IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- FACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Christopher Binks, of the City of London, in the
County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL."
Scaled the 15th May 1857, and dated the 15th November 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Christopher Binks at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
15th November 1856.
1. CHRISTOPHER BINKS, of the City of London, in the County of Middlesex,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL," to be as follows:-
The object of my Invention is to refine or purify common cast iron, to
manufacture such refined iron into malleable iron, or to convert such refined
iron, or refined iron obtained from any other source, into steel; and it consists,
first, in using as an agitator of the fluid metal, during the operations, a gaseous
mixture of nitrogen gas and carbonic oxide gas, or these mixed along with
carbonic acid, carburetted hydrogen, and cyanogen gases, or with ammonia. or
such a mixture of gases or compounds as results (according to the relative pro-
portions of the several materials and to the temperature) from the passing of
atmospheric air, or this containing hygrometric water, or along with water
Or use one or other
specially added, through heated carbonaceous matter.

page_text: of these gases separately, according to the peculiar condition of or effects to be
produced upon the metal. Such gas or gaseous mixture 1 cause to be drawn
through or forced into the fluid metal. in order to act mechanically to aid in
bringing into contact with every portion of the metal any other materials
present in or added, to react with it or upon its impurities. Or I employ such
gas or mixture of gases itself as a chymical agent, to react upon the metal or
the matters contained in or materials added to it. Or I use the gas or mixture
of gases to subserve the double or conjoint purpose of a mechanical agitator
and a chymically reacting agent.
I further operate upon the fluid metal for its purification by subjecting it.
to the action (either when agitated or chymically acted upon by the simul-
taneous use of the above-named gaseous matter or independently of such) of
alkaline and other matters containing or mixed with nitrogen and carbon, such
as compounds of cyanogen, either ready formed or forned (by addition of their
elements to the fluid metal) during the operations for purifying it, in order by
the reactions of such compounds with the iron and its impurities to remove
from it the sulphur. phosphorus, and other impurities, and to reduce fully any
oxide of iron it may contain at the end of this first operation, and to leave in it
only the excess of carbon, or that combined with nitrogen.
Further to purify the metal, as it is obtained at this stage of the operation.
or to adjust the relative proportions of elements present, in order to bring it
into the chymical condition essential to malleable iron, or into that. necessary
to it as steel, remove from it its excess of carbon by throwing into it whilst
still kept fluid one or other or mixtures of the gascons matters above named,
such, for example, as a mixture of nitrogen and carbonic acid, or either sepa-
rntely, and used either separately or conjointly with the before-mentioned
materials, or along with an alkaline manganate or ferrate, or with alkaline
matter mixed with peroxide of manganese or peroxide of iron, and continuing
this till the metal assumes the semi-fluid or pasty condition peculiar to iron
from which the excess of carbon has been expelled. It is then in the chymical
condition essential to malleable iron, and can be subjected to any mechanical
action. further to purify it by the mechanical expulsion from it of any adhering
impurities.
In order to give to, or to adjust in the metal the kind and relative pro-
portions of elements essential to its condition as steel, through the still fluid
metal as it exists at the end of the first operation pass one or other or
mixtures of the gaseous matters before named, but preferably such as contain
ammonia; or, nsing such gaseous matter mechanically to agitate the fluid
metal, add to it some salt of ammonia, or some cyanogen compounds, or

page_text: materials yielding these, or containing nitrogen and carbon, preferably the
ferrocyanide of manganese or of iron, and the ferrocyanide of ammonia, through
which to give to the metal the elements nitrogen and carbon; or to adjust the
proportions of such elements: or to the metal, as it results from the second
operation, that is, when it is purified from the excess of carbon, as well as from
its other foreign matters, and when it has assumed its semi-fluid or pasty state,
I add the above-named nitrogen and carbon-giving compounds or materials,
and by any mechanical action incorporate or bring them in contact with
every portion of the metal, to effect its complete or partial conversion into
steel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Christopher Binks in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
15th May 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHRISTOPHER
BINKS, of the City of London, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, hearing date the Fifteenth day of November. in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Christopher Binks. Her special licence that 1. the said Christopher
Binks, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I. the
said Christopher Binks, 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," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that 1. the said Christopher Binks, 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 Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that 1. the said Christopher Binks, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be

