AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON
Year: 1853

page_text: Scaled the 20th January 1854, and dated the 18th November 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Stuart
Norris and Ebenezer Talbott at the Office of the Commissioners
of Patents, with their Petition, on the 18th November 1853.
We, RICHARD STUART NORRIS, of Warrington, in the County of
Lancaster, Railway Engineer, and EBENEZER TALBOTT, of Crewe, in
the County of Chester, Manager of Iron Works, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON" to be as follows:-

page_text: Our Invention has reference to that stage of the iron manufacture
at which cast iron is converted into wrought iron by the processes
of refining and puddling. Our said Invention consists in the use of
two refineries placed between two puddling furnaces, each of the said
refineries communicating with each of the said puddling furnaces. The
two refineries are used alternately, that is to say, one receives its charge
when the contents of the other arrive at the middle stage of the pro-
cess, and a regular supply of hot refined iron is thus provided for
the said puddling furnaces. By, combining refineries directly with
puddling furnaces we effect economy and 'facility in the production
of the better kinds of wrought iron. The essence of our Invention
consists in placing refineries in direct communication with puddling
furnaces, so that the latter may receive the iron from the former in
liquid state.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Richard Stuart Norris and Ebenezer Talbott in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 16th May 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we,
RICHARD STUART NORRIS, of Warrington, in the County of Lancaster,
Railway Engineer, and EBENEZER TALBOTT, of Crewe, in the County of
Chester, Manager of Iron Works, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said Richard Stuart Norris and
Ebenezer Talbott, Her special licence that we, the said Richard
Stuart Norris and Ebenezer Talbott, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Richard Stuart Norris and
Ebenezer Talbott, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times

page_text: 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF IRON," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Richard
Stuart Norris and Ebenezer Talbott, by an instrument in writing
under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of
us, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
sto
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 Ebenezer Talbott, 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:
In the conversion of cast iron into wrought iron it has long been
customary to run the fused cast iron direct from the blast furnace to
the refinery or puddling furnace. This method, however, has the fol-
lowing inconveniences; namely, that the blast furnace may be injured
by the long retention of the fused iron therein, the iron only being
drawn off as the working of the refinery or puddling furnace permits;
and the iron injured in quality by being retained in the blast furnace
beyond the proper time. This method has also the inconvenience that
there being no opportunity of controlling the quality of the iron sup-
plied to the refinery or puddling furnace (the said refinery or puddling
furnace having to receive whatever quality of iron the blast furnace may
have happened to produce) the manufacturer cannot secure with cer-
tainty a uniform quality of wrought iron. The object of our Invention
is to introduce a more uniform and certain method of working in the
conversion of cast iron into wrought iron. In carrying our said Inven-
tion into effect we proceed as follows:-We construct two refineries of
suitable dimensions, and place them between two puddling furnaces, in
the relative positions shewn in the accompanying Drawing; one of the
said refineries receives its charge or heat at a given time, and as soon

page_text: as this arrives at the middle stage of the refining process, the second
refinery takes in its charge or heat, and the refineries thus continue to
alternate in working, thus providing a constant supply of hot refined
metal to meet the demands of the puddling furnace as the respective
heats are drawn from the said puddling furnace. By the arrangement
described great regularity of working is secured without the attendant
inconveniences pointed out in the case where the fused metal is drawn
from the blast furnace, for, instead of the lot metal being retained in the
refinery beyond its proper period, it is regularly emptied of its contents
by the two puddling furnaces, whose united capacity is made equal to
take in at each separate charge or-heat the produce of each charge or
heat of the refinery. Refineries of the ordinary size may be employed in
carrying our Invention into effect, and the double puddling furnace (at
present in use) may be substituted for the single one.
The advantages of our Invention are, first, the extra quantity of iron
produced by the puddling furnace; in the usual turn or period of twelve
hours two puddling furnaces are made to produce the work of four.
consequently the cost of wear and tear of such furnace becomes reduced
in a proportionate degree. Second, the saving of fuel and labour by
such increased production; for in giving to the puddling furnace refined
iron in a melted state the workman proceeds, at once to puddle the
said iron, to make it into balls, and to shingle it in the usual manner,
so that the fuel consumed and labour expended, in bringing cold refined
iron to a melted state are saved, and the yield in quantity of iron
increased. Third, economy in the wear and tear of puddling fur-
naces; the necessity for repairs to the back wall and jambs of puddling
furnaces between heats, occasioned by the use of pig iron in the said
furnaces, is to a great extent obviated by the employment of hot
relined iron.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, we wish it to be under-
stood that we are aware that a refinery and puddling furnace have been
combined prior to our said Invention, and that we lay no claim to the
combination of a refinery and puddling furnace, excepting in the man-
ner herein-before described; but we claim as our Invention, the 'com-

page_text: bining of two refineries with the puddling furnaces, and the alternate
working of the said refineries, as herein described and illustrated in the
accompanying Drawing; also its application to ordinary charcoal fires
and furnaces.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ebenezer Talbott, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
THO HUNT.
EBENEZER TALBOTT. (L.S.).