A METHOD OF PRODUCING CASTINGS IN MALLEABLE IRON
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of the
firm of Robertson, Brooman, and Company, of 166, Flect
Street, in the City of London; Patent Agent, for the Inven-
tion of "A METHOD OF PRODUCING CASTINGS IN MALLEABLE
IRON." A comniunication.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard
Archibald Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th August 1853.
Spe
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of the firm, of Robertson, Pro
5 Brooman, and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in.the City of Lon-.
don, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "A METHOD OF PRODUCING CASTINGS IN- MALLEABLE
IRON" to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of a method of producing castings
0 in malleable iron, and is applicable to the manufacture of railway
wheels and various other articles. The metal employed may be
either scrap wrought iron, or bars or plates cut in small pieces: the
melting is performed in crucibles covered to prevent access of air,
and with the addition to the metal of about one half to one per

page_text: cent. by weight of charcoal or other suitable carbonaceous matter,
one per cent. of manganese, and one per cent. of sal ammoniac.
The mixture is melted in a suitable furnace, and kept melted for
about three hours, and then cast in chills or other moulds of the
required form. The castings are subsequently turned or ham-
mered and forged as required. Articles may be partially formed
in the moulds and completed by forging, &c.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, filed by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 11th February 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME,
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of the firm of Robertson,
Brooman, and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of Lon-
don, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by
Her Letters, Patent, bearing late the Twelfth day of August,
in the year of our Lord One thousand. eight hundred and fifty-
three, in the seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her
heirs and successors, give and grant unto mic, the said Richard
Archibald Brooman, Her special licence that 1, the said Richard
Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, my ex-
ecutors, 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 Inven-
tion for "A METHOD OF PRODUCING CASTINGS IN MALLEABLE IRON,"
(communicated to me by a foreigner residing abroad) upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard Archibald
Brooman, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,

page_text: 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 Richard Archibald Brooiman,
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, that is
to say:
This Invention consists of an improved method of preparing
wrought iron, so that it may be capable of being pornired or cast
into moulds 'for the production of malleable castings, or articles
which shall have all the strength and qualities due to wrought
iron. The Juvention is designed chiefly for the manufacture of
railway wheels; but is equally applicable to the production of
other articles.
The process is as follows:-The metal employed may be either
serap wrought iron, or bars or plates cut o small pieces, and
the melting is to be performed in crucibles such as are used for
melting blister steel. The operator weighs out the iron in
quantity proper for a charge in the crucible according to its size.
He then mixes with the iron about one haff of one per cent. of
charcoal by weight, or of any other suitable carbonaceous matter-
which will afford that proportion of carbon, and finally adds one
per cent. of manganese and one per cent of sal ammoniac. These
materials are to be placed in the crucible, which is then to be
covered, as the melting must be performed out of contact with the
atmosphere. The crucible is then introduced into a proper
furnace, where a fire is raised, and a heat obtained sufficient to
reduce the iron to a melted mass, which temperature is at about
15,000° Fahrenheit: this degree of heat must be maintained for
about three hours, when the material will be in a state fit for
pouring into the moulds.
Railway carriage wheels formed of this material can be cast
with a chill, as in the case of common iron castings, and they will
moreover be malleable, so as to be capable of being treated under

page_text: the hammer in the forge, and formed into other shapes. In the
making of other articles not requiring to. be chilled, they may be
subjected in like manner to alterations in shape, or otherwise be
treated as malleable wrought iron is usually worked.
Articles may also be manufactured having part of their shape
made in the moulds, and their form completed by forging. Thus,
intricate shapes.and ornamental work may be accomplished with:
great facility and in a superior manner, thus forming articles highly
ornamental as well as those for mere utility.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that
what is claimed as the said Invention is,.
The method of treating malleable iron: so that it may be
capable of being used in the production.of malleable castings, as
herein-before described.
In witness whereof, 1, the said Richard Archibald Brooman,
have hereunto set my hand and seal this Eleventh day of
February, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
R. A. BROOMAN. (L.S.)
R. A. BROOMAN. (L.S.)