page_text: performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
My Invention consists, first, of processes and apparatus for the purification
and for the conversion into wrought or malleable iron of crude cast iron, the
product of any blast furnace operation, and containing the excess of carbon
and other impurities common to such iron.
And, secondly, of processes and apparatus for the conversion of such iron,
when thus purified, or of purified iron obtained from any other source, into
steel.
The apparatus I employ for the above purposes is of two kinds. the first
intended to effect the desired changes or reactions on the metal, and among
any other materials that may be added to it, by the aid of certain gaseous
matters thrown or forced into and below the surfaces of the metal when it is
melted and fluid. The second kind is intended to subserve the same purposes
by changes and reactions. brought about. and taking place at the surface of
the fluid metal, and propagated throughout the mass of it, either by an ngi-
iation that continually presents or throws up portions of fresh metal to the
surface, and consequently to the action of the agents operating there, or by
such changes and reactions having propagated or diffused throughout the whole
mass by molecular action, in other words.by a process of(su called) cementation.
operating, not as usual on a solid, but on a fluid mass.
The apparatus 1 prefer to employ to carry out the first intention is a rever-
beratory furnace. so constructed as to admit of there being submitted to the
action of the heat and heated gaseous matter passing through it, and to the
action of other matters when added from time to time, a mass of fluid metal
of several inches in depth, and so constructed in other respects as to admit of
there being passed through it and thrown upon the surface of the fluid metal,
a strongly heated, oxygenizing flame or current of atmospheric air: or, at
pleasure. instead of this, a deoxidizing one; or, of having all current shut off,
so as, in this latter state, to constitute a close furnace. The bed, receptacle,
ot well for the fluid metal is furnished with a contrivance for throwing into
and below the surface of the fluid mass. gaseouts matters, of the kinds. in the
manner, and for the purposes herein-after described. The outlet of this well
is so contrived, that the metal, when the results of the operations leave it
sufficiently fluid, can flow or run out on tapping, as with the product of ordi-
nary cupolas, or so constructed, that when the results of the operations leave
the metal semi-fluid or pasty, it can be conveniently raked, lifted, or drawn
OIL.
The second kind of apparatus is also a furnace constructed and heated on

page_text: the reverberatory principle, but has the bed or sole or receptacle for the fluid
metal made much shallower than that of the former one, so as to present to
the action of the flame and heated gases, and to the action of other matters
added to the metal, a comparatively larger and more extended surface of fluid
metal. This furnace is also so constructed as to admit of the passing through
it and concentration upon the surface of the metal at pleasure, either of
strongly heated oxygenizing flame, or gaseous current, or a deoxygenizing one,
or of having all current shut off, so as to form in the latter case a closed
chamber or furnace. Furnished with apparatus of these or of similar kinds,
I operate upon the metal in manner as follows:-The objects are, first, so
to refine or purify common pig iron, as to bring it into the condition of char-
coal iron or of any other fine iron, and prepare it for the various uses to
which such comparatively pure iron only is applicable, and to prepare it also
for being by any further or subsequent treatment converted into wrought iron,
or at pleasure into stecl.
To reduce the crude pig into the desired refined iron, or refined pig, it is
needful cither completely, or nearly so, to remove from it those foreign or
extraneous matters the presence of which, in variable proportions, gives to
common pig its peculiar characters. These matters are sulphur, phosphorus,
silicon, sometimes aluminium, magnesium, arsenic, and others. It is, however,
to the presence, disseminated throughout the mass, in greater or less quantity,
of still unreduced or imperfectly reduced oxide of iron, that the peculiar and
objectionable qualities of the crude pig, as it comes from the blast furnaces,
are chiefly due. Therefore, any process for the purification or refining of this
crude metal should include provision for either the removal or reduction of
this oxide, as well as for the removal of the impurities before mentioned.
It is not essential that the iron that results from the operations under this
first part of my Invention shall at this stage have had removed from it the
excess of carbon as well as the other impurities: the operations may be so
conducted as to leave untouched the carbon whilst the other foreign matters
are abstracted or expelled. It then becomes refined iron, having a similar
composition, and with all the advantageous properties peculiar to charcoal or
other fine iron. The partial or complete removal of this excess of carbon, or
the turning to account its presence in the refined iron in after operations for
converting such iron into steel, is effected by the appended or subsequent
operations described under the other heads of my Invention.
In order to refine the metal to the extent just described. I first make
arrangements for providing the gaseous matter, to be used either as a merely
mechanical agitator, or as a reacting chymical agent, or both, when it is passed

