IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- FACTURE OF IRON, AND GASES FOR SUCH AND OTHER USES
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS. PATENT to Arthur Warner, of 31, Threadneedle Street, in the
City of London, and William Tooth, of Sumner Street, Southwark, in
the. County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF IRON, AND GASES FOR SUCH AND OTHER USES."
Sealed the 22nd July 1859, and dated the 24th January 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Arthur Warner and
William Tooth at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 24th January 1859.
We, ARTHUR WARNER, of 31, Threadneedle Street, in the City of London,
and WILLIAM TOOTH, of Sumner Street, Southwark, in the County of Surrey,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF IRON, AND GASES FOR SUCH AND OTHER USES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of iron,
and gases for such and other uses. For these purposes, in the manufacture
of iron in blast and cupola furnaces, jets of liquid hydrocarbons are forced in
by means of forcing pumps or apparatus, or by the pressure of a column;
and the Invention also consists in forcing in jets or streams of hydrogen gas
into puddling furnaces when puddling iron.

page_text: And in order to manufacture hydrogen gas for such and other uses, a com-
bination of apparatus is employed, consisting of a generator, an instrument
to drop water into the generator, and the receiver of the hydrogen gas as it
is produced. The generator consists of a strong vessel, heated externally, and
containing cuttings or pieces of iron, carbon, or other suitable matters, heated
by the external fire. The generator is connected to the receiver by a suitable
pipe, in which there is a valve or valves and a cock; the water is at intervals
dropped into the generator and decomposed. For this purpose apparatus in
the nature of a bird fountain, that is, a close vessel, so arranged that the water
will not come therefrom till a quantity of air enters to the upper part thereof,
is employed; and this apparatus is arranged so that the pressure in the
generator and the receiver will not prevent, but aid, the dropping of water at
intervals into the generator."
In some cases, in order to generate gases, a retort, by preference of clay, is
used, having two feeding places at its upper side. This retort is set in
brick work, and is heated moderately by a fire below its under surface. Each
of the feeding places consists of a tube having at its upper part two slides
or valves, one to be opened when the other is closed; the coal or material
from which the gases are to be produced is placed on the lower of the
two valves or slides when shut; the other valve or slide is then to be shut,
when the lower one may be opened, and the supply will descend into the
retort. The retort is connected at one end with a steam boiler by a suitable
steam pipe, having a stop-cock; the other end of the retort is connected with a
gas receiver by a suitable pipe, having a suitable stop-cock. The heat is, by
preference, kept at about 700° of Fahrenheit.
When applying gases to blast furnaces, it is preferred to generate them by
forcing the material through the fluid metal after it has been tapped out of
the furnace. For this purpose it is preferred to employ two receivers or
vessels to receive the melted iron from the blast furnace. The gas is, by
preference, generated by decomposing coal tar, which is forced in below the
fluid metal, by which it is converted into gas, which is conducted into the blast
furnace; the melted metal is then run into the second vessel, and again
similarly treated, and the gas therefrom conducted to the blast furnace.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Arthur Warner and William Tooth in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 23rd July 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ARTHUR
WARNER, of 31, Threadneedle Street, in the City of London, and WILLIAM
TOOTH, of Sumner Street, Southwark, in the County of Surrey, 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 fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto us, the said Arthur Warner and William Tooth, Her special licence
that we, the said Arthur Warner and William Tooth, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Arthur Warner
and William Tooth, our 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 GASES FOR SUCH AND OTHER
USES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Arthur Warner
and William Tooth, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of
one of us or them, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Arthur Warner and William
Tooth, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the maunfacture of iron
and gases for such and other uses. For these purposes, in the manufacture of
iron in blast and cupola furnaces, jets of liquid hydrocarbons are forced in by
means of forcing pumps or apparatus, or by the pressure of a column. In
carrying out this part of our Invention, we cause jets of hydrocarbons, such
as common gas, tar oils, or resins, that are in or can be reduced to a liquid
state by heat, to be forced into the blast or cupola furnace through or by the
blast or tuyer pipes or pipe, so that it may enter with the blast, and come in

