IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON
Year: 1855

page_text: ...
LETTERS PATENT to Charles Joseph Hampton, of Llynrivale, in the
Parish of Llangynwyd, and County of Glamorgan, Manager of Iron
Works, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
IRON."
Sealed the 25th January 1856, and dated the 9th November 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Joseph Hampton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th November 1855.
I, CHARLES JOSEPH HAMPTON, of Llynrivale, in the Parish of Llangynwyd,
and County of Glamorgan, Manager of Iron Works, do hereby declare the
nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON "
to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of improvements in the manufacture of iron, by
applying a combination of lime with an alkali or alkaline salt in the puddling
and refining furnaces; for which purpose the alkali or alkaline salt is t
dissolved and the solution mixed with quick lime, and in this state introduced
into the puddling or refining furnace with or without other matters.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Joseph Hampton in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 8th May 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
JOSEPH HAMPTON, of Llynrivale, in the Parish of Llangynwyd, and County of
Glamorgan, Manager of Iron Works, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Charles Joseph Hampton, Her special licence that I, the said Charles
Joseph Hampton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Charles Joseph Hampton, my executors, 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Charles Joseph Hampton, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, 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 I, the said Charles Joseph Hampton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention consists of improvements in the manufacture of iron, by
applying a combination of lime with an alkali or alkaline salt in the puddling
and refining furnaces; for which purpose the alkali or alkaline salt is
dissolved and the solution mixed with quick lime, and in this state introduced
into the puddling or refining furnace with or without other matters.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, I will proceed to describe
the manner of performing the same.
I dissolve a caustic alkali or au alkaline salt in water, and with this solution
1 slack or saturate a certain quantity of quick lime, and I mix the lime so
saturated with the iron in the puddling or the refining furnace. I introduce this

page_text: lime into the furnaces either alone or mixed with other ingredients, such as
ananganese or oxide of iron.
I do not confine my Invention to any definite proportions of the several
ingredients, as those proportions must be regulated by the nature and quality
of the iron operated on, but the proportions which I find most generally
useful are as follows:-1 lbs. of water in which 8 ounces of caustic alkali
(preferring potash) have been dissolved, are used for slacking 3 lbs. of quick
lime, and the lime so combined with the alkali is introduced into the puddling
or the refining furnace (either alone or mixed with other matters, as before
named), and is then mixed with 5 hundredweight of iron, the object being
that the alkali (either caustic or as an alkaline salt) shall flux the impurities
combined with the iron. I would here observe that I do not claim the use
of the alkaline salts nor of lime in purifying iron, as I am well aware that
they have been separately used before.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that what I claim is, the use
of the alkalies and the alkaline salts chemically combined with lime by the
process of slacking, and introduced into the puddling or refining furnace in
that state of combination either with or without other matters.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Joseph Hampton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
CHARLES JOSEPH HAMPTON. (L.B.)
Witness,
R. W. TOLFRee,
of the Llynrivale Iron Works, near Bridgend.