IMPROVEMENTS IN REDUCING OXIDES, AND IN OBTAINING IRON, SODIUM, POTASSIUM, PHOSPHORUS, CHLORINE, OR THEIR COMPOUNDS, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Anderson, of Newbuildings, in the County
of Londonderry, Ireland, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
REDUCING OXIDES, AND IN OBTAINING IRON, SODIUM, POTASSIUM, PHOSPHORUS,
CHLORINE, OR THEIR COMPOUNDS, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR."
Sealed the 13th August 1872, and dated the 17th February 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Anderson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th February 1872.
I, JAMES ANDERSON, of Newbuildings, in the County of London-
derry, Ireland, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
" IMPROVEMENTS IN REDUCING OXIDES AND IN OBTAINING IRON, SODIUM, POTASSIUM,
PHOSPHORUS, CHLORINE, OR THEIR COMPOUNDS, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR," to
be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention has principally for its object the better carrying out
of the system of metallurgic processes wherein silicates, and aluminates,

page_text: or other salts of potassium and sodium are added to the materials
ordinarily put into an iron smelting furnace, and provision is made for
the withdrawal, collection, and utilisation of potassium, sodium, phos-
phorus, chlorine (and also sulphur), or compounds thereof, from the
part of the furnace at which they exist in a vaporised state; but the
improvements, or some of them, are also applicable for obtaining iron
(with or without the other products) from the materials ordinarily used.
One improvement consists in utilising the gases issuing from the top
of the furnace by employing a portion of the carbonic acid they contain
as a means for returning heat into the furnace and for introducing
additional carbon. In carrying out this improvement according to one
modification coal is coked in any suitable retort or chamber by the
combustion of a portion of the issuing furnace gases, or by heat other-
wise obtained, and the volatile hydrocarbons evolved from the coal
whilst coking are mixed with another portion of the issuing furnace
gases. The mixture is heated to a high temperature in a stove, such as
is ordinarily used for heating the furnace blast, and by the combustion
of a further portion of the issuing furnace gases or otherwise. When
the mixture is sufficiently heated the carbonic acid will be converted
to carbonic oxide by taking up additional carbon, a large quantity of
heat becoming latent in the reaction. The heated gases are conveyed
from the stove to the smelting furnace, and are introduced therein at the
zone, where the temperature in the furnace is the same or nearly the
same as that of the gases. The gases so introduced will ascend along
with the gases from the lower part of the furnace, giving out their
sensible heat to the materials in the furnace, whilst the carbonic oxide
will assist in the reduction of the ores or oxides, and at the same time
give out the heat rendered latent in its conversion from carbonic acid,
whilst being again converted into carbonic acid by the oxygen of the
ores.
The furnace for carrying out the improved processes is somewhat like
an an ordinary blast furnace, but the top is covered in and fitted with
various valved inlets or doors for the introduction of the materials.
There is a central inlet for coal or carbonaceous matter, and a set of inlets
round it for the ores or oxides, the silicates, aluminates, or other salts,
and the lime or flux, the central inlet being by preference at the top of
a channel extending higher than the other inlets, and also reaching
down inside so as to keep the coal separate from the other materials for

page_text: a certain part of their descent. An air blast may be applied to the
furnace in the usual way by means of tuyeres at the bottom, but it is
preferred to draw the gases out of the furnace by exhausting apparatus
acting by passages leading away from the upper part of the furnace.
Only a comparatively small portion of the coal is to be introduced by
the central inlet at the top, the larger portion being put into chambers
or channels formed at the sides of the lower part of the furnace. One
or more horizontal or nearly horizontal passages are formed in connection
with the hearth at a suitable height for the slag to flow off by leaving
the iron in the bottom of the hearth to be withdrawn by a separate
outlet, and the air supply enters by what may be termed the slag passage
or passages, and in doing so takes up heat from and so cools the slag.
At the points where the slag in the passages begins to solidify it is raked
into wagons in tunnels constructed at a lower level, and the air also
enters by such tunnels so as to further cool the slag in the wagons, and
itself take up heat in doing so. The air thus entering and becoming
heated in the slag tunnels and passages finds its way into a gallery
formed round the lower part of the furnace, whence it enters the
interior, first passing through the coal or coke in the bottoms of the
lateral coal chambers, and thereby having its oxygen converted into
carbonic acid. The coal in the chambers becomes gradually coked as
it descends through the action of portions of the hot gases resulting from
the combustion in the lower part and passing up through it, and the
gases and vapors evolved from it are led by suitable passages into the
interior of the furnace to assist in reducing and heating the ores.
and above the part of the furnace where the reducing action terminates
air may be admitted to complete the combustion of the gases and vapors,
and thus more completely utilise them for heating the ores and other
materials.
At