page_text: contact with it, and produce combustion with the oxygen it contains as it is
entering the furnace, or such partial combustion and in such quantities as will
prevent the oxygen coming in contact with the iron without the presence of
hydrogen and carbon in conjunction with each other or separately. For this
purpose we cause vessels to be fixed.at a suitable elevation above the blast or
tuyer holes of the furnaces, from which we convey a pipe down to the tuyers,
and cause it to be fixed either on the side or through the tuyer pipes (as shown
in Drawing Figure 1), so that the blast may assist to force the liquid hydro-
carbons into the furnace. And to prevent the blast forcing the liquids back
and prevent or retard them entering the furnace, we cause the vessels holding
such liquids to be placed at such an elevation as to enable the column
contained in the conducting pipes to force its way in with the blast. But
should it in any situation be found more convenient, we cause the liquids to be
forced in with or by ordinary forcing pumps by or through the tuyers, as with
the column above described.
The Drawing Figure 1 shows a section of part of a blast furnace, into
which jets of liquid hydrocarbons are forced by means of an elevated cistern.
B, T, is the blast tuyer pipe, with the plug hole S to admit of the pricking
bars for forcing away clinkers that form around the nose of the tuyers; C, P,
s the conducting pipe, with an upright branch to conducta column sufficiently
high to force its way into the furnace; H is an opening to admit of a single
rod or wire to prick the nose and keep it open; H is stopped up with a plug
or cap during the time the liquids are running, or what is preferable, a stop-
cock; C, K, is a cock to regulate the supply to the conducting pipe; G is a
grating or rose, made of wire gauze or other material placed over the aperture
of the cock to prevent anything entering that would be liable to stop it or the
pipe up R is a reservoir or vessel to hold the gas tar or other liquid hydro-
carbons that are to be supplied to the furnace.
;
The Invention also consists in forcing in jets or streams of hydrogen gas
into puddling furnaces when puddling iron; this we prefer to effect by forcing
the hydrogen gas into the puddling furnace by means of a weighted gasholder
or by forcing pumps or a fan, so that it may come in contact with the surface
of the iron during the time the process of puddling is going on.
And in order to manufacture hydrogen gas for such and other uses, a com-
bination of apparatus is employed, consisting of a generator, an 'instrument to
drop water into the generator, and a receiver of the hydrogen gas as it is pro-
duced. The generator consists of a strong vessel heated externally, and
containing cuttings or pieces of iron, carbon, or other suitable matters heated
by the external fire. The generator is connected to the receiver. by a suitable

page_text: pipe, in which there is a valve or valves and a cock. The water is at intervals
dropped into the generator and decomposed; for this purpose, apparatus in
the nature of a bird fountain, that is, a close vessel so arranged that the water
will not come therefrom till a quantity of air enters to the upper part thereof,
is employed, and this apparatus is arranged so that the pressure in the
generator and the receiver will not prevent, but aid, the dropping of water at
intervals into the generator.
The apparatus we prefer for making hydrogen gas with the use of iron
scraps, borings, or cuttings, is set forth in Figure 2. A is a strong retort
filled with the scraps, borings, or cuttings; it is made to resist the pressure
caused by the rapid formation of gas; it may be made of any desirable shape,
so long as the stream formed by the water dropping is conveyed in at the
bottom, and caused to ascend through the material. If, in addition to
hydrogen gas, it is desired to generate carbonic oxide, then we use a series of
similar retorts, and cause the products of one retort to pass into and through
the contents of another such retort, the contents of such retorts being coke or
other suitable material kept at a red heat. B is the dropping apparatus, and
is so arranged that the water supplied to it drops at intervals, and does not
run in a constant stream, the object being to allow time for the steam
formed by each drop to become decomposed before or about the same time
the succeeding drop falls. The quantity or size of each drop can be regulated
by varying the size of the nose of the conical dropper pipe C inside the box at
the end of the supply pipe F, which conical pipe is open both at the top and
bottom. D) is a worm or refrigerator, which may be made in any
other way
or shape, for condensing the steam that may pass over without being decom-
posed, and which would be very dangerous to be applied to blast or cupola
furnaces. H is a vessel to receive the condeused water; E is a pipe connecting
the refrigerator and receiver, in which is fitted a stop-cock and a safety valve
that will be self-acting in case of need for preventing the returning from the
receiver, should any of the working parts get out of order. F is the receiver
fitted with a safety valve and pipe, from which the gas may be conveyed to
any place it may be required. Now, in putting this apparatus into operation,
we commence as follows:-We charge the retort with some kind of small
pieces of iron, light the fire, and heat the retort to a red heat, during which
time we fill the cup on top of the dropping apparatus B, and allow the water
to descend into the globe through the cock No. 2, and as soon as the retort is
red hot, we open the cocks No. 4 first, No. 5 next, then No. 3, and the
operation will commence; and so long as the cock No. 1 is kept shut the

