IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Gossage, of Widnes, in the County of Lan-
caster, Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF IRON AND STEEL."
Sealed the 25th November 1859, and dated the 30th May 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Gossage at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 30th
May 1859.
I, WILLIAM GOSSAGE, of Widnes, in the County of Lancaster, Chemist, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL," to be as follows:-
My improvements apply to the manufacture of iron and steel from certain
materials containing iron which have not hitherto been used for such pro-
duction. These materials are the native compounds of iron with sulphur,
known as pyrites or sulphuret of iron; these compounds are now extensively
used for supplying sulphur by combustion in. the manufacture of sulphuric
acid, and the product remaining from such combustion is chiefly oxide of iron,
contaminated with some sulphuret. I cause such product to be exposed to
the action of air at a high temperature, and I thereby expel the whole
or the greater part of the sulphur previously left in the product, and I
obtain an oxide of iron sufficiently free from sulphur to be applicable in the
manufacture of iron and steel.
I cause such oxide of iron to be exposed at a red heat to the action of

page_text: carbon in a solid or gaseous state, and I thereby metallize the iron, and by
regulating the action of the carbon I produce this metal either in the state
of iron or steel.
My improvements also apply to the mode of applying carbon in the gaseous
state to act upon oxides of iron, either such as I may have obtained from
sulphurets of iron, or such as are found native. I cause coke or other
carbonaceous matter to be burned with such a proportion of atmospherical air
that the carbon in the gaseous products of combustion exists almost entirely
in the state of carbonic oxide, and such gaseous products are devoid or nearly
devoid of any uncombined oxygen. I cause such gaseous products to be
brought into intimate contact with oxide of iron, whilst these products still
retain sufficient heat, evolved by their combustion, and I find that at suitable
temperatures the oxide of iron becomes thereby reduced to metallic iron,
-which I convert into iron or steel according to the composition of the resulting
metal.
I also apply gaseous products of combustion together with atmospherical air
to the separation of sulphur from such impure oxides of iron as I may have
obtained from sulphuret of iron.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Gossage in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
30th November 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
GOSSAGE, of Widnes, in the County of Lancaster, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of May, 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 me, the said
William Gossage, Her special license that I, the said William Gossage,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Gossage, 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
J, the said William Gossage, by an instrument in writing under my hand and

page_text: seal, 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 I, the said William Gossage, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
My improvements in the manufacture of iron and steel consist in the
application for such manufacture of certain materials containing iron which.
have not hitherto been successfully employed for such purpose. These
materials are the native compounds of iron with sulphur, known as pyrites or
sulphuret of iron; such compounds are now extensively used for supplying
sulphur by combustion in the manufacture of sulphuric acid, and the residual.
product remaining after such combustion has been effected is chiefly oxide of
iron contaminated with some sulphuret of iron. I cause such product to be
exposed to the action of air at a high temperature, and I thereby expel the:
whole or the greater part of the sulphur previously left in such product, and
I obtain an oxide of iron sufficiently free from sulphur to be applicable in the
manufacture of iron and steel.
In effecting that part of my Invention which applies to the expulsion of
sulphur from the residual product of the combustion of iron pyrites, I prefer.
to use such an apparatus as is shewn in the Drawings hereunto annexed. In
these Drawings, Fig. 1 represents a sectional elevation of such apparatus.
Fig. 2 is a plan view in section, taken through the line a, b, of Fig. 1; and
Fig. 3 is a plan view in section taken through the line c, d, of Fig. 1. In.
these several Figures, the same letters of reference are used to indicate.
similar parts.
D, D, are fire-grates
A, A, are vertical chambers constructed of fire bricks for the reception of
the material to be desulphurized; B, B, are openings at the lower part of
such chambers, fitted with doors having orifices closed or opened by regulating,
dampers C, C, for the admission of atmospherical air. These openings are
also used for withdrawing the contents of the chambers.
on which coal is burned; E, E, are flues constructed of fire bricks for con-
ducting flame and heated air from the fire-grates around and in contact with
the chambers A, A; F, F, are apertures for the escape of gases from the
chambers A, A. These apertures may be connected with a chimney draft for.
withdrawing such gases. G, G, are vents from the flues E, E, for the escape

page_text: of the products of combustion from such flues; these may also be connected
with a chimney draft. These vents should be furnished with dampers, by which
the heating of the apparatus may be regulated so as to be nearly alike. The
chambers A, A, having been filled with the residual products of the combustion
of sulphur from iron pyrites in the state of lumps, heat is applied thereto by
means of coal burning in the grates D, D, and air is admitted through the
dampers C, C, when sulphur, in the state of sulphurous acid gas, will pass off
through the apertures F, F. This operation is continued until the escape of
sulphurous acid gas
from the apertures F, F, is no longer perceptible. The
contents of the chambers are then withdrawn through the openings B, B, and
a fresh charge of material introduced into such chambers.
The expulsion of sulphur from the said residual product of the combustion
of iron pyrites may also be effected by calcining such residual product in an
ordinary reverberatory furnace. When such an apparatus is employed for
such purpose, it is needful to reduce the said residual product to the state of a
coarse powder, and to cause the surface of the material undergoing calcination
to be frequently raked, so as to expose fresh surfaces to the action of atmo-
spherical air passing through the furnace.
Having obtained, by the means herein-before described, oxide of iron
sufficiently free from sulphur from the residual product of the combustion of
iron pyrites, I convert such oxide of iron into metallic iron, either by smelting
it in a blast furnace together with carbon and suitable fluxes in the manner
usually practised, and I thereby obtain iron in the form of cast iron, or I
convert such oxide of iron into metallic iron by cementation with carbonaceous
matters (in the manner ordinarily practised with other oxides of iron), and I
thereby obtain malleable iron, which I refine by treatment in the puddling
furnace in the manner usually practised for the treatment of malleable iron
obtained by cementation from oxides of iron, and I thereby obtain iron in a
state suitable to be converted into bars, sheets, and other forms of malleable
iron.
For the purpose of obtaining steel by means of my Invention, I cause the
oxide of iron obtained from the residual product of combustion of iron pyrites,
after the expulsion of sulphur therefrom, to be subjected to the process of
cementation with carbonaceous matter, and thereby converted into malleable
iron, which I subject to the process of puddling and rolling so as to obtain
malleable iron in the form of bars; I then subject such bar iron to the well-
known processes for converting bar iron into steel, and I thereby obtain steel
by the use of malleable iron obtained from the residual product of the
combustion of iron pyrites.

page_text: I claim as my Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent, the manufacture of iron and steel from the residual products
remaining after burning off sulphur from iron pyrites during the manufacture
of sulphuric acid, by subjecting such residual products to the action of atmo-
spherical air at a high temperature, so as to drive off the whole or nearly the
whole of the sulphur previously remaining therein, and converting such
desulphurized material into iron and steel by the means usually employed for
obtaining iron and steel from oxides of iron.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Gossage, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Thirtieth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane..
WILL. GOSSAGE. (L.S.)