A NEW AND USEFUL PROCESS IN THE TREATMENT OF CAST STEEL WHILE PASSING FROM THE MOLTEN STATE INTO THAT OF BEING HARDENED OR TEMPERED, AND WHICH WITH CERTAIN VARIATIONS IS APPLICABLE TO THE MAKING OF TOOLS, INSTRUMENTS, AXES, WHEELS, OR INGOTS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Perry G. Gardiner, of the City, County, and State
of New York, in the United States of America, Mechanical Engineer,
for the Invention of "A NEW AND USEFUL PROCESS IN THE TREATMENT OF
CAST STEEL WHILE PASSING FROM THE MOLTEN STATE INTO THAT OF BEING
HARDENED OR TEMPERED, AND WHICH WITH CERTAIN VARIATIONS IS APPLICABLE
TO THE MAKING OF TOOLS, INSTRUMENTS, AXES, WHEELS, OR INGOTS."
Sealed the 2nd February 1858, and dated the 22nd August 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Perry G. Gardiner, at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd August 1857.
I, PERRY G. GARDINER, of the City, County, and State of New York, in the
United States of America, Mechanical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "A NEW AND USEFUL PROCESS IN THE TREATMENT OF
CAST STEEL WHILE PASSING PROM THE MOLTEN STATE INTO THAT OF BEING HARDENED
OR TEMPERED, AND WHICH WITH CERTAIN VARIATIONS IS APPLICABLE TO THE MAKING
OF TOOLS, INSTRUMENTS, AXES, WHEELS, OR INGOTS," to be as follows:-
For making tools, axes, or instruments, I first prepare suitable moulds
which will stand the requisite heat, and raise them (in a furnace) to a cherry
red heat; I then fill the moulds with molten cast steel, and immediately replace
them in the heated oven or furnace, and there let them remain until the

page_text: metal becomes congealed, and is brought down to a hardening or cherry red
heat. The articles so cast I remove from the moulds and immerse immediately
in a fluid mixture, suitable for hardening and tempering, of a temperature of
from 100 to 150 degrees Fahr., that is, when the articles thus produced are
required to be very hard. If the heat of the fluid for hardening and tempering
be above 150 degrees, the metal will be softer in proportion to the degree of
heat above that point.
When cast steel is to be made into ingots to be used in manufacturing
where a very soft, tough, and ductile article of steel is required, the moulds
are heated to an intense degree of heat, nearly equal to that at which the
steel melts, and in this state they receive the molten steel. The metal must
be kept in the moulds subjected to this high degree of heat a considerable
time, say from six to eight hours, after which the heat must be allowed
gradually to subside until the steel has fairly congealed, and is at a cherry red
heat. The steel is then to be removed from the moulds and immersed in a
cistern of olive or whale oil, heated to from 600° to 700° Fahr. If the ingots
are more than an inch in thickness, the oil must be kept at this temperature
for several hours, and then permitted gradually to cool; when the ingots are
less than an inch in thickness, they need not be kept so long a time in the
heated oil. By this process any desired degree of toughness and ductility
which cast steel is capable of receiving may be attained.
The process above described as applicable to the making of tools, instru-
ments, and axes, may be usefully applied to the making of cast-steel railroad
carriage wheels, and to castings of other circular forms and discs, so as to
produce a sound casting without cracking of the metal in cooling.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Perry G. Gardiner in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 18th February 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PERRY
GREEN GARDINER, of the City, County, and State of New York, in the United a
States of America, Mechanical Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of August, A.D. Eighteen
hundred & fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her reign, did, for Herself,
Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Perry Green.
Gardiner, Her special license that I, the said Perry Green Gardiner, my

