IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING A CERTAIN RESIDUAL MATTER LEFT IN MANUFACTURING ANILINE DYE FOR THE MANUFACTURE THEREFROM OF VALUABLE PRODUCTS.
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Christopher Binks, of Parliament Street, West-
minster, in the County of Middlesex, Chemist & Metallurgist, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING A CERTAIN RESIDUAL
MATTER LEFT IN MANUFACTURING ANILINE DYE FOR THE MANUFACTURE
THEREFROM OF VALUABLE PRODUCTS.".
Sealed the 12th April 1872, and dated the 28th December 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Christopher Binks at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 28th December 1871.
I, CHRISTOPHER BINKS, of Parliament Street, Westminster, in the
County of Middlesex, Chemist & Metallurgist, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING A CERTAIN
RESIDUAL MATTER LEFT IN MANUFACTURING ANILINE DYE FOR THE MANUFACTURE
THEREFROM OF VALUABLE PRODUCTS," to be as follows:-
The residual matter referred to is obtained from an operation in

page_text: aniline dye making, wherein metallic iron & acetic acid are used to
produce nascent hydrogen. This product consists chiefly of the inter-
mediate or magnetic oxide of iron intermixed with an organic compound
containing carbon & nitrogen.
I apply this residue to the manufacture of cast iron, malleable iron
& steel; & the methods I prefer to use for these purposes are as follows,
namely: From a portion of the crude residue to be operated on I
separate the organic matter in order to have some of the oxide free
from carbon for application in certain of the following operations:-For
this purpose I boil the crude residue in a weak solution of caustic
alkali, then wash the refined oxide & dry by a moderate heat. Or
I roast the crude oxide along with carbonate of soda, wherewith the
azotised carbon forms in the first instance cyanide of sodium & next
(on the addition of water) ferrocyanide of sodium which when washed
out leaves the oxide comparatively pure.
To reduce the oxide & obtain its iron in form of cast iron, I prefer to
work with the residue in its crude state. I smelt it in a blast furnace
after the usual manner of smelting an iron ore, using for this purpose a
fuel which is free from sulphur. Or I use gaseous fuel & previously
form the crude oxide into compact lumps by mixing it with some
carbonaceous matter capable of binding the particles together. From
this smelting operation I obtain a comparatively pure cast iron con-
taining only a moderate percentage of azotised carbon.
To manufacture malleable iron from this cast iron, I proceed as
follows: I melt the metal in a puddling or other furnace & gradually
work into it some of the refined oxide, in quantity sufficient to expell
the whole (or nearly the whole) of the combined azotised carbon, or as
much thereof as serves to bring the iron into the condition as to purity
& malleability ordinarily attained in iron of good quality.
To produce steelified iron or steel proper from the cast or carburated
iron obtained as above, I proceed as follows:-Into this metal when
fused I work a quantity of the refined oxide sufficient to give as the
final result iron combined with the proportion of an azotised carbon,
which is essential to the formation of real steel.
To convert the pure or malleable iron obtained as above into steelified
iron or into steel proper, I prefer to proceed as follows:-To this iron
placed in an ordinary steel melting crucible or in any suitable furnace, &

page_text: raised to a full red or to a white heat, I add an alkaline ferrocyanide
(preferably the anhydrous ferrocyanide of sodium) mixed with ferro-
cyanide of manganese in quantities sufficient to act as a flux, & on
decomposition to furnish an azotised carbon for combination with the
iron & its consequent conversion into steel.