A NEW METHOD OF MAKING ALL KINDS OF FUSED OR CAST IRON, AS ALSO SCULL OR CINDER IRON, MALLEABLE, WITH RAW PITT COAL, WITHOUT CHARCOAL AND WITHOUT BLAST OF BELLOWS, IN AN AIR FURNACE
Year: 1763

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM HESE RESENTS SHALL ME, we, JOHN
Wood, of Wednesbury, in the County of Stafford, Iron Master, and CHARLES
Wood, of Lowe Mill, near Whitehaven, in the County of Cumberland, Iron
Master, send greeting.
WHEREAS we, the said John Wood and Charles Wood, did, by petition
to is present Majesty, humbly shew that the said John Wood had obtained
His said Majesty's Royal Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of
February, in the first year of Ilis said Majesty's reign, for the sole use and
benefit of his Invention for making malleable iron from pig or sow metal,
commonly called cast iron, with raw pitt coal without charcoal, with blast of
bellows, in a finery and in an air furnace, by a method then intirely new, and
that the Specification of which Invention had been inrolled according to the
terms of the said Letters Patent; that since the obtaining the said Letters
Patent, we, the said John Wood and Charles Wood, had found out "A NEW
METHOD OF MAKING ALL KINDS OF FUSED OR CAST IRON, AS ALSO SCULL OR CINDER
IRON, MALLEABLE, WITH RAW PITT COAL, WITHOUT CHARCOAL AND WITHOUT BLAST
OF BELLOWS, IN AN AIR FURNACE," different from the Invention mentioned in
the Specification so inrolled as aforesaid; and therefore, as well as for other
reasons contained in our said petition, did pray is said Majesty to grant
unto us, our executors, administrators, and assigns. His Royal Letters Patent
for the sole use and benefit of our said Invention, within that part of Great
Britain called England, Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
and also within Ilis Majesty's Plantations and Colonies abroad, for the term of

page_text: fourteen years; to the prayer of which petition, Ilis said Majesty was most
graciously pleased to condescend, and Letters Patent agreeable thereto have
accordingly passed the Great Seal.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said John Wood and Charles Wood, in
complyance with and performance of a proviso or condition contained in the
said Letters Patent, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of our said
Invention for making all kinds of fused or cast iron, as also scull or cinder iron,
malleable, with raw pitt coal, without charcoal and without blast of bellows, in
an air furnace, which is done by the following process, (that is to say,) by such
parts of the process as are contained in the said Specification so inrolled as
aforesaid as are necessary to be used in this new Invention, in like manner as
the same are therein described.
And as to the further or other process of this new Invention, the same
is done and performed by the following manner (that is to say):-Our
general method of converting all kinds of fused or cast iron and scull or
cinder iron into a malleable state consists in heating and working the same
in air furnaces with fires of raw crude pitt coal, and in preserving the iron
while exposed to this fire from the pernicious fumes of the coal by closing it
up in fit vessels, moulds, or covers, for the sole use of which method, by us
invented, His Majesty has been graciously pleased to grant us His Letters
Patent for the term and on the conditions therein mentioned. In this method
of making iron malleable several operations are required, some of which are
varied, either according to the nature of the cast or scull iron used, or else
according to the uses to which the iron, when made malleable, is intended to
be applied. First, therefore, the iron, by several preparatory operations is fitted
for flourishing or bringing nearly to a malleable state. Secondly, the iron
being thus prepared, is put into close vessels with proper fluxes and other
additions, and then undergoes the operation of flourishing in an air furnace,
which operation is sometimes repeated, in order to bring the iron into a
sufficiently malleable state. Thirdly, the flourished iron then undergoes the
operation of chaffing, which is performed by breaking it, putting it again in
close vessels, and heating it duely in an air furnace (after the manner that will
be hereafter niore particularly related), in order to render it perfectly malleable,
and fit to be beaten under the hammer, first into half blooms, and afterwards
into barrs, plates, and other forms, according to the will of the artist. In the
first operations, we take pig or sow iron, or any other kind of fused or cast
iron, of what shape or form soever; this iron we reduce into grains or small
pieces, either by granulation, as described in the said Specification so inrolled
as aforesaid, or else by pounding or breaking, for which last-mentioned purpose

