IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF Iron and STEEL." SPECIFICATION
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Adams Freeston, Steel Works Manager,
and George Ellinor and John Harrison, Chemists, all of 19,
Salisbury Street, Strand, W.C., London, and of Sheffield, Yorkshire,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF Iron and
STEEL."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Adams Free-
ston, George Ellinor, and John Harrison at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 24th October
1874.
We, THOMAS ADAMS FREESTON, Steel Works Manager, and GEORGE
ELLINOR and JOHN HARRISON, Chemists, all of 19, Salisbury Street,
Strand, W.C., London, and of Sheffield, Yorkshire, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE Manufacture
OF IRON AND STEEL," to be as follows:-
This process, which has for its object the purification of iron and steel,

page_text: consists in the use and employment of certain materials or compounds
thereof, as herein-after described, applied in the manner and by the
means herein set forth, or any mere modification thereof, for the removal
and elimination of sulphur, phosphorus, antimony, arsenic, and copper
from iron and steel, whether in the crude or more advanced state of
treatment or manufacture, either in part as hydrides, or taking them
severally or in part, the sulphur as hydro-sulphuric acid, sulphureous
anhydride, sulphides, or sulphates; the phosphorus as phosphorctted
hydrogen, hypo-phosphites, and phosphates; the arsenic as hydrides;
copper as hydrides; and antimony as hydride.
This process is founded partly upon the different functional offices
(chemical) performed by the hydrogen in the basylous part of com-
pounds (chemical) to that on the acidulous side, as, for example, the
hydrogen of the hydrates; and partly by such bases with which such
available hydrogen is combined, also possessing some chemical affinities
for all or part of these elements (sulphur-phosphorus), and thereby
forming compounds therewith, but the elements differing in condition
on the acidulous side of their bases, according to the employment or
non-employment of selected accompaniments, as before and herein men-
tioned, the bases of which will be found specified in List C.
These objects we effect by the employment of calcium hydrate
(Ca 2HO) or any other hydrate, as comprehended in the List A., sepa-
rately or in combination with iodine or nitrate of barytes (Ba 2NO,), or
with any of the oxy-nitrogen salts, as in the accompanying List B.,
together with any other compound possessing an available oxidizing
acidulous radical and base, the following being the lists referred to :-

page_text: We introduce the calcium hydrate and baryta nitrate in blast furnaces
by means of a box, funnel, hopper, or other suitable vessel, fitted with
stop-cocks and means of discharging the materials into the blast pipes.
In some cases we employ a wet meter or such like contrivance for
discharging the iodine into the blast pipes of blast furnaces and such like
furnaces or apparatus employed for treating metals.
The composition or the materials herein referred to may be applied in
puddling furnaces by means of cartridges introduced into the molten or
semi-molten metal, and stirred up therewith.
Where crucibles and melting pots are employed we apply the materials
in charges or in the form of cartridges.
In cupolas and Bessemer vessels we apply the materials, mixture, or
composition in the same manner as in the blast furnaces, discharging
either into the blast pipe or into the surrounding belt.

page_text: -
filed by the said Thomas Adams Freeston, George Ellinor, and
John Harrison in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 23rd April
1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
ADAMS FREESTON, Steel Works Manager, and GEORGE ELLINOR and
JOHN HARRISON, Chemists, all of 19, Salisbury Strect, Strand, W.C.,
London, and of Sheffield, Yorkshire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said Thomas Adams Freeston,
George Ellinor, and John Harrison, Her special licence that we, the said
Thomas Adams Freeston, George Ellinor, and John Harrison, our exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Thomas Adams Freeston, George Ellinor, and John Harrison, our exc-
cutors, 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 AND STEEL," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said Thomas Adams Freeston, George Ellinor, and John
Harrison, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under our, or their, or one of their hands and scals, 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
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Thomas Adams Freeston, George
Ellinor, and John Harrison, do hereby declare the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be par-
ticularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This process, which has for its object the purification of iron and steel,
consists in the use and employment of certain materials or compounds
-

