IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Bennett at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 11th May 1865.
I, JOSEPH BENNETT, of No. 12, Market Street, Sheffield, in the County of
York, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates more particularly to the refining of iron and steel,
and consists simply in projecting, propelling, driving, blowing, or otherwise
dispersing highly fluid iron, splashing it into globules, drops, grains, film or
spray, exposing as much surface as possible into and through the atmospheric
air at as great a speed as possible, such air being heated or cold, in motion
or not in motion as may be found most desirable; such globules, drops, grains,
film or spray to be collected together whilst they are yet in a fluid state,
attainable by the use of suitable apparatus such as or similar to those hereafter
described, or by letting such globules, drops, grains, film or spray fall into a
suitable space to be collected when they have become solid, and then reacted
upon or used for that purpose for which they are suitable. Many ways, and
means, machines, apparatus, arrangements, and appliances can or could be
brought into action, so that one of them or several of them together might
work out this Invention; I will describe only some of them. Firstly, the
iron may be poured from an elevation on to or upon a splash board of suitable

page_text: shape and material, heated or not heated, to be placed also at a good elevation,
the poured iron when it comes into contact with the said splash board will
disperse in globules, drops, grains, film or spray of a fineness and at a speed
determined by the height from which it is poured or the distance it has to
fall. The finer the globules, drops, grains, film or spray, and the greater the
speed at which they pass through the air, the better the result will be, they
may then be collected either in a solid or in a fluid state. Secondly, a flat
or otherwise stream of iron when poured through a funnel close to the end of
a blast pipe properly placed and brought into action the blast will drive the
fluid iron in a stream of globules, drops, grains, film or spray into the air at
a speed and of a fineness determined by the weight of the blast or its
pressure
and the fluid state of the iron. In this operation, as in the foregoing, the
globules, drops, grains, film or spray may be driven into a hot chamber or
retort and collected in a fluid state, or be driven into a space prepared for
them and be collected when solid. Thirdly, highly fluid iron may be poured
through a number of pots made of chamot or fireclay placed upon each other,
and open at the bottom so that the iron can pass from one to the other; the sail
pots being fixed in a furnace properly constructed so that they can be brought
to a white beat, the said pots must be so constructed that the fluid iron in
passing through them will splash into globules, drops, grains, film or spray,
and collect again into a stream in each and every one of them, and so pass on
into the receiver below accompanied by a stream or current of very hot air, or
otherwise, supplied from a tube placed at the top of the tier of pots. Fourthly,
and lastly, wheels, fans, ladles and many other contrivances may be constructed
and used worked by power or hand to purify iron and steel by driving, throwing
and dispersing the fluid iron through the atmospheric air for the purpose of
altering its quality. I do not therefore claim the precise details of apparatus
above described for working this Invention, but declare this Invention to
consist in refining iron and steel by projecting, driving, propelling, and
otherwise forcing the fluid iron into and through the atmospheric air under
the circumstances and in the manner aforesaid and above described.