MENTS IN SMELTING AND PURIFYING OF IRON AND OTHER ORES
Year: 1859

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert William Sievier at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd June 1859.
I, ROBERT WILLIAM SIEVIER, of Upper Holloway, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, but now residing in Hull, in the County of Yorkshire, in the Kingdom
of Great Brittain, do declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROV-
MENTS IN SMELTING AND PURIFYING OF IRON AND OTHER ORES," to be as follows,
and consists in making the furnace air-tight, excepting in those parts at which
the atmospheric air is admitted, or where the ore and materials are intro-
duced. In my Patnt, No. 116, which I communicated to my agent, J. C.
Hadden (while residing abroad) I patented the use of the exhaust in furnaces
instead of the old and usual method of causing combustion by the use of the
blast. This is an improvement on the funace and exhaust so patented. To
explain suppose I am smelting iron ores, I prefer the outer casing of the
furnace to be made of wrought iron rivited together; this shell is lined with
fire-bricks, fire-stone, fire-clay, or an adnixture of them. On the upper part
of this furnace is placed a high tube, into which is introduced the iron ore,
lime, carbon, or the necessary mixtures. A pipe is connected to the apparatus,
which is attatched to the exhauster, the only openings being that at which the
ore is introdued, and where the air is admitted at the lower part. At this
ower part I place a moveable crucible, being entirely unconected with the
high furnace, which crucible I either raise or fall by the aid of an hydraulic

page_text: press, the crucible being placed at the top of the piston. Or I use any
mecanical means to accomplish the same by making the crucible movable
(which I beleve to be entirely new), I am enabled to increase or decrease the
opening at the bottom of the furnace for the admission of air, as may be most
suitable to the metal I wish to produce-say, for instane, in the manufac-
ture of iron I wish to make wrought iron from the ore, I lower the crucible
gradually as the iron accumulates at the bottom of the furnace, and burn out
the carbon. (I should remark that I use a very shallow crucible.) The slag
is allwed to run away at sevrale places to quickly free the metal from im-
purities; when the metal has accumulated so as to form balls or loups of a
considrable size I let doun the crucible so as to enable me to remove them.
They are then placed under the hammer, and rolled in the usual way into
barrs or sheets. Some of the balls or loups may have small pieces of carbon
sticking to them; they may be paced immediately in a pilling funace for a
short time to burn them out, when they may aftrwards be hammered and
rolled before the crucible is lowered sufficiently for the removal of the balls
or loups. I place a few iron barrs accross the lower part of the furnace to
prevent the superincumbent mass from falling.
I prefer making the furnace of an oval or oblong form, so that the metal
may be more easily decarbonized. I find that by the means stated I make a
good wrought iron immediately from the ore. If I desire to make steel, I do
not remove the crucible so far from the furnace that the metal may not be
so much decarbonized. If cast iron is desired, of course the opening for the
admision of the atmospheric air must be small, merely to allow combustion
to go on. As the great pincipal of my improvmets in the smelting of ores
is by the application of the exhaust I take advantage of the exhaest to draw
into the furnace while the metal is dropping in tears aey gasses, oxides, or
materials in a pulverized state that may be thought requisite for the improv-
mnt of the metal. The exhausters are capable of being used for the removal
of all noxious vapours or gasses from buildngs, &c.