page_text: thereof, as therein-after described, applied in the manner and by the
means herein set forth, or any mère modification thereof, for the removal
and climination of sulphur, phosphorus, antimony, arsenic, and copper
from iron and steel, whether in the crude or more advanced state of
treatment or manufacture, either in part as hydrides, or taking them
severally or in part, the sulphur as hydro-sulphuric acid, sulphurous
anhydride, sulphides, or sulphates; the phosphorus as phosphoretted
hydrogen, hypo-phosphites, and phosphates; the arsenic as hydrides;
copper as hydrides; and antimony as hydride.
This process is founded partly upon the different functional offices
(chemical) performed by the liydrogen in the basylous part of com-
pounds (chemical) to that in the acidulous side, as, for example, the
hydrogen of the hydrates; and partly by such bases with which such
available hydrogen is combined, also possessing some chemical affinities
for all or part of these elements (sulphur-phosphorus), and thereby
forming compounds therewith, but the clements differing in condition
on the acidulous side of their bases, according to the employment or
non-employment of selected accompaniments, as before and herein men-
tioned, the bases of which will be found specified in List C.
These objects we effect by the employment of calcium hydrate
(Ca 2HO), or any other hydrate as comprehended in the List A., sepa-
rately or in combination with iodine or nitrate of barytes (Ba 2NO,), or
with any of the oxy-nitrogen salts, as in the accompanying List B.,
together with any other compound possessing an available oxydising
acidulous radical and base, the following being the lists referred to :-
:

page_text: composition in the same manner as in the blast furnaces, discharging
either into the blast pipe or into the surrounding belt or chamber.
In the accompanying Sheet of Drawings we have shown 5 views to
illustrate the arrangement of the hopper or delivering box to be mounted
upon the blast pipe or on the blast chest; and we have also shown a
glass vessel for holding the liquid and discharging it into the blast pipo
or into the belt surrounding a converting vessel, cupola, or other such
apparatus. This glass vessel is mounted within a frame to protect it,
and it is by preference fitted with a double stop-cock arrangement top
O and bottom, and has been herein-before referred to as a "wet meter" or
vessel, it being intended that it shall be graduated, and discharge tho
contents under regulation.
The hopper is by preference bevilled in manner shown, and a vertical
strip of glass is shown as inserted in the two ends. This enables the
quantity of the contents to bo observed, and the form of the vessel
enables it to act as a funnel or shoot, the double cocks enabling the
quantity of material delivered to be regulated in accordance with the
nature of the charge in the furnace or other vessel.
The capacity of the hopper may in most cases, when applied to blast
furnaces, be that of a 20 stone bag of flour, and of a smaller size when
employed for cupolas and such like vessels.
The liquid meter or glass (or glazed) vessel which is intended to be
mounted upon the blast pipe, as shown in the accompanying Drawing,
may be of a capacity of an imperial gallon.
Figure 1 is a plan view of the hopper and of the portion of the blast
pipe upon which it is mounted, but such hopper may be mounted upon
an air chamber or vessel connected with the blast pipe; Figure 2 is a
plan view of the glass (or glazed) vessel or "liquid meter," likewise
mounted on a portion of the blast pipe; Figure 3 is a side elevation of
Figure 2; Figure 4 is a sectional side elevational view of Figure 1; and
Figure 5 is an end elevation of the hopper B (Figures 1 and 4).
In the several Figures wheresoever the letters of reference are to be
found thereon or on any part thereof, A is the blast pipe; B is the
hopper or vessel for holding the solid (powdered) materials, and for dis-
charging them primarily into the blast pipe, or wind box, or belt, or