page_text: dropping will continue, but should it be opened, it will cause the liquid to run
instead of drop. The iron must be weighed, and to every three pounds put
into the retort one pound weight of water must be dropped to effect a perfect
oxidation of the iron and decomposition of the water. The retorts must not
be filled more than two-thirds full; in some cases, in order to generate gases,
a retort, by preference of clay, is used, having two feeding places at its upper
side. This retort is set in brickwork, and is heated moderately by a fire below.
its under surface. Each of the feeding places consists of a tube, having at its
upper part two slides or valves, one to be opened when the other is closed; the
coal or material from which the gases are to be produced is placed on the
lower of the two valves or slides when shut, the other valve or slide is then to
be shut, when the lower one may be opened, and the supply will descend into
the retort. The retort is connected at one end with a steam boiler by a
suitable steam pipe having a stop-cock; the other end of the retort is con-
nected with a gas receiver by a suitable pipe, having a suitable stop-cock. The
heat is by preference kept at about 700° of Fahrenheit.
Figure 3 represents our mode of fixing and working our retort, by pre-
ference, of fire-clay (although the same may be made of brickwork and
encased in an iron casing) with the fire below its under surface; the under
surface of this retort is perforated with holes, to admit of the gases and heat
generated by the fire below to pass into the retort above, mix amongst and
pass through the coals, also for the purpose of admitting steam to be conveyed
in by the pipes I from a steam boiler, when it is desirable to decompose the
coke and convert it into carbonic oxide; the use of this apparatus is various,
as with it we manufacture carburetted hydrogen, nitrogen, nitrous oxide,
carbonic oxide, or hydrogen. We place two feeding places at the upper sides
of the retort, with valves or locks, as shewn. We also connect the upper end
of the retort with a conducting pipe E for conveying the gases away. We also
construct an opening into the side of the retort, for drawing out the coke, which
will be left when carburetted hydrogen and nitrogen and nitrous oxide only is
made. We also fix a doorway at the top of the retort, through which we charge
it until the operation commences, after which we keep up a supply through
the feeding apparatus, so as to keep the retort fully charged. We also build
in the brickwork, under the lower end of the retort, a series of iron pipes, to
which we fit stoppers or doors, for the purpose of admitting atmospheric air for
the keeping up combustion of the materials used to generate the heat for
heating the under surface of the retort, and in cases where we require carbu-
retted hydrogen only with a small admixture of nitrogen and carbonic oxide,

page_text: we close the stoppers ordoors after the fuel has become sufficiently ignited to
distil off the gas from the coal contained in the retort; the bottom of the retort
may be supported with brick columns, to prevent it giving way.
In Figure 3, A, A, is brickwork surrounding the retort B; C is the bottom
of the retort with the perforations passing through; D, D, are two pipes or
openings built in or fitted on to the retort, to which is attached the feeding
apparatus; E is a pipe lined with fire-bricks, for conducting the gas from the
retort; G is the doorway for charging before lighting the fire; H is the door-
way for drawing the coke or other materials left after distillation; I, I, are
two pipes, for admitting steam; J, J, are two pipes, to which the steam pipes
are attached, and to which are fitted air-tight covers or doors; K is a space
left under the retort to contain the fire, and which is fed with air through a
series of tubes or spaces, as shown at J, J. Now, in putting this apparatus
into operation, we proceed as follows:-We close up the opening Hair-tight,
fill the retort full of coals, and light a fire in the chamber K, fill it up, and
keep good fire for about two hours, drawing off occasionally through the
pipe L, to see that the gas will burn, but should it be found that the gas will
extinguish a light, the air spaces must be immediately closed, the materials
may then be left until the whole of the gas is distilled off; but should we
desire to decompose the coke and convert it into carbonic oxide, we then
admit a fresh supply of air until we raise the heat to about 700° Fahrenheit;
we then admit the jet or jets of steam until about 2 thirds of the coke is
thoroughly decomposed, we then recharge through the feeding apparatus,
and repeat the operation as before. The products from the retort may be
immediately used, or may be caused to pass amongst coals contained in a
suitable vessel or vessels placed between the retort and the gasholder.
a
When applying gases to blast furnaces, it is preferred to generate them by
forcing the material through the fluid metal after it has been tapped out of the
furnace. For this purpose it is preferred to employ two receivers or vessels
to receive the melted iron from the blast furnace. The gas is, by preference,
generated by decomposing coal tar, which is forced in below the fluid metal,
by which it is converted into gas, which is conducted into the blast furnace.
The melted metal is then run into the second vessel, and again similarly
treated, and the gases therefrom conducted to the blast furnace.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention and the manner of
performing the same, we would have it understood that what we claim is,―
Firstly, the forcing of liquid hydrocarbons into a blast or cupola furnace, as
herein described.

page_text: Secondly, we claim the forcing hydrogen gas into and amongst iron when
puddling iron in puddling furnaces.
Thirdly, we claim the combinations of apparatus herein described for
generating gases to be used in the manufacture of iron and other purposes.
Fourthly, we claim the forcing of hydrocarbons through and amongst fluid
iron, and conducting off the gases for use into blast or cupola furnaces.
In witness whereof, we, the said Arthur Warner and William Tooth,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-second day of
July, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-ninc.
ARTHUR WARNER.
(L.S.)
WILLIAM H. TOOTH. (L.S.)