THE ART OF MAKING MALLEABLE IRON DIRECTLY FROM THE ORE WITH SEA COALS OR PITT COALS IN A FINERY OR BLOOMERY, WITHOUT PURSUING THOSE TEDIOUS AND EXPENSIVE METHODS NOW IN PRACTICE FOR THE MAKING OF IRON; OF A NEW METHOD OF REFINING SOW, PIG, OR CAST IRON WITH CHARCOAL INTO WROUGHT OR BARE IRON, SO AS TO PERFORM THE SAME BETTER, AND WITH MUCH GREATER EXPEDITION AND LESS CONSUMPTION OF CHARCOAL, THAN CAN BE DONE BY ANY OTHER METHOD NOW OR HERETOFORE KNOWN AND PRACTICED; AND OF A NEW FINERY OR BLOOMERY FOR THE MAKING AND REFINING OF IRON, MUCH BETTER ADAPTED FOR THE PURPOSE THAN THOSE WHICH NOW ARE OR HAVE AT ANY TIME BEEN IN USE IN THESE KINGDOMS
Year: 1771

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
COCKSHUTT, of Wortley Iron Works, in the County of York, Iron Master,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
the Second day of May, in the eleventh year of His reign, give and grant
unto me, the said John Cockshutt, His special licence that I, the said John
Cockshutt, during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad.
my Inventions of "THE ART OF MAKING MALLEABLE IRON DIRECTLY FROM THE
ORE WITH SEA COALS OR PITT COALS IN A FINERY OR BLOOMERY, WITHOUT
PURSUING THOSE TEDIOUS AND EXPENSIVE METHODS NOW IN PRACTICE FOR THE
MAKING OF IRON; OF A NEW METHOD OF REFINING SOW, PIG, OR CAST IRON WITH
CHARCOAL INTO WROUGHT OR BARE IRON, SO AS TO PERFORM THE SAME BETTER, AND
WITH MUCH GREATER EXPEDITION AND LESS CONSUMPTION OF CHARCOAL, THAN CAN BE
DONE BY ANY OTHER METHOD NOW OR HERETOFORE KNOWN AND PRACTICED; AND OF A
NEW FINERY OR BLOOMERY FOR THE MAKING AND REFINING OF IRON, MUCH BETTER
ADAPTED FOR THE PURPOSE THAN THOSE WHICH NOW ARE OR HAVE AT ANY TIME BEEN
IN USE IN THESE KINGDOMS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso obliging 'me, the said John Cockshutt, under my hand and seal, to
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Inventions, and how
the same are to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of

page_text: Chancery within four calendar months after the date of the said recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had) may
more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Cockshutt, do hereby declare that my said Inventions of the Art of
Making Malleable Iron directly from the Ore with Sea Coals or Pitt Coals
in a Finery or Bloomery, without pursuing those Tedious and Expensive
Methods now in practice for the Making of Iron; of a New Method of
Refining Sow, Pig, or Cast Iron with Charcoal into Wrought or Barr Iron,
so as to Perform the same Better, and with much greater Expedition and less
Consumption of Charcoal, than can be done by any other Method now or
heretofore Known and Practised; and of a new Finery or Bloomery for the
Making and Refining of Iron much better adapted for the Purpose than
those which now are or have at any time been in Use in these Kingdoms, are
described in the manner following (that is to say) :-
I take any iron ore previously calcined, if it be ore which requires that
preparation, which some iron ores do not, and I pound or pulverize it
very small. I also take sea or pit coals, raw as they are got out of the
earth, and I pulverize or break them small; some sorts of coals I charke
into coaks or cinders. I mix the pulverized ore with the pit coals, or with
the coaks or cinders, or with both (as the nature of the coals are hard or
soft), in proportion to the richness of the ore in iron, or to its being more
or less stubborn or refractory. Having thus prepared a quantity ready, I
fill a common finery (nearly such as is commonly used for refining of pigs),
or the new finery or bloomery herein-after described, with coals, coaks, or
cinders without ore, and let the bellows blow until the fire be thorough hot.
I then begin to put the mixture above mentioned on to the finery, and I
keep the fire with a regular supply of the said mixture as the coals, coaks,
or cinders consume and the ore melts, observing to let off the cinder as it
grows redundant. Thus I proceed till the finery be full of iron, which, if the
process be right managed, will be perfectly malleable, and in the form of a
loup or bloom. I then take up the loup or bloom, and, if it be made in a
common finery, I take it directly to the hammer and shingle it into a half bloom,
and draw it out into barrs or other convenient shapes, commonly called uses, in
the usual way; but if I perform this in the new finery or bloomery (herein-after
described), I can execute it with much greater expedition and better effect;
for, if the process be well performed, the loup or bloom will be much too heavy
to shingle whole; therefore, by a machine properly constructed for that pur

