IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS TO BE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND Steel
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Griffiths at the Office of the
Commissioners. of Patents, with his Petition, on the 21st November
1864..
I, JOHN GRIFFITHS, of Litchurch, near Derby, Manager of Iron Works, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS TO BE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND Steel,”
to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of the machinery or apparatus herein-after described,.
to be used for compressing iron and removing the scoria therefrom when the
said iron has been puddled and brought to that state of consistency known in.
the trade as worked to nature, and is ready to be balled.
I prefer to use my Invention in connection with the puddling machinery
described in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to me, bearing dated
the Twenty-sixth day of June, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three,
No. 1612, or with other mechanical means of puddling; but my said Invention
may also be used in connection with manual puddling.
My said Invention consists of a hollow cylinder or vessel situated vertically
in front of but below the level of the door of the furnace in which the puddling
operation is performed, the bottom of the opening for the furnace door carrying
a fire-plate against which the bottom of the door rests. The breast-plate
under the fire-plate is fixed to the framing of the furnace door, or is made in

page_text: one piece therewith. The said vessel may be cylindrical, square, or of other
shape in cross section, and of a capacity varying with the quantity of iron
required to be compressed in it. The said vessel may be temporarily closed at
top by a lid, having motion in a horizontal plane, and turning on a centre on
one side of the vessel, and is closed at bottom by a piston capable of moving
up and down in the said vessel. The said piston is forced upwards by
hydraulic steam, compressed air, or other motive power. I prefer, however, to
use steam power for actuating the piston, the axis of the steam cylinder being
situated in a line with the axis of the vessel. When the iron in the puddling
furnace has been puddled to the required degree and is ready to be balled, the
furnace door is opened, and the lid turned aside from the top of the vessel
under the furnace door.
By the operation of the puddling tool or rabble, worked by a machine or by
hand, the puddled iron is pulled out of the furnace into the said vessel. When
sufficient iron has been put in the vessel the lid is made to close the top, and
the piston at the bottom of the vessel is forced upwards, so as to compress the
spongy mass of iron between the said piston and lid into a solid mass or slab.
A series of holes is made in the sides of the vessel, through which the scoria
from the iron escapes during the compressing of the said iron. The pressure
being removed from the piston, it descends in the vessel, carrying with it the
mass or slab of iron. The top of the vessel is now opened by turning the lid
aside, and the piston again raised, and the mass, slab, or bloom of iron lifted
to the top of the vessel, when the said mass of iron can again be put in the
furnace, or be taken to the hammer or rolls. Or the whole or a portion of
the iron in the furnace may from time to time be pulled out of the furnace
into the vessel, and the charges of puddled iron compressed in the said vessel
into one mass.
Although I prefer to remove the puddled iron from the furnace through the
furnace door into the compressing vessel, as described, yet the said iron may
be taken out at any other part of the furnace. The compressing vessel may
either be situated horizontally or vertically; but I prefer to place it vertically,
as herein-before described.
My Invention may be used in the manufacture of puddled steel as well as
puddled iron.