IMPROVEMENTS IN The Manu- FACTURE OF STEEL, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED FOR THIS PURPOSE.
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Tomlinson Bousfield, of Sutton, in the
phagy
County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN The Manu-
FACTURE OF STEEL, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED FOR THIS PURPOSE.".
A communication from abroad' by Theodore Ransome Scowden,
of Cincinnati, United States of America.
Sealed the 28th February 1873, and dated the 31st December 1872.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said George Tomlinson Bousfield
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition
and Declaration, on the 31st December 1872, pursuant to the
9th Section of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Sutton, in the County of Surrey, send
greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED FOR THIS PURPOSE,”
and have petitioned Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, to
grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, Her Royal
Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn Declaration that

page_text: it has been communicated to me from abroad by Theodore Ransomc
Scowden, of Cincinnati, United States of America.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, to be as follows:-
The Invention relates to apparatus by means of which articles of
iron have their exterior portions or entire substance converted into steel
by treatment with hydrocarbon vapour and heat, and it consists in its
first part of the provision of two or more openings for the retort through
which access can be had to the retort at either one of two or more
places without disturbing or materially cooling the contents of the other
parts of the retort, also of the provision of two or more fire-boxes for
the retort, so as to make it possible to heat all parts thercof alike, or onc
part of the retort more or less than the other as may be found desirable;
also of a certain arrangement of pipes for forcing in a jet of hydrocarbon
at two or more parts of the retort in connection with a current (to be
reversed at pleasure) of deoxygenated air for producing uniform carboni-
zation of the metal in the retort by the effective circulation of these gases.
The Invention consists further of a process of producing steel
directly from iron ore by first reducing the oxide of iron in the ore to the
condition of metallic iron by cementation with a carbonaceous material,
and secondly, treating the spongy material produced by the first
operation with bydrocarbon vapour and heat.
The accompanying Drawings represent a furnace and its appurtenances
constituting an apparatus embodying the first part of the Invention,
and suitable for performing the second operation of the second part of
the Invention.
Figure 1 is a front elevation of said apparatus; Figure 2 is a trans-
verse section of the same at the lines x, x, and ×³, ×¹, of Figure 3;
Figures 3 and 4 are longitudinal sections of the same at the lines y, y,
and z, z, respectively of Figure 1.
The retort A may be of the represented cylindroidal form, having the
arched transverse section here shewn. When of such form it must be
arranged to open at both ends and have its ends capable of being closed
by means of doors or stoppers B, B³, which are luted and fastened in
any customary way of closing the mouths of retorts. The material of
the retort is fire-clay or may be other highly refractory material. The

page_text: retort rests upon the floor of the heated chamber C, which floor
constitutes the roof of two similar firc-boxes D, D', located under the
opposite ends of the retort and fed and operated from opposite ends of the
furnace. Flues E, E', starting at the fire-boxes pass at first laterally right
and left, thence into four separate return chambers F, F', F", F™, which
rising at G, G, G", G", coalese and form the heating chamber Z
around the sides and over the top of the retort, whence the smoke is
conducted by two equal channels H, H', to chimneys I, 1', having
customary dampers. K, K', are pipes which conduct petroleum or any
other hydrocarbon into one or both ends of the retort, and the force of
the current through the pipes may be due to an elevated reservoir (not
shewn) or be controlled by a pump either acting directly upon the liquid
or on a body of air above it. L, L, 2, 1, are pipes one or more of which
are used at a time, which conduct deoxygenated air from a furnace filled
with incandescent charcoal or other carbonaceous fuel into one or both
ends of the retort. All of these pipes are provided with suitable cocks
N to regulate a needful supply of their contents into the retort, and
with joints O or other means of readily connecting or disconnecting
them from the retort; orifices or peep holes P in the doors B, B',
closable by stoppers, enable inspection or manipulation of the contents
without opening the doors of the retort.
The carbonization or steelifying of iron in retorts supplied by hydro-
carbon vapour has heretofore theoretically and to a limited extent
successfully been done before the said Invention, but has failed of
practical and commercial success, because of the expensive, unmanage-
able and unequal carbonization of the iron submitted to that treatment.
The retort being open at one end or place only, that end was liable to
become cooled to a point below the necessary carbonizing temperature
of the metal contained in the retort, while the closed remote end would
be too highly heated, and being at the same time the least accessible,
excessive carbonization would result and even fusion of the metal often
took place at that end. This difficulty was aggravated by the fact that
in order to remove the contents of the retort from the remote end the
articles nearer the mouth, imperfectly if at all carbonized, would have to
be taken out and again subjected to the process, or were useless. The
single fire-box heretofore used for carbonizing iron did not supply heat
with sufficient uniformity throughout the retort, nor did it afford means
as do the duplex fire-boxes of exactly tempering and modulating the

page_text: heat at either end of the furnace, as circumstances and the nature and
condition of the work may require or make desirable.
The form of apparatus represented in the accompanying Drawings is
that preferred, but the same may be greatly varied in non-essential
particulars; for example, the two pipes conveying hydrocarbon may be
employed alternately or simultaneously, and with them one or more
pipes carrying deoxygenated air; and these pipes may be so employed as
to produce an active circulation and equal diffusion of the gases through-
out the retort, and consequently uniform action upon its contents; two
or more retorts may be employed if desired in place of one.
Instead of oppositely placed fire-boxes two in number, a greater
number of and differently placed fire-boxes may be made to effect the
explained purposes of equal or optional firing and heating of the several
parts of the retort; the entire furnace also may have a circular, oblong,
or polygonal exterior.
When a circular retort is employed the fire-boxes should be arranged
in a radial manner, or the fire-boxes may be located at the sides or at
any other suitable part of the apparatus, no matter what the shape of the
furnace, whether round, oblong, or polygonal.
The apparatus herein-before described although designed and chiefly
intended for recarbonization, as set forth, may obviously be employed for
decarbonization if desired.
It is belived that a retort constructed as above can be employed for
decarbonization without the necessity of the customary annealing cans
by substituting a suitable oxidizing agent in place of the hydrocarbon
vapour.
In practicing the second part of the Invention rich iron ore such as
the magnetic oxides is reduced by stamping to a granular condition; it
is then mixed with powder of charcoal or of fine bituminous coal in
sufficient quantity to reduce the oxide of iron to the metallic state.
The mixture is heated in a retort which may either be one such as is
represented in the accompanying Drawings, or may be any retort
suitable for such purpose. After the oxide is reduced the metallic
granules or the spongy mass produced is charged into the furnace
represented in the accompanyings Drawings, and is treated with hydro-
carbon vapour and heat in the same manner as iron as been treated

page_text: according to the hydrocarbon process of making steel. During such
treatment the earthy matter in the reduced ore is melted, and drains off
while the metal is converted into steel.
No claim is made to the several parts of the furnace considered
separately, as it is believed that no one of them separately is new.
What is claimed is,-
The combination and arrangement of the retort, fire-boxes, and
supply pipes for the hydrocarbon substantially as before set forth.
Also the combination and arrangement of the retort, fire-boxes, supply
pipes for the hydrocarbon, and supply pipes for deoxygenated air, sub-
stantially as before set forth.
Also the manufacture of steel directly from the ore, substantially as
before set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of December,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
two.