IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL, AND OF ALLOYS OF VARIOUS METALS, AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN CONNECTION THEREWITH
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Denton Abel, of No. 20, Southampton
Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent
Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF IRON AND STEEL, AND OF ALLOYS OF VARIOUS METALS, AND IN THE
APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN CONNECTION THEREWITH."-A communication
· from abroad by Zoheth Sherman Durfee, of the Oity of New
York, in the United States of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Denton Abel
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 16th October 1871.
I, CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings,
5 Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent; do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS -IN THE.

page_text: MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL, AND OF ALLOYS OF VARIOUS METALS, AND IN
THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN CONNECTION THEREWITH," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the manufacture of iron and steel by mixing
molten pig iron and oxides of iron, and sometimes adding other matters,
and after the mixture treating the compound in suitable furnaces. I
For these purposes an annular trough supported on legs is placed on the
top of a furnace or over an ingot mould, into which it may be desired to
run the compound to be made and treated. This trough is provided
with several spouts which converge toward each other. Above the
trough is a hopper or large funnel containing pulverized ore, whose
outlet is immediately over the focus of the streams of metal to be run
out of the said spouts, and this hopper may be supported either from an
overhead framing or by braces attached to the trough, or in any other
convenient manner. In the hopper is a vertical feeding screw, which is
intended to work so that nothing can pass through the pipe of the 1
hopper except when the screw is turned.
In operating the improved process a suitable quantity of pulverized
ore is placed in the hopper, and the screw is put in motion. Molten pig
iron is then run into the trough by a runner, or from a casting ladle,
and as the ore is delivered from the pipe of the hopper it is caught up
by the convergent streams of iron from the spout and carried down into
the furnace or mould thoroughly and evenly mixed with the iron. By
varying the speed of the screw or the flow of iron the quantity of ore
mixed with a given weight of iron can be regulated very nearly at will.
When desirable, the pipe of the hopper may be made of fire-brick or
other refractory material, and may be extended so that it will pass into
the focus of the converging streams of molten iron, and insure a more
perfect mingling of the ore and iron, and in lieu of the spouts to the
annular trough open weirs or troughs may be connected therewith, out
of which the iron may be run in converging streams.
If the compound is run into ingot moulds, the ingots so made may
be treated in ordinary heating furnaces or otherwise as may be desired ;
but it is preferred to run the compound directly into an open hearth
reverberatory furnace through an opening in the roof thereof, the said
opening being closed after the furnace is charged. The compound can
then be balled up and worked as puddled bars now are, or it can be
melted into steel and tapped out at the tap-hole. When the compound

page_text: is to be melted into steel, a portion of the fluid iron is allowed to run
through the aforesaid trough down upon the bed of the furnace before
the screw is set in motion to feed the ore so as to have a bath of
carburized metal for the compound to ſall into.
The furnace, which by preference should be a gas furnace of known
construction or one in which very high neutral heat can readily be
maintained, must be heated previously to running in the metal, and in
the course of the process such fluxes may be introduced along with the
ore as might advantageously be used therein, and the character of the
steel can also be varied by adding during the melting process scraps of
iron or steel, spiegel-eisen, or other substances as is now often practised
in melting steel.
"The above-described apparatus and process is also adapted to the
manufacture of alloys of iron and manganese, copper and manganese,
› iron and chromium, copper and chromium, and other alloys, in all which
manufactures it is preferred to add the least refractory mineral, or that
which is most readily obtainable in a metallic form, in a fluid state to
the more refractory mineral as it is found in ores or other compound
state, substantially as herein-before described in the manufacture of iron
and steel.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Denton Abel in the Great Seal Patent
Office, on the 12th April 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
DENTON ABEL, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in
the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of October, in the
year of our Lord. One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the
thirty-fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Charles Denton Abel, Her special
licence, that I, the said Charles Denton Abel, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Denton
Abel, 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, AND OF ALLOYS OF
VARIOUS METALS, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN CONNECTION THEREWITH," a
communication to me from abroad by Zoheth Sherman Durfee, of the
City of New York, in the United States of America, upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Charles Denton Abel, 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 Charles Denton Abel, 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, reference being had to the
accompanying Sheet of Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say :—

page_text: •
.
This Invention relates to the manufacture of iron and steel by mixing
molten pig iron and oxides of iron, and sometimes adding other matters,
and after the mixture treating the compound in suitable furnaces.
Fig. 1 of the accompanying Drawings represents a plan of part of the
top of a furnace, and Fig. 2 a section of a furnace with apparatus for
mixing and feeding the substances to be operated on according to this
Invention. An annular trough a is supported on legs b, b, on the top of
the furnace, or it might be over an ingot mould into which it may be
desired to run the compound to be made and treated. The trough a is
provided with several spouts c, c, which converge towards each other.
Above the trough is a hopper or large funnel d containing pulverised
orc, whose outlet e is immediately over the focus of the streams of
metal to be run out of the spouts c, c. The hopper d may be supported
from an overhead framing, as shewn in Fig. 2, or by braces attached to
the trough a, or in any other convenient manner. In the hopper d is a
vertical feeding screw f, which is intended to work so that nothing can
pass through the pipe e except when the screw is turned.
In operating the improved process a suitable quantity of pulverised
ore is placed in the hopper d, and the scrow f is turned; molten pig is
then run into the trough a by a runner g, or from a casting ladle, and as
the ore is delivered from the pipe e it is caught up by the convergent
streams of iron from the spouts c, c, and carried down into the furnace
or mould thoroughly and evenly mixed with the iron. By varying the
speed of the screw f, or the flow of the iron, the proportion of ore mixed
with the iron can be regulated very nearly at will. When desirable, the
pipe e may be made of fire-brick or other refractory material, and may
be extended downwards so that it will pass into the focus of the con-
verging streams of molten iron, and insure a more perfect mingling of
the ore and iron; and in lieu of the spouts c, c, open weirs or throughs
may be connected to the annular trough a, out of which the iron may
be run in converging streams.
If the compound is run into ingot moulds the ingots so made may
be treated in ordinary heating furnaces, or otherwise as may be desired;
but it is preferred to run the compound directly into an open hearth
reverberating furnace through an opening in the roof thereof, the said
opening being closed after the furnace is charged. The compound can
then be balled up and worked as puddled bars now are, or it can be

page_text: First. The manufacture of iron and steel and various metallic alloys
by the combined apparatus and processes, substantially as herein
described.
Second. The use of the annular feeding trough in combination with
the feeding hopper for supplying an ingot mould or a furnace, sub-
stantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Denton Abel, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of April, in the year of
. our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.