IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR TREATING STEEL INGOTS PREPARATORY TO MANUFACTURING THEM INTO FINISHED OR PARTIALLY FINISHED ARTICLES
Year: 1884

page_text: COMPLETE
SPECIFICATION,
I, JOHN GJERS of Ayresome Iron Works Middlesbrough-on-Tees in the North
Riding of the County of York Iron Master do hereby declare the nature of my
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR TREATING STEEL
INGOTS PREPARATORY TO MANUFACTURING THEM INTO FINISHED OR PARTIALLY
FINISHED ARTICLES" and in what manner the same is to be performed to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the follow statement :-
In treating steel ingots in soaking pits according to my Patent N° 1089 of the
year 1882 I find that the success is complete whenever the works are laid out
favorably or approximately favorably to the object in view; but there are works of
old and defective construction where the place of the casting of the ingots is
situated at a great distance from the rolling mill or hammers and sometimes also
aggravated by the use of very small ingots, where a difficulty is found in retaining
a sufficient margin of heat successfully to treat the ingots in the soaking pits.
This difficulty and margin of heat is always felt principally in the extreme top of
the ingot hence by my proposed improvements I provide means whereby an ingot
which has from the above causes suffered too great a loss in the extreme top may
when necessary have a small portion of heat added to its top part at the same time
that it is as a whole subjected to the soaking process as set forth in my before-
mentioned Specification vis:-by being placed in pits or cells built in a mass of
brickwork or other heat absorbing and sufficiently refractory material, which,
acting as an absorber and accumulator of heat receives and radiates heat back to
the ingot and which remains while at work at a temperature as high as is
necessary for the rolling or hammering of the ingot.
Referring to the Drawings where Fig. 1 is an elevation and part vertical section
of my improved apparatus, Fig. 2 a sectional plan of the same and Fig. 3 a section
through the line C. D in Fig. 2, the section in Fig. 1 being taken through the line
A. B in Fig. 2, I have shewn a set of 9 soaking pits constructed in a mass of
refractory material similar to those described in my before-mentioned Specification
except that they are so much deeper as to allow a gas flue to pass from pit to pit
somewhat above the top of the heated ingots which are marked g. g. g and are
shown placed in the soaking pits.

page_text: b
I shew in Fig. 1, a crane which is a well known useful appliance for transferring
the ingots and also I shew a gas producer (which may be situated at any
convenient distance and be of any form) and a main gas flue which branches into
as many separate smaller flues as there are rows of ingots (in this case 3). Each
has its separate shut off valve and inlet for air where the gas is simply ignited and
passes as flame over the top of the rows of ingots and out at the other end into a
chimney (which may be at any distance and have the draught regulated by a
damper). It will be seen therefore that I employ an ordinary soaking pit or pits
as described in my before mentioned Specification with a comparatively small gas
flame passing over but not impinging upon the top of the ingots, which radiates a
portion of heat to the top of the ingot and also keeps the brickwork hot in the top
part of the pit at a point where it is most likely to lose heat from being near to the
floor level. The gas is only kept burning when necessary that is when the ingot
tops are deficient in heat, or it may bo kept burning when there is any cessation of
work or when preparing the pits for work. The gas may also be kept burning
when the lid is opened to put ingots in or take them out or at such times the gas
may be shut off the particular row where the work is going on. It will be noticed
that, by preference I keep the top of the ingot slightly below the sheet of gas flame
so that it may not directly impinge upon the ingot top and thereby cause
oxidation,
I use the above means simply as an auxiliary to be employed in case of need
and not in any way interfering with the soaking process which is going on in the
pit as usual.
It should also be remarked that the same object can be obtained by a suitably
arranged fire grate burning coal instead of employing the gas producer as shown,
and that it may also be wholly or partially above ground as in my before mentioned
Specification but that I recommend the below ground arrangement in practice.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is
The improved means of and apparatus for supplying to steel ingots while
undergoing a soaking process such additional heat as may be necessary from a gas
flame or heated products of combustion substantially as and for the purposes
described and illustrated in the Drawings.
th
1004