page_text: chamber, as the case may be, on the way to the molten or melting
metal; C is the glass (or glazed) vessel or "fluid meter," fitted with a
funnel at the top, with two stop-cocks, and having also two stop-cocks
introduced between it and the blast pipe. There is a bent nose or nozzle
(shown dotted in) introduced into the blast pipe in the direction of the
blast discharge. The details of the several parts are respectively lettered
as will follow:-a is the cover, door, or "man-hole" at top of hopper,
securely fitted air-tight; b, b, are angular webs or ribs for strengthening
and securing the cover of the hopper B; c, c, are the glasses let into the
two ends of the hopper B; d and dare two cocks for regulating the
discharge of the (powdered) composition or chemicals from the hopper
into the blast pipe; their distance apart can be increased (or dimi-
nished), and a hollow spherical vessel may with advantage in some cases
be introduced to hold a larger quantity between the two cocks; more-
over slide shut-off valves may be substituted for cocks. In any case the
handles may be connected together so that their movements can be
alternated. In connection with the glass (or glazed) vessel C the
following letters of reference apply:-e and e¹ are the two cocks inter-
posed between the bottom of the vessel and the blast pipe; fand f¹ are
two similar cocks fitted between the funnel and the vessel; g is the
funnel; h is a graduated scale; i, i, are the top and bottom rings of the
frames of the cage surrounding the glass vessel; j,j, arc the hemi-
spherical portions of the cage.
All oxydizing agents we put through the cupola and blast furnace
only. The ammonia hydrate we put through the Bessemer vessel along
with the calcium hydrate or magneso-calcium hydrate, but at separato
parts of the blast pipe further from the vessel.
The hydrogen of the hydrates is the element by which the decom-
position of the sulphur, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, and copper is
effected. When the hydrate enters cither the blast furnace or the cupola
it becomes decomposed, the calcium combining with the sulphur com-
pounds as present in the melting metal as sulphates, sulphides-sulphates,
The hydrogen combines with the sulphur, forming sulphuretted hydrogen,
which escapes as gas.
Owing to the dryness of the hydrate and the fineness of the powder it
becomes thoroughly diffused through the contents of the cupola and

page_text: This process entirely takes out the whole of the sulphur chemically.
The phosphorus and hydrogen forms phosphoretted hydrogen. The
calcium and magnesia combine with the various forms of phosphorus
present (as phosphides, phosphites, phosphates, &ca.). Copper, arsenic,
and antimony are carried off as hydrides.

page_text: and the various compounds of phosphorus as set free by the calcium
and magnesium, viz., phosphates, phosphides, &c.
When phosphate and sulphate of calcium or barium are once formed
they are not further decomposed, but come out as "slag."
When sodium (or barium nitrate) is used in the blast furnace and
cupola the acidulous side assists in the slight oxydation of the metal,
which is soon again reduced to the metallic state by the hydrogen. The
sodium passes off, and the barium combines with the sulphur and forms
a compound which is not again decomposed, but comes off as "slag."
The sodium assists in separating the silicon, which is fluxed by it.
The hydrate of calcium increases the heat and most probably reduces
the quantity of fuel required for smelting the metal or ore, from the fact
that the hydrate contains one-third by weight of water (H,O), which is
decomposed at the heat within the blast furnace; and while the hydrogen
burns the oxygen supports the combustion.
We do not propose to use or employ as an oxydizing agent in the
Bessemer vessel nitrate of ammonia, soda, potash, &ca., or where the same
would have to be blown through a body of molten metal from, under, or
through a perforated bottom or division plate (but hydrate of calcium
and magnesia may be thus employed). We however apply such oxy-
dising agents in the cupola or blast furnace when running down the ores
or remelting iron in the presence of the fuel contained therein.
Having now described our Invention of improvements in the manu-
facture of iron and steel, and having also described the modes or
methods in which we prefer to put the same into practice, we claim,—
First. The application of hydrogen in combination with available
bases (as will be found in List C.) possessing affinities for sulphur and
phosphorus passed up through molten metal, as in Bessemer vessels,
&c.; or through melting metal, as in cupolas, refinerics, &c; or through
and amongst melting iron ores, as in blast furnaces, &c., and so carrying
off therefrom the sulphur, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, and (or)
copper as hydrides.
Secondly. The use of the base magnesia either added to the hydrate of
calcium or barium or hydrate of calcium prepared from the magnesian

page_text: Thirdly. The use and employment of hydrates introduced through the
blast pipe and with the blast by means of the hopper or box funnel, as
herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Ellinor, for myself and on
behalf of the said Thomas Adams Freeston and John Harrison,
my Co-inventors, have hereunto set my hand and scal, this
Twenty-third day of April 1875.
Witness,
W. H. M. SMITH,
19, Salisbury Street,
Strand,
London.
GEORGE ELLINOR. (L.S.)