IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANGANIFEROUS IRON
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Philip Middleton Justice at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 21st December 1880. A com-
munication from abroad by Alphonse Jaumain, of Monceau-sur-Sambre,
Belgium, Engineer.
PHILIP MIDDLETON JUSTICE, of 14, Southampton Buildings, in the County
of Middlesex, Patent Agent. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
MANGANIFEROUS IRON." A communication from abroad by Alphonse Jaumain, of
Monceau-sur-Sambre, Belgium, Engineer.
The difficulties arising in the smelting of manganiferous ores in the blast furnace
have long been known, and even at the present time it is only possible to
obtain a portion of the total quantity of maganese in the smelted metal. Thus
when using suitable slags and a very hot blast 50 to 60 per cent. of the total
quantity is the maximum usually obtained. With medium heat this yield falls to
from 20 to 25 per cent., while with cold blast the amount is almost nothing.
The object of this Invention is to remedy the above difficulty and to produce pig
iron suitably for the manufacture of steel by the Thomas and Gilchrist process,
or for treatment in any manner or by any process in which an iron can be
advantageously used which contains a proportion more or less great of manganese.
This Invention consists in making and using in the blast furnace cupola (or other
smelting furnace), a coke containing a quantity of the oxides of manganese or ores
containing this metal.
The manganiferous ores are intimately mixed with the coal intended to be made
into coke. If the coal and ore are in small enough pieces they can be mixed in
specified proportions before pulverizing, or in the pulverizer itself, or in the
elevator trollies.
If the ore is in lumps it should be first pulverized, so as to have the quantity of
manganese divided as equally as possible throughout the mass; the coal is then
coked in intimate contact with the manganese. If it is desired to produce in the
blast furnace a manganiferous pig iron containing 1 per cent. of manganese with a
consumption of 1200 kilogrammes of coke for the ton of pig (when obtaining a
reduction of 90 per cent. of the total quantity of manganese), it is necessary to add
to the coke 11 kilos.-1 gramme of manganese, or for each 1000 kilogrammes of

page_text: coke 9 kilos. of manganese.; that is to say, if a rich manganiferous ore (containing
50 per cent. of metallic manganese is employed, I use for each ton of coke 19
kilogrammes of said ore. When the coal yields 75 % in the coke ovens I employ
14 kilos. 6 grammes of said ore.
о
The coal should be of the best quality, so to diminish as far as possible the
production of coke ashes. Said coal should be clean and have great power of
agglomeration. The coals from the Westphalian coal pits are well suited for this
process.
If it is desired to introduce the manganese into the pig iron whilst treating the
same in the cupola I smelt the iron with rich manganiferous coke.
The consumption of coke in the cupola being 200 kilogrammes for the ton of pig,
and it being desired to introduce 1 per cent. of manganese in the smelted metal I use
a coke containing 5.55 per cent of manganese.
My process may be most advantageously employed in treating iron intended for
subsequent conversion by the Thomas and Gilchrist process, my process being
equally applicable whether the metal is run direct from the blast furnace or is
remelted in the cupola.
The manganese being calcined at the same time that the coal is coked loses
a considerable portion of its oxygen, and this is an advantage in its ultimate
reduction.