PECULIAR METHOD AND PROCESS OF PREPARING, WELDING, AND WORKING VARIOUS SORTS OF IRON, AND OF REDUCING THE SAME INTO USES BY MA- CHINERY; A FURNACE, AND OTHER APPARATUS, ADAPTED AND APPLIED TO THE SAID PRO- CESS
Year: 1783

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
CORT, of Funtley Iron Mills, in the Parish of Titchfield, in the County of
Southampton, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS our Sovereign Lord King George the Third, by His Royal Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Seventeenth day of January, in the twenty-third year of His reign, upon
the Petition of me, the said Henry Cort, whereby I had humbly represented to
His said Majesty that by great study, labour, and expence, in trying a variety
of experiments, and making many discoveries, I had invented and brought to
perfection a "PECULIAR METHOD AND PROCESS OF PREPARING, WELDING, AND
WORKING VARIOUS SORTS OF IRON, AND OF REDUCING THE SAME INTO USES BY MA-
CHINERY; A FURNACE, AND OTHER APPARATUS, ADAPTED AND APPLIED TO THE SAID PRO-
CESS;" and His said Majesty, being willing to give such encouragement as in the
said Letters Patent is mentioned, and having graciously pleased to condescend
to my request, made known, therefore, that His said Majesty, of His especial
grace, certain knowledge, and meer motion, for Himself, His heirs and
successors, did give and grant unto me, the said Henry Cort, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, His said Majesty's especial licence, full power, sole
priviledge and authority, touching my said Invention, as in the said Letters
Patent is in that behalf particularly mentioned and expressed; to have, hold,
exercise, and enjoy the said licence, powers, priviledges, and advantages
therein granted unto me, the said Henry Cort, my executors, admors, and
assigns, for and during and unto the full end and term of fourteen years from
the date of the said Letters Patent next and immediately ensuing, and fully to
1

page_text: be compleat and ended according to the Statute in such case made and
provided, to be had, used, and exercised, according to His said Majesty's
gracious Intention, under His said Majesty's Royal Commands, within that part
of His said Majesty's Kingdom of Great Britain called England, the Dominion
of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, conformable to His said Ma-
jesty's gracious pleasure, and to the provisoes, declaration, restrictions, grants,
and conditions in the said Letters Patent expressed and contained, as in and by
the said Letters Patent, so under the Great Seal of Great Britain, and dated as
aforesaid, relation being thereunto had, may and doth more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Cort, in conformity to the said
Letters Patent, and according to a proviso therein contained for that purpose,
have described and ascertained, and by these Presents do describe and ascertain,
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed (that is to say) :-
:-
For large uses, such as shanks, arms, rings, and palms of anchors, mooring
and bridle-chain links, and the like (in the doing of which I work with a
forge hammer), various sorts of iron are prepared, welded, and worked,
according to the said Invention, in the manner best suited to each particular
use, as follows:-For instance, when a chain, link, anchor, ring, or other long
piece of iron, of equal size at both ends, is to be wrought from one faggot, I
cause barr iron of sufficient lengths to be closely faggotted together; and the
best method of doing this I have found by experiment to be by laying a flat
bar, of the width and length required at the bottom, upon which four square
barrs are to be placed in regular order, and upon the top and at each side
other flat bars, perfectly inclosing the four square barrs, and thereby making
the faggot square; the size of all which bars are to be proportionate to each
other, as well as to the use intended to be finished from them; and the faggot
sa formed is to be bound together as close as possible by square collars driven
on tight. But when the use intended is of considerable length, and tapering,
so as to be smaller at one end than at the other, like the shank or arm of an
anchor, to be wrought in its whole length from one faggot, I find that the
same may be best and most conveniently formed by flat bars forged on
purpose, gradually tapering so as to be thinner and narrower at one end than
at the other, the proportions of such bars being calculated to correspond with
the dimensions of the respective parts of the uses to be finished from them;
and in preparing such faggots these flat bars are laid over one another in the
manner of bricks in building, so that the upper barrs everywhere cover the
joints of those underneath; one bar wider, than those which compose the body

