CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL, COPPER, AND OTHER METALS
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ARTHUR
WALL, late of Bisterne Place, but now of India Row, East India Road,
Poplar, in the County of Middlesex, Surgeon, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date &
Westminster, the Eighteenth day of December (One thousand eight hundred
and forty-four), in the eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Arthur Wall, my exors, admors,
and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege, and authority, that
I, the said Arthur Wall, my.exors, adiñors, and assigns, and such others as I,
the said Arthur Wall, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise;
and vend, within that part of Her Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of. Wales, and Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and
also in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL, COPPER, AND OTHER
METALS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me,
the said Arthur Wall, to particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, and to cause the same to be inrolled
in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next

page_text: 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
Arthur Wall, do hereby declare the nature of my 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, reference being had to the Drawings
therein referred to and hereunto annexed (that is to say):-
My Invention is connected with or relates to the manufacture of steel,
copper, tin, and zinc, and their compounds; and, first, as regards steel, I
take the bars of wrought or other iron, of a description properly fit and
suited to the manufacture of steel, and I place them in the usual boxes
and furnace; and in this part of the process I employ the same means
and the same apparatus as are in known use under the denomination of
a converting furnace. The bars of iron so intended for conversion are
embedded in charcoal of the ordinary description, or in the carbonaceous
substances in general and customary use; or, I take of charcoal of the ordinary
description six parts to three parts of chalk of the ordinary description, and to
each volume or quantity of one bushel in measure of the charcoal and chalk
taken in such proportions and finely powdered I add one or two pounds of zinc
filings. I lay or spread the mixture on the bottom of the converting chamber,
or I place them in a retort of due and sufficient capacity properly set for fire,
and a fire made sufficient to drive off the carbonic oxide. The carbonic oxide
thus generated is then directed upon the chamber in which the iron under
process of conversion is placed, and such direction is continued during the time
required for the conversion. Having thus prepared the carbonaceous bed in
which the bars of iron intended for the process of conversion into steel are laid
and inclosed, as in the modes and arrangements usually adopted, I next make
the necessary arrangements, as herein-after described, for the transmission of
à continuous current or stream of electricity through the bars, and I continue
such transmission during twelve or fourteen consecutive hours, or during a
longer time if a longer time be necessary for the conversion of the iron into
steel.
This process of the transmission of electrical current or stream is
made through each of the bars in succession, or through the whole of them
simultaneously or together, the object being to transmit such electrical current
through the bars antecedent to and during their conversion into steel. I effect
such transmission by attaching an iron, copper, or other suitable metallic bar
or wire to the extremities of the polar bars respectively, as herein-after de-
scribed, and then bringing the extremities of such wires out of the furnace,

page_text: so that at the proper time a connexion may be made between such wires and
those forming the poles or conductors of a voltaic apparatus or pile, and in
this way the electric circuit is so completed that such electric current or stream
may be made, as aforesaid, to traverse the bars during a longer or shorter
time. In practice I commence the process of transmitting the electricity
when the bars have become of a red heat in the furnace, and I continue the
process of so transmitting the electricity until one of the pole bars to which
the battery is attached is by examination found to exhibit the proper indica-
tions of a perfect conversion. Now, although in practice I prefer to use as a
source of the electricity required in these aforesaid processes that form of gal-.
vanic or voltaic battery or apparatus commonly known under the denomination
of Smee's battery, yet I would have it understood that I find any other source
or modification of electricity of adequate power may be used with equal effect.
The aforesaid process is equally applicable to blistered steel and to cast steel,
and when applied to cast steel the process is the same as that used in the
electrisation of any common bars of cast iron, as has been already described
by me in the Specification of certain Letters Patent for "Certain improve-
ments in the manufacture of iron," and granted to me and bearing date at
Westminster the Eighteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord. One
thousand eight hundred and forty-three, in the seventh year of Her present
Majesty's reign..
The practical object being to subject such metal to the action and effect of
an electrical current or stream while it is in fusion or in the stage of setting,
and to a greater or lesser extent during the term of its cooling down to the
usual temperature of the atmosphere. For producing the proper and effective
conversion of steel on the process herein-before described I use a galvanic or
voltaic battery of the dimensions and arrangement as herein-under stated:-
I construct a Smee's or other galvanic or voltaic battery, consisting of about
thirty thousand superficial inches of surface or area, and apply it for the con-
version of each twelve tons of bar metal, and in the construction of such a
Smee's or other battery for such purpose the mode of arranging this quantity
of superficial surface, which I find in practice the most commodious and
effective, is to make each pair of plates of such battery to contain an acting.
surface of three hundred superficial inches under the dimensions for each
plate of ten inches by five inches. After having laid or spread the first stratum
of carbonaceous matter in the converting chamber; as herein-before described,.
I arrange the bars of metal to be operated upon in the following manner and
order, that is to say, as such bars are represented in the accompanying.
Drawing.

