IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN.
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Russell Crampton, of 4, Victoria Street,
•
in the City of Westminster, for the Invention of “ IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED
THEREIN.
"
Sealed the 30th November 1875, and dated the 18th September 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Russell
Orampton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 18th September 1875.
I, THOMAS RUSSELL CRAMPTON, of 4, Victoria Street, in the City of
Westminster, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL AND IN APPARATUS
EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the means and
apparatus for the production of metal direct from iron ore.
Various means have been proposed and resorted to for the direct
manufacture of malleable iron from iron ore, and to a certain extent

page_text: this is accomplished in the course of ordinary or rotary puddling where
the furnace is fettled with iron ore-or-oxide-of iron and the fettling is
reduced so as materially-to-increase the weight of the charge.
According to my present Invention-I-employ a combination of
machinery consisting of a rotary roaster-and-a-rotary-reducing furnace
or furnaces, and with other apparatus as follows:-The reducing
furnaces (I prefer to work two with each roaster) are similar to my now
well known revolving puddling furnaces, they are heated by means of
powdered or finely divided fuel thrown in by an air blast, or they may
be otherwise heated; but I prefer to use powdered fuel. These reducing
furnaces receive crushed ore from the rotary roaster or calciner, together
with sufficient carbon or coal and necessary fluxes to reduce the ore.
The furnaces and their ends are cooled by the circulation of water to
maintain the joints between the moving and stationary parts sufficiently
tight to retain the powdered material or liquid cinder, and to enable me
to work with heavy charges of ore. The roaster is a rotating cylinder
lined with suitable refractory material communicating with stationary
end chambers, and these are water jacketed in order to admit of close
joints being maintained; to retain the powdered ore the apparatus will
also by this means be maintained in its proper cylindrical form, thereby
reducing to a minimum the wear and tear and the power required to
revolve it. The powdered ore is fed into the roaster through a shoot at
one end, and it is delivered at the other end into an end chamber or ore
receiver or receivers; the highly heated powdered ore is there stored
until it is required for charging the reducing furnace, when it is drawn
-down.or.conveyed from the receiver into the reducing furnace. The ore
in passing into the reducing chamber may be mixed with-the-coal-or
carbon required for its reduction, the coal or carbon being allowed to
descend from a hopper and to meet the stream of hot oro within the
mouth of the reducing furnace.
When the reduction is complete the liquid cinder formed is tapped off
and the malleable metal is treated in a similar manner to puddle balls
which are removed from the furnace and consolidated by hammering or
squeezing, after which they may be dealt with in the ordinary way; or
if liquid metal is required it may be treated by any known means for
producing cast steel or cast iron. Puddled steel may also be produced
in the furnace.¯
-
:

page_text: In some cases the ore may be partially reduced in the calciner or
roaster and ore receiver previously to entering the reducing furnace.
The heated products of combustion from the reducing furnaces pass
into the upper part of the ore receiver and thence through the roaster,
the ore in which in this way is maintained at a considerable temperature
until required for the reducing furnace. From the roaster the products
of combustion pass around a steam boiler, the steam produced being
utilized in working the machinery, and thence through flues which heat
a drying floor on which the ore and fuel may be dried.
Pipes or other passages may be so placed in the apparatus that air
passing through them may be heated and used for the purpose of com-
bustion or otherwise utilized.
Provision may also be made for introducing additional fuel at other
points of the apparatus in addition to introducing it into the reducing
furnaces.
The boiler flues and the flues beneath the drying floor are of large
area, and so arranged that the dust carried over by the draft will here
subside, and convenient openings are provided by which it can be
removed. Thus it will be observed that the heated products of com-
bustion generated in the reducing furnace where the highest temperature
is required pass next into the roaster, where a lower but still high
temperature will effect the purpose, thence to a boiler, and lastly to a
drying chamber for which still lower temperatures will suffice, at the
same heating air if desired.
.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in
the thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Russell Crampton,
Her special license that I, the said Thomas-Russell-Crampton, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Thomas Russell Crampton, 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 THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON
AND STEEL AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN,'
upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Russell Crampton; my exe-
cutors 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 Thomas Russell Crampton, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to bo performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:
-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the means and in
"the apparatus for the production of metal direct from the ore and-for-
similar purposes.
.
The improvements relating to the apparatus employed are in part
based upon those described in the Specification of former Letters Patent
granted to me, and dated Twelfth November, One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-three, No. 3687, and the process of production is
similar to that described in the Specification of a Patent granted
William Neale Clay, in the year One thousand eight hundred and
thirty-seven. No. 7518.
For the direct conversion. of iron ore or oxides of iron into wrought

