IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Player, of Philadelphia, in the State of
Pennsylvania, and the United States of America, Consulting
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF IRON AND STEEL."
Sealed the 3rd December 1869, and dated the 16th October 1869.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said John Player at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and Declaration,
on the 16th October 1869, pursuant to the 9th Section of the Patent
Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
PLAYER, of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, and the United
States of America, Consulting Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL," and have petitioned Her Majesty
to grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, Her Royal

page_text: Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn Declaration that I
am the true and first Inventor thereof.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Player, do hereby declare
that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and seal,
fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawing forming a
part of this Specification.
This Invention relates to an improved process of treating or preparing
crude cast iron in a fluid state so that while it is being subjected to the
manipulations of the puddling or other process designed to improve its
character or to convert it to steel or wrought iron it can be much more
readily and efficiently combined or mixed with the oxygen, oxides, or
other purifying agents or ingredients which may be desired to be applied
to it than has hitherto been practicable, and so that in these manipula-
tions fuel and labor can be greatly economized and a more satisfactory
product than has heretofore been known can be obtained.
It is well known that the essential difference between cast iron, for
example, as it comes from the hearth of the blast furnace and steel and
malleable or wrought iron consists in the presence in the former of an
excess of carbon and of many impurities, some of which are unavoidably
imparted to the iron from the fuel used in the smelting. The most
important and troublesome of these impurities are sulphur, phosphorus,
and silica, and the leading object of all the manipulations which iron
after it leaves the blast furnace undergoes as a preparation for its being
rolled or hammered for the market, either as steel or wrought iron, is to
free it from the superabundant carbon and the impurities referred to.
The process usually adopted for this purpose is, in the first instance,
that known as "puddling," or its equivalent, which consists substantially
in exposing the cast iron for a certain period in a melted state and under
constant stirring to the oxygen of ordinary atmospheric air, the effect of
which is to remove the carbon and impurities in a more or less perfect
degree. But notwithstanding the innumerable efforts made by iron
masters to improve this process it still remains extremely defective,
involving much loss of metal, a great waste of fuel and of labor, and an
imperfect separation of the sulphur and phosphorus. This results
mainly from the imperfect mingling which by any practice heretofore

page_text: adopted has been obtained between the fluid iron operated on in the
puddling or other equivalent furnace and the purifying elements and
ingredients applied to it therein to convert it into "puddled steel" or
malleable iron.
The object of the present improvements is to so treat or prepare the
cast iron as a preliminary to its being subjected to the puddling or other
process that a much more perfect intermingling of the fluid iron and the
oxygen, oxides, or other purifying agents or ingredients which it may be
desired to apply to it may be obtained, and by accomplishing this I am
enabled to greatly economize labor and fuel and to produce a more
satisfactory wrought iron, puddled steel, or cast steel than has hitherto
been practicable. The method or process by which I effect this consists
in first dividing the cast iron in the condition in which it is left by the
smelting operation into small pieces, flakes, grains, or powder by
mechanical means, and then mixing it in a solid state, and in this
minutely divided condition with the oxides or other ingredients or
agents designed to improve or purify it, or to aid in its conversion into
steel or malleable iron while such oxides or ingredients or agents are
also in a solid state, and afterwards subjecting it to the puddling process
or other manipulation intended to free it from its excess of carbon
and from its impurities, so that in such manipulation the requisite
mixture of the iron and purifying agents may be secured in the highest
practicable degree.
Various modes of performing the subdivision of the cast iron may be
adopted. One method which may be successfully employed is to run
the iron in a melted state, either direct from the blast furnace hearth or
after it has been melted in any suitable melting furnace between
revolving rollers or cylinders, or between a roller and a flat surface, or
between two moving surfaces of cast iron or other suitable hard
substance, whereby the fluid iron will by contact therewith become solid,
and at the same instant be pressed, rubbed, broken, or ground into the
requisite finely divided, granulated, or powdered condition suitable for
the subsequent stages of my process.
In this condition, and while thus
solid, I mix with it the oxides or other ingredients or agents designed to
improve or purify it, or to aid in its conversion into steel or malleable
iron, such oxides, ingredients, or agents being also in a solid state, and
may then be subjected to the ordinary or any other process of making
it

page_text: puddled steel, or to any desired treatment adapted to improve its
character, or to manufacture it into balls, blooms, slabs, or cast steel.
It will be obvious without demonstration, that as the conversion of
crude iron into steel or malleable iron is mainly a chemical operation,
the process must necessarily be most quickly and perfectly performed
when the material is in a condition to be most thoroughly penetrated in
every part of its mass by the purifying oxygen and other chemical
reagents applied to it. This result my Invention is adapted to secure in
a highly successful degree, with the saving of a large part of the costly
and tedious manual labor required in ordinary puddling, and in these
important advantages lies its practical value.
In the accompanying Drawing A, A, are two rolls of cast iron or other
suitable material, preferably hollow, and supported on strong iron frames
or standards B, B, in the usual manner in which rollers are mounted
for crushing minerals and other substances; these rolls are preferably
grooved into each other, as represented, and one is preferably of larger
diameter than the other. C, C, are stout cog wheels or pinions, each of
the same diameter and geared to work together, so that the axes of the
rolls will rotate at the same speed, while their peripheries, because of
different diameters, will rotate at different speeds, and thereby cause not
only a crushing but also a rubbing and grinding action upon anything
passed between them; D, D, are levers which are so attached to the
carriage or bearings of one of the rolls that suitable weights W, W, or
their equivalent, will constantly tend to press the rolls together, but
should anything clog the latter will permit them to open sufficiently to
allow its passage without breaking the machinery. After these rolls
have been put in motion the fluid cast iron is poured preferably in a
small stream between them, the rolls being kept constantly cool by
water circulating inside of them, or by any other convenient means, in
order to prevent their being injured by the heat of the fluid iron.
If preferred any ingredients or agents which may be desired to be
intimately mixed with the crude iron, either to aid in purifying or
improving it, or to prevent it from clogging or attaching itself to the
rolls, or for any other purpose, may be caused to pass between the rolls
with the stream of fluid material which is to be treated.
When desired also the minutely divided iron in a solid state and the
oxides or other ingredients or agents in a solid state may be mixed

page_text: together in the puddling or other furnace before any portion or any
considerable portion of them is melted.
I do not confine myself to any particular apparatus or means for
effecting the minute division of the fluid cast iron between moving and
crushing surfaces; but what I claim is,―
First. As a preparatory step in the conversion of crude iron into steel
or malleable iron, mechanically dividing cast iron into pieces, flakes,
grains, or powder by running it in a fluid state, either alone or mixed
with other substances, between rollers or other suitable moving and
crushing surfaces, substantially as and for the purposes described.
Second. The process of converting crude iron into steel or malleable
iron by subjecting to the puddling process or any other suitable treat-
ment iron which has first been reduced in the manner above described
from a melted state, either alone or together with other substances, to
pieces, flakes, grains, or powder, and then mixed in this solid state with
oxides or other ingredients or agents, also in a solid state, either before
being placed in the puddling or other furnace or in such furnace before
any considerable portion of them are melted, substantially as and for the
purposes set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Player, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Second day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
Witnesses,
JAMES HENDERSON.
EDWIN SHEPARD.
JOHN PLAYER. (L.S.)