page_text: The Figure 1 of such Drawing represents a plan view of such arrangement,
and the Figure 2 a view in perspective of several such horizontal arrangements
placed over each other; the corresponding bars and supporting pieces in each
of those Figures being respectively marked with the same letter of reference
in as far as such the said bars and supporting pieces can be seen in those views.
In Figure 1, A, B, C, D, &c., represent a range of supporting pieces or blocks,
and I, I, K, L, &c., an opposite range of similar pieces or blocks. In and
between such supporting pieces or blocks of the respective ranges I arrange
the bars of metal to be submitted to the process herein-before described, in the
order and manner of arrangement shewn in the Figures 1 and 2 respectively,
the bars of metal being respectively marked a, b, c, d, &c. The Figure 2
represents a mode of arranging the ranges of the bars of metal by super-
position, which I find convenient and effective in practice. The lower range
represented in the Figure 2 at Q, T, shews in elevation the range Q, T, repre-
sented in the Figure 1 in plan; the range represented in the Figure 2 at
R, U, shews a second range of similar horizontal arrangement to that shewn
in the Figure 1, and in superposition to the first; the range. represented in
Figure 2 at S, V, shews a third range again superposed upon the second
range R, U; and I continue such ranges to any convenient extent or number
of ranges. A pole bar x, x, and a trial bar y, y, is placed at each extremity of
the ranges, and the ranges connected, as shewn in the Drawing, as at z, z.
The whole of the insterstitial spaces or openings remaining between the sup-
porting pieces or blocks A, B, C, D, must be filled up with refractory fire clay
to the level of the upper side or surface of each such block; a horizontal
layer or stratum of the same, of about half an inch in thickness, is then laid
upon the upper surfaces of the aforesaid pieces or blocks, and upon each such
stratum so laid the second range of pieces or blocks, as before described, are
then arranged; the interstitial openings between the bars of metal under con-
version are then to be entirely filled up with finely pounded charcoal or coke
mixed with finely pounded chalk, in the proportions of six parts of charcoal or
coke to two or three parts of chalk. This mode of filling the instertitial spaces
between the bars of metal to be converted I employ for the lower range of
such bars; the interstitial spaces between such bars in all the upper or super-
posed ranges I fill with pounded charcoal or coke alone.
In applying my said Invention to the other metals herein-before mentioned,
that is to say, to copper, tin, and zinc, I subject the metals, whilst in a fluid
state, and also whilst in the act of congealing or solidification, to a current of
electricity, which I cause to traverse as completely as possible throughout the
entire metallic mass. The arrangements which I employ for that purpose are

page_text: the same as those already described with reference to cast iron in the Speci-
fication of the Letters Patent granted to me for "Certain improvements in
the manufacture of iron," and bearing date at Westminster the Eighteenth
day of November, (in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
forty-three,) in the seventh year of Her Majesty's reign; with this exception
only, that in applying the electricity to copper, tin, and zinc, the connecting
wire must be of platinum.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that what I claim as
the Invention to be secured to me in and by the herein-before recited Letters
Patent is the improvement in the manufacture of steel, copper, and other
metals, and their compounds, by subjecting them while in a melting state and
in the process of solidification, to the influence of electricity as herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Arthur Wall, have hereunto set my hand
and seal this Eighteenth day of June in the voor of our Loud One