IMPROVEMENTS IN ARMOUR PLATES, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE Employed in MAKING THEREOF.
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Wade Hampton Smith, of Edgbaston, Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
ARMOUR PLATES, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE Employed in MAKING THEREOF.'
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Wade Hampton Smith at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 26th February 1877.
WADE HAMPTON SMITH, of Edgbaston, Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Civil Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN ARMOUR PLATES, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE
EMPLOYED IN MAKING THEREOF."
This Invention has for its object the making of armour plates of homogenuous
metal, and consists in producing various degrees of hardness in the same plate.
I do this in the following manner :-I take a plate that has been manufactured
from a cast-steel ingot, containing a per-centage of carbon from 0.3 to 2.0, or above
(as may be required to resist the action of the iron shot), but I restrict myself to no
particular degree of hardness, and I submit the plate to a non-carbonizing process,
thereby reducing or taking (either entirely or partially) out of the steel plate that
portion of carbon which gives to it and causes its hard nature or quality, and con-
sequently producing a metal in softness and ductility equal to the best malleable
iron. I also take a plate that has been manufactured from a metal of a soft quality
of cast-steel ingot or malleable iron, containing say from 0.0 to 0.30 of carbon, and
I submit the same to a carbonizing or hardening process, thereby adding carbon to
the soft-steel plate necessary to give it the requisite hardness to resist the penetration
of the iron shot. I also take a cast-iron plate or block made from the best mixtures
of cast iron, which plate I treat to reduce its carbon and produce a soft plate, in the
manner I have already stated I do on the hard-steel plate from steel ingot.
Although I use steel metal manufactured in various ways in making hard and
soft steels and iron I prefer to use the purified metal that I make under my Patents
of August 15th 1874, No. 2815, for "Treating Metals and their Alloys," and
January 20th 1875, No. 217, for the "Treatment and Manufacture of Metals."
The apparatus and form of furnace I use to accomplish the above process and to
carry out my Invention is as follows:-I build a furnace capable of heating a given
[Price 6d1
F

page_text: sized plate, within which furnace I also build an air-tight chamber, and I place
within this air-tight chamber the plate to be acted upon in an upright or perpen-
dicular position, with a given space between the upright plate and the walls of the
chamber; within this space or spaces I place the composition or material required
either to impart or take out the necessary quantity of carbon. This chamber I heat
or cause to be heated in the ordinary way, or by the combustion of gases generally
known as gas furnaces for the production of heat.
It is obvious that other forms of furnaces may be used and that the plate may be
placed in a horizontal position.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters. Patent filed by
the said Wade Hampton Smith in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 25th
August 1877.
WADE HAMPTON SMITH, of Edgbaston, Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Civil Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN ARMOUR PLATES, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE
EMPLOYED IN MAKING THEREOF."
This Invention has for its object the making of armour plates of homogeneous or
other metals, when such other metals possess practically homogeneous qualities, and
essentially consists in producing various degrees of hardness or softness in the same
plate.
I do this in the following manner :-I take a plate that has been manufactured
from cast steel ingot, or plate or slab of cast steel, containing a per-centage of
carbon from 0.3 to 2.0, or above (as may be required to resist the action of the shot),
but I restrict myself to no particular degree of hardness, and I submit the ingot,
plate, or slab, to a process or processes for reducing or, taking out parts of the steel
plate or slab that portion of carbon which gives to it (and causes) its hard nature or
quality, consequently producing in parts a metal in softness and ductility equal to
the best malleable iron, the other parts retaining the original hardness.
I do not confine myself to any particular material or process that reduces or adds
to the softness or hardness of the ingot, plate, or slab, but I prefer to use metallic
oxides to reduce or take out the carbon in the ingot, plate, or slab, and I prefer to
use wood charcoal in adding carbon to the ingot, plate, or slab acted upon. I also
take a plate that has been manufactured from a metal of mild or soft quality of
cast-steel ingot, or a plate or slab of mild or soft quality of cast steel or malleable
iron, containing say from 0-0 to 0.30 of carbon, and I submit the same to a carbonizing
or hardening process, thereby adding carbon to the metal, as necessary to give it in
the desired parts the requisite hardness to resist the penetration of the shot. I also
take a cast-iron plate or block, which plate or block I treat, to reduce its carbon
and produce a soft plate, in the manner that I have already stated that I do on the
hard-steel plate from steel ingot.
•
Although I use steel metal manufactured in various ways in making hard and
soft steels and iron I prefer to use the purified metal that I make under my Patents
of August Fifteenth, One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, No. 2815, for
treating metals and their alloys, and January Twentieth, One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-five, No. 217, for the treatment and manufacture of metals.
The apparatus or form of furnace I use to accomplish the above process and to
carry out my Invention is as follows:-I build a furnace capable of heating a given
sized ingot, plate, or slab, within which furnace I also build an air-tight chamber,
and I place within this air-tight chamber the ingot, plate, or slab to be acted upon
in an upright or perpendicular position, with a given space or spaces between the
upright plate and the walls of the chamber; within such space or spaces I place the
composition or material required, either to impart or take out the necessary quantity

page_text: of carbon. The chamber I heat or cause to be heated in the ordinary way, or by
the combustion of gases generally known as gas furnaces for the production of
heat.
It is obvious that other forms of furnaces may be used, and the ingot, plate, or
slab may be placed in a horizontal position.
For illustration of the kind of furnace I usually prefer to adopt I have annexed
to these presents the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, in which Drawings,―
Figure 1 is a sectional elevation; Figure 2, vertical section on line A, B, Figure 1;
Figure 3, sectional plan on line C, D, Figure 1; Figure 4, sectional plan on line E, F,
Figure 1.
In these Figures G represents the air-tight chambers; the other parts will be
recognized by the practical man without further description.
The annexed Drawing is given simply by way of illustration, it being understood
that I do not confine myself to the use of any particular furnace in carrying out my
said Invention.
•
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature and object of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed or carried out in
practice, I hereby declare that I claim the Invention of "Improvements in Armour
Plates, and in Apparatus to be Employed in Making thereof," substantially as the
same is herein-before set forth and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Wade Hampton Smith, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven.
Witness,
T. MORGAN,
Secretary,
Inventors' Patent Right Ass., Limited,
21, Cockspur Street,
Charing Cross.
WADE H. SMITH. (L.S.)