IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANGANESE AND ALLOYS OF MANGANESE
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Josiah Mason and Alexander
Parkes at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 10th October 1870.
We, JOSIAH MASON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Manufacturer, and ALEXANDER PARKES, of Erdington, in the County
of Warwick, Metallurgist, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANGANESE AND ALLOYS
OF MANGANESE," to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists of the improvements herein-after described
in manufacturing manganese and alloys of manganese, the said Invention
being especially applicable to the manufacture of alloys of manganese
with iron, but being also applicable to the manufacture of alloys of
manganese with other metals, such, for example, as copper and nickel.
In manufacturing manganese we take the oxide, chloride, or other
compound from which the manganese is to be reduced, and we mix
therewith carbon or carbonaceous matter, such as coal dust or plumbago.
Both the manganese compound and the carbonaceous matter are employed
in a state of fine division and are intimately mixed together, a large
excess of the carbonaceous matter above that required for the reduction

page_text: of the manganese being employed, the object of this excess being the
prevention of the caking or fusing together of the materials while under
the reducing process. The mixture of manganese compound and
carbonaceous matter is placed in a furnace or vessel or iron, clay, or
plumbago, or other material suited to be employed in the reduction
of metals. Heat is applied to the mixture, atmospheric air being
carefully excluded. We employ a clear red heat, and continue its
application from five to twenty hours or longer. By the prolonged
application of this low cementing heat, the reduction of metallic
manganese from the manganese compound is effected. After the mixture
has cooled the metallic manganese is found in grains mixed with the
unoxidized carbon. By washing or sieving the carbon may be separated
from the manganese. It is important so to regulate the temperature
that fusion of the metallic grains into a mass will not take place, as by
this means a much larger per-centage of manganese is obtained.
In manufacturing alloys of manganese we add to the mixture of
manganese compound and carbon an ore or compound of the metal
to be alloyed with the manganese, and treat the mixture in the manner
before described.
In manufacturing a compound or alloy of manganese and iron, such
as is employed in the manufacture of steel, we mix with the manganese
compound and carbon either oxide or carbonate, or other compound of
iron capable of being reduced by carbon, especially preferring such iron.
compounds as are free from sulphur and arsenic. By prolonged exposure
of the mixture to the low cementing heat described an alloy of
manganese and iron containing also carbon is obtained. Where the
manganese or alloy of manganese is required in the form of a compact
mass, instead of in a granular or spongy state, we proceed in the way
herein-before described, until the low cementing heat has been applied
sufficiently long to effect the reduction of the manganese or alloy in
granular or spongy state; we then raise the heat sufficiently to fusc
the manganese or alloy into a compact mass.