page_text: a steam boiler, the steam generated in which may be utilised for working
the air blowing or exhausting apparatus or otherwise.
By a further modification of the improved arrangements when certain
qualities of iron are desired, wood charcoal or wood may be put into the
central channel in the upper part of the furnace. And when wood is
used, the volatile matters driven off from it whilst it is being coked by
the heat are led by a pipe to a refrigerating apparatus in order to separate
condensable matters, the uncondensable gases being afterwards returned
to the furnace. The wood charcoal put in or formed descends and
mixes with the ores and assists in their reduction, any action of air on it
being prevented by the air being first passed through the coko in the
chambers or channels beside the lower parts of the furnace, and taking
up therein as much carbon as it will do.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Anderson in the Great Seal Patent Office 1
on the 16th August 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
ANDERSON, of Newbuildings, in the County of Londonderry, Ireland,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her :
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said James Anderson, Her special licence that I,
the said James Anderson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said James Anderson, 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 "IMPROVENENTS IN REDUCING OXIDES,
AND IN OBTAINING IRON, SODIUM, POTASSIUM, PHOSPHORUS, CHLORINE, OR THEIR
COMPOUNDS, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR," upon the condition (amongst

page_text: others) that I, the said James Anderson, 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
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 James Anderson, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement in writing, reference being had to the accom-
panying Drawings, that is to say :—–
My said Invention has principally for its object the better carrying
out of the system of metallurgic processes wherein silicates and alumi-
nates or other salts of potassium and sodium aré added to the materials
ordinarily put into an iron smelting furnace, and provision is made for
the withdrawal, collection, and utilisation of potassium, sodium, phos-
phorus, chlorine (and also sulphur), or compounds thereof, from the part
of the furnace at which they exist in a vaporised state; but the im-
provements or some of them are also applicable for obtaining iron (with
or without other products) from the materials ordinarily used.
.
Improvements in or connected with metallurgic processes of the kind
herein-before referred to, are described in the Specifications of the
following various earlier Patents obtained by me, namely, No. 2801 of
1867, and Nos. 718, 2134, and 3493 of 1871; and in carrying out my
present Invention various features described or referred to in the said
earlier Specifications are combined together in an improved manner
together with some new elements.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, I hereunto append an explanatory
Sheet of Diagrams to be herein-after referred to, and representing ar-
rangements that may be used in carrying out my improvements. I
would however observe that my present Invention does not relate to
the minute constructive details of the various apparatus I propose to
employ, and that the accompanying Diagrams must not be taken as
defining the precise forms or proportions of the various parts, but they

