IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON & STEEL
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Wood, of the Tees Ironworks, Middles-
bro'-on-Tees, in the County of York, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON & STEEL.”
Sealed the 20th October 1873, and dated the 14th August 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Wood at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
14th August 1878.
I, CHARLES WOOD, of the Tees Ironworks, Middlesbro'-on-Tees, in the
County of York, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON & STEEL," to be as
follows:-
use.
Rotating puddling furnaces are now well known and are in common
These furnaces have been worked in two ways; sometimes the iron to
be puddled is put into the furnace in the form of pigs, and at other
times the metal is melted in a separate furnace and then run into the

page_text: There are disadvantages attendant on both these methods of working.
When pig iron is charged into the rotary furnace damage is almost
necessarily done to the linings of the furnace, and much time and fuel
is wasted in melting. On the other hand if melted iron be run into the
furnace it is found that the yield of metal is decreased, less metal being
reduced out of the fettling, and the quality of the produce is not so
good as when the metal is puddled from the cold pig.
Now according to my Invention I avoid these disadvantages by
charging the rotary furnace with the metal in the state of granules..
When this is done the furnace can be rotated immediately after receiving 1
the charge, by which means the temperature is kept uniform all round
the furnace, and every portion of the metal is in succession brought into
contact with the lining by the rolling of the heap of granules over and
over within the furnace, an operation which facilitates the taking up of
the metal from the lining, and at the same time causes the granules very 1
rapidly to take up the heat of the furnace, whilst at the same time also
every particle of metal is in turn exposed to the action of the flame.
...
-It is not necessary that the metal should be finely granulated; it
works well in granules of the size of marbles.
Any efficient rotary puddling furnace, such as Danks' or Crampton's, a
may be employed. The puddling operation is in other respects conducted
in the ordinary manner so as to produce wrought iron or the steely
description of iron known as puddled steel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent
filed by the said Charles Wood in the Great Seal Patent Office 25
on the 18th February 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
WOOD, of the Tees Ironworks, Middlesbro-on-Tees, in the County of
York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her 30
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,

page_text: The furnace is rotated immediately after receiving the charge, by which
means the temperature is kept uniform all round the furnace, and every
portion of the metal is in succession brought into contact with the lining
by the rolling of the heap of granules over and over within the furnace,
an operation which facilitates the taking up of the metal from the lining 5
and at the same time causes the granules very rapidly to take up the
heat of the furnace, whilst at the same time also every particle of the
metal is in turn exposed to the action of the flame.
I prefer to produce the granules by means of the machine described
in the Specification of the Patent granted to me and dated the 3rd of 1
September 1872, No 2618.
It is not necessary that the metal should be finely granulated; it
works well in granules of the size of marbles.
Any efficient rotary puddling furnace, such as Danks' or Crampton's,
may be employed. The puddling operation is in other respects conducted 1
in the ordinary manner so as to produce wrought iron or the steely
description of iron known as puddled steel.
".
What I claim is the manufacture of wrought iron and steel by.
puddling granules of cast iron in a rotating puddling furnace, substan-
tially in the manner described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Wood, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.
CHARLES WOOD.
(L.S.)
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