IMPROVEMENTS IN THE UTILIZATION OF BESSEMER STEEL SCRAP
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Arthur Thomas Becks, of Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, Ironmaster, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
UTILIZATION OF BESSEMER STEEL SCRAP."
Sealed the 31st March 1867, and dated the 3rd October 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION filed by the said Arthur Thomas Becks at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd October 1867.
I, ARTHUR THOMAS BECKS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Ironmaster, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN THE UTILIZATION OF BESSEMER STEEL SCRAP," to be as follows:-
The scrap produced by working up bars, rails, plates, and other forms of
Bessemer steel cannot be worked up in the reverberatory furnace in the
same way as wrought-iron scrap. The said Bessemer steel scrap worked up
into a ball in a reverberatory furnace and operated upon by the forge hammer
for the purpose of making balls or blooms therefrom cracks or crumbles and
it is not possible to produce a coherent mass from it. In treating the said
Bessemer steel scrap according to my Invention I throw the said scrap into a
lumping or charcoal fire, and on the said scrap I put charcoal or coke, or the
small coke called breezes; the fire is urged by a blast, and as the scrap
melts or softens and the fuel burns away I add more scrap and fuel until
sufficient of the scrap bas accumulated to form a ball; this is taken by the
workman to the forge hammer, and is there hammered into a bloom, and
I

page_text: afterwards rolled into a bar or applied to any other required purpose. The
metal so produced may be welded in the same way as ordinary wrought iron.
When I use coke or breezes as fuel I find the yield is increased and the
quality of the metal is improved by the use of a little chalk or lime mixed
with the fuel or scrap.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Arthur Thomas Becks in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
31st March 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ARTHUR
THOMAS BECKS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Ironmaster,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her
reign, did for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Arthur Thomas Becks, Her special licence that I, the said Arthur
Thomas Becks, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as 1,
the said Arthur Thomas Becks, 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE UTILIZATION OF BESSEMER STEEL SCRAP," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Arthur Thomas Becks, 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 immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Arthur Thomas Becks, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
The scrap produced by working up bars, rails, plates, and other forms of
Bessemer steel cannot be satisfactorily worked up in the reverberatory

page_text: furnace in the same way as wrought-iron scrap. The said Bessemer steel
scrap worked up into a ball in a reverberatory furnace and operated upon by
the forge hammer for the purpose of making balls or blooms therefrom is
liable to crack or crumble. In treating the said Bessemer steel scrap according
to my Invention I throw the said scrap into a lumping or charcoal fire, and
on the said scrap I put charcoal or coke, or the small coke called breezes,
the fire is urged by a blast, and as the scrap melts or softens, and the fuel
burns away, I add more scrap and fuel until sufficient of the scrap has accu-
mulated to form a ball; this is taken by the workmen to the forge hammer,
and is there hammered into a bloom, and afterwards rolled into a bar or applied
to any other required purpose. The metal so produced may be welded in the
same way as ordinary wrought iron. I find the yield is increased and the
quality of the metal is improved by the use of a little chalk or lime mixed
with the fuel or scrap. The metal or iron produced by treating Bessemer
steel scrap according to my Invention has a greater tensile strength and tenacity
than ordinary iron, and is especially suitable for all purposes where a tensile
strain has to be resisted; it is also softer than steel and tougher than ordinary
charcoal iron.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, 1 wish it to be understood that I do
not limit myself to the precise details herein-before described, as the same
may be varied without departing from the nature of my Invention; but I claim
as my Invention the improvements herein-before described in utilizing
Bessemer steel scrap, that is to say, treating the said scrup in a blast furnace
of the kind called a lumping or charcoal fire either with or without the addition
of lime or chalk, substantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Arthur Thomas Becks, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
Witness,
RICHARD SKERRETT,
Clerk to George Shaw,
Birmingham.
ARTHUR THOMAS BECKS. (L.S.)