IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR TRANSFORMATION OF IRON AND STEEL, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, of the Firm of
Robertson, Brooman, and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City
of London, Patent Agents, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OR TRANSFORMATION OF IRON AND STEEL, AND IN APPARATUS
EMPLOYED THEREIN."-A communication from abroad by the Company
or Society "Cyprien Tessié du Motay and. Company," of Paris,
France
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Clinton Edgcumbe
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioner's of Patents, with. his
Petition, on the 4th June 1868.
I, CLINTON EDGCUMBE BROOMAN, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman,
and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agents, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR TRANSFORMATION OF IRON AND STEEL, AND IN.
APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
The primary object of this Invention is to construct and arrange an
apparatus in which cast irons (fontes de fer) previously melted. in.a.blast.

page_text: furnace or in a cupola, can in presence of oxides and silicates of iron
and manganese and purifying or refining agents be brought to the state
of steel or of iron (fer fondu), and, reciprocally, in which melted irons
and steels in presence of carburetting gases of carbon or of cyanides can
be brought to the state of steel or of cast iron (fonte). To attain this
object the following general facts have been taken as a basis :-
1st. The oxides and silicates of iron, as well as the oxides and silicates
of manganese, having a less density than the cast iron, the steels and
the iron can, in the apparatus hereafter described, successively and
alternately traverse incessantly the masses of metal in fusion, and thus
by their oxygen bring the carbon of the cast irons to the state of
carbonic oxide or carbonic acid, and transform these cast irons into steel
or into iron.
2ndly. The carburetting bodies, such as carbon of animal, vegetable,
or mineral origin, and the azotized or hydrogenized compounds of the
carbon, being of a less density than the melted irons and steels, can
likewise in the said apparatus successively and alternately traverse
incessantly the masses of metal in fusion, and by their carbon effect the
transformation of the iron into steel, or into cast iron, or of the steel into
.cast iron.
3rdly. To effect this double system of reduction or of carburation the
heat to be produced should be graduated as required; this is obtained
by means of gases free from azote on the one hand, such as the carburets
of hydrogen, hydrogen and carbonic oxide, and on the other hand of air,
mixtures of air and oxygen, or pure oxygen.
It is therefore on the different density of the oxidizing bodies on the
one hand, and of the reducing bodies on the other in relation to the cast
iron that this system of metallurgical treatment of cast iron, steel, and
iron is in principle based; the practical means of carrying out this
system lie in the employment of gases capable of producing successively
and as required temperatures varying between the fusion of cast iron,
and the fusion of platina, that is to say, within the limits of the highest
known temperatures.,
I now proceed to describe the metallurgical apparatus for carrying out
the system.
:
A cylindrical block of magnesia or alumina well beaten and
compressed is enclosed in a jacket or casing consisting of a metal

page_text: cylinder; in the block two chambers are formed, the bottoms of which
communicate with each other by a channel. Two openings, one from
cach chamber, are formed in the block and lead to the exterior of the
jacket. Two covers close these openings as required. Two sets of blow
pipes or tuyeres are arranged to inject into the apparatus the flames
produced by a mixture of air, or of air mixed with oxygen, or of pure
oxygen with carbonic oxide, or pure hydrogen, or carburets of hydrogen.
Two other sets of blow pipes or tuyeres are arranged to inject either a
mixture of combustible gases and gases for supporting combustion, or
either separately, or powdered carbon or powdered cyanides. The two
sets of pipes work alternately to cause the passage of the metal to be
puddled or treated from one side or compartment of the apparatus to
the other, and vice versa. There is a sheet metal channel in the middle
of the apparatus, through which a current of water passes..
If there is introduced into the apparatus melted cast iron on the one
hand, and on the other hand oxides and silicates of iron and manganese,
the latter substances rise to the surface of the iron. If then one of the
openings before referred to be closed by its cover, and if the inflamed
gases are allowed to enter by one set of blow pipes, the other opening
remaining open, the burnt gases while heating, the mass will exert
pressure upon the bath of metal, and compel it to pass by the com-
municating channel to the other chamber. When all the iron has
passed into this chamber the metallic oxides and silicates likewise
entering this chamber are below the bath of iron and immediately by
the fact of their less density traverse it in globules in order to rise to
its surface; at the same time the gases contained in the other chamber
joined to those injected by another set of blow pipes likewise traverse-
the bath, causing an energetic stirring, and acting besides as oxidizing:
gases. This first operation being finished the working of the blow pipes.
and of the openings is reversed, and all the mass is. made to pass back:
into the other chamber while causing it to undergo the same chemical
and physical actions; and this alternate working is continued. until
complete transformation of the cast iron into steel,.or into iron..
When the steels or irons thus produced and melted are combined with
too large a quantity of metalloids they are recarburetted by injecting:
by the blow pipes carburetted gases, or a mixture of these gases, or of
hydrogen gas with carbon or cyanides until the iron is again transformed!