page_text: executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Perry
Green Gardiner, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 the Isle of Man, an Invention of "A
NEW AND USEFUL PROCESS IN THE TREATMENT OF CAST STEEL WHILE PASSING FROM.
THE MOLTEN STATE INTO THAT OF BEING HARDENED OR TEMPERED, AND WHICH WITH
CERTAIN VARIATIONS IS APPLICABLE TO THE MAKING OF TOOLS, INSTRUMENTS, AXES,
WHEELS, OR INGOTS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said.
Perry Green Gardiner, by an instrument in writing under my hand and 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 Perry Green Gardiner, 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):-
For making unmanufactured steel of a peculiarly soft, tough, and malleable
quality, I first prepare moulds for making ingots, bars, or other shapes as may
be desired, of fire clay, black lead, or any suitable material or composition
which will not adhere, to the melted metal, and which will stand the intense
heat to which they are to be subjected; these moulds are then heated to an
intense heat, nearly to that at which the steel melts, and in this state of the
moulds the melted metal is poured into the moulds, and it must be kept in
the moulds heated to this high degree of heat, and in the oven or furnace a
considerable time, say from six to eight hours, and after this let the heat of
the moulds slowly and gradually subside, until the steel in them has fairly
congealed, and is at a cherry red heat, then remove the steel expeditiously
from the moulds and immerse it immediately in a cistern of olive or whale
oil, heated to from six hundred to seven hundred degrees of Fahrenheit, and
if the ingots or bars are more than an inch in thickness, the oil must be kept
at that high degree of heat for several hours, and then permitted to become
gradually quite cold; when the ingots or bars are less than an inch in thickness
they need not be kept so long a time in the heated oil. By this process a very
great degree of toughness, softness, and ductility is imparted to the steel.
The less heated the oil is when the steel is immersed in it, the harder will be
the steel, but at the same time less tough and malleable.
The oven or

page_text: furnace in which the melted steel is placed, after being poured into the
moulds, should be closed, and the flame or burning fuel must not come in
contact with the metal but only the heat. In heating oil to the high tem-
perature above mentioned for the immersion of the steel therein, the vessel
containing it and for heating it should be provided with a moveable close
cover to prevent the escape of the vapour, and to avoid danger of burning;
and in all cases it is better to use a large quantity of oil for the immersion of
the steel therein.
Secondly, for making tools, instruments, axes, wheels, or ingots of a quality
similar to them. I first prepare the moulds of fire clay, black lead, or of any
other suitable material or composition of matter which will not adhere to the
melted metal, and which will stand the requisite heat, and when iron is used
its interior surface must be well coated with some material to prevent the
melted steel from adhering to the mould; the moulds must be accurately made
in the form of the articles required to be produced. The moulds being thus
made and prepared with coating, they are placed in an oven or furnace, closed
and heated to a cherry red heat, and in which the flame or fire cannot touch
them, but only heat, and they are to be kept in the oven or furnace until they
have acquired the same heat as the oven or furnace itself; then fill the moulds
thus heated and prepared with the molten cast steel and replace them thus
filled immediately back in the heated oven or furnace, and there let them
remain at the same temperature until the metal becomes congealed, and is
brought down to a hardening or cherry red heat; then remove the articles
so cast from the moulds, and immediately immerse them in a fluid mixture
suitable for hardening and tempering them, of a temperature of from 100 to
150 degrees of Fahrenheit, that is, when the articles thus produced are
required to be exceedingly hard. If the heat of the fluid for hardening and
tempering be above 150 degrees Fahrt, the steel will be softer in proportion
to the degree of heat in the fluid above that point. Care must be taken that
the steel while in a molten state as well as the articles thus cast are exposed
as little as possible to the atmosphere during the process. By immersing the
castings in the fluid heated to about from 100 to 150 degrees as aforesaid,
in connection with the other parts of the process as described, not only is
the hardening effected, but the articles thus made are sound and smooth
without cracking or warping from their proper shape.
What I claim as my discovery and Invention in the first above-described
process, is not simply the gradual and prolonged cooling of the metal after
melting as aforesaid, but it is the process as a whole of pouring the melted
metal into intensely heated moulds, and then placing them thus filled imme-

page_text: diately into the heated oven or furnace, there to congeal, away from the
external atmosphere, down to a cherry red heat, and then immediately
plunging the bars or ingots into the highly heated oil, and retaining them
immersed in it for a considerable time, as described.
And in the second above-described process, being a variation of the first, I
claim as my Invention and discovery the process of treatment of the cast steel
by pouring it in a molten state into moulds of the shape and size required for
tools, instruments, axes, wheels, or the ingots coated and prepared as above,
and previously heated to a high degree of heat in a closed oven or furnace,
and replacing them so filled in an oven or furnace away from the external
air, and keeping them there until they have cooled down to a cherry red heat,
and then immersing the tools, wheels, &c. so made immediately into the fluid
mixture of a temperature of from 100 to 150 degrees, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Perry Green Gardiner, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of December, Eighteen
hundred and fifty-seven.
In presence of
E. M. ARCHIBALD,
H. B. M. Consul,
New York.
PERRY GREEN GARDINER. (L.S.)