page_text: of the faggot, being laid at the bottom, and another of the same width at the
top, by which means the faggot, when taken from the furnace, is more easily
rested on the anvil, and so placed'as to receive the 'better impression from the
first strokes of the hammer, whereby it becomes more perfectly welded. And
I observe the same method as 'nearly as possible in laying old hoops together
on the building bench, as herein-after mentioned, and in preparing and
faggoting all other sorts of iron for the welding furnace, as far as the shape of
such iron and of the uses intended to be finished from the same will-allow-;
several of the faggots so' prepared, to the amount (for instance) of half anton,
more or less, are put at once into a common air furnace, usually denominated
a-balling furnace, and therein brought to a welding heat at the same time,
which in my furnace is compleated with great speed and dispatch; and
this is a practice not hitherto used in any chafery or hollow fire, or other fire
blown by blast, in' welding large faggots of iron; and thus to take welding heats
in a balling furnace according to the method and process herein: specified. is
part of my Invention. If the whole length of the faggots when prepared.is
too much to admit of being introduced entire into the furnace, the faggots
may be first put in at 'one. end, and, the other ends. remaining out, the door is
to be let down upon them, and closed at the bottom with sand; and afterwards,
the effects of the first heat being produced, the other ends are heated in like
manner. But for the shanks of large anchors made entire in one length; and
other faggotted iron of great length, for instance, of more than eight or ten feet
long, then, in order to take the welding heat in the niiddle, a door is made-in-the
back of the furnace, directly opposite to the one in front; and the ends first
welded being put through the furnace and out at that door; the same is let down
and closed with sand in like manner as the front door, and the middle part only
of the iron is confined to the; heat of the furnace. But, for those purposes
which require such a length, the mode I prefer is to weld the iron in two
pieces, and afterwards to shut it together with scarfs of three or four feet
long, according to the plan herein-after more particularly described: But
in the furnace used after the manner above mentioned, a welding heat
may be taken much sooner than in a hollow fire, and that on lengths, for
instance, of four feet or more at one time; and when the heat is perfect, the
faggots or pieces heated and brought, either one by one, or two or more, to be
welded together, as the case may require, under a forge hammer of great
weight, for example, eight hundred or nine hundred weight, more or less, the
surface of which, and the anvil under it, is of sufficient dimensions, for
example, of eighteen or twenty inches, more or less, in length, and about ten
inches wide, except at the points, which are made nairow for the purpose of

page_text: drawing the iron out; and by a few strokes of this hammer, which acts with
great velocity) striking on each side of the faggot (whilst the heat remains
perfect), the whole length heated is welded round to the center into one
solid mass of iron. For square uses, or those in which only the angles are
beat down in finishing after the faggot is welded, the hammer and anvil just
described with plane surfaces are the fittest to be applied; but for uses that
are to be made round, such as anchor rings and the like, I work them at an
anvil with a semicircular groove, and sometimes also by a hammer with a
similar groove. When faggots are too heavy to admit of this operation being
performed by hand, a crane is necessarily used; but two good forgemen can
manage a faggot of three hundredweight in hand (by the assistance of others
with barrs in lifting it from the furnace to and upon the anvil), and perform
the work in general better than by the crane. And I find it to be the best
way of making shanks for large anchors to lay and weld them in two pieces,
one of the faggots being calculated for the square, and the other for the round
part; and, after these are drawn out seperately, to shut them together under
the said heavy hammer with a scarf of sufficient length, for instance, of three
or four feet long, by a welding heat in the furnace. These shuts are much
longer than those usually taken in a hollow fire or chafery, and, being
perfectly sound, the anchors are altogether as strong and more neatly
finished than those for which the faggots are at first formed of the entire
length of the shank. I also remark, that by a welding heat from the fur-
nace palms may be brought on the arms of anchors under the forge hammer
with greater certainty and better effect than by the methods in practice before
my Invention. If, instead of bar iron to be welded for the purposes as above
stated, old hoops or other such like iron is to be used, the same are to be cut
with the mill sheers or otherwise, or folded up into proper lengths for the in-
tended uses, and then to be faggotted together by means of the common bundling
bench, or by being driven into collars of the size and shape required, in both which
cases I cause them to be laid as nearly as possible in the form herein-before
specified with respect to barrs of iron, so as for the hoops of the upper layers
to cover the joints of the under ones; and, a welding heat being taken on them,
they are at once welded and drawn out to convenient dimensions under the
large hammer. And for purposes that require two or more of these to bo
welded together, as shanks and arms, or bodies and palms of anchors, or
mooring and bridle-chain links, and the like, they are first shingled sound
apart, and then either returned into the same furnace, or (which I find better
in works sufficiently large) put into another furnace of the same kind, and,
being again heated to a welding heat, two of them are welded sound together,

