IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFacture of · D In
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS 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 THE MANUFacture of
·
D
Inox CLOMENA
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LETTERS 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 THE MANUFACTURE OF
BESSEMER STEEL AND IRON, AND IN THE PRODUCTION OF IRON CASTINGS, AND
IN APPARATUS THEREFOR." -A communication from abroad by Zoheth
Sherman Durfee, of the City of New York, in the United States of
America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Denton Abel
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 6th March 1872.
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
MANUFACTURE. OF BESSEMER STEEL AND IRON, AND IN THE PRODUCTION OF IRON
" to be as follorec •.
THE

page_text: economy would be effected by converting the crude iron immediately
after it is tapped from the smelting furnace before it has lost its heat and
fluidity. The difficulty in adopting this mode of operating arises from
the variable character of the metal, which as it runs from the smelting
furnace is sometimes of a quality unfit for conversion. One part of the
present Invention relates to a process and apparatus whereby this diffi-
culty may be overcome. Between the smelting furnace (whether a blast
furnace or a cupola furnace) and the converting vessel is introduced a
reverberatory mixing furnace, by preference a gas furnace, of any
suitable known construction into which the crude metal from the
smelting furnace is run, and wherein it is mixed with pig iron of suitable
qualities, or with iron or steel or metalloids, such as it may be desirable to
alloy with the crude metal, fluxes being also supplied for giving the
required fluidity and purity, and the usual tests as to quality being
applied to the mixed metal. The metal thus treated is then run into the
converting vessels of known construction, wherein it is subjected to the
Bessemer process. By properly arranging the levels of the smelting
furnace, the mixing furnace, and the converting vessels, the metal may
be run direct from the one into the other without the necessity for
hoisting ladles. Also the metal supplied for alloy in the mixing furnace
may be poured or run into it in a liquid state from melting furnaces or
cupolas situated near it. The metal may also be poured back from the
converting vessels into the mixing furnace in case of accidents occurring
to the converting vessels, or when further admixture or refinement may
be necessary.
The method herein described of producing uniformity of quality in iron
for conversion by the Bessemer process may also be used for giving the
desired quality and character to iron to be used in making castings of
any kind. For this purpose a mixing furnace such as has been described
above is employed in conjunction with the smelting furnace, and with
the other furnaces or cupolas in which the selected metal is heated and
melted. The crude metal from the smelting furnace being run into
the mixing furnace, is there alloyed, or refined and tested, and the mixed
metal is run thence into moulds so as to produce the required castings.

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 4th September 1872.
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 Sixth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
fifth 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 executors, adminis-
trators, 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 there-
after 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 THE MANUFACTURE OF BESSEMER STEEL AND IRON, AND IN
THE PRODUCTION OF IRON CASTINGS, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR, a communi-
cation to me from abroad by Zoheth Sherman Durfee, of the City of New
York, in the United States of America, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Charles Denton Abel, my executors
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.
or
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:―

page_text: would be effected were it possible. to make uniformly good products of
the desired temper by converting the crude iron immediately it is tapped
from the blast furnace in which it is made. This plan has been and
may still be practiced to a considerable extent, but it has been found
that by reason of the irregular working of blast furnaces, and the con-
sequent varying character and quality of the crude iron produced, it was
always very difficult and in most cases impossible to secure such
uniformity in the converted metal as was essential to success in the.
business. Hence, at several establishments where the plan of taking
the fluid iron as it was tapped from the blast furnace and pouring it at
once into the converter has been practiced, it has been abandoned, the
proprietors preferring to incur the expense of handling and remelting
the crude iron after it had been cast into pigs, in order thus to secure
the advantage of carefully selecting and mixing the materials for each
charge to be converted.
Now in order to secure the greater portion of the saving due to
taking the iron from the blast furnace to the converter without its being
allowed to cool and solidify, and at the same time to obviate the dis-
advantages resulting from the variations in the character and quality of
the blast furnace product, and in order also to be able to mix irons to
any desired extent, I propose to place at any suitable points near the
converting vessels, and by preference at such height as will permit the
metal to be run into the converters from them without previously
hoisting the ladles into which the metal may first be tapped, reverbera-
tory furnaces, by preference gas furnaces, into which furnaces the crude
iron as it is brought from the blast furnaces may be poured, and wherein
it may be mixed with other irons, and be so treated as to insure the
metal from time to time tapped out for conversion being as nearly as
practicable of a uniform character. So many and so large furnaces may
be used as the work in progress may demand; but in many cases one
furnace of about double the capacity of the converter in use will be
sufficient, as the necessary correction of the character of the crude iron
can be very quickly made. Gas furnaces offer especial advantages for
this purpose, as they use much less fuel in maintaining a given tempera-
ture than do the ordinary reverberatory furnaces, and can readily produce
the highest heat required.
After the iron from the blast furnace has been poured into the
reverberatory furnace, pig iron of different qualities, or any metals or

