IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON;
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
PALMER Budd, of Ystalyfera Iron Works, Swansea, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Iler
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Sixteenth day of January, in the eighth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
James Palmer Budd, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and autho-
rity, that I, the said James Palmer Budd, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said James Palmer Budd, my exors, adñiors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF IRON;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said
James Palmer Budd, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be.
inrolled in Her said Majesty's Digh Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully.
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I. the said
James Palmer Budd, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,

page_text: and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention relates to a mode of employing the flame from blast furnaces
for obtaining hot blast, and thus to reduce the cost of making iron. And the
improvements consist of making lateral openings out of a blast furnace into a
contiguous chamber, having a chimney or means for obtaiuing a draft through
such chamber, and placing suitable pipes or apparatus for the passage of the
blast of air, in order that the same may be beated and be conducted from the
heating apparatus to the twyre. The construction of apparatus for heating air
for applying hot blast in the manufacture of iron being well understood, it will
not be necessary to describe the same here.
And in order that my Invention may be most fully understood, and readily
carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the means pursued by me. I
make two rows of three, four, or more openings around each blast furnace, and
I construct a flue to each row of holes around the furnace, so as to conduct
the flame passing laterally out of the furnace through the openings, so that the
flame may pass into an adjoining chamber containing the apparatus for heating
the blast of air, such chamber being built as near as may be to the blast
furnace, so that the flame may not be cooled or put out, but pass freely into
the chamber, which is closed at all parts excepting where it opens into a flue
or chimney, which should rise above the tunnel head of the furnace, in order
to there being a good draft through the chamber from the lateral openings
out of the blast furnace up the chimney or flue. And it is important that the
chamber should be well constructed and close. At the same time, in order to
have a ready means of repairing the interior of the chamber and the heating
apparatus, I apply a door to such chamber at any convenient position, which
on being opened will destroy the draft through the chamber, and the chamber
may thus be readily cooled down, and this door may also be used as a means
of damping or cooling, and thus regulating the heat of the chamber should it
get too hot, as a slight opening will allow air to rush in and reduce the draft
through the chamber. When several furnaces are built near each other, in
such cases I apply or construct a chamber between each two neighbouring
blast furnaces, in which case the flue leading from the openings to the chamber
will not pass all round each of the blast furnaces, but the flues to each blast
furnaco will only pass half round, so as to conduct half the flame passing
laterally out of the openings of each blast furnace to a chamber between the
two furnaces, the other half of the flame issuing from the other openings being
conveyed by other flues, partly embracing the blast furnaces, to other chambers,
by which means the flame from a furnace will not have to travel so far as when

page_text: the flues wholly surround a furnace, and conduct the whole of the flame issuing
from the lateral openings of a blast furnace into one chamber; and I prefer
when thus having several blast furnaces, together with their chambers for pro-
ducing heated air that the whole heated blast from the several chambers should
pass into a common main pipe, and from thence pass to the twyers of the
different furnaces; and where there are several heating chambers thus con-
structed contiguous to blast furnaces, and so as to be heated by the flame
passing laterally through openings formed in the blast furnaces, I apply to
each such chamber a chimney, or I have a flue proceeding to a chimney or
stack common to them all. In constructing the openings in a blast furnace, I
have found that twelve openings, of eighteen inches high and eighteen inches
wide, opening into two flues around the furnace above the boshes and below
the tunnel head are sufficient, the flues opening into a chamber of a size
suitable for containing the requsite pipes or apparatus for heating the air; but
I do not confine myself to the particular dimensions, and the position of the
lateral openings will depend on the convenience of constructing the heating
chamber or chambers, which I prefer should be as high up towards the top of
the furnace as may be.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I would remark, that I am aware that it has before been
proposed to form lateral openings out from blast furnaces for the conducting
off, by means of pipes or passages, the gaseous products from the upper parts
of a blast furnace, with a view of obtaining inflammable gas to be ignited at a
distance from the furnace from which the products are taken; I do not
therefore claim the making lateral openings in blast furnaces, unless combined
with a chamber or chambers so contiguous to the blast furnace that the flame
from the blast furnace, by the aid of the draft through the chamber or chambers,
may pass amongst and heat the pipes or apparatus contained therein through
which the blast of air is passed to be heated; and I am also aware that it is
not new to beat air for the purpose of hot blast, by means of the flame passing
off from a blast furnace, as pipes or apparatus have been applied to or over
the tunnel head of a blast furnace; and further I am aware that the heat of
the lower part of a blast furnace has been applied as a means of heating air
by placing pipes or apparatus in the interior of the brickwork or masonry of
the lower part of a furnace, so that the heat may be communicated to the
heating apparatus so built in the furnace, but in such case there was no openings
through from the interior to the exterior of the furnace, nor any means of
obtaining draft to cause the flame to pass laterally out of the furnace; and for
some of such means or apparatus Patents have before been obtained, and I