IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Isaac Lowthian Bell, of the Washington Chemical
Works, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON."
Sealed the 1st November 1858, and dated the 10th May 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Isaac Lowthian Bell
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
10th May 1858.
I, ISAAC LOWTHIAN BELL, of the Washington Chemical Works, Newcastle-
upon-Tyne, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of iron.
For these purposes, in place of mixing the ironstone or ore and lime with the
fuel in the upper part of a blast furnace, as heretofore practised, the ore or
ironstone is kept separate from the fuel during part of the process. Blast is
applied to the lower part of the furnace, as heretofore, and air is also
introduced into the compartments of the furnace in which the ore or ironstone
is placed, which are separate from the compartments in which the fuel-is
placed. The compartments in which the fuel is placed are closed at top, and
have suitable charging places, so that the draft may not be through the fuel.
By these means the gases or products rising from the lower part of the furnace

page_text: pass to the compartments containing ore or ironstone which are open above,
and such gases or products combine with the air supplied to such compart-
ments. The fuel, the lime, and the ironstone or ore continually descend from
the compartments and come together, and descend in the furnace towards the
lower part or crucible thereof.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Isaac Lowthian Bell in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
10th November 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ISAAC
LOWTHIAN BELL, of the Washington Chemical Works, Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Isaac Lowthian Bell, Her special licence that I, the said Isaac Lowthian
Bell, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Isaac Lowthian Bell, 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," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Isaac Lowthian Bell, 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 Isaac Lowthian Bell, 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 :-
In the present mode of working iron smelting furnaces there escapes from
the top of such furnaces a quantity of gaseous products containing in an
aeriform state the whole or nearly the whole of the fuel used, and in this

page_text: condition the carbon instead of existing as carbonic acid gas, which would
indicate a perfect combustion of the fuel employed, is given off by a series of
reactions perfectly understood by metallurgical chemists as carbonic oxide, a
gas inflammable in its nature, and consequently capable of being made
available as a source of further heat, as is already well known. Any attempt
to introduce additional atmospheric air for the combustion of this inflammable
carbonic oxide in the higher region of an iron furnace as it is worked at
present would be productive of no gain, because, from the same series of
reactions already alluded to as taking place, the resulting gas produced by
such combustion, owing to the presence of the unconsumed carbon of the fuel
in the furnace, would still be carbonic oxide instead of carbonic acid, which
latter gas is produced when perfect combustion of carbon is effected. To
avail myself of the heating power possessed by the carbonic oxide which
hitherto has escaped from iron furnaces, I introduce into the higher part of
the furnace atmospheric air by any well known means, heated or cold, among
such carbonic oxide, taking care to do so when the ironstone, limestone, or
other materials used in the manufacture of iron in a blast furnace is separate
from the fuel used in its reduction. By this means the inflammable carbonic
oxide gas may be burnt, and its heating effects beneficially expended upon the
ironstone, limestone, or other materials under treatment.
This object may be effected by apparatus of various forms. In the Drawing
accompanying this Specification I describe one mode by which my Invention
may be carried into practice, at the same time I do not confine myself to any
particular arrangement, so long as the object is effected of mixing air with
the carbonic oxide in the higher part of an iron furnace, and in contact with
ironstone, limestone, or other materials used in the manufacture of iron, and
when such ironstone, limestone, or other materials are not during such
admixture with the fuel employed in the smelting furnace.
Figure 1 represents a vertical section of a furnace so constructed from back
to front, that is, from the back tuyere to the dam; Figure 2 is a vertical
elevation of the same, shewing the dam arch in front; Figure 3 is another
vertical section of the furnace through the apertures for admitting air to
consume or burn the carbonic oxide in the upper part of the furnace;
Figure 4 is a horizontal plan and section at the line A of Figure 1 ; Figure 5
is a horizontal section through B, Figure 1, in which the line B' corresponds
with B, Figure 1, and the line C, C, with the sectional elevation shewn in
Figure 3; Figure 6 is a plan of the furnace at D in Figure 1. Over the
interior of the furnace, and from eight to sixteen feet from the top, more or
less according to circumstances, a dome of sufficient strength is built, such

page_text: dome being perforated with apertures indicated in the various views by the
letters E and a. These apertures are continued through solid masonry to the
top of the furnace and in the directions shewn, that is, the aperture E,
occupying the central portion of the dome, is gradually expanded so as to
increase its capacity, and terminates in a chimney H; while the apertures
a, a, a, a, are carried upwards in a slanting direction, forming four com-
partments surrounding the central chamber E. In the sides of E holes are
made, and marked 6 in the different Drawings, to which access is had by
means of the recesses or openings c, and by the gallery ог platform G of the
elevations. The compartments a, a, a, a, are furnished with lids d, Figure 1,
worked by handles e, Figures 1 and 2. In working a furnace so constructed,
blast is introduced among its contents at the ordinary tuyeres near the hearth
in the usual way; but instead of charging the furnace by pouring in the fuel,
ironstone, limestone, or other materials, through the throat or top opening of
the furnace, the iron producing minerals, or fluxes, or both, are thrown in
through the charging ports f of the chimney H, and as the closed lids d of
the other compartments a prevent the exit of the gases in that direction, they
escape by passing up E among its contents, and where, by meeting streams of
air, hot or cold, and introduced by any of the well-known means, ignition is
produced, and the materials in E become heated and prepared for subsequent
treatment in the lower portions of the furnace. Means are afforded of stirring
or loosening the materials contained in E by holes left at g, g, above the
openings b, b. The fuel is introduced by being poured in alternately through
the compartments a, a, a, a, the lids & being opened at the moment of such
introduction, and closed immediately afterwards. The fuel thus charged, and
the materials heated by the combustion of the carbonic oxide in E, continually
descend from their respective compartments, and come together beneath the
dome, and then continue their descent in the furnace towards the lower part
or crucible thereof.
As above stated, other arrangements or constructions of furnaces and
apparatus may be used in carrying out my Invention; for instance, I can
introduce first a quantity of fuel into a portion of the furnace, say, E in the
Drawings, and during such introduction, and until the fuel so added has
passed the orifices b, b, no air is there admitted. As soon, however, as the
fuel has passed this point, and the charging of the other materials has com-
menced, air is allowed ingress so as to inflame the carbonic oxide, and this
admission of air is continued until the necessary quantity of such materials
otherwise than fuel has passed the openings b, b, where the air enters. These
openings b, b, are then closed, and air excluded, while fuel is again charged,

page_text: and the process alternately repeated as already described, in which case the
other openings would be rendered unnecessary. This method of burning the
carbonic oxide permits considerable waste of the inflammable gas, and there-
fore it is desirable that whatever be the construction of furnace, the arrange-
ments should be such that the supply both of the fuel and of the other
materials should be independent of each other.
The other precautions to be observed in working furnaces constructed
as I have described, and by which the proportions of flux, fuel, and ores are
regulated, I have not thought necessary to give, because the same knowledge
which guides the practical smelter in adjusting the nature of his charges is
equally applicable when working a furnace built upon the principles embraced
in my Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Isaac Lowthian Bell, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fifth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
WM SWAN,
of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
I. LOWTHIAN BELL. (L.s.)