page_text: and drawn to the proper dimensions and shape; and a third and fourth, and
so on, may be afterwards shut on in like manner, after which the whole is
neatly finished under the large hammer without the use of either chaffery or
hollow fire. And I find that the larger uses thus finished by me are, in all
respects, possessed of the highest degree of perfection. I also have found that
the fire in the balling furnace is better suited, from its regularity and penetrating
quality, to give tho iron a perfect welding heat throughout its whole mass,
without burning in any part, than any fire blown by a blast; insomuch that if
barr or other massy iron is bound into a faggot of five or six inches diameter,
by an old cask hoop the sixteenth part of an inch in thickness, the one will
acquire a compleat welling heat, and the other not be burnt or wasted; and
the consequence of this is, that whereas bar iron, faggoted and made into
anchors, and other large uses, in the usual method practiced by anchorsmiths,
is not welded to the center, but rather covered only with an incrustation of
welded iron when the anchors and such other uses made by them are compleatly
finished, and consequently liable to decay and many accidents, the same large
uses prepared by my method, whether from bars or from smaller iron, are
equally solid through every part, and must necessarily be stronger, as well as
less liable to injury, than iron not so perfectly compressed; and the whole
mass may, in one welding heat thus managed, be drawn out more or less in
proportion to the solid contents of the length heated; on which account I
always make my faggots shorter than the uses to be finished from them,
and according to the usual course of my working I find that a square faggot
of six feet six inches long, and five inches diameter, will draw out to about
eight feet in length, and a diameter of three inches and seven eighths, or there-
abouts, in two heats, and the like. Old salt-pan plates and all other rolled
plate iron cut with the mill shears or otherwise, and burnt together by
itself or folded into a sort of coffins, and filled with scraps commonly called nut
and bucket iron, which scraps may likewise be put into the furnace in piles, and
also lump and large iron may, for the like purposes, be welded by the same
process, and worked under the forge hammer by means of porters welded to
them, as practiced in drawing out blooms; but inasmuch as ne hammer can
press out all the earth, salt, and sulphur with which the iron may be over-
charged if put into the furnace in a dirty, impure, or rusty state, at least not
so perfectly as may be done by the process herein-after mentioned, the
same may be cleaned before being bundled for the furnace by a machine
well known in the iron manufactory under the name of the scowering barrel,
into which the larger iron may be put with scrap iron instead of small pebble
stones, as used at wire mills, and the whole will come out perfectly cleansed,

