IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PUDDLING IRON
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Gay Newton Alleyne, Baronet, of Butterley
Iron Works, Alfreton, in the County of Derby, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PUDDLING IRON."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Gay Newton
Alleyne at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 12th January 1874.
I, JOHN GAY NEWTON ALLEYNE, Baronet, of Butterley Iron Works,
Alfreton, in the County of Derby, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PUDDLING IRON," to be
as follows:-
My Invention relates to puddling furnaces of the kind having a
rotating bottom of basin form, and to rabbles to be used in connection
therewith.
I fix the basin which forms the bed of the furnace on its vertical
shaft, which I make hollow or tubular, and support in bearings, one of

page_text: which is constructed like the thrust bearing ordinarily employed for
propeller shafts, with several collars to sustain the weight of the rotating
bed and its contents. Up the middle of the hollow shaft I pass a water
pipe smaller than the interior hollow of the shaft, so that there is a free
annular space round it. This water pipe passes through a stuffing box
in a sleeve pipe which enters the lower end of the hollow shaft through
a stuffing box, and both the water pipe and the sleeve pipe remain fixed
while the shaft is made to revolve round them by any suitable power.
The water pipe is connected to a cistern of water, and the sleeve pipe
has an outlet branch.
I make the rotating furnace bed in the form of a double basin, the
upper basin preferably of wrought iron lined with any known refractory
material for the reception of the metal operated on, and the lower basin.
I make preferably in the form of a cast-iron dise, a little hollowed in the
middle, with a cylindrical casing of wrought iron projecting upwards
from its periphery, and connected at its upper edge to the edge of the
upper basin. Thus the upper basin is supported at its periphery, and a
clear space is left between the two basins.
The water pipe extending up the hollow shaft has one or more hori-
zontal branches extending radially from it in the space between the two
basins, with holes through which water issues in jets that play upon the
under surface of the upper basin, and serve to keep it cool.
The water,
after impinging on the upper basin, gathers towards the centre of the
lower basin, and flows down the annular space in the shaft to the sleeve
pipe at its lower end, whence it is discharged by the outlet branch. The
upper basin is provided with a tap hole in a tube, which passes through
the space between the sloping side of the upper basin and the cylindrical
periphery of the lower basin to the exterior of the latter.
The rabble which I employ in connection with the rotating furnace
bed which I have described consists of a horizontal stem, from which a
number of tines project downwards like a large comb into the fused
metal in the basin to effect the stirring of the metal as it is carried round
by the rotation of the bed.
For more effectually performing the stirring operation I prefer to give
the rabble a horizontal receprocating motion in a direction radial to the
axis of the basin or nearly so, whereby its tines are made to act upon the
metal over the whole surface of the bed.

page_text: I prefer to fix the machinery for working the rabble on the top of the
furnace, connecting it to the rabble by an arm projecting downwards.
In some cases I dispense with the reciprocating motion, and impart a
rotary motion to the rabble, turning it on its axis by coupling it to
rotating shaft in such a manner that it can be readily removed on
replaced. In this case the bearings of the driving shaft are by preference
fixed on a moveable framing, so that the machinery can be got out of
the way when it is not required to work.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Gay Newton Alleyne in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 7th July 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN GAY
NEWTON ALLEYNE, Baronet, of Butterley Iron Works, Alfreton, in the
County of Derby, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said John Gay Newton Alleyne, Her special
license that I, the said John Gay Newton Alleyne, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Gay
Newton Alleyne, 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 Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PUDDLING IRON," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Gay Newton Alleyne,
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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that 1, the said John Gay Newton Alleyne, do nereby
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, reference being had to the
accompanying Sheets of Drawings and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say :—
My Invention relates to puddling furnaces of the kind having a
rotating bottom of basin form, and to rabbles to be used in connection
therewith.
I fix the basin which forms the bed of the furnace on its vertical
shaft, which I make hollow or tubular, and support in bearings, one of
which is constructed like the thrust bearing ordinarily employed for
propeller shafts, with several collars to sustain the weight of the rotating
bed and its contents. Up the middle of the hollow shaft I pass a water
pipe smaller than the interior hollow of the shaft, so that there is a free
annular space round it. This water pipe passes through a stuffing box
in a sleeve pipe which enters the lower end of the hollow shaft through
a stuffing box, and both the water pipe and the sleeve pipe remain fixed,
while the shaft is made to revolve round them by any suitable power.
The water pipe is connected to a cistern of water; the sleeve pipe has an
outlet branch.
I make the rotating furnace bed in the form of a double basin, the
upper basin preferably of wrought iron lined with any known refractory
material for the reception of the metal operated on, and the lower basin
I make preferably in the form of a cast-iron disc, a little hollowed in
the middle, with a cylindrical casing of wrought iron projecting upwards
from its periphery, and connected at its upper edge to the edge of the
upper basin. Thus the upper basin is supported at its periphery, and a
clear space is left between the two basins.
The water pipe extending up the hollow shaft has one or more hori-
zontal branches extending radially from it in the space between the two
basins, with holes through which water issues in jets that play upon the
under surface of the upper basin, and serve to keep it cool.
The water,
after impinging on the upper basin, gathers towards the centre of the
lower basin, and flows down the annular space in the shaft to the sleeve
pipe at its lower end, whence it is discharged by the outlet branch. The
upper basin is provided with a tap hole in a tube which passes through

