IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jacob Geoghegan Willans, of 9, Saint Stephen's
Crescent, Bayswater, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL."
Sealed the 29th April 1873, and dated the 14th February 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 14th February 1873.
I, JACOB GEOGHEGAN WILLANS, of 9, St. Stephen's Crescent, Bays-
water, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL,"
to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is mainly to facilitate the smelting of
iron ore in blast furnaces, and to render the melting of steel from a
mixture of granulated cast iron and oxide of iron more uniform and less
injurious to the pots or furnaces.
In carrying out the first part of the Invention I have the ores in a
state of division, preferably not exceeding the size of walnuts, and to:

page_text: prevent the ore falling down through the interstices of the fuel I charge
into the furnace small pieces of carbonaceous matter of a kind unsuitable
in itself for use as a smelting fuel but capable of affording carbonic oxide
for the reduction of the ore and of obstructing its descent through the
fuel. I use for this purpose fragments of uncharred peat, waste bark,
and other vegetable tanning substances from tanners' yards or such like.
I sometimes apply in wide-topped furnaces the small screenings from
coke or non-caking coal, or these purposely crushed into fragments.
The blast furnaces employed are low and the mouth of the furnace
is of unusual width in proportion to the sectional arca of the furnace.
In order to charge materials more evenly than hitherto into blast
furnaces, I employ a charging trough or instrument (or a number of
them together), which after being loaded is run forward so as to extend
horizontally over the mouth of the furnace, and then turned or other-
wise caused to drop its load into the furnace. The charger may be long
enough to reach across the furnace if the charging takes place from
one side, or if from opposite sides the charger may reach half way.
I have the charging trough so arranged that it may be moved laterally
äf desired, in order that its deposit may not be laid in the same place
as before, I have one or more of these troughs fixed or supported on a
movable frame or support so arranged that it may be rapidly brought
over the furnace mouth then emptied and quickly withdrawn. I place
the materials in this charger in the bulks and proportions I wish them
to occupy in the furnaces.
: In the melting of a mixture of granulated cast iron and oxide of iron
into steel by one operation, as in the "Uchatius" process the oxide is
found to have an injurious effect on the pots and leads to irregularity
in the steel.
My improvement is to mix up with the oxide a hydrocarbon or other
soluble or plastic carbonaceous matter (such as pitch, tar, oil, gum,
farinaceous or saccharine matter, or the pulp of undried peat). By this
means the particles of oxide will have carbon in more intimate contact
than if charcoal alone were added, and the oxide of iron touching the
sides of the pot will be further neutralized by the hydrocarbon gases given
off from the other portions of the mixture, and thus prevent any clayey
substance with which the oxide may be in contact being so injuriously
acted on as heretofore.

page_text: I prepare a granulated cast iron suitable for the manufacture of steel
by melting wrought iron scrap together with cast iron (or in some cases
wrought iron alone) and granulating the metal thus produced. The
granulated metal thus prepared is also very suitable for the manufacture
of malleable castings.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 14th August 1873..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JACOB
GEOGHEGAN WILLANS, of 9, Saint Stephen's Crescent,. Bayswater, in the
County of Middlesex, send greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria,, by: Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of February; in the
year of our Lord One thousand.cight hundred and seventy-threc, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign,, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors;
give and grant unto me, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, Her special
license that I,, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Jacob Geoghegan
Willans, my executors,, administrators, and 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 MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL," upon the condition.
(amongst others) that I, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or
one of their hands and seals, 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 Jacob Geoghegan Willans, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-

page_text: fuel. I prefer to use for this purpose fragments of uncharred peat, waste
bark, and other vegetable tanning substances from tanners' yards or
such like like, preferring to use air-dried peaty fragments in the uncom-
pressed state as raised from the bog, the cubical contents of such frag-
ments being preferably about one or two cubic inches. These may be
obtained on the bog, or larger pieces may be reduced to the size. Of
these small carbonaceous matters I add a quantity about equal to one-
fifth the bulk of the coke or coal used as fuel.
I charge the ores in a
broken or divided state in sizes by preference not exceeding that of
walnuts. I use burnt lime or limestone broken snall, or other flux, as
now usual. In order to charge materials more evenly than hitherto into
blast furnaces in place of charging the materials at or around the
middle of the furnace mouth, and allowing them to slide or roll to the
other parts of the area of the furnace mouth, as is now usual when
charging apparatus is employed, I arrange the charging apparatus so
that the materials may be dropped by it at once on to every part of the
area of the furnace mouth, and may remain where they are so dropped.
I employ a charging trough or instrument (or a number of them
together), which after being loaded is run forward so as to extend
horizontally over the mouth of the furnace, and then turned or other-
wise caused to drop its load into the furnace. The charger may be long
enough to reach across the furnace if the charging takes place from one
side, or if from opposite sides the charger may reach half way. If one
charging trough only be used or a less number than is sufficient to cover
the area of the furnace mouth I have the apparatus so arranged that it
may be moved laterally along the furnace in order that it may deposit
the charge over every part of the furnace mouth. I place the materials
in this charger in the bulks and proportions I wish them to occupy in
the furnaces.
The charging apparatus as I prefer to arrange it consists of a scoop
7 feet long and one foot wide. It has axes at the ends, which serve
as handles. There are two horizontal bars fixed, one on either side of
the furnace, to receive the handles, and for this purpose they have a
series of stops on them at one foot apart; the loaded scoop is made to
rest on the bars at one of the stops, and is then turned over.
The scoop
is removed, refilled, and brought back over the furnace mouth, and is
now made to rest at the next pair of stops on the supporting bars. In
this way cach part of the area of the furnace mouth in succession has
its proportion of the charge dropped directly upon it.