page_text: or forced into and through the molten metal contained in the furnace before
mentioned.
The gaseous matter I prefer so to use is the product of the decomposition
of atmospheric air, when passed through red hot carbonaceous matter in
excess, as through red hot charcoal or coke, &c., and which product consists of
nitrogen and carbonic oxide chiefly. Or, in other cases. I prefer to use the
gaseous product of the same treatment of atmospheric air in which there is
present, or to which before decomposition there has been superadded, water or
steam, as the product of decomposition of air when replete with its own
hygrometric water, namely, nitrogen, carbonic oxide, chiefly, but (according
to existing conditions as to relative proportions and temperature,) having these
mixed with ammonia and with cyanogen, or with these in various forms of.
combination; the main condition to be secured being that of the complete
deoxidation of the air, and of the products of the decomposition of the water;
in other words, that the otherwise oxidizing action of the air or of the
oxygen of the water shall, before contact with the fluid metal, be fully
neutralized.
FIRST OPERATIONS.
Provided with the before-mentioned contrivance or apparatus, and with the
gaseous product as an agitator, I proceed to operate upon the crude metal for
its purification as follows:-The agents of purification that in this case I
employ in order to remove from the metal the sulphur, phosphorous, silicon, and
other matters when present, and to reduce the oxide of iron, are certain com-
pounds of cyanogen. added either ready formed to the melted metal, or that
are formed contemporaneously with the operation itself, by reaction between
materials placed in contact with the metal, and the elements of the gaseous
mixture passing through the furnace or used to agitate, and for that purpose
sent into and through the molten metal.
The cyanogen compounds ready formed that. I prefer are the cyanides of
sodium, or of potassium, or of calcium, or the ferro or ferrid cyanides of these:
and these are either used per se, or are mixed with an excess of carbonate of
soda, and in some cases with charcoal, it being desirable to use such cyanogen
compounds or mixtures as fuse at a high temperature, and in doing so flow
over and cover the surface of the molten metal.
When not using these compounds rendy formed, I employ a mixture of soda
ash (carbonate of soda) and charcoal, and cover with this the surface of the
fused pietal.
The pig iron is either taken direct from the blast furnace, or is put through

page_text: (that is, melted) in a cupola, and then transferred to this purifying furnace, or
it is melted in this purifying furnace itself. To the fluid metal is then added
the purifying material, and a good heat is kept up by the reverberatory fire, so
as to maintain the iron in this melted or fluid state. The gaseous matter is
now sent in to agitate it, and thus by continually changing or renewing the
surface of the metal, so bringing finally every portion of it in contact with the
purifying materials, the effect of its purification is speedily obtained. The
alkaline mixture, or the cyanized compound thus kept in contact with it, takes
up the foreign matters or impurities of the iron, and by its large excess retains
them, whilst at the same time any oxide of iron present is reduced, and the
metal preserved by the overlying stratum of material from further oxidation.
The deoxidized gaseous matter sent through the melted metal, on coming in
contact with the alkalized charcoal floating and melted on its surface, forms
cyanide of sodium (when soda is the alkali employed), and this product in
turn reacts upon the metal and its extraneous matters, extracting some and
reducing any oxide present to a metallic state. The result now is partially
purified metal containing only its excess of carbon, and the iron so formed is
of a kind equivalent or similar to charcoal smelted pig iron. The purifying
material itself, after it has subserved the purpose of abstracting the foreign
impurities of the metal, contains a large proportion of cyanogen, the product
of reactions between the nitrogen of the gascous mixture; the excess of
carbon of the metal, or of the carbon added along with the alkali, is a valuable
product for the manufacture, by well-known methods, of the cyanogen com-
pounds to be employed as converting agents, as herein-after described.
SECOND OPERATIONS.
The iron that results from this first process contains only carbon, either
combined or free, but is capable still of being kept fluid under the heat of the
reverberatory fire of the furnace. In this condition (if desired) it may be
transferred to the ordinary puddling furnace, and converted in the usual
manner into malleable iron. I prefer, however, to proceed as follows:-
The floating purifying compound is removed from the surface of the fluid
and partially purified metal, which is then exposed to an oxygenizing current
by management of the flues of the furnace, the gaseous agitator being still
used and kept in action as before, or so long as the amount of fluidity of the
metal will admit of the passage through of gaseous matter. In a short time
the result of this treatment is the abstraction of the excess of carbon in the
metal, and the gradual thickening of the mass. at any stage of which thicken-
ing, according to the judgment of the operator, the metal is removed from the