page_text: pose, I cut it into so many parts that each may be shingled into half blooms
by one workman; each of these parts are then shingled into half blooms ready
to be drawn into barrs or into uses in the usual way.
To make sow, pig, or cast iron into wrought or bar iron with much greater
expedition and less consumption of charcoal than can be done by any other
method hitherto practiced, I take sow, pig, or cast iron enough to make a
bloom or loup of the weight I propose, and first heat it with pitt coals (or what-
ever fewel is the cheapest at the place where the metal is to be refined) either
in an air furnace or with bellows, as best suits the fewel so to be used;
and as soon as the metal is on the point of melting, I take it out and put
it immediately into the finery or bloomery (herein-after described), and there
melt it with charcoal until it come into nature, when I sink it into a bloom
or loup (during which time other pigs are heated to be in readiness for the
next bloom), and I continue to supply the finery with charcoal and metal as
wanted. If the bellows be sufficiently strong and the process right performed,
the loup or bloom will be much too large to shingle whole, therefore by
the said machine I cut it into so many parts, that each may be shingled
into half blooms by one workman, as above described; but the size or weight
of the loups must be regulated by the size of the finery or bloomery herein-
after described, and this finery or bloomery also must be regulated by the
quantity and force or the velocity of the wind produced by the bellows; but
the larger the loups or blooms are made, and the more despatch will be made,
and there will also be a less consumption of charcoal (in proportion to the
quantity of iron made. By this method I can refine sow, pig, or cast iron into
wrought or bar iron, with about half the quantity of charcoal in proportion to
the weight of iron refined that is consumed in the common way, and I can
refine more than double the quantity of iron in the same time.
I construct my finery or bloomery with metal plates within a hearth
(near alike that used by ancorsmiths), so as to be open on two or more
sides, that the men may work at least on two sides of the finery. There
are outletts at the corners for the conveniency of introducing furgens. to
raise up or move the iron within every part of the finery, even when the
iron lies close to all or any of the sides. This new finery is in figure
nearly a square, and the outlets contain no fewel, by which a considerable
waste thereof is prevented, for in common fineries much fewel is con-
sumed waste by its lying on that part of the space where there is neither
iron or blast; which space was necessary in common fineries for the purpose
of introducing the furgens to raise up. or move the iron, but in my new
finery such space is not necessary, the use of it being supplied by the said

page_text: outlets. Instead of having only one tuiron for the conducting and admission
of wind from the bellows into the finery, as in the common finery, I have in
my finery or bloomery several tuirons for that purpose, so as to direct the wind
from the bellows to operate upon the iron in every part of the fire, so that no
part of my finery is unoccupied by the iron or wind, but the wind circulates
regularly, and nearly equally in every part of the fire, so that the iron can fall
. into every part and fill the whole of the finery (except the said outlets). I
. determine the dimensions of my finery or bloomery in proportion to the size
and strength of the bellows; and also I determine the number of tuirons
according to the nature and different quality of the iron I have to make or
refine, as it is more or less mild or refractory. This new finery and new
method of working requiring a greater supply of wind than the common way,
I procure a fully sufficient quantity of wind either by one or more large
bellows, sufficient to. produce wind both in proper quantity and with proper
force and velocity, which I regulate by an air vessel with valves, so made and
placed as to let a proper quantity of wind to each tuiron, either with an alter-
nate or continued blast, as I find best suited to the iron I have to refine. Or
I procure a fully sufficient quantity of wind by several smaller bellows, each
communicating with one tuiron. I have plates on each side of my finery or
bloomery where the tuirons are placed, so constructed that all or any of the
tuirons can be taken out or moved (for the purpose of repairing any that may
be damaged, or for any other purpose), without any sensible hindrance to the
process; and if the said tuirons, or any of them, prevent the loups or blooms
being taken up conveniently, they may be removed without any interruption
to the succeeding process.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Cockshutt, have hereunto sett my
hand and seal, the Twenty-seventh day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand seven hundred and seventy-one.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBRED, that on the same Twenty-seventh day of
August, in the year above said, the aforesaid John Cockshutt came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification of
his Inventions aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form
above written. And also the Specification afores" was stampt according to
the tenor of the Statute made in the sixth year of the reign of the late
King and Queen William and Mary of England, & so forth.