IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE 07 IRON;
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, J, THOMAS
WILLIAM BOOKER, of Melin Griffith Works, near Cardiff, Ironmaster, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-second of February, in the fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas William Booker, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said Thomas William Boker, my exors, admiors,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas William Boker, my exors,
adiiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE 07 IRON;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso that I, the said Thomas William Booker, shall cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of

page_text: 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
Thomas William Booker, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference
being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters
marked thereon (that is to say):
My Invention consists of a method of simplifying and accelerating the
conversion of cast iron from its crude state into malleable or wrought iron,
and my mode of effecting the same is as follows:-I construct an open
refinery or furnace A, in the form and position, with reference to the rever-
beratory or puddling furnace B, with which it is connected, as shewn by the
Drawing; I adapt my said refinery to the various qualities or description of
cast iron or pig iron which it may be necessary to use by surrounding or
enclosing the hearth with blocks of cast iron, into and through which water
is allowed to flow or not as may be expedient, and as is well understood
in making refinery furnaces, and I introduce and apply the blast of air
through one, two, or more apertures or twires, as heretofore. The form,
dimensions, and construction of the said refinery for the conversion of cast
or pig iron of the ordinary description used in England, Wales, and Scotland,
for the manufacture of wrought or malleable or bar iron, are shewn by the
said Drawing. I construct a reverberatory or puddling furnace B, of the
dimensions, shape, and construction, and in the position with reference to
the refinery A, as shewn by the Drawing. The bottom of the body of the
furnace, and the grate bars and binding plates and bars, are formed of iron;
the other parts of the furnace are constructed with fire bricks, sandstone,
or fire clay, as is well understood. In the neck or near the flue of the said
reverberatory furnace is an aperture, through which the iron, when it has
become decarburetted or refined in the refinery A, is introduced or run in a
fluid state direct from the refining hearth into the puddling or reverberatory
furnace, on each side of which reverberatory furnace I construct a dcor, the
door on the one side being opposite to the door on the other side, as shown by
the Drawing, through which two doors the workmen perform the process
of puddling in the ordinary way in which puddling is done when working
only with one door, which is the general practice. The means and method
of charging and working the iron which I adopt and recommend as as
follows:-

page_text: As respects the refinery, having thrown up the fuel, and having, by the
application of fire and blast, produced the necessary heat, throw thereon a
charge of 9 cwt. or thereabouts of pig or cast iron, of the description generally
used for forge purposes. Let this be melted down, and decarburetted or
refined in the ordinary way, and when the refining process is complete let the
whole charge of metal be run off in a fluid state direct into the reverberatory
or puddling furnace, previously prepared to receive it by having been already
heated to a proper degree of temperature, and by the bottom, sides, bridge,
and opening to the flue being protected in the ordinary way by the workman
having previously thrown in a sufficient quantity of limestone and iron
cinder. The metal having been introduced into the reverberatory or puddling
furnace in a fluid state, the workman will raise, apply, and regulate, and vary
the heat in the ordinary way, by feeding and moving the fire in the grate,
and raising or lowering the damper on the top of the stack or flue, as
circumstances may require, and as is well understood; they must at the same
time stir and agitate the iron with bars and puddles, while the escape of the
oxide of carbon in a gaseous shape takes place, and until the whole mass of
iron agglutinates. The workmen will then divide it into lumps or balls of
a convenient size, and draw the charge from the furnace, passing the lumps
to the squeezer, hammer, or rolling cylinders, or such other contrivance or
machinery as may be used for forging or compressing the iron, all which is
well understood. During the process of refining the iron by the application
of heat and blast in the open refining hearth, a considerable quantity of scoria
or cinder will be produced, which is to be tapped and run off as heretofore, as
circumstances may require; but it is to be observed that during the process
which the iron undergoes in the reverberatory or puddling furnace I do not
find that any cinder need be generated or produced, and cinders and lime-
stones are to be thrown in, as already described, for the protection of the
various parts of the furnace exposed to the action or agitation of the fluid
metal, but no cinder need be tapped or drawn off.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the best manner
I am acquainted with for performing the same, I would have it understood
hat I do not make any claim to the construction of refinery furnaces, nor
uddling or reverberatory furnaces, such as are shewn in the Drawing, nor do
confine myself to the precise construction thereof, so long as the peculiar
haracter of my Invention be retained, my Invention not being in the con-
truction of furnaces, but relates to the mode of manufacturing iron by refining
nd puddling, by causing the heated metal of the refinery process to be passed

page_text: into a puddling furnace without being first permitted to cool, as herein
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas William Booker, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of August, in.the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-one.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, by the
within-named Thomas William Booker,
in the presence of
THOS W. (L.8.) BOOKER.
D RICHARDS Cardiff.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of August,
in the year of our Lord 1841, the aforesaid Thomas William Booker came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
ccording to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.