Improvements in the Manufacture of Steel and Ingot Iron.
Year: 1887

page_text: [Communicated from abroad by HERMANN THEODOR RODE, of Dudelinge, in the
Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, Engineer.]
Improvements in the Manufacture of Steel and Ingot Iron.
1, PHILIP MIDDLETON JUSTICE of 55 and 56 Chancery Lane in the County of
Middlesex Fellow of the Institute of Patent Agents do hereby declare the nature of
this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This object of this invention is to effect the removal of the gasses retained in molien
steel of ingot iron, and the deoxidation and recarburation of the same, the invention
heing applicable to either the acid or basic processes of manufacture.
The invention consists in treating the molten discarburised (and when the basic
process is used, dephosphorized) metal after removal of the greater part of the slag
with combined carbonaceous and ferruginous material, all as hereinafter set forth. I
make the addition of the material to the bath of metal either by throwing it in, or by
dropping it down a suitably arranged shoot so that it may sink as far as possible into
the molten metal, and not merely float on the supernatani slag. Or in place of
making the addition in the furnace or converter I add it in the ladle into which the
metal is to be pored either before or during or after the introduction of the metal into
the said ladle. This carbonaceous mixture is prepared by intimately mixing iron or
steel scrap, hematite, ferro chrome, or ferro tungstan ore, ferro manganese or spiegel
or similar ferruginous material preferably in a fine state of division with as much hot
boiled tar or pitch as it will retain or absorb without becoming too liquid. The
resulting mass may be made sufficiently soft to be cut with a shovel, but it is preferred
to so proportion the mixture that it will set and become hard. On the carbonaceous
mixture reaching the metal, a strong reaction immediately sets in, which results in the
almost complete expulsion of the absorbed gases, in the reduction of most of the oxide
contained in the metal, and at the same time to a slight extent recarburises the bath
or ladle of metal. The deoxidation and recarburation of the bath is thus cffected by
the aid of the tar or pitch which is introduced in place of relying solely on the

page_text: ordinary amount of carbon contained in some metallic compound of manganese and
iron.
As the presence of manganese in the finished sieel or ingot iron is considered
advantageous, it is well to add sufficient ferro manganese or spiegel to the carbonaceous
material to give the required percentage of manganese to the finished product.
In place of iar or pitch, other similar hydrocarbon compounds or carbonaceous
materials may be employed.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is-
In the manufacture of steel or ingot iron the process hereinhefore described,
consisting in adding to the molten decarburised (and in the basic process,
dephosphorized) metal, a mixture of hydrocarbon and ferruginous material,
substantially as and for the purposes set forili.
Dated this 11th day of March 1887.
PHILIP M. JUSTICE.