page_text: the space between the sloping side of the upper basin and the cylindrical
periphery of the lower basin to the exterior of the latter.
The rabble which I employ in connection with the rotating furnace
bed which I have described consists of a horizontal stem, from which a
number of tines project downwards like a large comb into the fused
metal as it is carried round by the rotation of the bed.
For more effectually performing the stirring operation I prefer to give
the rabble a horizontal reciprocating motion in a direction radial to the
axis of the basin, or nearly so, whereby its tines are made to act upon the
metal over the whole surface of the bed.

page_text: fitted at its lower end with a sleeve tube F passing into it through a
stuffing box, and having a side branch F¹. A pipe G passes through a
.stuffing box into the sleeve tube F, and extends upwards through the
shaft D to the spaces between the basin and casing, where it branches
out into the pipes G¹, G¹, along the upper sides of which a number of
small holes are bored. The lower end of the pipe G being connected by
a pipe with a cistern of water at a higher level than the basin, water flows
up the pipe G, and along the branches G¹, G¹, and issues from the holes
in jets g, which play on the under surface of the basin A, and keep it
cool. The water collecting in the disc B, which is a little dished, runs
down the interior of the shaft D, and issues by the discharge branch Ft.
By inserting a piece of pipe, as marked by the dotted lines B³, in the
throat of the disc B¹, a quantity of water may be retained in the hollow
of the disc. On the supply to the jets being stopped, the furnace bed
will then be kept cool only by the vapour from the water so retained, as
may be required for high heats. The sleeve F and pipe G remaining at
rest while the basin rotates, the conections to those pipes are fixtures.
H is a rabble of the comb form, such as is described above, having tines
H' projecting down into the molten metal in the basin A. The rabble
may be stationary, the stirring of the metal being in that case effected
as it rotates along with the basin; or the rabble H may have a recip-
rocating movement to and from the centre of the basin imparted to it
from a crank, cam, or eccentric mounted outside the furnace. It is
preferred to make the rabble of curved form, as shewn in the plan, Fig. 3,
and when the rabble is not caused to reciprocate to extend its curved part
over nearly half the width of the basin. When the rabble is made to recip-
rocate it may be worked from machinery placed above the furnace, as
shewn in Fig. 1, where K is a crank disc driven by bevil gearing, and
working a slide L, from which an arm M projects downwards so as to
work a lower slide N, to which the rabble shank is secured; or the
machinery for working the rabble may be placed on the ground beside
the furnace, as shewn in Figs. 2 and 3, where K is the crank disc
working directly the slide N, to which the rabble shank is attached.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I claim,-
First. The construction, substantially as herein described, of the
rotating basin bed for a puddling furnace, with a casing mounted on a
tubular shaft, through which a water pipe is led for the supply of jets