IMPROVEMENTS IN CASTING ARTICLES OF THE SLAGS PRODUCED BY THE SMELTING OF IRON AND OTHER ORES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Timmins Chance, of Birmingham, and Henry
Adcock, of the same Place, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CASTING
ARTICLES OF THE SLAGS PRODUCED BY THE SMELTING OF IRON AND OTHER
ORES."
Sealed the 26th November 1855, and dated the 3rd September 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Timmins Chance
and Henry Adcock at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 3rd September 1855.
We, JAMES TIMMINS CHANCE, of Birmingham, and HENRY ADCOCK, of the
same Place, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN CASTING ARTICLES OF THE SLAGS PRODUCED BY THE SMELTING OF IRON AND OTHER
ORES" to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in casting articles of the
slags produced by the smelting of iron and other ores. For these purposes
the moulds used are of moulders' sand, but in place of employing them in the
ordinary state, they are to be gradually dried, then heated in suitable ovens up
to a red heat. The fluid slag is run into them whilst they retain their high

page_text: temperature, and the castings in the moulds remain for a considerable time in
the ovens after the act of casting has been performed. In place of using the
ordinary vessels, which require to be tilted in order to pour their contents into
moulds, wrought-iron vessels are used with holes in their bottoms, which are
provided with suitable plugs, by which means the dross, scum, or refuse remains
in the vessels, whilst the more pure melted slag runs from the lower part of the
melted mass which is in the vessel into the moulds.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Timmins Chance and Henry Adcock in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 3rd March 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
TIMMINS CHANCE, of Birmingham, and HENRY ADCOCK, of the same Place,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said James Timmins Chance and Henry Adcock, Her special licence that we,
the said James Timmins Chance and Henry Adcock, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said James Timmins Chance
and Henry Adcock, our 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
CASTING ARTICLES OF THE SLAGS PRODUCED BY THE SMELTING OF IRON AND OTHER
ORES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said James Timmins
Chance and Henry Adcock, our executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and
seal of one of us or them, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said James Timmins Chance and Henry
Adcock, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in casting articles of the
slags produced by the smelting of iron and other ores. For these purposes
the moulds used are of moulders' sand, but in place of employing them in the
ordinary state, they are to be gradually dried, then heated in suitable ovens up
to a red heat. The fluid slag is run into them whilst they retain their high
temperature, and the castings in the moulds remain for a considerable time in
the ovens after the act of casting has been performed. In place of using the
ordinary vessels, which require to be tilted in order to pour their contents into
moulds, wrought-iron vessels are used with holes in their bottoms, which are
provided with suitable plugs, by which means the dross, scum, or refuse remains
in, the vessels, whilst the more pure melted slag runs from the lower part of the
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said James Timmins Chance and Henry
Adcock, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in casting articles of the
slags produced by the smelting of iron and other ores.
For these purposes
the moulds used are of moulders' sand, but in place of employing them in the
ordinary state, they are to be gradually dried, then heated in suitable ovens up
to a red heat. The fluid slag is run into them whilst they retain their high
temperature, and the castings in the moulds remain for a considerable time in
the ovens after the act of casting has been performed. In place of using the
ordinary vessels, which require to be tilted in order to pour their contents into
moulds, wrought-iron vessels are used with holes in their bottoms, which are
provided with suitable plugs, by which means the dross, scum, or refuse remains
in the vessels, whilst the more pure melted slag runs from the lower part of the
melted mass which is in the vessel into the moulds.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
The heating ovens are shewn by the Sheet of Drawings marked No. 1,
Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; and the Sheet of Drawings
marked No. 2, Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Figure 1, Sheet 1, exhibits a back elevation; Figure 2, a side elevation;
Figure 3, a front elevation, with the doors removed to shew the interior of the
oven; Figure 4, a transverse section from I to K on the plans; Figure 5, a
transverse section from A to B on plan; Figure 6, a longitudinal section from
C to D on plans; Figure 7, a transverse section from E to F on plans;
Figure 8, a longitudinal section from G to H on plans; Figure 9, a plan at
level of L, L, on longitudinal section; Figure 10, a plan at level of M, M,
on longitudinal section; Figure 11, a plan of top of oven, shewing the lute
boxes; Figure 12, a plan at the level of N, N, on longitudinal section.
Figure 1, Sheet No. 2, a front elevation of oven, shewing the doors shut
down or closed; Figure 2, an elevation of the door frame, exhibiting the
modes of its construction both on the outside and the inside; Figure 3, a
vertical section of the door frame; Figure 4, a side elevation, showing the
doors partly raised, with attached contrivances of chains, pulleys, and counter-
5 balance weights; and Figure 5, a plan of the top of oven, showing its tramway,
its binding rods, lute boxes, aperture for damper, &c.
of building these heating ovens is so fully develoned by the