page_text: into cast iron. The same mode is followed when it is required to return
the iron refined or purified by the first operation to the state of steel.
When the steel, iron, or cast iron thus produced is brought to the
desired state it is run through a suitable tap hole into moulds, or into a
reverberatory furnace likewise furnished with magnesia or alumina, and
intended to soften or to purify the steels and the irons, or to melt in
contact with the melted irons or steels, scrap arising from former
operations. This reverberatory furnace is likewise heated by the
mixtures of gases employed in the converting apparatus above described,
and by a system of tuyeres capable of blowing on to the surface of the
bath a mixture of oxygen and combustible gases or reducing gases.
The arrangement of the apparatus may be varied, and it may be
adapted for total or partial conversion or transformation. It may be
fixed or suspended, and in the latter case caused to oscillate in a
determined or variable manner.
The general arrangement of the several apparatus for carrying out this
system consists of apparatus for producing oxygen; of apparatus, for
producing hydrogen; of apparatus for producing carburetted hydrogen
gases, with a boiler for furnishing steam to the oxygen and hydrogen
apparatus; of vessels for storing and distributing the oxygen, hydrogen,
and carburetted hydrogen gases; of apparatus for compressing and
distributing the gases and air of boilers; of reservoirs with superposed
pressures for air, oxygen, hydrogen, and carburetted hydrogen respec-
tively; of the puddling apparatus herein-before described; and of a
furnace for refining the puddled products.
The important features of the Invention are, first, the apparatus for
transforming, by the difference of density between the metallic oxides
and the metals on the one hand, and the carburetting bodies and the
metals on the other hand, cast iron into iron or steel, and iron into
steel or cast iron; and, secondly, the employment of gases capable of
producing successively and as required temperatures varying between
the fusion of the cast iron and the fusion of platina, that is to say,
within the limits of the highest known temperatures.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 27th November 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CLINTON
EDGCUMBE BROOMAN, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and Company,
of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, Her
special licence that I, the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, my exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Clinton
Edgcumbe Brooman, 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
makc, 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 OR TRANSFORMATION OF IRON AND
STEEL, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," communicated to me from
abroad by the Company or Society "Cyprien Tessié du Motay and
Company," of Paris, France, upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, my executors or adminis-
trators, 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 Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, 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, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, that is to say:-
The primary object of this Invention is to construct and arrange an
apparatus in which cast irons (fontes de fer) previously melted in a blast

page_text: furnace or in a cupola, can in presence of oxides and silicates of iron and
manganese and purifying or refining agents be brought to the state of
steel or of iron (fer fondu) and reciprocally, in which melted irons and
steels in presence of carburetting gases of carbon or of cyanides can
be brought to the state of steel or of cast iron (fonte). To attain this
object the following general facts have been taken as a basis:-
1st. The oxides and silicates of iron as well as the oxides and silicates
of manganese, having a less density than the cast irons, the steels and the
iron can in the apparatus hereafter described successively and alternately
traverse incessantly the masses of metal in fusion, and thus by their
oxygen bring the carbon of the cast irons to the state of carbonic
oxide or carbonic acid and transform these cast irons into stecl or into
iron.
Secondly. The carburetting bodies, such as carbon of animal, vegetable,
or mineral origin, and the azotized or hydrogenized compounds of the
carbon being of a less density than the melted irons and steels can
likewise in the said apparatus successively and alternately traverse
incessantly the masses of metal in fusion, and by their carbon effect
the transformation of the iron into steel or into cast iron, or of the steel
into cast iron.
Thirdly. To effect this double system of reduction or of carburation
the heat to be produced should be graduated as required; this is obtained
by means of gases free from azote on the one hand, such as the carburets
of hydrogen, hydrogen and carbonic oxide, and on the other hand of air,
mixtures of air and oxygen, or pure oxygen.
It is therefore on the different density of the oxidizing bodies on the
one hand, and of the reducing bodies on the other in relation to the cast
iron, that this system of metallurgical treatment of cast iron, steel, and
iron is in principle based. The practical means of carrying out this
system lie in the employment of gases capable of producing successively
and as required temperatures varying between the fusion of cast iron
and the fusion of platina, that is to say, within the limits of the highest
known temperatures.
I now proceed to describe the metallurgical apparatus for carrying out
'the system.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings represents a fixed apparatus.
A cylindrical block of magnesia or alumina well beaten and compressed

