IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON
Year: 1859

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Edward Newton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th
April 1859. A communication from. abroad by William Kelly, of Pitts-
burgh, in the United States of America.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON," to
be as follows:-
This Invention of improvements in the manufacture of iron consists in
certain improved methods of refining and treating iron in the hearths of blast
furnaces.
Prior to the introduction of hot blast, the process of refining iron in the
hearths of blast furnaces was in use in Europe and the United States; the
arrangement of the hearth and position of the smelting tuyers admitting of
throwing the blast on the surface of the iron, so that the oxygen contained in
the air came in contact with the carbon contained in the iron, and by the
strong affinity existing between those chemical ingredients the temperature of
the iron was raised to a refining heat by the union of carbon and oxygen.
Modern improvements introduced in the construction of blast furnaces and
their hearths, together with high tuyers, renders the above process impracticable,
wing to the difficulty of getting the blast from the smelting tuyers to reach
mass of liquid iron deposited below, the great amount and depth of liquid

page_text: cinder lying between the iron and tuyers prevents the blast from coming in
contact with the iron.
To remedy this difficulty one plan consists in placing a series of tuyers
under the smelting tuyers, near the bottom of the hearth, below the surface
of the iron so that the blast would be delivered into the liquid mass of iron;
this device has been found entirely impracticable owing to the destructive
influence of the intense heat on both the tuyer and hearth generated at the
point of the tuyer. To overcome this difficulty, it is proposed to introduce
the blast more in the centre of the hearth, at a point removed from its side
walls, and the refining pipe is so arranged that the point (which is usually
injured) can be renewed at every heat. One jet or current of blast is all that
is needed to refine the iron in the hearth of the furnace, provided it has enough
volume and strength to penetrate and distribute itself through the entire
mass of liquid iron in the hearth of the blast furnace.
In carrying out the Invention a blast pipe composed of two parts is em-
ployed, and is adapted to a blast chamber, which is fixed on some convenient
part of the furnace, while the pipe itself, which is inserted at about an angle
of 90°, is capable of being removed by means of a suitable tool, a hook or
other contrivance being adapted to the blast pipe for the purpose. The blast
chamber is in communication with the blowing engine, and is provided with a
hinged cover, which may be removed when it is required to take out the pipe
which throws the blast on to or into the molten metal.
. The peculiar features of novelty in the present Invention are, the con-
bination of the blast chamber and pipe with what is called the dust plate, and
also delivering a blast of air into the liquid iron in the hearth of the blast
furnace by a tuyer or blow pipe introduced into the front part of the hearth,
between the dam and the tymp; the said tuyer or blow pipe being pushed
down at an angle of about 90 degrees into the blast chamber, through the
dust plate, clay crust, and the fluid cinder, down to near the bottom of the
liquid iron in the hearth.