IMPROVEMENTS IN CONVERTING CAST IRON NTO WROUGHT IRON, AND IN UNITING OXIDES, FLUXES, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES WITH MOLTEN CAST IRON
Year: 1868

page_text: TTERS PATENT to Charles Denton Abel, of No. 20, Southampton
Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent
Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CONVERTING CAST IRON
NTO WROUGHT IRON, AND IN UNITING OXIDES, FLUXES, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES
WITH MOLTEN CAST IRON."-A communication from abroad by Thomas
Schoenberger Blair, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and Adolphus
Guzman, of New York, both in the United States of America, and
Francis Ellershausen, of Ellershause, Nova Scotia, and Augustus
E. Stayner, of Nova Scotia.
Sealed the 26th February 1869, and dated the 23rd November 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Denton Abel
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 23rd November 1868.
I, CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings,
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CONVERTING
CAST IRON INTO WROUGHT IRON, AND IN UNITING OXIDES, FLUXES, AND OTHER
SUBSTANCES WITH MOLTEN CAST IRON," to be as follows:-

page_text: This Invention relates to the production of iron in a new and useful
condition suitable for the general purposes of the manufacture of iron
and steel, and combining the advantages of improved quality and
diminished cost.
To enable others skilled in the art to make use of the Invention in
the manufacture of iron and steel I will proceed to describe the method
of operation and the results attained thereby.
This process consists substantially in mixing together cast iron and
an oxide or oxides in such manner and in such proportions as to produce
a solid (as distinguished from a fluid) mass, one and either of them
being in a solid condition and the other of them in a fluid state by reason
of heat applied to it previously to such mixing.
I shall in this Specification describe more particularly the process as
applied to the treatment of melted cast iron with solid oxides.
I use cast iron either taken directly from the blast furnace or remelted,
and for the oxydising agent ore crushed or pulverised may be most
conveniently employed, although I do not desire to restrict myself to the
use of any particular oxide. The mixing may be effected in any
suitable receptacle or mould of such dimensions as will give to the
resultant mass the desired shape and size. An ingot mould in two pieces
united and held together by bands will answer the purpose. In the
bottom of the mould I first place a small quantity of iron ore, so that
the mixing may commence as soon as the melted cast iron is introduced;
I then pour into the mould a stream of liquid cast iron, and simul-
taneously therewith a stream of finely crushed iron ore, keeping the flow
of each as steady as possible, and stirring them constantly with a tool
(preferably made of wood), so as to effect an intimate mixture; care
must be taken that there shall be fully enough ore for the operation.
It will be found that on this admixture the liquid cast iron instantly
becomes pasty and then solid, so that as the materials are poured in and
intimately mixed together a solid (as distinguished from a fluid) mass is
built up until the mould is full. Removing the full mould and supplying
a new one continuously the process is kept up until the whole of the
cast iron has been operated upon. On opening the moulds by removing
the rings and wedges by which the sections are held together the mass
formed therein is turned out; this mass is a loose spongy ingot, from
which the excess of ore which has not combined with the cast iron will
shake out. It is proposed to designate the material thus formed by the

page_text: name of "pig bloom" if cast in a mould or other such receptacle and
preserved in the shape thus acquired; but if the ingot be broken up
small, or if this material be formed in such a manner as to consist of
small pieces, flakes, granules, plates, or scraps, then it is termed "pig
scrap." This "pig bloom" or "pig scrap" will be found to be a
mechanical mixture or conglomerate consisting of particles or grains of
cast iron, of ore, of perfectly converted wrought iron, and of still other
particles in various intermediate conditions; but if there has been
tolerable skill and care exercised in mixing, the mass will be converted
into a condition so nearly akin to that of wrought iron that it will only
need the judicious application of heat to resume and complete the
chemical operations, which, having been commenced in the process of
mixing were arrested in the cooling of the mass in order to perfect the
conversion of the cast iron and the ore into wrought iron by the com-
bination of the carbon of the carburet with the oxygen of the oxide.
In fact this part of the after treatment is conducted as if the result of
the mixing of the ore with the cast iron were already pure wrought iron,
because the heating which is given to it during the further working
will supply all the conditions required for actually producing wrought
or malleable iron. It will also be found in practice that this " pig
bloom" and "pig scrap " is capable of enduring without damage a very
great exposure to heat, both in intensity and duration, and thus the
impurities can be sweated out of the metal to an extent which is not
possible by the old methods of iron metallurgy, or at least not without great
expense. The making of "pig blooms" or "pig scrap" in the manner
described affords a convenient and very efficient means of obtaining the
good effects of such materials as are known to be beneficial either as
detergents or fluxes or as alloys in some of the operations of irou
metallurgy (as in the crucible), but which have wholly or partially
failed to assist in the blast furnace, the refinery, the bloomery, the
puddling furnace, or the Bessemer converter. By combining such
materials with the pulverised ore they enter into intimate mechanical
admixture with the mass of the "pig bloom" or "pig scrap" during the
process of mixing before described, and being thus imprisoned in the
mass and subjected for a long time to a heat too great for them to
endure as solids they must either escape as fluids or gases or else become
chemically incorporated with the iron. Instead of mixing by pouring
the streams of finely crushed ore and of fluid cast iron simultaneously
into a mould the same result substantially may be reached by scattering