page_text: metalloids which may be desired to mix therewith, may be introduced,
and so also may any fluxes which may be useful.
Some qualities or grades of crude iron cannot advantageously be used
in the Bessemer process, because they do not contain sufficient quantities
of heat giving elements, such as carbon and silicum, and consequently
work cold, and the steel produced from them chills so quickly that it
cannot be tapped from the ladles. Now with the use of gas furnaces as
herein proposed, such metals can be so highly heated before they shall
be poured into the converter that the lack of heat giving elements will
be compensated, and as iron lacking such elements, chiefly the higher
numbers of pig iron, is sold at lower prices than those irons which contain
them, reverberatory furnaces may also in many cases, be advantageously
used when iron is to be remelted for conversion; and when in such cases
it may be cheapest to use cupola furnaces for melting the pigs, I would
place a reverberatory furnace at some convenient point between the
cupola furnaces and the converters, and tap the iron from the cupolas
into the reverberatory furnaces, and from thence, after first giving it the
desired character and temperature, into the converter. It will be under-
stood that these reverberatory furnaces will give all needed opportunity
for testing the irons under treatment, and also superior facilities for
remelting any ingots and scraps which require to be reconverted; and
when reverberatory furnaces are used alone or in combination with
cupola furnaces, arrangements may be made for hoisting any metal,
which in consequence of derangements of the converters or any of the
connected apparatus may require to be poured from the converters
before it is completely converted, and pouring it into the reverberatory
furnaces so that it may be prepared for being returned to the same con-
verter from whence it was taken, if it shall have been repaired, or to
some other which may be in order. In case gas furnaces are thus used
in connection with cupola furnaces, the latter may be so constructed as
that the waste gases therefrom may be taken off for working the
reverberatory gas furnaces.
The before described method of producing uniformity of quality in
iron for conversion by the Bessemer process may also be used for giving
the desired quality and character to iron to be used in making castings
of any kind.
Various attempts have been made from time to time to make castings
..
...

page_text: quite all such operations have been abandoned, because the crude iron
run directly from the smelting furnace or from ladles into which
it had just been tapped into moulds was found to be too impure and
too irregular in character to be relied upon for many of the castings
desired.
Now in order to obviate these disadvantages and to be enabled to
suitably refine the iron tapped out of the smelting furnace, and then cast
it into any desired form without suffering it to cool, and then remelting
it, and also to be able to make conveniently mixtures of other irons with
such iron as may be tapped from any smelting furnace whose product it
may be desired to cast without allowing it to cool and then remelting it,
I proceed as follows:-I place at any convenient point near the blast
furnace, or within such distance that the crude metal tapped out from
the blast furnace can be carried thereto without losing its fluidity, a
reverberatory or other suitable furnace, preferably a gas furnace, such as
the Siemens' regenerative gas furnace, or any similar furnace in which
a high heat may be maintained at small cost of fuel, and in which the
waste gases of the blast furnace can be used as fuel in whole or in
part, and I pour or run the metal tapped out from the blast furnace
therein.
When the metal has been poured into the gas furnace it can be treated
in any desired way to refine it, and any metals or alloys of metal can
be added at will. The iron in the gas furnace can thus be kept at any
given standard, and part of it tapped out from time to time as may be
required for making casting of any desired quality, and it will be scen
that this plan offers great advantages for the manufacture of high grades
of castings, such as car wheels, malleable castings, &c., as the heat of
the gas furnace can be so far raised as to melt or keep melted the most
decarbonized iron.
The gas furnace may be of any desired capacity, or two or more such
furnaces may be used together in making large castings.
In cases where transportation of castings from blast furnaces to
market would be inconvenient or too expensive, I obtain some of the
advantages of the foregoing process as follows:-I combine with one or
more reverberatory or gas furnaces one or more cupola furnaces, so
arranged that the metal melted in the cupolas can be tapped and run
into the other furnaces and from the latter into moulds or into ladles for

page_text: being poured into moulds. In such cases I use the cupola furnaces for
melting pig iron, and I prefer to melt therein the most inferior metal to
be used, and also all metal the character whereof is not definitely known.
The iron so melted will then be tapped into the gas or other furnaces,
and samples taken therefrom and tested, and thereupon it can be treated
in any way to give it the desired qualities for any kind of casting.
It will be understood that the character of the iron in the gas furnaces
can be varied from time to time or kept continuously at one standard,
and not only by this means may any desired uniformity or variety in the
quality of castings produced be attainable, but greater economy in
cost; because by this plan cheaper mixtures of pig iron can be made
for any given purpose than can be made in cupolas, and such mixtures
can be more quickly and cheaply made than they can be by the use of
the gas or reverberatory furnaces alone.
I am aware that it is not new to run or pour crude iron from blast
furnaces into reverberatory furnaces for the purpose of puddling or
refining it for being puddled or otherwise treated for the manufacture
of malleable iron and steel, and I make no claim thereto.
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 correspondent, what I claim is,―
First. Combining converting vessels with reverberatory furnaces and
blast or smelting furnaces in such wise as that the crude iron can be
tapped and run or carried, raised, and poured from the blast furnaces
into the reverberatory furnaces, and then, after being treated as may be
desired, be tapped out and run into converters, substantially as and for
the purposes described and specified.
Second. Combining converting vessels with reverberatory furnaces
and cupola furnaces, in such wise as that the metal melted in the cupola
furnaces can be run from thence into the reverberatory furnaces, and
from the latter to the converters, substantially as and for the purposes
described and specified.
Third. The herein-described modes of producing uniformity in the
character of the iron to be converted by the pneumatic or Bessemer
proce000

page_text: Fourth. So combining the apparatus used in the conversion of crude
iron by the pneumatic or Bessemer process that the metal under
treatment in the converters can be poured out and transferred to a
reverberatory furnace and then tapped back into the converters, sub-
stantially for the purposes specified.
Fifth. The herein-described modes of treating iron for the manu-
facture of castings by first producing it in blast furnaces or melting it
in ordinary cupola furnaces, and then, previously to founding it tapping
it into reverberatory furnaces and refining it, or in otherwise modifying
its character.
Sixth. Combining reverberatory or gas melting furnaces with blast
furnaces or cupola furnaces for treating iron for the manufacture of
castings, substantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Denton Abel, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Third day of September, in
the of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
two.
year