AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR FUSING IRON ORES AND SCRAP IRON OR STEEL, AND UTILISING THE GASEOUS PRODUCTS ARISING THEREFROM
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Lancaster and Edward
Simpson Samuell at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 4th
November 1880.
ROBERT LANCASTER, Manufacturing Chemist, and EDWARD SIMPSON SAMUEll,
Merchant, both of the City of Liverpool. "AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR FUSING
IRON ORES AND SCRAP IRON OR STEEL, AND UTILISING THE GASEOUS PRODUCTS
ARISING THEREFROM."
We manufacture iron and steel direct from the ores by treating them with
ordinary or highly superheated steam. The method we adopt is to place the ores
and limestone or other caustic base upon a perforated platform within a suitable
closed furnace or cupola in which such materials are heated and fused; we then
cause the steam to pass through the mass by means of suitable piping or other
arrangement which will bring the steam into intimate connection with the ores
and base employed; scrap iron or scap steel may be similarly treated, and such
iron or steel, whether produced from the ore or otherwise, may be then further
manipulated into solid and marketable forms by other well known processes.
Whenever the ore employed is found to be deficient in carbon, which for the
purposes of this Invention is essential to be present, we introduce a further supply
of carbon in any convenient form along with the iron ore and limestone.
Another method of carrying out our Invention is as follows:-We pass superheated
steam over iron scraps heated to about a white heat in a fire-clay retort or other
suitable vessel, or over other suitable incandescent fuel or material, for the purpose
of generating hydrogen gas, and this hydrogen gas in conjunction with the steam
is by means of an injector, blow-pipe, or other suitable apparatus afterwards
passed with the hot air blast into the cupola or furnace containing the iron-ore,
scrap iron, or steel. The hydrogen gas so produced and admixed as aforesaid must
be maintained in excess of the quantity absorbed for the time being by the hot air
blast.
In this manner we increase the temperature beyond that capable of being
produced by the ordinary hot air blast, so saving fuel and accelerating the fusion of
the iron ore, and causing a more perfect fusion of the slags, whilst the hydrogen
introduced together with the steam, acts chemically on the fused carburretted iron and
slags, and eliminates all the phosphor or sulphur which may exist in the ore, or iron,

page_text: or steel. The action of the super-heated steam is to partially decarbonise the fused
iron in the cupola, and so to produce a marketable iron or steel direct from the
ore or from scrap iron, and which is capable of being afterwards manipulated as
aforesaid.
And if during these processes we desire to utilize the gaseous products to form
carbonate of soda (soda-ash), we place chloride of sodium (common salt) in a
suitable closed and heated vessel, into which we admit the gaseous products, so
bringing the same into intimate connection with the salt, and expelling thereout
the chlorine gas, and which chlorine gas or its condensed vapour may be further
manipulated by other well known processes to form chloride of lime.