page_text: appe
description.
T
Figure 1 is a vertical section of an iron smelting furnace, as arranged
with accessory apparatus for the purposes of my said Invention, and
Figure 2 is a horizontal section as at the line A-A in Figure 1.
The upper part of the furnace may be divided into channels as
described and delineated in the Specification of my earlier Patent,
No. 2134 of 1871, or it may be formed, as shown in Figures 1 and 2
hereof, with a central channel 1 for coal or carbonaceous matter, and
with the annular space round this central channel divided into two or
other convenient number of sections or channels 2, 3, by radial
partitions 4, 5.
In carrying out my Invention according to one modification, these
channels 2, 3, are supplied with ore and flux only. Coal is introduced
into a coking oven 6, from which the hydrocarbons are drawn through a
pipe 7 by a fan 8, and propelled thence along a pipe 9, and along one
or other of two valved branch pipes 10, 11, to one of the ore channels, 3,
for example. As these hydrocarbons descend amongst the ore they
become heated, and their carbon combines with oxygen from the ore,
forming carbonic oxide, and as a larger quantity of heat is absorbed in
the reduction of the ore than is given out by the oxidation of the carbon,
the materials become cooled to the extent of the difference, and a corre-
sponding quantity of heat will be absorbed from the escaping gases
when the currents are subsequently reversed, so as to cause the fresh
hydrocarbons to descend through the other channel 2, and leaving the
one 3, through which the hydrocarbons have been descending, for the
passage upwards of the waste gases. The carbonic oxide and hydrogen
thus formed from the descending hydrocarbons will descend to the lower
end of the one channel 3, and then ascend in the other channel 2, along
with the gases from the hearth, and will reduce or partially reduce the
ore in the latter channel, and pass off by a passage 12 provided for the
purpose.
When there are more hydrocarbons introduced or generated than what
the heat in the waste gases can convert into carbonic oxide, the deficiency
of heat may be supplied by introducing as much air into the channels 2, 3,
as will convert the excess of carbon into carbonic oxide. A portion of
the waste gases passing off by one of the branch pipes 12, 13, is mixed

page_text: with the hydrocarbons by opening a valve 14 in a branch pipe 15, com-
municating with the inlet to the fan 8, so that such portion may be
propelled by the fan along with the hydrocarbons and mixed with them,
pass along the pipe 9, and descend in one of the channels 2, 3. On this
5 mixture becoming sufficiently heated on reaching the lower parts of the
channel, one of the two atoms of oxygen contained in the carbonic acid
of the waste gases will combine with the carbon of the hydrocarbons
and form carbonic oxide.
When the ore and fuel are mixed in all the channels (as may be done
according to another modification of my processes or arrangements),
portions of the waste gases may be re-introduced by themselves by the
inlet 10 or 11, in which case the carbonic acid contained in the gases on
coming in contact with the hot carbon will be converted into carbonic
oxide, producing a cooling action, such as has already been herein-before
referred to.
When the materials in the channel 2 or 3 in which the gases are
descending are sufficiently cooled, and those in the other channel or
channels in which the gases are ascending are sufficiently heated, the
valves 10 and 12 are closed, and the valves 11 and 13 are opened, which
will cause the currents to be reversed. A charge of cold material is
now introduced into the cooled channel, and the ascending gases come
up first through the materials cooled by the recently descending gases
and then through the cold materials freshly introduced, the materials
cooling the gases nearly to their own temperature before the latter leave
the furnace, and thus absorbing and utilising their heat. The heat
contained in the fused iron and slag at the bottom of the furnace is also
utilised by being made to assist in the formation of carbonic oxide from
carbonic acid.
When a valve 16 in the pipe 9 is closed, and a valve 17 in a pipe 18
opened, the mixture of hydrocarbons from the coking coal and waste
gases from the furnace top leave the fan 8 by the branch pipe 19 and
pipe 18, and proceed partly by a branch pipe 20 to a heating stove 21,
and partly to a tunnel 22. The gases passing through the stove 21 are
heated (by passing through flues previously heated by burning in them
portions of the waste gases, or in any other convenient way), and they
then pass on to the main furnace either by the lower pipe 23 and passage

page_text: the lower pipe 23 they become further heated in the passage 24, by
passing over the surface of the fused slag. The slag is gradually cooled
as it passes along the passage 24, and at the part where it begins to
solidify it is raked into wagons 26 in the tunnel 22, constructed at a
lower level. The portion of the gases entering the tunnel 22 by the
pipe 18 being cooler, takes up heat from the solid slag in the wagons 26,
and then passing onwards takes up further heat from the liquid slag in
the passage 24. The wagons 26 are provided with plates at their ends,
arranged so as to make the gases go alternately up and down through
the interstices between the lumps of slag.
When the mixed gases become sufficiently heated any carbonic acid
they contain will be converted into carbonic oxide in the manner already
herein-before described, and a corresponding amount of heat will be
absorbed or rendered latent. The carbonic oxide, hydrogen, and other
gases enter the main furnace at the hearth 27 in a highly heated state.
A portion, however, of these gases may pass up the pipe 28, through the
coking oven 6, and thence by the pipe 29 into the main furnace, or they
may pass up through the coal in order to coke it. For the purpose of
coking the coal, however, I prefer to use the heat contained in the fused
iron, which heat may be imparted to the waste gases from which the
cyanides have been separated by passing such gases over the hot iron in
the tunnel 30. These gases having no free or active oxygen, they will
not so readily oxidise the hot iron.
The cyanide gases or vapors are drawn from the main furnace by
means of a fan 31; they pass out of the furnace by a pipe 32, thence
through the tubes 33 of a steam boiler, and afterwards through a gas
washer 34, and are propelled by the fan 31 along the pipe 35 to the
tunnel 30, and into the main furnace, entering the latter at 27. Or
these gases, or a portion of them, may be conveyed by a pipe 36 directly
to the coking oven 6, whilst another portion may be led by a pipe 37 to
be burned under the steam boiler 33. The washed gases or some of
them may also proceed through the valve 38, and along the pipe 39 to
the pipe 18, and by it to the stove 21 or slag tunnel 22, to be heated
and used alone or along with the waste gases from the top of the furnace
as already herein-before described. Air entering the furnace may be
admitted by a pipe 40, and its amount may be regulated by a valve in
that pipe, and it will become heated by passing over the slag in the
tunnel 22 and passage 24. There may be more than one tunnel 22, 30,

page_text: or passage 24, for the slag or iron, and whilst some gas or air is heated
in one hydrocarbons may be heated in another, and when the various
gases and vapors are heated in this way a very high temperature will be
obtained by their combustion at the hearth 27.
The carbonic oxide obtained from the oxygen of the carbonic acid, or
from the oxygen of the ore, or from the oxygen of the air, will effect
or assist in effecting the reduction of the ores or oxides when it passes
up through the main furnace or the channels 2, 3. When the oxidations
of the carbon and hydrogen are not complete, and when the fuel is not
mixed with the ores, air may be introduced into the channels 2, 3, by
valved inlets 41 to complete the combustion, and should an excess of
heat be generated so as to prevent the escaping gases from being suffi-
ciently cooled before leaving the furnace, such excess of heat may be
utilised in calcining the ironstone and limestone, and for forming carbonic
oxide as already described.
The whole of the fuel used may be coked either in one or more coking
ovens 6, constructed beside the lower part of the main furnace, or in the
central upper channel 1, or in two or more upper channels, when there
are a greater number than what are shown in Figure 1. When the coal is
all put into the oven or ovens 6, the coke may be removed as it is formed
at a side door, and be introduced either by itself into the upper central
channel 1 to mix with the ores below the bottoms of the channels, or it
may be mixed with the ore and be introduced along therewith into the
several channels. Or the coke formed in the oven 6 may be consumed
therein by admitting the necessary air, or air and carbonic acid, so as to
form carbonic oxide. When the fresh coal is put into the channel 1 it
becomes coked by the heat and gases rising up, and the hydrocarbons
driven off from it pass off by the pipes 42, and more or less of them is led
by a branch pipe 43 to the pipe 7 and fan 8, to be introduced into one of
the ore channels, or be otherwise dealt with, as herein-before described,
with reference to the hydrocarbons from the coking oven 6. Again,
some of the fresh coal may be introduced into the upper central channel 1,
and may serve, for example, to supply the coke or solid carbon considered
desirable to be mixed with the ore, whilst the remainder of the coal may
be put into one or more ovens 6, to be therein wholly gassified or not
according to circumstances. When the coke is withdrawn from the
bottom of the oven 6, it is first cooled by passing up through it a
quantity of the waste gases from the top of the furnace. The carbonic

page_text: acid in the waste gases will be converted into carbonic oxide by the heat
and carbon of the coke, the cooling influence already described taking
place. The carbonic oxide thus formed is to be utilised like that ob-
tained otherwise, as herein-before described.
An air blast may be applied to the furnace in the usual way by means
of tuyeres at or near the bottom, but I prefer to draw the gases out of
the furnace by a fan or other suitable exhausting apparatus acting by a
pipe 44, leading away from the branch pipes 12, 13, by which the waste
gases leave the top of the furnace.
The working of my improved processes may be so regulated as to
prevent the crumbling of the ore into powder, and so preserving a free
passage through the materials for the gases. Thus the carbonic oxide
ascending in the channel 2 or 3 will effect the reduction of the ore at a
temperature so high as to prevent the depositing of carbon due to dis-
sociation of the carbonic oxide, and there will consequently be little or
no free or deposited carbon to induce the breaking up and crumbling of
the ore.
The temperature is also maintained so high that almost the
whole of the carbonic oxide becomes converted into carbonic acid before
leaving the furnace. And when the weight of the escaping gases mul-
tiplied by their specific heat does not exceed the weight of the materials
introduced multiplied by their specific heat, nearly the whole of the
heat contained in the gases will have been absorbed by the materials,
provided that there is depth enough of them in the channels 2, 3.
When the quantity of gases is so great that the materials cannot absorb
all the excess of heat they contain, this heat may be utilised in the
formation of carbonic oxide from the hydrocarbons as already herein-
before explained.
When the ore and fuel are mixed and no provision is made for
absorbing the excess of heat in the ascending gases, the zone wherein
reduction takes place will necessarily be limited in size and also in
temperature, on account of the carbonic acid formed being reconverted
into carbonic oxide, and thus limiting the quantity of carbonic oxide
that can be formed into carbonic acid by the oxygen of the ore. By
reducing the ore or oxides by carbonic oxide and hydrogen in the absence
of free carbon, the zone of reduction may be so enlarged and its tem-
perature so raised as that nearly the whole of the carbonic oxide may
be converted into carbonic acid, and the whole of the hydrogen into
water by the oxygen of the ore or oxides.

page_text: Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I have to state that I do not
restrict myself to the precise details herein described or delineated; but
that what I believe to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
1. The combining of processes and apparatus in the improved manner
and for the purposes herein-before described.
2. The using of the carbonic acid of the waste gases for introducing
additional carbonic oxide and heat into the furnace, as herein-before
described.
3. The utilising of heat obtained by burning a portion of the waste
gases to supply heat absorbed when carbonic acid is, in the presence of
carbon, converted into carbonic oxide, as herein-before described.
4. Heating the carbonic oxide or mixture of gases by heat generated
by burning portions of the waste gases in the stoves, and heating it
further by passing it over the hot slag or iron, as herein-before described.
5. Using the excess of heat imparted by the ascending gases to the
materials in the upper part of the furnace to induce the formation of
carbonic oxide in the descending current of carbonic acid and hydro-
carbons, as herein-before described.
6. Causing currents of carbonaceous gases on their way to the furnace
to pass over the hot slag and iron, so as to take up and utilise the heat
therein, as herein-before described.
7. Heating the carbonaceous gases and the air separately, and then
burning them at the hearth, as herein-before described.
8. Reducing oxides or ores and cooling the escaping gases by making
the waste gases, the hydrocarbons, and the gases from which the cyanides
have been separated, or any mixture of these gases, descend in one or
more channels in the upper part of the furnace and ascend in other
channels, as herein-before described.
9. Exhausting the waste gases out of the furnace so as to draw the
carbonaceous gases, or the carbonaceous gases and air, over the
surface of the hot slag and iron on their way to the furnace, as herein-
before described.

page_text: by passing through it waste gases containing carbonic acid, as herein-
before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Anderson, have hereunto set
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of August, in the year of 5
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
my
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
JAMES ANDERSON. (L.S.)