page_text: .
In charging the furnace I prefer to lay the materials in separate
layers or divisions; first, the larger material, viz., the fuel, then the
flux, next a separating bed of peat or other material, as hercin-before
mentioned, and then the small ore.
What I claim in respect to this part of my Invention is, the process
of smelting small iron ore in low furnaces with wide mouths and with a
material more combustible than the smelting fucl charged into the
furnace to prevent the ore falling down through the interstices between
the larger materials of the charge, substantially as described.
I also claim generally the use of tanners' bark and other waste
vegetable tanning substances in the smelting of iron ore in blast furnaces.
I also claim when smelting iron ore in small pieces in low wide-
mouthed furnaces and using materials to prevent such ore falling down
through the interstices between the larger materials, the arranging
the materials of the charging layers or divisions, substantially as
described.
I also claim the use of charging apparatus so arranged as to deposit
the charge directly upon every portion of the area of the mouth of the
furnace, substantially as described.
In the melting of a mixture of granulated cast iron and oxide of iron
into steel by one operation as in the "Uchatius" process the oxide is
found to have an injurious effect on the pots and leads to irregularities
in the steel. My improvement is to add to the mixture a hydrocarbon
or hydrocarbonaceous matter such as pitch, tar, oil, gum, farinaceous
or saccharine matter or the pulp of undried peat, the hydrocarbon gases
given off prevent the clayey substance forming the melting vessel with
which the oxide comes in contact being so injuriously acted on as
heretofore.
In carrying out this part of my Invention I prefer to use resin or
coal oil, and to smear the granules therewith, afterwards mixing up the
smeared granules with the oxide about 3 of a pound of resin oil or
creosote may be used for the quantity of the mixture yielding 50 lbs. of
steel. This proportion of hydrocarbonaceous matter is generally insuffi-
cient to reduce more than a small proportion of the oxide of the mixture,
and the residue is available as heretofore to combine with a portion
of the carbon of the granules, but if little oxide be employed the

page_text: hydrocarbon must not be used in such quantity as to deoxidise it
entirely, indeed the temper of the steel is adjusted as heretofore by
suitably proportioning the oxide to the carbon in the granules and
mixture. The carbonaceous matters being thus thoroughly distributed
will as they are successively evaporated by heating yield a continuous
evolution of hydrogenous vapors, which more or less impinging on the
red hot oxide in contact with the sides, or bottom of the pot or vessel
will tend to neutralize its injurious action thereon.
I do not claim the use of hydrocarbons in steel melting generally,
but I do claim as respects this part of my Invention the use of hydro-
carbons or hydrocarbonaceous substances such as above described along
with oxide of iron intermixed with granules of cast iron in quantity
insufficient to reduce the whole of the oxide present, but sufficient to
yield during the progress of the heat reducing vapours, which impinging
on the sides or bottom of the pot or vessel will diminish the injurious
action of the oxide thereon.
Another part of my Invention relates also to an improvement in the
manufacture of steel made from granules, and also to the manufacture
of malleable castings. In the melting of steel from granules of cast-
iron and oxide mixture, any large amount of silicon or phosphorus in
the cast iron is prejudicial.
-
Such impurities in pig iron are also prejudicial for the making of
castings that are to be annealed to render them malleable castings; my
improvement is to melt down with the cast iron previous to granulation
wrought iron in the form of scrap or pieces, whereby the per-centage of
silicon or phosphorus in the granules made from such mixture will be less
than in the original pig iron, or the pig iron may be manufactured into
wrought iron by any of the ordinary processes, thereby parting with most
of its impurities, and then I take the wrought iron so produced and
melt it down in a cupola and reconvert it into a better quality of cast
iron than the original pig iron, I then granulate it. I prefer to melt
down in a foundry cupola at least ten feet in height one part by weight of
grey pig and two parts of wrought iron, such as fresh (clean not rusty)
punchings and clippings of boiler plate, I use blast at two pounds
5 pressure with small tuyere nozzles, and employ about seven hundred-
weights of coke, preferably of a pure kind, to each ton of the iron
mixture, together with limestone or other flux if required. In melting
wrought iron alone I increase the quantity of the fuel by one half, and

page_text: use hot blast with tuyeres enlarged in proportion to the expansion of the
blast by heating. In both cases I granulate the fluid metal produced
into fine granules by any of the known methods of granulation, and I
prefer to treat the granules as described in this Specification for the
manufacture of cast steel. For the manufacture of castings I prefer to
smear the granules with resin oil or creosote in the proportion of
1 to 2 pounds to 100 pounds of granules. I then melt the metal
in pots and cast in the usual way. The use of wrought iron with
cast iron for making castings direct has necessarily been in small pro-
portions, as the per-centage of carbon in the iron was thereby diminished
but the granulation enables carbon on carbonaceous matter to be added.
in the remelting.
In this Specification I use the word "granules" in the sense of small
particles without reference to the means by which the scale of division
may be brought about. I also use the words iron ore to mean the oxide
or its compounds from which any description of iron is smelted.
I am aware that cast and wrought iron have been melted together
in reverberatory furnaces and in close vessels to make cast steel, and
that wrought iron in less proportion has been added to cast iron in
cupolas and in pots for melting into castings, also that such a mixture
has been granulated and puddled into bar iron, but I claim the melting
direct into cast steel of granules produced from a compound of cast and
wrought iron or from wrought iron alone.
I also claim the manufacture of malleable iron castings from such
granules.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of August,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
three.