AN IMPROVE- MENT IN THE PREPARATION OF IRON AND OTHER METALS FOR VARIOUS PURPOSES, AND ALSO AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONVERTING BRITISH IRON INTO STEEL
Year: 1819

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, STEPHEN
BEDFORD, of Birchall Street, in Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Iron Founder, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-second day of June, in the fifty-ninth year of His reign,
did give and grant unto me, the said Stephen Bedford, His special licence
that I, the said Stephen Bedford, during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within that part of His
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His Dominion of
Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention for "AN IMPROVE-
MENT IN THE PREPARATION OF IRON AND OTHER METALS FOR VARIOUS PURPOSES, AND
ALSO AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONVERTING BRITISH IRON INTO STEEL;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Stephen
Bedford; under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the
nature of the said Invention, and how the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within a certain time
in the said proviso mentioned, and not yet expired, as in and by the said
Letters Patent, refference being thereunto had, will at large appear.
NOW THEREFORE KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said pro-
viso, I, the said Stephen Bedford, do hereby declare that my said Invention
for the improvement and conversion aforesaid is to be performed in the
following manner (that is to say) :-

page_text: In the use and application of vitrified iron, slag, seoria, cinder, or other
denominations of the refuse of iron or iron ore, whereby I convert every kind
of wrought iron into steel; and by the like process I improve the quality or
nature of all and every species of wrought iron in any or whatever shape or
form the same may happen to be, or otherwise can be formed or prepared, and
in preparing the same for various purposes (without fusion), whereby the
strength, toughness, durability, temper, and general quality of each species of
iron and steel will be rendered more appropriate and effective for all and
every the various purposes for which wrought iron or steel of any description is
or can be applied.
And I do hereby farther declare that my said Invention and improvement
in the preparation and quality of other metals is effected by a similar
process to the foregoing (without fusion) by the use and application in
like manner of their respective vitrifications, slags, seorias, cinders, or other
denominations of the refuse produced in the smelting or fusion of each respec-
tive metaltic ore, whereby the metals are severally deprived of their many
deleterious impurities so much complained of, and rendered more tough,
.ductile, and brilliant in colour.
And I do hereby farther declare that my mode or: manner of working each
species of iron and other metals, and in the converting of all kinds of wrought
iron into steel, is to be performed as follows (to wit):-
I make severally, in a converting or air furnace or stove, alternate layers of
each respective metal, with its respective vitrified substance as above described,
and cover the same with the aforesaid refuse in such furnace or stove as afore-
said, and to which I apply heat or fire. And the time requisite for the com-
pletion of the preparation, conversion, and improvement. I vary according to
the nature and quality of the respective metals I have to prepare, convert, and
improve, and which is generally from four to eight days.
In witness whereof, I, the said Stephen Bedford, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Fourteenth day of December, in the sixtieth year
of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third, and in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and nineteen.
STEPHEN (L.s.) BEDFORD.
Signed, sealed, and delivered in the
presence of
W
PIERCE.
JNO LOWE.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of December, in
the year of our Lord. 1819, the aforesaid Stephen Bedford came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Sixteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and nineteen.
Inrolled the Sixteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and nineteen.