IMPROVEMENTS IN PUDDLING IRON
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Beatson, of Chemical Works, Rotherham,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PUDDLING IRON."
Sealed the 17th March 1857, and dated the 24th September 1856:
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Beatson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th September 1856.
I, WILLIAM BEATSON, of Chemical Works, Rotherham, do hereby declare
the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PUDDLING IRON," to be
as follows:
This Invention consists in puddling iron in a vessel rotating in a horizontal
direction, and heated by means of a furnace, which communicates with the
rotating vessel at one end, and there is a connection with the flue or chimney.
at the other end. The iron to be puddled is introduced into the rotating
vessel through a door, and in place of moving the pieces about when in the
furnace by hand, as is usual in the ordinary method, the vessel is caused to
rotate, and in so doing exposes every portion of the metal to the action of the
flame. The agitation of the metal during the process of puddling may be
increased or entirely produced by causing streams of nitrogen or carbonic acid
gas to pass through it.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Beatson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
24th March 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
BEATSON, of Chemical Works, Rotherham, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Beatson, Her special licence that I, the said William Beatson, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Beatson, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN PUDDLING
IRON," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William
Beatson, 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 Invention, 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 William Beatson, 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 in puddling iron in a vessel rotating on a horizontal
axis, and heated by means of a furnace, which communicates with the rotating
vessel at one end, and there is a connection with the flue or chimney at the
other end. The iron to be puddled is introduced into the rotating vessel
through a door, and in place of moving the pieces about when in the furnace
by hand, as is usual in the ordinary method, the vessel is caused to rotate, and
in so doing exposes every portion of the metal to the action of the flame. The
agitation of the metal during the process of puddling may be increased or
entirely produced by causing streams of nitrogen or carbonic acid gas to pass
through it.
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and

page_text: Figure 1 is a longitudinal section, and Figure 2 is a cross section, of a
revolving furnace C, which is to contain the melted iron, and which I prefer
to make of wrought-iron plates and of a cylindrical form, although I do not
confine myself thereto, as a furnace having a square, or octagonal, or other
section may be employed. The cylinder C is lined with fire bricks or other
suitable material. The furnace or cylinder C is furnished with two ribs R, R,
which rest upon four flanged wheels W, which wheels are fixed upon two shafts
T, driven by means of cog wheels G on the shaft S, and the apparatus is
arranged as to cause the cylinder C to revolve at various speeds, as may be
required; or, if preferred, a circle of cogs may be fixed upon the outside of the
cylinder, and a rotative motion imparted to it by a pinion and shaft connected
with any motive power. The fire-place A communicates with the cylinder C
by means of the flue B, so connected as to allow free circular motion to the
cylinder, and yet prevent or nearly prevent the admission of cold air. If pre-
ferred, the fire-place may be made to revolve along with the cylinder, by the
plan shewn in Figure 3, in which the grate bars are fixed in a vertical plane
at the end, and the air then passes through the fire in the direction of the
arrow, the fuel being prevented from falling into the cylinder C by projecting
fire bridges. The heating effect required may also produced by the com-
bustion of gases or waste gases from blast or other furnaces, as is well under-
stood, but for the use of which I make no clain, except in connection with
the revolving furnace or cylinder employed as now described. I introduce the
charge and also remove the puddled balls through the door D at the end of
the cylinder, or through a door in the side, if more convenient, and the flue F
conveys away the products of combustion to the chimney, or to be applied
to any other useful heating effect. II, HI, are holes left through the lining of
the furnace, for running off the slag when required, or for the purpose hereafter
mentioned.
I will now describe the manner in which the process is conducted. The
cylinder C being well heated up by the flame from the fire-place A, has a
charge of cast iron introduced into it, either in pigs or lumps, or in a melted
state, from a blast or other furnace, and rotary motion is given to the cylinder.
The melted cast iron is thus agitated, and every part of it exposed to the
action of the fire, the flame from which can be made more or less oxidizing by
increasing or diminishing the draft by means of dampers, the fire being kept

page_text: up in about the same degree as is usual with puddling furnaces. In a short
time the melted metal enters in what is called the "boil," when it rises in the
furnace, giving off a quantity of slag, part of which may be suffered to flow
away by the door D. The metal soon passes from a fluid into a stiff and pasty
consistence, and afterwards begins to ball together into lumps. At this stage,
by fixing several strong iron bars through the holes H, I, and which revolving
with the furnace cut through the semi-fluid mass, it becomes divided into a
number of balls or lumps; or I continue the motion of cylinder, but at a
reduced speed, until the whole of the iron is collected into a number of balls,
which are then removed from the cylinder by the door D, and if too large are
cut into smaller pieces by means of large shears. These balls are then sub-
mitted to any of the usual methods for squeezing and rolling into bars, in the
same way as balls from ordinary puddling furnaces.
To carry out the second part of my Invention, I produce an agitation in
the melted cast iron submitted to the puddling process, as now described, or in
the ordinary puddling process, by introducing below the surface of the melted
metal streams of nitrogen or carbonic acid gas, methods of doing which are
well understood, and need not be further described.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I would have it understood that I do not confine myself to
the exact details described; but what I claim is, the puddling iron, that is to
say, reducing it from the state known as pig or refinery iron to that known as
puddle ball in a rotating furnace heated by a separate fire, as herein described.
I also claim the agitating iron while it is being subjected to the puddling
process, by blowing into and amongst it streams of nitrogen or carbonic
acid gas.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Beatson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
WILLIAM HENRY TWIGG,
of Rotherham.
WILLIAM BEATSON. (LS.)