IMPROVEMENTS. IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jacob Geogbegan Willans, of Westbourne Grove
Terrace, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS.
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON."
Sealed the 29th December 1863, and dated the 11th August 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 11th August 1863.
I, JACOB GEOGHEGAN WILLANS, of Westbourne Grove Terrace, in the County
of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of iron:
The Invention is applicable when manufacturing iron in blast furnaces from
hematite iron ores; and tho Invention consists in the-employment of the
following minerals as fluxes:-First, minerals containing more than five per
cent. of potash or soda, such as the trachytic porphyry rock at Red Bay, the
light-colored felspathic rock at Templepatrick, or many basaltic rocks in
county Antrim.
Second, the earthy minerals found in proximity to basalt in many places,
such as at the railway cutting in the townland of Ballyhartfield, also at Lyle
Hill, county Antrim, called lithomarge and bole.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 10th February 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JACOB
GEOGHEGAN WILLANS, of Westbourne Grove Terrace, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by IIer Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, Her special licence that I, the said
Jacob Geoghegan Willans, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, my exccutors, 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 THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, my execu-
tors 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 Jacob Geoghegan Willans, 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:-
My Invention consists in applying in blast furnaces smelting hematite ores,
minerals containing 5 per cent. or more of potash or soda, singly or combined,
also certain earthy minerals, such as are found in basaltic districts, known as
lithomarge, bole, and possibly by other names.
Hematite iron ores are generally rich in iron, with little carthy matter, and
that of a siliceous character, and it is customary when smelting them with
coke or coal to apply more lime (in proportion to the earthy matters of the
ore and fuel) than is commonly done in furnaces on other ores, insomuch that
the slag is frequently so bighly charged with lime (especially when making

page_text: No. 1 pig) as to be rapidly destructive to the interior of the furnace. The
minerals containing potash or soda afford also a large quantity of earthy
matter, chiefly silica with some alumina, and melt up readily with lime at the
temperature of the lower part of the blast furnace into a fluid slag or glassy
cinder of less injurious nature than a limy cinder.
The first part of my Invention consists in the use of such minerals as
contain 5 per cent. or more of potash or soda (singly or combined) in blast
furnaces smelting hematite ores, not with the object of adding these alkalies to
the ore or fuel, but for the purpose of fluxing up and absorbing such lime as
is used in excess of the quantity actually needed to flux the earthy matters of
the ores and fuel in the furnace into a flowing cinder, the alkali in the
minerals, rendering them more quickly fusible in and through the lime, will
act as a flux for its rapid absorption into a more abundant slag of improved
quality, and thus diminish its severe action upon the furnace. The addition
of such mineral (in suitable proportions) will also in like manner enable an
increased quantity of lime to be applied, if judged desirable, for the absorption
of sulphur from sulphurous fuel; the proportion I recommend is about three
times the excess of lime (before specified), or twice the weight of excess of lime-
stone, but since ores, fuel, and limestone vary in their composition, different
proportions also being used at times, and as furnace managers are well
acquainted with the appearance of cinder which has lime in greater proportion
than suffices to produce a flowing cinder, the mineral should be cautiously
added until the desired consistence be attained, after being broken so as by
preference not to exceed three inches in diameter, and as well intermixed with
the limestone as conveniently practicable before or at the time of the furnace
being charged in the usual manner. The mineral I prefer is the trachytic
porphyry found at Red Bay, near Cushendall, county of Antrim, Ireland, but
many granitic, syenitic, porphyrytic, trachytic, micaceous, and felspathic rocks
will afford the required earthy matter so compounded with a sufficiency of
alkali as to be readily fusible through the lime or limy cinder.
My Invention consists, secondly, in applying when smelting hæmatite iron
ores in blast furnaces, the earthy minerals such as are found in basaltic
districts, and, amongst other places, in the railway cutting at Ballyhartfield,
between the railway stations of Ballyclare and Templepatrick, also in tho
adjoining townland of Ballymartin, and at Lyle Hill, county Antrim, Ireland.
The mineral existing in the Templepatrick end of said cutting is well known,
and has been repeatedly raised for use as a pigment, also has been sold (to be
mixed with lime for cement purposes) under the name of lithomarge. Like
carthy mineral at other parts of the Ballybartfield cutting, as well as at other

page_text: places has been called ochre, also bole, both terms being frequently applied.
These earthy minerals, met with in the places above mentioned, vary not only
in appearance but also chemically. I therefore wish it to be understood that it
is those earthy minerals only which are of an aluminous nature containing
oxide of iron soft enough to be cut with a knife (unless indurated) and which
generally afford a shining streak when rubbed with the finger nail. I do not
include any
ochreous mineral resulting from a decomposed siliceous basalt
wherein the silica is as much as four times the alumina, nor do I include such
as the brown shales and aluminous iron ore found in Ballymartin. The
above-mentioned aluminous basaltic trap minerals (known as lithomarge, bole,
aluminous ochre, and possibly by other names) may be advantageously used
in the blast furnaces smelting hæmatite ores as an aluminous flux yielding
iron, also for combining with silica or lime or for increase of slag in about the
proportion of th part the weight of the hæmatite ore, adding a little
limestone when found necessary. These fluxes should be broken so as by
preference not to exceed the size of hens' eggs, and as intimately intermixed
as conveniently practicable with the ore before or at the time of the furnace
being charged in the usual manner.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I desire it to be understood that what I claim is,-
First, the application in blast furnaces when smelting hematite iron ores of
minerals containing as much as 5 per cent. of potash or soda, with an excess
of lime, as herein described.
Second, the employment in blast furnaces when smelting bematite iron
ores of the minerals above mentioned, wherein the silex of the mineral is not
four times as great as the alumina.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jacob Geoghegan Willans, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.