IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF STEEL AND OTHER COMPOUNDS OF IRON AND CARBON RESEMBLING
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Heaton, of Langley Mills, in the County
of Derby, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
PRODUCTION OF STEEL AND OTHER COMPOUNDS OF IRON AND CARBON RESEMBLING
Sealed the 3rd November 1868, and dated the 31st July 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Heaton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
31st July 1868.
I, JOHN HEATON, of Langley Mills, in the County of Derby,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF STEEL, AND OTHER COMPOUNDS OF IRON AND
CARBON RESEMBLING STEEL," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to the production of steel, and consists in the
employment for such purpose of the purified or converted pig or cast
iron, or the combination of iron and carbon such as results from the
action of nitrate of soda or nitrate of potash upon cast iron when in a
molten state, either alone or in conjunction with a blast, and contained
in a converter, by preference converters such as those described in the

page_text: Specifications of Letters Patent granted to me on the 17th March 1866,
No. 798, and the 3rd of May 1867, No. 1295, or in any other converter
or furnace, together with metallic iron, such as sponge iron, scrap, bar,
or other form of metallic or malleable iron. The product resulting
from the action of nitrate of soda or potash upon cast or pig iron, as
before mentioned, is to be melted in a suitable furnace or crucible and
metallic iron is to be added thereto, and to be dissolved therein, or
alloyed therewith, until the molten metal shall have attained such a
composition as may be required either for the production of steel or of
other compounds of iron and carbon resembling steel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Heaton in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 30th January 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HEATON, of Langley Mills, in the County of Derby, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said John Heaton, Her special license that I,
the said John Heaton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said John Heaton, my executors, administrators,
or 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 PRODUCTION OF STEEL, AND
OTHER COMPOUNDS OF IRON AND CARBON RESEMBLING STEEL," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said John Heaton, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, 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 John Heaton, 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, that is to say :-
My said Invention relates to the production of steel, and consists in
the employment for such purpose of the purified or refined pig or
cast iron, or the combination of iron and carbon, such as results from
the action of nitrate of soda or nitrate of potash or mixtures of the
same upon cast iron when in a molten state, either alone or in
conjunction with a blast, and contained in a converter, such as Heaton's
converter, or other converter or furnace, together with metallic iron, such
as sponge iron, scrap, bar, or other form of metallic or malleable iron.
In carrying out my Invention the product resulting from the action
of nitrate of soda or potash upon cast or pig iron, when the operation
is conducted by preference in a manner similar to that described in the
Specification of Letters Patent, dated Thirty-first July One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-eight, No. 2417, is to be melted in a suitable
furnace or crucible, and metallic iron is to be added thereto, and to be
dissolved therein, or alloyed therewith, until the molten metal shall have
attained such a composition as may be required, either for the produc-
tion of steel, or of other compounds of iron and carbon resembling steel.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used
or carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I
consider to be novel and original and therefore claim as the Invention
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent
is, the use and employment of purified pig iron, resulting from the
action of nitrate of soda or of nitrate of potash, or of mixtures of the
same, either alone or in conjunction with a blast upon crude, pig, or
molten cast iron, for the production of steel or of other compounds
resembling steel by melting the same with scrap or malleable iron.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Heaton, have to this my
Specification set my hand and seal, the Twenty-eighth.day of
October, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
JOHN HEATON. (L.S.)