AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE HEATING PROCESSES IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BAR, ROD, SHEET, AND OTHER DESCRIPTION OF MALEABLE IRON, WHETHER THE SAME MAY HAVE BEEN PREVIOUSLY PREPARED BY THE PUDLING OR OTHER MODES OF REFINING
Year: 1822

page_text: TO ALL
WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1, KICHARD
SUMMERS HARFORD, of Ebbw Vale Iron Works, in the Parish of Aberystruth,
in the County of Monmouth, Iron Master (being one of the people called
Quakers) send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did, by
His Letters Patent bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-first day of
March, One thousand eight hundred and twenty-two, in the third year of His
reign, give and grant unto me, the said Richard Summers Harford, my exors,
admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Richard Summers Harford, my exors, adñors, and assigns,
during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE HEATING PROCESSES IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF BAR, ROD, SHEET, AND OTHER DESCRIPTION OF MALEABLE IRON,
WHETHER THE SAME MAY HAVE BEEN PREVIOUSLY PREPARED BY THE PUDLING OR OTHER
MODES OF REFINING;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
that if I, the said Richard Summers Harford, shall not particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within four calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advan-
tages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become
void, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully
and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the said
Richard Summers Harford, do hereby declare that having experienced much
difficulty and inconvenience in manufacturing Bloom's piled iron, scrap iron,
sheet, hoop, and rod iron, and all other kinds of maleable, whether the same
be for hammering, rolling, or slitting, owing to the impurities that adhere to
its surface when placed upon the bottoms of balling, heating, or annealing
furnaces, those bottoms being usually constructed or covered with sand, gravel,
scoria, or any vitreous substance, most difficult to be fused, and having most
completely proved that no substance hitherto found out would prevent the
evil consequences that are produced by particles of silecious matter adhering
to the surfaces of the iron when placed upon the bottoms of such balling,
heating, or annealing furnaces so constructed and covered; for when such iron
is either hammered, rolled, or wrought out into bars, plates, hoops, or any
other shape or form, it is found that very deep indentations and imperfections
are made upon the surface, and more or less throughout the whole mass; and
where iron. so manufactured is wrought out into thin sheets or plates, holes
will be found completely through, which imperfection renders such sheets or
plates useless. In order to prevent such evil consequences, cast-iron bottoms
were constructed to lay the piles or pieces of maleable iron upon; but these
were soon laid aside and rejected, on account of the great difficulty of
preventing them from being burned or melted by the great heats that must
of necessity be applied.
Now, my improvement in the heating processes, in the manufacture of bar,
rod, sheet, and other description of maleable iron, whether the same may have
been previously prepared by the pudling or other moles of refining,. consists
entirely in covering the cast-iron bottoms of balling, heating, or annealing
furnaces with charcoal, or any animal or vegetable matter or substance, and
may, by the application of heat, be converted into a sufficiently durable char-
coal, such as.peat turf, the spent bark of tan-pits, shavings of wood or leather,
sawdust, wood chips, soot, plumbago, or any animal or vegetable matter or sub-
stance that may be found suitable for the purpose. Any of these substances
being spread or strewed over the surface of the cast-iron bottoms previous to
the piles or pieces of iron being placed in the furnaces, will effectually prevent
either the burning or melting of the bottoms by the great heats that are
necessary to be applied. It will be right to observe here, that these advantages
result from the well-know property of charcoal as a non-conductor of heat; but
the greatest benefit that arises from the use of charcoal in the way and manner
I have described is found in the purity of the iron so manufactured, as all the
impurities that it contracts by being laid in contact with vitreous or siliceous

page_text: matter of which the bottoms of balling, heating, or annealing furnaces are
usually constructed or covered, will be avoided, and the iron will be much
improved in toughness by being laid upon charcoal, which, it is well known,
tends greatly to prevent oxydation of the metal with which it is in contact
when exposed to great heat.
And in order to identify more distinctly the nature of my improvement in
the heating processes, in the manufacture of bar, rod, sheet, and other descrip-
tion of maleable iron, whether the same may have been previously prepared by
the pudling or other modes of refining, I hereby further declare that it consists
entirely in substituting and covering the iron bottoms of balling, heating, or
annealing furnaces with charcoal, either animal or vegetable, which may be
used in the state in which it is manufactured or reduced in any degree, even
to powder; or the said bottoms may be covered with the shavings or chips of
wood, sawdust, peat, turf, the spent bark of tan-pits, leather shavings, soot,
plumbago, or any animal or vegetable matters or substances that will form a
sufficiently durable charcoal for the purpose, by the substitution and use of
which the impurities that usually adhere to iron manufactured with earthen or
siliceous bottoms will be entirely prevented, and, consequently, the value of
the iron will be greatly enhanced.
And I hereby further declare that I do not in this Patent extend the
use of my improvement to pudling furnaces, but to balling, heating, or
annealing furnaces only.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Summers Harford, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-two.
14.5.1
TD.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twentieth day of July, in the
year of our Lord 1822, the aforesaid Richard Summers Harford came before
our said Lord the King in His 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 stampt according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twentieth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
Inrolled the Twentieth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-two.