page_text: the cast iron on a bed of ore, or by delivering it on a moving surface,
upon which ore may be placed before or after the metal is deposited; or
indeed a variety of methods may be devised whereby to bring the fluid
cast iron and the solid ore into a contact sufficiently intimate to produce
a conglomerate of the character herein-before described. The method
of operation may also be varied by employing the oxide or oxides in a
melted state, and the cast iron granulated or otherwise finely divided in
a solid (as distinguished from a fluid) state, mixing them in such manner
as to produce the conglomerate desired.
Iron ore or oxide of iron has been described as the oxidising agent
in this process, but I do not confine myself to the use of that material
as other oxides may be used in combination with or in lieu of it.
.
I am aware that the removing of the carbon of cast iron to a greater
or less degree by means of oxides is not new, and that the mixture of
solid oxides with fluid cast iron is performed in the puddling furnace
and in other operations, but this is done under other conditions and with
different results; but the novelty of the present process consists in the
mixing of solid oxides into and among fluid cast iron, or of fluid oxides with
solid cast iron, granulated or minutely subdivided in such a manner and in
such quantities as to produce a solid conglomerate of the two substances,
and also in effecting this mixture, and producing the resulting "pig
bloom" or pig "scrap" without the application of other heat than that
of the fused cast iron or oxide, as the case may be, thus dispensing with
the use of a furnace for any part of the process of mixing after the
melting of the cast iron or oxide, whichever of them is used, in a fluid
condition.
It will be found that the mass thus produced may be used in like
manner as any wrought iron of a similar shape, so that when raised to
a welding heat the "pig bloom" manufactured as herein-before described,
may be pressed, squeezed, hammered, rolled, or worked in any of the
methods employed in the treatment of wrought iron, and with like
results, excepting that the article of wrought iron produced by this.
process is superior in quality to that obtained in the ordinary way.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Denton Abel in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 21st May 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
DENTON ABEL, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in
the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in
the thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Charles Denton Abel, Her
special licence that I, the said Charles Denton Abel, my exccutors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Denton
Abel, 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 CONVERTING CAST IRON INTO WROUGHT IRON AND IN
UNITING OXIDES, FLUXES, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES WITH MOLTEN CAST IRON,"
a communication to me from abroad by Thomas Schoenberger Blair, of
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and Adolphus Guzman, of New York, both in
the United States of America, and Francis Ellershausen, of Ellershause,
Nova Scotia, and August E. Stayner, of Nova Scotia, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles Dénton Abel, 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 im-
mediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Denton Abel, 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 thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to the production of iron in a new and useful
condition suitable for the general purposes of the manufacture of iron

page_text: and steel, and combining taramages
diminished cost.
To enable others skilled in the art to make use of the Invention in
the manufacture of iron and steel I will proceed to describe the method
of operation and the results attained thereby.
This process consists substantially in mixing together cast iron and
an oxide or oxides in such manner and in such proportions as to produce
a solid (as distinguished from a fluid) mass, one of them being in a
solid condition and the other of them in a fluid state by reason of heat
applied to it previously to such mixing. I use cast iron either taken
directly from the blast furnace or re-melted, and for the oxydising agent,
ore crushed or pulverized may be most conveniently employed, although
I do not desire to restrict myself to the use of any particular oxide.
The mixing may be effected in any suitable receptacle or mould of
such dimensions as will give to the resultant mass the desired shape and
size. An ingot mould in two pieces united and held together by bands
will answer the purpose. In the bottom of the mould I first place a
small quantity of iron ore, so that the mixing may commence as soon as
the melted cast iron is introduced; I then pour into the mould a stream
of liquid cast iron, and simultaneously therewith a stream of finely
crushed iron ore, keeping the flow of each as steady as possible, and
stirring them constantly with a tool (preferably made of wood), so as
to effect an intimate admixture; care must be taken that there shall
be fully enough ore for the operation. It will be found that on this
admixture the liquid cast iron instantly becomes pasty and then solid,
so that as the materials are poured in and intimately mixed together a
solid (as distinguished from a fluid) mass is built up until the mould is
full. Removing the full mould and supplying a new one continuously
the process is kept up until the whole of the cast iron has been
operated upon. On opening the moulds by removing the rings and
wedges by which the sections are held together, the mass formed therein
is turned out; this mass is a loose spongy ingot from which the excess
of ore which has not combined with the cast iron will shake out. It is
proposed to designate the material thus formed by the name of "pig
bloom" if cast in a mould or other such receptacle and preserved in
the shape thus acquired, but if the ingot be broken up small, or if this
material be formed in such a manner as to consist of small pieces,
flakes, granules, plates, or scraps, then it is termed "pig scrap." This