page_text: And consequently, when wrought by the above process, will produce iron, of
purer grain and more perfect contexture than without such cleansing also by
another process through the same kind of furnace, all the sorts of iron suited to
the former operation being bundled or placed together as nearly as may be
with the care herein-before expressed, in such shapes as best to suit the uses
for which they are intended, with one end or side thinner than the rest to give
a free admission between the rollers of a common rolling and slitting milh
but not in greater lengths than can be heated entirely at once; or heated in
like inanner to a welding heat, and then passed through the said rollers and
by this simple process all the earthy particles are pressed out, and only such
proportion of the salt as is very much fixed, and of the sulphurious. particles
as rather invite the pure metalic grain into closer contact than promote sifs
seperation, are left remaining, whereby the iron becomes at oncerfree from
dross; or what is usually called cinder, and is compressed into a fiberous, and
tough state. Accordingly, a bar of the worst ordinary iron,din, which the
grains of metal are large, and much seperated by the impurities with which
it is impregnated, being passed through the simple opperation, becomes
instantly of a good quality; and two or more of the same barrs, or of any
pieces of impure iron heated in the same manner, and passed; through
the rollers together, become at once welded into one solid body, and moliorated
into good tough iron, without being previously cleansed in the scowering barrel
or otherwise. If the iron to be welded by this method is intended for plates, of
any kind, it is bundled or laid together, before being put into the furnace, in the
shape and size best suited to the use for which such plates are intended, and
passed repeatedly through the common rolling and slitting mill rollers with flat
surfaces, till it acquires the requisite degree of thinness. If it be intended for
flat or square bars, rods, hoops, or the like, as soon as welded and male suffi-
ciently thin under the rollers, it may at the same heat be passed through the
slitters, and from them again through the rollers, if needful, for proper uses.
When the iron thus to be welded through the rollers is designed for barrs,
half flats, or thimble iron, with feather edges, a groove of the requisite dimen
sions is made in the under roller, through which groove the iron is to be passed
in the state of welding heat. In case thick bars, or squares, or round bolts are
intended to be welded through the rollers, grooves of the shape and dimensions
required for any of those uses are made in the under roller and collars on the
upper roller to work exactly within such grooves, the surface of such collars
being either plane for squares and flats, or concave for bolts and the like, as
the case may require. Much of the success of these opperations depends on
the iron being properly cut, faggoted, bundled, or placed together, if large, or

page_text: being put into coffins, as before described, suited to the intended purpose, if it
consists of scraps before being carried into the furnace; but this circumstance
being attended, to and the coffins of craps, and even piles of the same, as
well as faggots of suitable dimensions, being passed through any of the said
grooves, produce the intended use perfectly welded at the edges and through-
out. And in mills of sufficient power, with rollers large enough to admit of
grooves and collars for the purpose, very great-sized iron may be welded in
this manner as well as under the hammer, the heat being the same in both
cases, which process is my own Invention, and put in use by me only. I have
made faggots of inferior bar iron, five inches in diameter, and, passing the same
through the groove in the rollers, have found them compleatly welded at the
sides, without a crack, into one mass, perfectly sound to the centre, and improved
in quality, in like manner as mooring-chain links, ships' knees, and other
iron decayed or eaten by rust, being cut into proper lengths, duly heated and
passed through the rollers, will produce exceedingly good iron without any.
other process.
T
makes good iron without the usual
Pig and sow metal, commonly called
down in the finery into half blooms,
Another process relates to the management of scull and cast iron, the scull
iron being first piled together in heaps upon old plate or bottoms, for example,
of about three quarters of an hundredweight, more or less each, and shingled
and drawn down by the forge hammer from the balling furnace into the shape
and form required for the use intended in one heat, after which it is again heated
to a welding hent in the furnace, and passed under the rollers, for any of the
purposes herein-before described, which
process of refining, with charcoal or coke.
cast iron, and old cast iron, is to be sunk
and shingled under the forge hammer to the intended size of the use in one
heat, instead of being drawn into anchonies; after which it undergoes a like
process by welding under the rollers, whereby it is perfectly refined, and at the
same time reduced, either by the said rollers or, being passed from them
through the cutters, to the uses required; or both of these kinds of iron may
be prepared for the furnace by methods now practiced, and then shingled and
welded to uses in one heat under the rollers, in the method herein-above
specified with respect to scrap iron. All which iron, prepared, welded, worked,
and reduced into use, by the methods and processes before set forth, will be
equal, if not superior, in quality to iron made by the ordinary process or
methods before in practice. And the nature of my said Invention, so per-
formed by the said methods and processes herein-above set forth, especially
consists in taking a welding heat on several pieces or parcels and faggots of
iron in the same furnace at one time, and drawing the same into uses, either

page_text: ngly, or by welding and shutting two or more together by the operations
escribed, either under the forge hammer or through the mill rollers, as may
est suit the use intended. And these operations may be diversified so as to
uit all purposes whatever to which forged or welded iron is or can be applied,
s well as those herein particularized by way of example.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Cort, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Sixteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, and in the twenty-third year
of the reign of our said Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the grace
of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the
Faith &c.
AND BE
REMEMBRED,
the same
May,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Henry Cort came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the
tenor of the Statute made in the sixth year of the reign of their late Majestys
King William and Queen Mary of England, and so forth.