered by the water at the same time, in order to prevent any irregularities
in 'the contraction of the metal. I would here remark that great elasticity
and strength inay also be given to bars or strips of wrought-iron thus case-
hardened, as I have found that carriage and other 'springs may be made in
this manner.
Having now fully explained my improvements and the manner in which the
same are to be practically applied, I desire it to be understood that I claim-as
my Invention the method or process of case-hardening iron by coating, 'cover-
ing, or combining wrought-iron with cast-iron as herein set forth.
.
In witness 'whereof, I, the said Robert Roberts, have 'hereunto set 'my
' hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord
Oue thousand eight hundred and forty-one.
ROBERT (L.B.) ROBERTS.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-first day of May
in the year above-mentioned, the aforesaid Robert Roberts came before our
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained in form above written. And
also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Twenty-second day of May, in the year above-written.