page_text: is enclosed in a jacket or casing consisting of a metal cylinder X; in
the block two chambers C, D, are formed, the bottoms of which com-
municate with each other by a channel or communication E. Two
openings F, F, one from each chamber, are formed in the block and
lead to the exterior of the jacket; two metallic covers K, K', close these
openings F, F, as required. Two sets of blow pipes or tuyeres A, B, arc
arranged to inject into the apparatus the flames produced by a mixture
of air, or of air mixed with oxygen, or of pure oxygen with carbonic
oxide, or pure hydrogen or carburets of hydrogen. Two other sets of
blow pipes or tuyeres A¹, B', are arranged to inject either a mixture
of combustible gases and gases for supporting combustion or either
separately, or powdered carbon or powdered cyanides. The two sets of
pipes A, A, B, B₁, work alternately to cause the passage of the metal
to be puddled or treated from one side or compartment C of the apparatus
to the other D, and vice versa. M is a sheet metal channel in the middle
of the apparatus through which a current of water passes.
If there is introduced into the apparatus melted cast iron on the one
hand, and on the other hand oxides and silicates of iron and manganese,
the latter substances rise to the surface of the iron. If then the
opening F be closed, as shown in the Drawing, by its cover K, and if
the inflamed gases are allowed to enter by the set of blow pipes A, the
other opening remaining open, the burnt gases while heating the mass
will exert pressure upon the bath of metal and compel it to pass by the
communicating channel E to the other chamber D. When all the iron.
has passed into this chamber D the metallic oxides and silicates likewise
entering this chamber are below the bath of iron, and immediately by
the fact of their less density traverse it in globules in order to rise to
its surface; at the same time the gases contained in the other chamber C
joined to those injected by the set of blow pipes A' likewise traverse the
bath, causing an energetic stirring and acting besides as oxidizing gases.
This first operation being finished the working of the blow pipes and of
the openings is reversed and all the mass is made to pass back into
the other chamber while causing it to undergo the same chemical and
physical actions, and this alternate working is continued until complete
transformation of the cast iron into steel or into iron.
Figures 2 and 3 show other forms of apparatus for carrying out this

page_text: The apparatus shown in Figure 2 is supported in the centre on
trunnions O which allow it to oscillate; it can be made to occupy either
of two principal positions, viz', positions in which respectively the lines
a b and c d become vertical, but the extent of the oscillation is
variable.
The apparatus seen in Figure 3 is free to oscillate on lateral trunnions
P, Q; it is reversed quickly at certain intervals, and in cach position
the bottom pipes or tuyeres blow or inject and the top valve is open.
During the operation the apparatus may have a continuous or inter-
mittent rocking motion imparted to it. A is the supply pipe for pure
or carbonated hydrogen, as required, which by means of the two-way
cock B communicates with two circular boxes G, G', and thence with
the transforming apparatus; D is the supply pipe for oxygen or air,
which by means of the two-way cock E communicates with two circular
boxes K, K', and thence by means of small pipes or tuyeres with the
apparatus. M, M, are conical valves of refractory material worked
by a lever.
It will be readily understood that other analogous arrangements of
apparatus might be adopted to attain the same end.
When the steels or irons thus produced and melted are combined with
too large a quantity of metalloids they are recarburetted by injecting by
the pipes A and B', carburetted gases or a mixture of these gases, or of
hydrogen gas with carbon or cyanides until the iron is again transformed
into cast iron. The same mode is followed when it is required to return
the iron refined or purified by the first operation to the state of steel.
When the steel, iron, or cast iron thus produced is brought to the
desired state it is run through a suitable tap hole into moulds or into a
reverberatory furnace, Figure 4, likewise formed with magnesia or
alumina, and intended to soften or to purify the steels and the irons,
or to melt, in contact with the melted irons or steels, scrap arising from
former operations. This reverberatory furnace is likewise heated by the
mixtures of gases employed in the converting apparatus above described
and by a system of tuyeres K, K, capable of blowing on to the surface
of the bath a mixture of oxygen and combustible gases or reducing
gases; C, C', are recurrential apparatus in which the gases and air for
heating this furnace are previously heated; P is a door to allow of

page_text: cleaning or repairing the solc; M is a tap hole; R, the inlet passages
for the heating gases; T, a flue for leading the burnt gases to the
chimney.
The general arrangement of the several apparatus for carrying out this
system is represented in Figure 5. A is a furnace with recurrential
apparatus for producing oxygen; B, four apparatus for producing
hydrogen; C, a structure containing two apparatus for producing car-
buretted hydrogen gas and a boiler for furnishing steam to the oxygen
and hydrogen apparatus A and B; D, three holders or vessels for storing
and distributing the oxygen, hydrogen, and carburetted hydrogen gases;
E, a structure containing apparatus for compressing and distributing
the gases and air; F, a structure containing two steam boilers; G, two
reservoirs with superposed pressures, one for air, the other for oxygen;
K, two reservoirs with superposed pressures, one for hydrogen, the other
for carburetted hydrogen; L, the puddling apparatus herein-before
described; M, furnace for refining the puddled products; this furnace
may be provided or not with recurrential apparatus.
I make no claim to the recurrential apparatus.
Figure 6 is an explanatory Diagram giving the indications of the
colored lines in Figure 5.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim as the
improvements in the manufacture or transformation of iron and steel,
and in apparatus employed therein,"
_
First. The mode or system herein-before described of transforming by
the difference of density between the metallic oxides and the metals
on the one hand, and the carburetting bodies and the metals on the other
hand, cast iron into iron or steel, and iron into steel or cast iron.
Secondly. The employment in the manner and for the purpose herein-
before described of gases capable of producing successively and as
required temperatures varying between the fusion of cast iron and the
fusion of platina, that is to say, within the limits of the highest known
temperatures.
Thirdly. The general construction or arrangement of apparatus,
substantially as hercin-before described and represented in the accom-

page_text: panying Drawings, for carrying on or effecting the said mode or system
of transformation.
In witness whereof, I, the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of November,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-eight.