IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Howard, of 4, Trafalgar Terrace, Hoxton
in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF IRON."
Sealed the 14th July 1854, and dated the 18th January 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Howard at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 18th
January 1854.
I, CHARLES HOWARD, of 4, Trafalgar Terrace, Hoxton, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON " to be as follows:-
In order to improve the quality of iron by presenting and combining the
ores, fuels, and fluxes in such a minute subdivision and dissemination as will
insure their chemical agency being exerted with the best possible effect,
having a due regard to economy of fuel in the reduction of the ores to a fluid
consistency, as in the case of cast or pig iron, or to a semi-fluid or agglutinated
state when making malleable iron direct from the ore, I propose, in order to
effect this perfect commingling of the ores, fuels, and fluxes, and so aid the
chemical action on each other, to crush and wash the ores by the ordinary
methods; and having ascertained in this disintegrated and cleansed form (by
analysis) the quality of the ores to be operated on, I mix the same, when
desirable, in the requisite proportions, and then combine them with the fuel,
and such fluxes, alkalis, or alkaline solutions as may be required by analysis of
the disintegrated and cleansed ores. In mixing the ores so treated with the
fuel, the same being coal, coke, peat, charcoal of wood or peat, or other

page_text: ligneous substances, I first reduce the same to a granulated form, and then
submit the same to pressure in a brick or other suitable machine, with or
without fluxes, alkalis, or alkaline solutions, as may be requisite. When using
raw peat, which I prefer to select as free as possible from silicious matter, I
mix the cleansed ores and peat in a pug mill or other suitable machine, and
submit the same to pressure, as before mentioned, either alone or in combi-
nation with fluxes, alkalis, or alkaline solutions, as may be requisite on the
analysis of such disintegrated and cleansed ores.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Howard in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
15th July 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
HOWARD, of 4, Trafalgar Terrace, Hoxton, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
feign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Charles Howard, Her special licence that I, the said Charles Howard,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Charles Howard, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON," upon the condition (amongst others) that 1, the
said Charles Howard, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Howard, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof (that is to say):-
In order to improve the quality of iron by presenting and combining the
ores, fuels, and fluxes in such a minute sub-division and dissemination as will

page_text: insure their chemical agency being exerted with the best possible effect,
having a due regard to economy of fuel in the reduction of the ores to a fluid
consistency, as in the case of cast or pig iron, or to a semi-fluid or agglutinated
state when making malleable iron direct from the ore, I propose, in order to
effect this perfect commingling of the ores, fuels, and fluxes, and so aid the
chemical action on each other, to crush and wash the ores by the ordinary
methods; and having ascertained in this disintegrated and cleansed form (by
analysis) the quality of the ores to be operated on, I mix the same when
desirable in the requisite proportions, and then combine them with the fuel
and such fluxes, alkalis, or alkaline solutions as may be required by analysis of
the disintegrated and cleansed ores. In mixing the ores so treated with the
fuel, the same being coal, coke, peat, charcoal of wood or peat, or other
ligneous substances, I first reduce the same to a granulated form, and then
submit the same to pressure in a brick or other suitable machine, with or
without fluxes, alkalis, or alkaline solutions, as may be requisite. When using
raw peat, which I prefer to select as free as possible from siliceous matter, I
mix the cleansed ores and peat in a pug mill or other suitable machine, and
submit the same to pressure, as before mentioned, either alone or in combi-
nation with fluxes, alkalis, or alkaline solutions as may be requisite on the
analysis of such disintegrated and cleansed ores. I do not confine myself to
any definite proportions of ores, fuels, or fluxes, as they must necessarily depend
on the composition of the ore or ores to be operated on.
And having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I declare that I do not claim the combi-
nation of fluxes with fuels, or the combination of various ores, well knowing
the same to have been done with their carthy and silecious matters in com-
bination; but what I claim is, the combination, and in the manner described,
of the ores in a disintegrated and cleansed state with the fuel, fluxes, alkalies,
or alkaline solutions, when requisite, prior to submitting the same to the action
of heat, however the same may be applied.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Howard, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
5 Witness,
JOSEPH JONES.
CHARLES HOWARD. (L.S.)