page_text: and balling furnaces in connection with a stationary chamber or ore'
reservoir and flues, so arranged as to utilize in successive stages the
whole or nearly the whole of the heat produced in the first instance in
the reducing and balling furnaces.
The Drawings hereunto annexed show various views of apparatus
combined and arranged according to my Invention.
Figure 1 shows a front elevation partly in section of the apparatus ;
Figure 2 shows a side view; Figure 3, a plan view; and Figure 4, a
longitudinal section of the same.
A, A, are two rotary reducing and balling furnaces; B, B, are
moveable flues at the front end of the furnaces; C is a stationary ore
reservoir; C' are fixed flues leading into the upper part of the ore
reservoir C, the heated gasses or flames from the furnaces A rise up
through the flues B and C', and are so conducted into the upper part of
the ore reservoir; D is the rotary calciner or roaster through which the
heated gasses are subsequently conducted. The reducing and balling
furnaces A (I find it advantageous to employ two for each calciner, as
shewn in the Drawings) are similar to my well known revolving
puddling furnaces described in the Specification of Letters Patent
granted to me on the Twelfth November One thousand eight hundred
and seventy (No. 3687). They are lined, with a suitable refractory
material and are heated by means of powdered fuel injected by currents
of hot or cold air. The rotary calciner or roaster D is placed above
the reducing and balling furnaces A, and is fed regularly with raw
ore at one end, and at the opposite end is connected with the stationary
chamber or reservoir C into which the roasted ore falls from the roaster D,
and is stored and kept until required to be charged into the reducing
and balling furnaces.
It will be seen that the ore reservoir C is placed at such a height
above the reducing and balling furnaces as to allow the roasted ore
when required to run freely through shoots or channels which are
placed for the purpose into the reducing and balling furnaces. The
calciner or roaster D is lined with a suitable refractory material, and at
its further end a stationary flue F is situated; the raw ore is introduced
into the roaster in regular and measured quantities through this flue by
means of a shoot M. As the roaster D revolves the ore travels by

page_text: WILD
The reservoir is of sufficient capacity to hold one or more charges of
roasted ore for the reducing and balling-furnaces, and-in-it-tliē-ore-is-
maintained in a highly heated state ready to-be-operated-upon-imme-
diately it is charged into either of the reducing and balling furnaces.
-
For the purpose of preventing undue distortion of the wearing
faces and of the general forms of the various fixed and moveable or
revolving portions of the apparatus, I provide, as shown in the Drawings,
the whole or in some cases only some of these parts with double cases
through which water is made to circulate. The moveable and fixed
flues are also lined with brick or other refractory material. In this
manner tight joints are maintained, and the leakage of liquids or
particles of dust is prevented. D¹ are pipes for introducing water into
and taking it off from the water casing by which the calciner is sur-
rounded; D³ is the fixed shell of a cock for permitting water to enter
and leave the pipes in the manner described in the Specification herein-
before mentioned; E, E, are moveable shoots through which the roasted
ore can be passed from the ore reservoir C in the rotary furnaces A;
E¹are valves or slides by which the discharge of ore from the ore
reservoirs is controlled. G is a steam boiler heated by the waste gases
led off from the calciner by the stationary flue F; E is a chamber
through which the waste gases are subsequently conducted, and in
which are arranged a number of pipes I or other ordinary apparatus for
the purpose of heating air; J is the flue through which the waste gases
finally escape, this contains an open trough K through which coal or
ore may be passed by a revolving screw for the purpose of being dried;
L-is-a-screw revolving-in-a-trough-L-the-trough-communicates-with-a
reservoir containing the raw ore, and the screw conveys the ore to the
passage M, through which it falls into the revolving calciner or roaster D;
N is a similar screw and trough which conveys small coal or carbon to
the roasted ore on its. entry into the rotary furnace; it first delivers the
coal or carbon to hoppers O of sufficient capacity for holding a proper
quantity for mixing with one charge of ore. At the bottom of each
hopper is a valve, by opening which the contents of the hopper may be
allowed to fall into a moveable shoot O¹, and through this shoot into one
of the furnaces A. In place of the roasted ore being thus withdrawn
directly from the ore reservoir into the reducing and balling furnaces,
the ore reservoir may be so arranged that the ore can be withdrawn

