IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ALLOYS OR COMPOUNDS CONTAINING METALLIC TUNGSTEN
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Oxland, of Plymouth, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ALLOYS OR COMPOUNDS CONTAINING
METALLIC TUNGSTEN."-A communication.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Oxland at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th December 1857.
I, ROBERT OXLAND, of Plymouth, do hereby declare the nature of the
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ALLOYS OR COMPOUNDS
CONTAINING METALLIC TUNGSTEN," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of alloys
or compounds containing metallic tungsten. For these purposes a compound
or alloy of metals is produced which I call wolfram metal, by exposing
wolfram ore or mineral to the strong heat of an air or other suitable furnace,
by preference by placing such ore or mineral in crucibles lined with charcoal
The
when subjecting the same to high temperatures in an air furnace.
Invention also consists in the employment of wolfram metal, or of the ore or
mineral, or of tungsten in combination with iron, for the production of cast
iron, wrought iron, and steel; and the Invention also consists in the employ-
ment of metallic tungsten in combination with other metals in the manufacture
of German silver or packfong.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Oxland in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
17th June 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I. ROBERT
OXLAND, of Plymouth, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of December. in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifiy-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Robert Oxland, Iler special licence that I, the said Robert Oxland, my
executors, administrators, and assigns. or such others as 1. the said Robert
Oxland, 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 MANU.
FACTURE OF ALLOYS OR COMPOUNDS CONTAINING METALLIC TUNGSTEN," a com-
munication; upon the condition (amongst others) that 1, the said Robert
Oxland, 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 I, the said Robert Oxland. do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
forined, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of alloys
or compounds containing metallic tungsten. For these purposes a compound
or alloy of metals is produced which I call wolfram metal, by exposing
wolfram ore or mineral to the strong heat of an air or other suitable furnace,
by preference by placing such ore or mineral in crucibles lined with charcoal
when subjecting the same to high temperatures in an air furnace. 'The
Invention also consists in the employment of wolfram metal, or of the
ore or mineral, or of tungsten in combination with iron, for the production of
cast iron, wrought iron, and steel; and the Invention also consists in the
employment of metallic tungsten in combination with other metals in the
manufacture of German silver or packfong.

page_text: Having thus stated the nature of the said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same. I first render the
mineral as free as possible from the admixture of foreign matters by crushing
or grinding it small, and then washing in the usual manner adopted in tin
mines for the separation of the specifically lighter foreign bodies. If sulphur
and arsenic are associated with the ore I then calcine the mixture until as
much as may be of these substances has been volatilized. The residuary
constituents of the iron and arsenical pyrites are then washed off, and finally
the last traces of sulphur and arsenic are removed by digesting the mass in
dilute muriatic acid (the ordinary commercial acid diluted with an equal
weight of water), which process, together with subsequent washing, will leave
the wolfram all but perfectly pure.
The refined powdered wolfram mineral thus obtained is put into a crucible
(such as is used by cast-steel makers) lined with wood, or peat charcoal in fine
powder, and the reduction is effected by exposing the crucible in a wind or
other suitable furnace at a reddish white heat for about three hours, or if the
crucible be very large a longer time will be necessary.
The product obtained is a porous mass of grayish color, and consists of
metallic tungsten in combination with the carburets of iron and of manganese.
Any form of furnace will serve the purpose, in which the crucibles can be
placed, and the heat raised to and maintained at a reddish white. The
crucible is then removed from the furnace, and is allowed to cool with the
metal therein, and such metal, which I call wolfram metal, is then ready for
use in the manufacture of steel and otherwise.
I obtain an alloy of the constituents of the wolfram ore or mineral combined
with metallic iron, by mixing the purified mineral, that is, the product obtained
in the manner above described, up to but not including, the crucible process,
with the ordinary charges of the iron blast furnace, or by putting it into the
founder's cupola with pig iron; or when the quantity required is so small as to
be unsuited to either of these furnaces, by fusing it with cast iron in crucibles.
I use at the rate of about 30 per cent. of the purified mineral to the quantity
of iron, but this may be varied; and it may be stated that the product, when
using less than 30 per cent., will in proportion be reduced in hardness. In
the product thus obtained the tungsten is in such a state of combination that
it is not removed by any subsequent refining or puddling operation. The
alloy of cast iron with tungsten may be used for metallurgical purposes,
and for the manufacture of the blue oxide of tungsten and of tungstic
acid.
For metallurgical purposes the wolfram metal is employed for the manu

page_text: facture of metallic tungsten or wolframium in the following manner:-It is
granulated and digested in muriatic acid out of contact with the air. and the
metallic tungsten is deposited in the form of a very fine black powder, which
should be collected on a filter, washed, and dried in a current of hydrogen
gas. By triturating this powder with water in a zinc mortar a blue color is
obtained; by digesting it in nitric acid, tungstic acid of a beautiful yellow
color is produced, or by calcination with carbonate of soda, tungstate of soda
may be manufactured. Cast steel of very superior quality is obtained by the
addition of wolfram metal to steel. and melting them together; the pro-
portions of the wolfram metal varying from one-half per cent. to 25 per
cent. of the quantity of steel, according to the degrees of hardness and
density desired to be obtained.
The pots and furnaces ordinarily employed in the manufacture of cast steel
will serve for the production of the wolfram steel, but for from ten to twenty
minutes before the pouring of the metal the temperature of the furnace should
be considerably increased, so as to raise it to a bright white hent.
The alloy of cast iron with the constituents of wolfram ore or mineral may
be refined in the same manner as ordinary pig iron, and after refining may be
converted into cement steel by the ordinary process of cementation. The
refined wolfram cast iron may have its crystallization destroyed by a con-
tinuous hammering when cold.
The pure metallic wolframium or tungsten obtained by the reduction of
tungstic acid previously alloyed with nickel may be employed in the manu-
facture of German silver or packfong, whose ductility is not affected, but
whose specific gravity is increased. In this manufacture the quantity of
tungsten may be varied: but I prefer two parts of metallic tungsten to be
combined with three parts of nickel, which are fused together in crucibles.
The product thus obtained is used as nickel now is in the manufacture of
German silver or packfong.
In witness whereof. I. the said Robert Oxland, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of June. in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
JNO. ALCOCK.
ROBERT OXLAND. (L.S.)