page_text: we have erected heavy stampers, worked by a wheel which is turned by water
or horses, and first applied by us to this use. The scull or cinder iron (which
is that part of pig or other cast iron that remains unmelted when the said iron
is a second time run or fused in an air furnace) we break or reduce into small
pieces in like manner. The iron thus granulated or broke, if of a red short
quality, we sprinkle or moisten with a strong lee of kelp; when thus broke or
prepared, we put it next into pots, moulds, or covers, made of clay, or other ma-
terials proper to resist the fire, as more fully described in the said Specification
inrolled as aforesaid, either using the scull iron or cast iron alone, or mixing them
together in various proportions, according to their several qualities, constantly
mixing with them in the said pots, moulds, or covers a fit proportion of some
of the fluxes and other additions hereafter mentioned, viz., iron slag or cinder,
the scales or scoria of iron, sand, lime, kelp, soapers' waste, all which we mix
with the cast and scull iron, either singly, or mixed together in various propor-
tions, according to the nature of the iron used and of the malleable iron required
to be made of it. The iron being thus put into the potts, moulds, or covers, with
the fluxes and additions aforesaid, and covered over the top with clay or iron
cinder, is then fit and prepared for the operation of flourishing, which said
operation is performed by placing the pots, moulds, or covers (thus filled and
covered) in an air furnace, and heating them therein with a strong fire made of
raw pitt or fosil coal until the impurities contained in the iron, and the fluxes and
other additions that were mixed therewith, are all fused and reduced together
into a cinder or slag, and then the iron, with the pots or covers, is taken out of
the furnace. By this first operation the iron is most commonly sufficiently
flourished, and (as the artists term it) brought into nature; but sometimes the
iron is so sulphureous, impure, and refractory, that it cannot be sufficiently
refined and flourished by this first operation; in which case, we break it under
the stampers, moisten it with the lee of kelp, and mix it in potts, moulds, or
covers with proper fluxes and additions, as before related, and flourish it a
second time in an air furnace, after the manner before described; and this
operation we are obliged to repeat even a third time, when the iron is very red,
short, and refractory. The iron being thus duly flourished and brought nearly
to a malleable state, we again break under the stampers, and then it is fit for
our third operation of chaffing, which is performed by filling the said potts,
moulds, or covers with the said flourished metal, covering them with clay and
heating them duly in an air furnace with fires of raw pitt coal, until the iron is
sufficiently softened and united together into one mass, and become perfectly
tough and malleable, in which state it is taken out of the furnace and wrought
under the hammer into half blooms. With the flourished iron, prepared as

page_text: aforesaid, we sometimes mix some of the purest scull or cinder iron, as also
small pieces of old iron, called scraps, which we work up all together (by the
above operation of chaffing) into half blooms. And we, the said John Wood
and Charles Wood, do hereby averr and declare, that the above is a true, full,
and perfect description of our said Invention, which we are fully persuaded
will be of great benefit to the publick.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Wood and Charles Wood, have
hereunto set our hands and seals, the Twenty-sixth day of November,
in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and sixty-three.
Sealed and delivered (being first duly stampt),
by the within-named John Wood and Charles
Wood, in the presence of us,
PAUL TAYLOR,
Master of the Rolls Coffee House.
WILL. CRAWLEY,
of York Buildings, Gentl.
AND BE IT REMEMBRED, that on the same Twenty-sixth day of
November, in the year last mentioned, the aforesaid John Wood and Charles
Wood came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged
the above Specification, and all and every thing therein contained, in form
above written. And also the Instrument of Specification was stampt according
to the tenor of the Statute made in the sixth year of the reign of the late
King and Queen William and Mary of England, & so forth.
Inrolled the Twenty-eighth day of November, in the year abovesaid.