page_text: furnace in its then condition of malleable iron, and can be rolled, hammered,
or otherwise treated as usual, for its more complete conversion into wrought
iron. Or. in place of expelling the excess of carbon by access to the surface
of the metal of an oxygenizing current, I apply to its surface an alkaline
manganate or ferrate, as the manganate of soda, or the ferrate of soda: or
I add to it a mixture of peroxide of manganese and carbonate of soda, or of
peroxide of iron and carbonate of soda, and keeping up the action of the
reverberatory fire. so as (as long as possible) to keep the metal fused, in this
way, that is, by reactions between these compounds or mixtures and the iron
acting upon the surface of the melted mass. abstract the excess of carbon
present, and bring the metal into the condition of malleable iron.
When I wish to dispense with the gaseous agitator, in order to present to
the action of the reducing or abstracting or purifying agents a continually
renewed surface of the fluid metal, as above described, and wish in place of
this to rely upon the actions brought about by presenting at one time to the
action of such agents a more extended or greater area of surface of the melted
metal; then resort to the use of the second kind of furnace herein-before
described, and employ hand labor or any mechanical means for agitating the
metal and the materials employed when such agitation is necessary, using the
same principle and the same materials for purification and for subsequent
decarbonizing for the production of malleable iron. The deoxidizing flame
provided for by the arrangement of this furnace I throw in when it is needed.
to maintain the heat at the time of reaction of the materials intended for
purifying the metal. The oxidizing flame or currents, also provided for.
I throw in, when it is needed, to abstract the excess of carbon, in order to
yield malleable iron, and so on, in a manner which the previous explanation
renders unnecessary to be more minutely described in this place.
THIRD OPERATIONS.
The iron that is obtained at the end of the first operation, as above
described, is free from all or almost all impurities except carbon, and the
presence of this carbon subserves the purpose of keeping the iron fluid under
the high temperature used. This carbonized iron may then, as under the
second method, be decarbonized and made into malleable iron; or it may now
be so treated as to be converted into steel. And to effect this conversion of
this or of any other carbonized iron with steel. I proceed as follows:-Keeping
up its fluidity by application of the reverberatory fire. I pass into and through
it a gaseous mixture of nitrogen and carbonic oxide and ammonia, the result.
of which is the expulsion, to a greater or less extent, of the excess of residual

page_text: carbon, and the conversion of the iron into steel: or i pass into it ammonia
alone: or, upon the surface of the fluid metal, still agitating it by the gaseous
mixture, I throw some manganate of potash or of soda, the effect of which is
to assist in the abstraction or expulsion of the excess of carbon, and in other
5 respects (when required) still further to purify the metal, and to adjust the
relative proportion of the elements essential to its final condition as steel.
Or, further, in order to produce steel, I take the metal as it comes out at
the end of the second operation above described; that is, when the excess of
carbon has been only so far removed as to leave the metal still fusible; and
to this fluid metal I add some cyanogen compound, using preferably the
ferrocyanide of manganese as the agent of conversion, but ferrocyanide of iron
and ferrocyanide of ammonia and several others can also be used with
advantage: this incorporation or action upon the metals being aided either by
use of the gaseous agitator or by any other convenient mode of bringing every
portion of the metal in contact with the converting agent.
Or. in place of following up consecutively and with the same furnace the
purifying and decarbonizing operations, by these converting operations the
metal, at the close of the second operations, may be placed in a crucible similar
to those used in the manufacture of cast steel, and similarly heated, and the
process of conversion be effected therein: and for this purpose, to the melted
iron I add ferrocyanide of manganese or ferrocyanide of iron, using them
either alone or mixed with some alkaline cyanide or ferrocyanide, the effect of
the reactions of which with the iron is its complete conversion into steel: Or
the partially decarbonized iron from the second operations may be completely
formed into malleable iron by the after rolling. tilting, or other mechanical
appliances, and then this malleable iron, broken into small pieces, is placed in
a crucible, and melted along with one or other of the converting compounds
just specified. In this latter case, it is desirable in the first instance to add
to the pieces of iron only a small portion of the converting compound, or
just enough to render the iron fusible, and when fluid, to add the full quantity
of the converting compound that is needed for complete conversion.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do not claim as of
my invention. or the exclusive use of, the apparatus herein-before described
and referred to, except when the same is employed in and for the manu-
facture of iron and steel, as herein-before described. And I hereby declare
that what I claim as the Invention for which the said Letters Patent are
granted is,
First, the purification of cast iron by the application to the molten mass of

page_text: a gaseous mixture of nitrogen and carbonic oxide, with or without ammonia and
cyanogen, as above described.
Secondly, I claim the purifying and refining of pig iron by the application
on the surface of the chemical agents herein-before described.
Thirdly, claim the decarbonizing of the metal for its conversion into
malleable iron, and the conversion of such malleable iron or of partially
decarbonized iron into steel, in the manner and by means of the reacting
and converting agents above described.
In witness whereof. I, the said Christopher Binks, have herenuto set
my band and seal, this Fifteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Signed in the presence of
HENRY FLETCHER.
Patent Agent.
123, Chancery Lane,
London.
CHRISTOPHER BINKS. (L.S.)