CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND OTHER METALS
Year: 1840

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL 'COME, we, Sir JOSIAH
JOHN GUEST, of the Dowlais Iron Works, in the County of Glamorgan,
Baronet, and THOMAS EVANS, of the same place, Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of May, in the third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Josiah John Guest and Thomas Evans, Her especial license, that we,
the said Josiah John Guest and Thomas Evans, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Josiah John Guest and Thomas
Evans, our executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term
of .years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND
OTHER METALS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging
us, or one of us, the said Josiah John Guest and Thomas Evans, by an instru-
ment in writing under our or one of our hands and seals, particularly to
describe and ascertain the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in Her
said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within four calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Josiah John Guest and Thomas Evans, do hereby declare the nature of
our said Invention to consist in forcing damp steam into the melted mass

page_text: of metal, whatever it may be, contained in the melting furnace used for melting
the said metal in, and particularly into the melted iron in refinery and
puddling furnaces, as also in a certain paste made with the said steam an d
melted cinders, and applied as herein-after explained. And in further com-
pliance with the said proviso, we, the said Josiah John Guest and Thomas
Evans, do hereby describe the manner in which our said Invention is to be
performed, with reference to iron, by the following statement thereof, reference
being had to the Drawing annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
jets of steam is or are introduced into this furnace in contact with the melted
iron while in a state of what is usually called fermention; the steam is con-
ducted through the roof of the furnace as here shewn, through wrought-iron
telescope tubes sliding one over the other, by means of which tubes we are
enabled to convey the steam very near to the surface of the fluid iron to be
acted upon. The success of the operation depends much on bringing the
steam in close contact with the melted iron, therefore any other plan of intro-
ducing the steam close to the iron may be found to answer the same purpose.
The steam that we have used for our experiments has been supplied from the
ordinary engine boiler; but (as shewn in the case of the refinery furnace,
Figure 4,) we purpose generating the steam in the chimney of the furnace.
The pressure we have used in the puddling furnace has been about fifteen
pounds to the inch through four pipes A, A, .A, A, three quarters of an inch
in diameter, which answer very well. During this process, in order to keep the
sides, bridge, and bottoms of the furnaces from burning, we introduce a
quantity of steam upon the fluid cinders as soon as the heat is drawn, until the
cinders become of the consistency of paste; we then, with a rabble or rake,
rake as much of that paste, and place it against the back, sides, and bridge of
the furnace as may be required to fill any cavity that may have been burned
during the previous heat of iron. The use of the cinders in a state of paste
for repairing the bottom and sides of the furnace keeps the iron quite clean and
free from dirt, which is always found from the use of clay and limestone as at
present used. The tubes A; A, A, A, which pass through the roof of the
furnace, slide over the tubes B, B, B, B, forming thus telescope tubes, and
they are raised or lowered according to the quantity of fluid metal in the
furnace, by means of the lever C and handle D by which it is worked; the
dotted line shews the height of the fluid metal. E is the steam pipe; E, the

page_text: connecting pipe for communicating alike to all the four telescope tubes, and
G is a condensed water pipe. Figure 2 is a side elevation and Figure 3 a
plan of the puddling furnace.
-
And now as to the refinery furnace, we introduce a jet or jets of
damp steam after the pig iron is melted through the same aperture as
the blast; the quantity and temperature of the steam must depend upon the
quality of the pigs to be acted upon. We use four pipes of half an inch in
diameter, with a pressure of twenty pounds to the inch, and find it answers
our purpose. The steam is by us generated in the chimney of the finery
furnace, but it may be conveyed from the engine boilers.
Figure 4 represents a side elevation of our steam apparatus shewn in two
of the four twyers or apertures of a refinery furnace, and Figure 5 another
view of it. In Figure 4, H, H, are two of the steam pipes, the steam being
generated in the tube or cylinder I in the flue or chimney, which cylinder I
is filled with water, J being a water feed-pipe, and K a pipe on which to place
a safety valve. Now, whereas we propose to apply steam in a similar way
in the melting of alloys of copper and iron, and of tin and iron, which alloys
can be made in refinery and puddling furnaces by it; but in particular we
apply our said Invention to the manufacture of iron, whereby we obtain a
better material with greater economy.
And we claim as our Invention the use or application of steam forced upon
or into or in contact with the melted iron in refinery or puddling furnaces for
the manufacturing of the same; and also the similar use of steam in the
process of melting or manufacturing alloys of copper and iron, and of tin and
iron in such furnaces, and also the application of steam to fluid cinders, as
herein-before described, to produce the paste aforesaid, and the use or appli-
cation of the said paste, as aforesaid.
And such our Invention being, to the best of our knowledge and belief, entirely
new, and never before used within that part of Her said Majesty's United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her said Dominion of Wales,
or Town of Berwick-upon Tweed, we do hereby declare this to be our Specifica-
tion of the same, and that we do verily believe this our said Specification doth
comply in all respects, fully and without reserve or disguise, with the proviso in
the said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained, wherefore we do
hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to our said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Evans, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of September, One thousand
eight hundred and forty.
THOMAS (Ls.) EVANS

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-eighth day of Septem-
ber, in the fourth year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said
Thomas Evans came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and
acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein con-
tained and specified, in form above written. And also the -Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-
fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.