page_text: Drawings that but little of verbal description is necessary. In all the Figures
the yellow tint represents fire bricks; the red tint, common or red bricks; and
the blue tint, iron, as binding plates, tie rods, &c. The oven floor a, a, a, a,
is made of quarries of fire clay, 24 inches square, and sixteen inches square,
respectively, and three inches thick; and the walls of the side flues c, c, c, c,
of fire bricks, two inches thick, built on edge. Each side flue is divided by a
brick partition, seen at f. f, Figures 8 and 10, and from the furthermost side
flue of each side of the oven there is an entrance into the back flue; hence
the flame and heat of the fire passes under the oven floor, rises the side
up
flue of each side of the oven nearest to the doors, passes over the brick par-
tition ff, into the furthermost side flue, passing downwards it escapes into the
side flues at the back of the oven, whence, rising upwards, it has a passage into
the main flue leading to the chimney.
It will be perceived by the Drawings, aided by this description, that the
bottom and the sides and the back of the oven are all surrounded by heat
and flame, but not so the door entrance; therefore, as the arrangement pre-
cludes the construction of a flue where the doors are, it is most essentially
necessary that as little beat as possible should be allowed to escape that way.
The means by which we obtain this important end may be thus described:-
Each oven is supplied with two doors x, x, seen by side view in Figure 4,
and by top view in Figure 5, in the Sheet of Drawings marked No. 2. Each
door, on the face nearest to the oven, is composed almost entirely of fire bricks,
as seen in the horizontal section, Figure 2*. The fire bricks, with fire clay
interposed between them, and fitted as closely as possible, are held together by
an iron frame, the greater portion of which is on the outside of the door. The
only portions of the iron frame exposed to the heat of the ovens, and by which
the heat may be conducted away, are the two vertical ribs of angle iron z, z,
seen in the horizontal section, Figure 2*, for the two vertical ribs y, y, lie
against the brickwork and close the door. Beneath the top flanch of each
door is a square piece of iron, lying loosely on the top of the fire bricks.
It is seen in the elevation, Sheet 2, Figure 2, on the right-hand side of the
frame, or on that part of the Drawing at m, m, which gives an inside view of
one half of the frame; it is also seen in the vertical section, Figure 3. Six
screws, tapped through the flanch, rest on the upper side of this loose bar, so
that by screwing the bar downwards the fire bricks within the frame are held
together most firmly. When the innermost door is shut down to close the
oven, its end flanches are luted to the brickwork by mortar, to prevent the
escape of heat, as seen by the yellow tinting. on the plan, Sheet 2, Figure 5.