page_text: from it into scoops and charged into the reducing and balling furnaces
at their front end when the moveable flues B have been slid away from
them.
The proper charge of carbon or coal may in some cases be similarly
supplied to the reducing and balling furnaces, I however find it advan-
tangeous to use the arrangements above described, as dust and dirt
are thereby avoided.
When a charge of ore and a charge of carbon or coal has been
delivered to one of the reducing and balling furnaces in the manner
previously described, the moveable pipes E and O belonging to this
furnace are removed, and the nozzle through, which coal and air are to
be injected into the furnace is brought opposite to the opening in the
moveable flue picce at the front of the furnace, as shewn at Figure 4; in
order to heat the furnace the reduction of the charge is then effected by
occasionally or continually turning the furnace, whereby the materials
are mixed and new surfaces exposed and brought into contact with each
other.
When the reduction is completed the liquid cinder is tapped off and
the semi-solid mass of metal is withdrawn from the furnace after being
worked into a ball or balls and treated in a similar way to puddle balls
under hammers or squeezers; a fresh charge of roasted ore is then
delivered to the reducing and balling furnace from the ore reservoir, and
is similarly reduced and balled. The operation is thus carried on
continuously.
The lining of the reducing and balling furnaces if composed of oxido
of iron is from time to time renewed in the manner now well known,
and as is described in the Specification of the before-mentioned Patent,
or by other suitable means.
When the wrought iron produced in the apparatus is required to be
made into steel the requisite quantity of carbon is added to it by any of
the well known means, and in this case and oxide of iron lining should
not be used, but one composed of bauxide lime or other suitable
material should be employed. Q, Q, are the pipes for conveying air to
the moveable injecting nozzles; P is the apparatus by which powdered
fuel is supplied to the air passing through the pipes Q.
The feeding apparatus I prefer to employ as described in the Specifi-
cation of the before-mentioned Patent granted to me in One thousand

page_text: eight hundred and seventy-three, and in the Specification of a former
Patent No. 3504, in the year _One-thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine. S, S, are holes for removing dust as it accumulates. _--
Although I prefer to heat the apparatus by means of powdered fuel
injected together with atmospheric air into the reducing and balling
furnaces, I would state that other arrangements may be adopted, as for
example the furnaces may be heated by the combustion of gas produced
in a separate gas producer or by fuel burnt in an ordinary furnace, in
which case my improved apparatus may be readily adapted to those
modes of firing by any competent person acquainted with the processes
of manufacturing or treating iron, such as are herein referred to.
Although also I find it most advantageous to utilize the waste heat
passing from the calciner or roaster, as herein described, still con-
siderable advantage will be derived from the use of the combined
arrangement of the rotary calciner or roaster with the ore reservoir and
reducing furnaces without the subsequent utilization of the waste heat,
in the manner described.
In place also of the heated products of combustion from the reducing
and balling furnaces being passed through the ore receiver before passing
through the revolving calciner, they may be passed directly from the one
revolving chamber to the other.
I would here state that the carbon or coal and fluxes which are
required to effect the reduction of the ore may be mixed with it either
in its passage from the reservoir to the reducing and balling-furnaces,
or as it enters these furnaces; or the coal and fluxes may be introduced
quite separately after the ore is already charged into the reducing
and balling furnaces. In either case the substances when charged into
these furnaces may be intermixed by their rotation.
With certain classes of ore the whole or part of the carbon necessary
for reduction may be mixed with the orc in the calciner, and the ore
may thus be partially reduced previously to its being charged into the
reducers.
I have not thought it necessary to shew in the Drawings in which
manner water is to be introduced into and withdrawn from the water
casings of the several fixed and moveable flues of the apparatus, as no
difficulty will be experienced in doing so if water be supplied to each of

page_text: them at their lower part and withdrawn from them at their upper part;
nor have I thought it necessary to shew the means by which the rotary
reducing furnaces and the rotary calciner are to be revolved. Any
convenient means may be adopted.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, I would have it understood that I do not
confine myself to the precise construction or form of the apparatus, as
these may be varied; but what I claim is,―
First. The production of iron and steel from the ore by the combi-
nation of revolving, reducing, and balling furnaces with a fixed ore
reservoir and revolving ore heater or calciner, substantially as herein-
before described.
Second. The production of iron and steel from the ore by the combi-
nation of revolving, reducing, and balling furnaces heated by powdered
fuel and air with a fixed ore reservoir and a revolving ore heater or
calciner, arranged substantially as herein-before described.
Third. The production of iron and steel from the ore by the combi-
nation of revolving, reducing, or balling furnaces heated by powdered
fuel and air with a fixed ore reservoir, a revolving ore heater or calciner,
a boiler, hot air heater and coal or ore dryer successively heated with the
waste gases, substantially as herein-before described.
Fourth. The combined arrangement of apparatus for the manufacture
of iron and steel, such apparatus consisting of a revolving calciner or
roaster and ore reservoir, and revolving, reducing, and balling furnace or
furnaces, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Russell Crampton, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of March,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-