IMPROVEMENTS- IN THE MANUFACTURE OR REFINING OF IRON
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Bower, of the Hunslet Chemical Works,
Leeds, in the County of York, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS-
IN THE MANUFACTURE OR REFINING OF IRON."
Sealed the 5th March 1872, and dated the 14th September 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Bower at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents; with his Petition, on the:
14th September 1871.
I, JOSEPH BOWER, of the Hunslet Chemical Works, Leeds, in the
County of York, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
" IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR REFINING OF IRON," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to the manufacture or refining of iron by
adding to the molten iron in the puddling or other furnace a quantity of :
nitrate of lead or nitrate of iron, cither alone or combined, for clearing
it of silicates, carbon, and other impurities, and thereby rendering it fit

page_text: CHICCO WE WILL VIC
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
BOWER, of the Hunslet Chemical Works, Leeds, in the County of York,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Létters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the
thirty-fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Bower, Her special licence
that I, the said Joseph Bower, my exccutors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph Bower, 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 OR REFINING OF IRON," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Joseph Bower, 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 Joseph Bower, do hereby declare
the nature of my 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 relates to the manufacture or refining of iron by
adding to the molten metal in the puddling or other furnace a quantity
of nitrate of lead or nitrate of iron.
The nitrates either alone or combined are introduced into the furnace
in suitable quantities according to the nature or the quality of the metal.
In practise I have found about a half a pound in weight of the nitrate
or nitrates sufficient for about four and a half hundredweights of iron,
with which it enters into combination and clears it of silicates, carbon,
and other impurities which it contains, thereby rendering the iron fit for
use as malleable iron or as steel. The iron is moreover brought into
such a condition that it possesses better welding qualities than is usual
and is also of greater strength, consequently it is easier of manipulation
to prepare it for the purposes intended.
I am aware that metallic lead, oxides of lead, and salts of lead have
been used in the treatment of iron and of steel for cleansing and freeing
the same of their impurities, but these ingredients have been used under
special conditions, such as when the molten metal has been at a low
degree of heat known as a red heat or at a very intense heat, and much
above the heat employed under ordinary circumstances, consequently my
Invention, which enables iron and steel to be purified and freed from all
impurities at what is known as the ordinary heat is not anticipated, nor
do I lay claim to the employment of any or either of the last-named
ingredients nor to the special heats indicated, but what I do claim as
my Invention and desire to protect by Letters Patent is,-
Firstly. The employment of the nitrate of lead or the nitrate of iron
or of both in the bath of molten iron or of steel, contained in the
puddling or other furnace for the purpose of purifying or refining the
same as described.
Secondl Talaim furcing in

page_text: of lead and the nitrate of iron, either combined or separate, for the
purposes set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Bower, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Third day of April, One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-two.