page_text: The outermost door is then shut down, and similarly luted to its brickwork by
mortar; and between the doors there is a space of about three inches and a
half, which is also luted in, to prevent the heated air from rising upwards and
escaping that way. It is luted in thus: at the top of each door a horizontal
flanch projects, which we denominate the "lute rib;" it is seen at o, o,
Figure 2, 3, 4, 5.. These lute ribs are so placed on the door frame, that
when the doors are shut down the rib of the outermost door lies on and
touches, or nearly so, the rib of the innermost door; a boy then strews a
quantity of dry sand on them, which perfects the lute. As the doors are
respectively shut down, the lower parts of each of them are luted by covering
them similarly with a coating of dry sand. By these simple and inexpensive
means the heat of the oven is to a very great extent confined within it, for its
passage outwards is opposed by three excellent non-conductors, viz*, the fire-
bricks of each door frame, and the stratum of air lying between them. When
the patterns have been moulded in sand in iron boxes in the usual manner,
the boxes are removed from the moulding shop to the heating ovens, and when
deposited within them, they are laid on cast-iron bars, resting on saddles of the
same material, as seen by a side view in Fig. 6, Sheet 1, and by end views in
Figures 3 and 7. By this means the boxes are supported a few inches above
the oven floor. This arrangement is necessary, for experience proves that
when the boxes are placed upon the oven floor they become heated and dry
too quickly. When an oven is charged with moulds, it is maintained at a
black heat for a period of twenty-four to thirty-six hours, to dissipate the
water, during which two or three of the lute boxes on the top of the oven are
left open for the vapour to escape; after that period the fire is forced to elevate
the temperature of the oven and the boxes within it to a high degree of red
hent; it is maintained at that temperature some three or four hours. The
liquid material is then poured into the moulds. The liquid material is dis-
charged from the ladle into the moulds through the openings of the three lute
boxes, which lie in the middle of the tramway, and the other four lute boxes
(two on each side, of the oven) are there arranged, to allow the workman to
watch the progress of the casting, and regulate the discharge of liquid from
the ladle. At the time of casting, the lute box lids are taken off, and short
pipes made of sheet. iron are put through the holes of the lutes, and rest on
the boxes. It is through these pipes that the fused material is conveyed from
the ladle into the moulds. So soon as the castings are made, the pipes are
withdrawn from the oven, and the lute boxes are covered by their lids. The
lute boxes and lids are shewn in the Sheet of Drawings marked No. 1,

page_text: Figures 3, 6, 7, 8, and 11; and in the Sheet of Drawings marked No. 2,
Figures 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, and 15.
In Sheet No. 2, Figure 6 represents an elevation of the ladle, with an end
view of its truck or carriage, and an end view of the tram or railway on the
top of the oven, in which the castings are made. Figure 7, a plan of the
same; and Figure 8, a section of the ladle, only shewing the iron plug or
stopper by which the aperture at the bottom of the ladle is opened and closed.
The ladle is made of sheet iron, about a quarter of an inch in thickness, having
a strengthening piece surrounding it at the top, and another strengthening
piece round about the middle of it. From the strengthening piece last named
two square studs project to support the links 1, 1, the horizontal guide piece
2, 2, the top piece 3, 3, and the loop 4, whereby the ladle may be moved on
and off the truck. In iron foundries the ladles there employed are coated on
the inside with loam or fire clay previously to the fused metal being allowed
to flow into them. We, however, are able to dispense with any such manipu-
lation, in consequence of the deposit of obsidian which takes place on the in-
terior of the ladle, whereby a good non-conducting coating is obtained. To raise
the plug, it becomes necessary in the first place to slightly loosen it, by striking
upwards with a sledge hammer that portion of the plug which comes below the
ladle; that being done, the ladle is conveyed along the tram or railway on the
top of the oven, until placed over the lute box of the oven in which the casting
is to be made. The crust or coating of obsidian which has been congealing on
the surface of the liquid mass below, is then broken, partly to liberate the
stalk of the plug from its adhesion to it, and partly to admit air while the
liquid material is being discharged from the ladle. A boy then puts an iron
rod through the circular hole of the stalk, and a workman puts an iron rod
beneath the boy's rod, and by making the edge of the ladle his fulcrum, lifts
both that and the stalk, and raises the plug. When a sufficient quantity of
the liquid material has been discharged into the mould, the boy moves his rod.
backwards and forwards horizontally to loosen it from the obsidian; the weight
of the plug then causes it to descend and shut the aperature.
Having thus described the nature of our said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, we would have it understood that we do not claim the
heating of moulds generally in which fluid slag is to be run in order to be
cast into forms, as we are aware that moulds used for such purposes have
before been heated; but what we claim is, the mode herein described of
receiving melted slag in vessels or ladles such as herein described, and con-
veying such slag thereinto and running it into moulds contained in an oven;

page_text: and we also claim the heating of moulds in an arrangement of ovens such as
herein described, and retaining such moulds in the ovens after the fluid slag
has been run into the moulds.
In witness whereof, we, the said James Timmins Chance and Henry
Adcock, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this First day of
March, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-six.
JAMES T. CHANCE. (L.s.)
HENRY
Witness,
JAS. KENNARD,
Cashier to Chance, Bro" & Co., .
Glass Works, n Birmingham.
ADCOCK.
(L.S.)