IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL
Year: 1850

page_text: MIETED
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EWALD
RIEPE, of Finsbury Square, in the County of Middlesex, Merchant, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-ninth day of
January (One thousand eight hundred and fifty) in the thirteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Ewald Riepe, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, Her especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Ewald Riepe, my
exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Ewald Riepe, my
exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF STEEL," communicated to me from abroad; in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said Ewald Riepe, should
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso I, the said
Ewald Riepe, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being being
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say :-
These improvements consist, firstly, in a peculiar manner of working in the
puddling furnace.
Secondly, in converting pig iron or alloys of pig iron and wrought iron into
steel, with the co-operation of clay in the furnace.
Thirdly, in or by the co-operation of atmospheric air.
Firstly, I employ the puddling furnace in the same way as for making
wrought iron. I introduce a charge of about two hundred and eighty pound
of pig iron, and raise the temperature to redness. As soon as the metal begins
to fuse and trickle down in a fluid state, the damper is to be partially closed
in order to temper the heat. From twelve to sixteen shovelfulls of iron
cinder discharged from the rolls or squeezing machine are added, and the
whole is to be uniformly melted down. The mass is then puddled, with the
addition of a little black oxide of manganese, common salt, and dry clay,
previously ground together. After this mixture has acted for some minutes
the damper is to be fully opened, when about forty pounds of pig iron are to
be put into the furnace near the fire bridge, upon elevated beds of cinder
prepared for that purpose. When this pig iron begins to trickle down, and
the mass on the bottom of the furnace begins to boil and throw out from the
surface the well known blue jets of flame, the said pig iron is raked into the
boiling mass, and the whole is then well mixed together. The mass soon
swells up, and small grains begin to form in it and break through the melted
cinder on the surface. As soon as these grains appear, the damper is to be
three-quarters shut, and the process closely inspected while the mass is being
puddled to and fro beneath the covering layer of cinder. During the whole of
this process the heat should not be raised above cherry redness, or the welding
heat of shear steel. The blue jets of flame gradually disappear whilo the
formation of grains continues, which grains very soon begin to fuse together,
so that the mass becomes waxy, and has the above-mentioned cherry redness.
If these precautions are not observed, the mass would pass more or less into
iron, and no uniform steel product could be obtained. As soon as the mass is
finished so far, the fire is stirred to keep the necessary heat for the succeeding
operation, the damper is to be entirely shut, and part of the mass is collected
into a ball, the remainder always being kept covered with cinder slacks. This
ball is brought under the hammer and then worked into bars. The same
process is continued until the whole is worked into bars. When I use pig

page_text: iron made from sparry iron ore, or mixtures of it with other pig iron, I add
only about twenty pounds of the former pig iron at the later period of the
process instead of about forty pounds. When I employ refined Welch or pig
iron of that description, I throw ten pounds of best plastic clay in a dry granu-
lated state, before the beginning of the process, on the bottom of the furnace;
I add at the later period of the process about forty pounds of the pig iron,
as before described, but strew over it clay in the same proportion as just
mentioned.
I do not claim the commencement of the above-described process for
making steel in the puddling furnace; but what I claim is the regulating the
heat in the finishing process, and excluding the atmospheric air from the mass,
in the manner as described, and also the use or addition of iron to the mass
towards the later part of the process.
Secondly, for the execution of this part of the Invention, I cast pig iron or
alloys of pig iron and wrought iron into thin bars, from about one quarter to
three-quarters of an inch in thickness, as the 'Drawings, Figure 5 a and
Figure 6 6, show. They are provided with notches for the easier breaking
them afterwards. I employ as the most convenient an alloy of seventy-five
parts of pig iron and twenty-five parts of wrought iron. These bars are
carefully enveloped into kneadable damp clay of the best plastic quality, and
are then put with great care into a furnace, as shown in Drawing, Figure 1 to
Figure 4. When the furnace is filled and prepared, the fire is lighted and
slowly increased to a red heat, which must not be exceeded, and is continued,
according to the size of the bars, from twenty-four hours to three days, and
even longer, until samples drawn show the required conversion into steel.
The furnace is then cooled, the bars are taken out, the cinder slacks are
knocked off, and the bars worked or tilted in the usual way into bars of the
requisite size.
Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of the furnace in the line A, B, Figure 2;
Figure 2, the top view with the interior of the furnace in the section of the
line E, F, Figure 1; Figure 3, the top view of the furnace; Figure 4, the
cross section in the line C, D, Figure 2, of double size, to show the arrange-
ments of the bars in the furnace; Figure 5, view and cross section of the
transverse bars in the furnace; Figure 6, view and cross section of the bars
lengthwise in the furnace. c are the openings resulting from the position of
the bars a and b, lying cross and lengthwise in the furnace, as Figure 4 shows,
and through which the draft and the flames of the furnace 9 pass, in order to
diffuse the heat equally over the whole; h is the flue leading to the chimney;
d is the door, through which the bars are put into the furnace, and which is to

page_text: be bricked up by fire-proof bricks as soon as the bars are put in; but a small
opening, which is to be shut during the operation and which can be opened at
convenience, is left open in the brickwork for drawing samples; e are cast-iron
plates for binding the brickwork of the furnace together, and which are
connected firmly by the wrought-iron bars f.
I do not confine myself to the particular form of the furnace, nor to the
proportions in the alloys employed; but what I claim is, the converting of
pig iron or alloys of pig iron and wrought iron into steel by exposing them to
the action of clay at a proper temperature.
Thirdly, for the execution of this part of the Invention, I cast pig iron or
alloys of pig iron and wrought iron in the same way into bars, as described in
the second part of the Invention, and then put them into a cylinder of
fire-proof stones or other materials, in such a manner as to allow a stream of
atmospheric air to pass through and to touch freely all the bars. Both end
openings of the cylinder are then to be bricked up by fire-proof materials.
A small opening must remain in one of them, in the manner as described in
the second part of the Invention, for drawing samples. In the brickwork at
one end of the cylinder is introduced a bent pipe k, which leads downwards,
as shown in Figure 7 and Figure 8. At the other end of the cylinder
another bent pipe is introduced, which leads upwards, as the same Drawing
show. The latter bent pipe contains a slide valve for regulating the draft.
The fire is then slowly increased to redness, and then the slide in the pipe / is
opened, by which a stream of atmospheric air is carried over the bars in the
cylinder. This heat is continued until samples drawn show the bars to be
converted in steel.
The atmospheric air produces hammer slack on the surface of the bars,
which adheres very close to them, and acts much more decarbonizing than the
hitherto known method of annealing with oxidizing substances, as oxide of
iron, manganese, &c. When the samples drawn show the process to be
finished, the furnace is cooled, the bars taken out, the slack knocked off, and
formed in the usual way into bars of the requisite size.
I do not confine myself to the particular construction of furnace, nor to the
annealing by oxidating substances; but what I claim is, the particular way of
annealing by means of atmospheric air, which is carried over bars of cast iron,
or alloys of pig iron and wrought iron at a red heat.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ewald Riepe, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty.
EWALD (L.S.) RIEPE.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-third day of July, in
the year of our Lord 1850, the aforesaid Ewald Riepe came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her 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 stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-third day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty.