IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OP MANUFACTURING OF STEEL, AND CARBONIZING IRON AND THE ORES THEREOP IN THE SAID MANUFACTURE
Year: 1856

page_text: Sealed the 20th June 1856, and dated the 8th April 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
8th April 1856.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OP MANUFACTURING OF STEEL,
AND CARBONIZING IRON AND THE ORES THEREOP IN THE SAID MANUFACTURE, to be as
follows:-
The first part of the present Invention relates to the process of deoxidizing
and carbonizing iron ores, and producing therefrom either spring or cast steel;
and the process consists in treating the ore in a comminuted state, and mixed
with charcoal or other carbonaceous matter, with or without other flux,
depending on the nature of the ore, in a close cementing oven, retort, or other
close vessel, at a high degree of heat, and then carbonizing the same, thereby

page_text: separating the metallic particles of steel from the remaining impurities; after
which, for making spring steel, the particles are to be reheated in a furnace
and rolled or hammered into bars; and for cast steel, the particles of carbonized
metal are to be melted in crucibles, in the usual manner of making cast from
blistered steel.
The second part of the Invention relates to the process of deoxidizing and
carbonizing the ores of iron in the manufacture of steel direct from the ore.
This part of the Invention is also applicable to the deoxidizing and carbonizing
of iron ore for any purpose desired, and also to the carbonizing of iron after
it has been reduced from the ores for the conversion thereof into steel.
The improved process consists in subjecting the ore, or the iron after it has
been reduced from the ore when mixed with carbon, to the action of heat in
the presence of cyanogen, or with substances from which cyanogen will be
evolved when submitted to heat, by which process the union of carbon with
the metal is accelerated and rendered more uniform.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Edward 'Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 8th October 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, .WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Edward Newton, Her special license that I, the said 'William
Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns; or such others as
I, the said William Edward Newton, 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 "Iм-
PROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING STEEL, AND CARBONIZING IRON AND
THE ORES THEREOF IN THE SAID MANUFACTURE," being a communication from
abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Edward
Newton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should par-

page_text: ticularly 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 Edward Newton, 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 (that is to say):-
The first part of this Invention relates to the process of deoxidizing and
carbonizing iron ores, and producing therefrom either spring steel or cast steel.
The improved process consists in treating the ore in a comminuted state, and
mixed with charcoal or other carbonaceous matter, with or without other flux,
depending on the nature of the ore, in a close cementing oven, retort, or other
close vessel, at a high degree of heat, say, about a white heat; and after it has
been deoxidized (if an oxide), or the carbonic acid expelled (if a carbonate),
and then carbonized, separating the metallic particles of steel from the
remaining impurities, and then for making spring steel, welding the particles
in a reheating furnace, and rolling or hammering it into bars; and for cast
steel, melting the particles of carbonized metal in crucibles, in the usual
manner of making cast from blistered steel.
A satisfactory mode of carrying out the first part of the Invention is as
follows (viz.)-By any of the known and suitable means the ore is crushed
or ground to lumps of about the size of forty to the inch, more or less, and
then, as far as possible, mechanically separated from the earthy and other
impurities, the object being two-fold: first, the better to effect the separation
of the earthy impurities; and, second, to present the metallic particles in such
a state that they will be readily and uniformly charged with carbon; and
thus prepared, it is charged in a cementing oven, such as is used for making
blistered steel, or in a retort, or other suitable vessel, with pounded or ground
charcoal or other carbonaceous matter. The charge should be in alternate
layers of ore and coal, and each layer from about one inch to one inch and a
half in thickness. When the ore is of such a composition as to require other
flux than carbon, such other flux is to, be mixed with the ore in the charge.
When the charge is completed, the oven is closed, and heated in the usual
manner of cementing ovens; and after the ore in the charge has reached what
is termed a white heat, it is to be kept at that temperature for about forty-
eight hours, the length of time depending, somewhat on the nature of the ore
and the degree of temper (carbonization) required.
The temperature required and expressed: by white heat is just short of

page_text: fluidity, as the object is to effect the change without melting the particles of
iron, which would 'thereby be overcharged. For a large oven, containing a
charge of about twenty tons of ore, the heat should be applied about six days,
the greater portion of which time will be consumed in heating the oven and
bringing up the charge to the required temperature.
The mode of testing the degree of carbonization is by the color of the
surface of the ore.. When properly charged with carbon the ore assumes (in
cooling) a blue and yellow color, and combinations of these colors, and then
passes to a brown, and, finally, when overcharged, to a gray color. By taking
out portions of the ore the operator can tell by the colors when the required
temper is reached, and then the fire is to be discontinued, and the charge
permitted to cool down in the oven. During the converting process the
particles of ore become united by the earthy impurities, and the flux, if any
be used, in addition to the carbon, and each layer forms a sheet. When
cooled and taken out of the oven the mass is to be rebroken or crushed, and
the metallic particles separated from the impurities by magnets, or by blowing,
or other suitable means, such, for instance, as are employed for separating
substances by difference of specific gravity; and if it is to be made into cast
steel, it must be melted in crucibles and cast into ingots, precisely as in the
well-known process of making cast steel from blistered steel. But if to be
converted into spring steel, the particles are to be worked in a furnace, such as
is used for balling scrap iron, and there heated to a welding heat, but not so
long as to burn out the carbon, and balled, and either rolled or hammered into
bars, as may be required.
When, by the neglect of the operator, or from any other cause, it is found
that the metallic particles have been overcharged with carbon, the mass is to
be treated in a reheating furnace, such as is used for balling scrap iron, and
there puddled to expel the surplus of carbon, and then balled and hammered
and rolled into spring steel, or broken up and treated in the crucible, to be
made into cast steel.
:
It is not deemed necessary to describe the various kinds of flux which may
be used in addition to carbon; as the necessity for and the kind to be used
will depend upon the constituents of the ore, and the properties other than the
temper required to be imparted to the steel; and as these are all matters well
known to iron masters and foreign to the present Invention, which relates
simply to the process of converting iron ore directly into steel, it is deemed
unnecessary to specify the kinds of flux to be used other than carbon.
This process is equally applicable to the ores known as carbonates as to the
oxides; for in the carbonates the carbon is not mixed with the iron alone, as in

page_text: the case of steel, but it is united with the iron in the form of carbonic acid,
which must be expelled before the union is formed between the iron and the
carbon, without oxygen, to produce good steel.
What I claim, under the first head of the Invention, is, the process of con-
verting the iron ores known as the oxides and carbonates directly into steel, by
subjecting the ore in the comminuted state with carbon, and with or without
other flux, in a close oven, retort, or other vessel, to a high degree of heat, say,
about the temperature of what is known as "white heat," and then separating
the metallic particles from the impurities, and either melting them in crucibles
to produce cast steel, or welding and balling them in a reheating furnace, and
subjecting the mass to pressure by rolling or hammering to produce spring
steel, all substantially as specified.
The second part of this Invention relates to the process of deoxidizing and
carbonizing the ores of iron in the manufacture of steel direct from the ore; but
this part of the Invention is also applicable to the deoxidizing and carbonizing
of iron ore for any purpose desired, and also to the carbonizing of iron after it
has been reduced from the ores for the conversion thereof into steel.
The improvement consists in subjecting the ore, or the iron after it has
been reduced from the ore, when mixed with carbon, to the action of heat and
cyanogen, by which the union of carbon with the metal is accelerated and
rendered more uniform.
The mode of procedure preferred for the application of the improved process
to the carbonization of wrought iron to produce blistered steel suitable for
spring steel, or the making of cast steel, is to charge the cementing furnace in
the manner specified under the first part of the Invention, or with iron and
carbon, in the well-known mode generally practised in the manufacture of
steel; but in preparing the charge, the several layers of carbon are moistened
with a strong solution of carbonate of potash or soda, or other alkali, and
mixed with the charges of carbon, thus moistened, are scraps or cuttings of
horn or other animal matter, or other substance which will give out nitrogen
by destructive distillation. The cementing furnace or oven being charged in
the usual manner with these additions, and heat applied in the usual way,
cyanogen will be produced and impart its carbon to the iron, and by the
intervention of the alkaline base, the nitrogen liberated by the union of the
carbon of cyanogen with the iron reunites with the carbon present and
reproduces cyanogen, so that the process will continue so long as carbon and
an alkaline base are present. In this way the cyanogen becomes a vehicle for
transferring and imparting carbon to the iron. It will be found that by this

page_text: process carbonization is rendered much more uniform and expeditious than by
the well-known.process of cementation, or by any other known process.
I do not wish to be understood as limiting the Invention to the mode of
treatment herein specified, as the nitrogen required may be supplied by other
suitable means than the distillation of animal matter, such, for instance, as
leoxidizing atmospheric air; so, with reference to the carbonate of potash, it
will be obvious that any other alkaline base which will cause the union of the
nitrogen with the carbon may be substituted. Nor do I wish to be understood
as limiting myself to any special manner of treatment for producing cyanogen,
as it can be introduced in the form of any of the cyanides, but the mode of
treatment specified is that which the Inventor has found by experiment to be
the most advantageous and economical.
What I claim under the second head of the Invention is, the employment
of cyonogen in the process of carbonizing iron. or the ores thereof in a close
oven or other vessel highly heated, substantially as specified.
In witness whereof I, the said William Edward Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Fourth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
W. E. NEWTON. (L.S.)