page_text: pig bloom or "pig scrap" will be found to be a mechanical mixture
or conglomerate consisting of particles or grains of cast iron, of ore, of
perfectly converted wrought iron, and of still other particles in various
intermediate conditions; but if there has been tolerable skill and care
exercised in mixing the mass will be converted into a condition so
nearly akin to that of wrought iron that it will only need the judicious
application of heat to resume and complete the chemical operations,
which having been commenced in the process of mixing were arrested
in the cooling of the mass in order to perfect the conversion of the cast
iron and the ore into wrought iron by the combination of the carbon of
the carburet with the oxygen of the oxide. In fact this part of the
after treatment is conducted as if the result of the mixing of the öre
with the cast iron were already pure wrought iron, because the heating
which is given to it during the further working will supply all the
conditions required for actually producing wrought or malleable iron.'
It will also be found in practice that this "pig bloom" and "pig scrap"
is capable of enduring without damage a very great exposure to heat,
both in intensity and duration, and thus the impurities can be sweated
out of the metal to an extent which is not possible by the old methods
of iron metallurgy, or at least not without great expense. The making
of "pig bloom" or "pig scrap "in the manner described affords a
convenient and very efficient means of obtaining the good effects of such
materials as are known to be beneficial either as detergents or fluxes, or
as alloys in some of the operations in iron metallurgy (as in the
crucible), but which have wholly or partially failed to assist in the
blast furnace, the refinery, the bloomery, the puddling furnace, or the
Bessemer converter. By combining such materials with the pulverized
ore they enter into intimate mechanical admixture with the mass of
the "pig bloom" or "pig scrap" during the process of mixing before
described, and being thus imprisoned in the mass and subjected for a
long time to a heat too great for them to endure as solids they must
either escape as fluids or gases or else become chemically incorporated with
the iron. Instead of mixing by pouring the streams of finely crushed
ore and of fluid cast iron simultaneously into a mould the same result
substantially may be reached by scattering the cast iron on a bed of
ore, or by delivering it on a moving surface, upon which ore may be
placed before or after the metal is deposited; or, indeed a variety of
methods may be devised whereby to bring the fluid cast iron and the

page_text: solid ore into a contact sufficiently intimate to produce a conglomerate
of the character herein-before described.
The method of operation may also be varied by employing the oxide
or oxides in a melted state, and the cast iron granulated or otherwise
finely divided in a solid (as distinguished from a fluid) state, mixing
them in such manner as to produce the conglomerate desired, but this
would not be a practical mode of proceeding.
Iron ore or oxide of iron has been described as the oxydizing agent in
this process, but I do not confine myself to the use of that material as
other oxides may be used in combination with or in lieu of it.
I am aware that the removing of the carbon of cast iron to a greater
or less degree by means of oxides is not new, and that the mixture of
solid oxides with fluid cast iron is performed in the puddling furnace
and in other operations, but this is done under other conditions and
with different results; but the novelty of the present process consists in
the mixing of solid oxides into and among fluid cast iron, or of fluid
oxides with solid cast iron, granulated or minutely subdivided in such a
manner and in such quantities as to produce a solid conglomerate of
the two substances, and also in effecting this mixture, and producing the
resulting "pig bloom" or "pig scrap "without the application of other
heat than that of the fused cast iron or oxide, as the case may be, thus
dispensing with the use of a furnace for any part of the process of
mixing after the melting of the cast iron or oxide, whichever of them is
used in a fluid condition.
It will be found that the mass thus produced may be used in like
manner as any wrought iron of a similar shape, so that when raised to
a welding heat the "pig bloom" manufactured as herein-before
described may be pressed, squeezed, hammered, rolled, or worked in any
of the methods employed in the treatment of wrought iron and with like
results, excepting that the article of wrought iron produced by this
process is superior in quality to that obtained in the ordinary way.
Having thus described the nature of this Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondents, what claim is,―
First. As a new article of manufacture "pig bloom" or "pig scrap,"
being a conglomerate of cast iron, oxides, wrought iron, and particles of

page_text: matter more or less nearly approaching one or other of those substances,
produced by intimately and effectually admixing and bringing into
contact with fluid cast iron oxidizing substances in such manner and
in such quantities as to produce a solid condition of the mass.
Second. As a new method of manufacture the intimate and effectual
mixing together of molten cast iron and solid oxidizing substances in
such a manner and in such proportions as to produce at once the new
conglomerate substance referred to in the first claim, such mixing of the
materials being effected without the addition of any further heat beyond
that contained in the molten cast iron.
Third. The employment of detersive agents or fluxes and useful alloys,
by mingling them or either of them with the oxides used in the process
herein-before described, so that they shall become part of the
conglomerate, and have such intimate contact and connection with the
mass as to produce their proper chemical effects when this is afterwards
subjected to the action of heat.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Denton Abel, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of May, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.