IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OR MANUFACTURE OF CAST IRON
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Gorton de Luna Byron
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 22nd August 1874.
I, GEORGE GORDON DE LUNA BYRON, of New York, in the United
States of America, but at present of 89, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Colonel in the United States Army, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OR
MANUFACTURE OF CAST IRON," to be as follows :—
This Invention consists in the alloying of cast iron in a molten state
with copper, tin, zinc, manganese, and antimony. With the flux above-
mentioned the compound metals are melted in a crucible and mixed with
the cast iron, thereby removing the oxides, sulphur, and phosporous, and
reducing the carbon in the iron while in a molten state.
For common grey iron the approximate proportions are as follows, for
-Carbonate of soda, one pound; copper
one hundred pounds of cast iron :—
ore, one pound; tin, one half pound; zinc, five pounds; manganese, one
quarter of a pound.
For hardening without chilling, antimony is used in the proportion of
from a quarter of a pound to half a pound of antimony to each hundred
pounds of iron.

page_text: The iron may be melted in a common blast or cupola furnace, and
should be brought to as high a heat as is practicable.
The copper is first melted in a vessel by itself, then the tin, the
manganese and the antimony, lastly the zinc are then added, cach being
allowed to melt before the next is added, the whole mass should then be
heated to as high a heat as is convenient, but it should not be made to
boil or burn so as to cause the evaporation or volatilization of the zinc
which will not become volatile at as low a temperature as when heated
by itself. Care should also be taken in adding the zinc to keep it below
the surface of the metals already melted, as otherwise it will evaporize.
The soda is placed in ladle into which the iron is to be drawn, and the
other melted composition is subsequently added; borax, potters' clay,
feldspar, or other flux having if considered necessary been first spread
over the surface of the molten iron.
The vessel in which the mixture is made is preferably covered with a
cap of inverted conical form, in one side of which there is an aperture
through which the composition is poured in, thus incorporated the
whole is ready to be run into moulds.
The proportions above given apply to cast iron of a medium degree of
hardness, and when it is desired to produce a composition of medium
quality, the soda may be dispensed with altogether or a smaller
quantity used, when the cast iron used is very soft, and in such cases a
smaller quantity of zinc may be used and a larger quantity of copper,
but the proportions must be varied according to the hardness or softness
of the crude metal. The harder the quality of the iron the more soda,
the more zinc, and less copper will be requisite, and vice versa, when
the crude iron is very soft.
When the composition to be produced is desired to be of a very soft
quality, other things being equal, more soda is used, more zinc and less
copper, and the reverse of all this when the composition is desired to be a
of a very hard quality.
When a finer and stronger composition is wanted the quantity of the
other ingredients as compared with the iron employed should be
increased. In such cases their use in proportion is recommended to be
determined by a common integral multiplier, that is to say, they should a
be double, treble, quadruple, and so on to the above proportions, though
this rule is not indispensable.

page_text: Some of the above-named ingredients may be omitted altogether or
other ingredients may be used, and still a valuable compound may be
produced, but the ingredients above set forth are preferred, but in all
cases a quarter of a pound of manganese is used where the proportions
for the other materials are as above indicated.
Instead of the metals above-mentioned salts or oxides containing
them may sometimes be used advantageously, though the metals them-
selves are preferred.
The Invention is not confined to the proportions or precise metals
above enumerated, nor is the particular method of manipulation herein
set forth regarded as essential, it may be considerably varied without
essential prejudice and without a departure from the Invention.
In practice it is proposed to prepare alloy intended for use in the
manufacture of the composition, and to cast said alloy into ingots or
other merchantable shape to be kept on sale in the market. Such ingots
will be so compounded as to produce different grades of the final com-
position, and numbered according to the degree of hardness or softness
to be produced in such final composition, in order that the manufacturer
may know what result he is to produce by the use of ingots having
either of the said numbers.
Metal treated in the manner before described has a closer grain and is
stronger, more malleable, less likely to corrode, and more capable of
receiving and retaining a high steel-like polish than heretofore. It is
also thereby less liable to be chilled while in process of cooling, On
account of these properties it is better adapted for use for the following
purposes.
For the construction of machinery, bridge, and architectural castings,
rail and tramway carriage wheels, shafting, anchors, chains, cannon,
armour plates for ships, railroad bars, tyres for locomotive wheels,
chairs, frogs, rivets, bolts, pipes, elbows, safes, locks, rifle and pistol
parts, pianoforte soundboards, cutlery, tools, and other articles.