IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Cameron, of Tondu, near the Town of
Bridgend, in the County of Glamorgan, Analytical Chemist, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND
STEEL."
Sealed.the 23rd April 1875, and dated the 14th November 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Cameron at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
14th November 1874.
I, JOHN CAMERON, of Tondu, near the Town of Bridgend, in the
County of Glamorgan, Analytical Chemist, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND
STEEL," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in the first place of producing a superior class
or kind of metal from the refineries for the manufacture of steel direct
from the refinery, or for the manufacture of finished bar iron in the
forge. To attain this end I introduce a fuel called anthracite, sometimes

page_text: called stone coal, into the refinery to refine the iron. This anthracite
or stone coal I can use either in its raw state as it comes from the mine
or partially coked in close chambers or ovens, I use it also in com-
bination with a certain proportion of other fuels, such as coke from
bituminous coal, charcoal, peat, wood, or bituminous coal, but I prefer
to use it mixed with coke from bituminous coal. I use anthracite also
in cupola furnaces for remelting.
When I proceed to make steel direct from the refinery I mix with the
melted metal in the refinery a certain proportion of wrought scrap iron,
such as I find suitable, and a certain portion of the alloy of iron and 1
manganese generally called spiegel eison or ferro-manganese. The scrap
iron is heated red hot before being added to the melted metal in the
refinery, and the spiegel eisen or ferro-manganese is melted in a ladle
or other suitable vessel or furnace, and run into the melted metal in the
refinery, and then run into suitable ingot moulds ready for the sub- 1
sequent processes of hammering and rolling after being annealed.
When I want to make finished bar iron I use from one-half to two-
thirds of anthracite or stone coal in the refinery, and the other half or
one-third of the fuel in the refinery to consist of coke from bituminous
coal. From the purity of the anthracite or stone coal so used I produce 2
a quality of refined metal so pure as to produce a finished bar iron of
the very finest quality.
To dispense to a great extent with the use of cinder from the puddling
furnaces in the process of refining I make an artificial cinder consisting
of sand, clay, oxide of iron or red hematite, and a small portion of 2
common salt fused together in a furnace, run out into blocks, and mixed
with a certain portion of puddling cinder, and used in the refinery
instead of all puddling cinder.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Cameron in the Great Seal Patent Office on 30
the 13th May 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
CAMERON, of Tondu, near the Town of Bridgend, in the County of
Glamorgan, Analytical Chemist, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said John Cameron, Her special
license that I, the said John Cameron, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Cameron, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said John Cameron, 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 Scal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, tho said John Cameron, 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 :-
My Invention consists in the first place of producing a superior class
or kind of metal from the refineries for the manufacture of steel direct
from the 【refinery, or for the manufacture of finished bar iron in the
forge. To attain this end I introduce a fuel call anthracite, sometimes
called stone coal, into the refinery to refine the iron. This anthracite
or stone coal I can use either in its raw state as it comes from the mine
or partially coked in close chambers or ovens. I use it also in com-
bination with a certain proportion of other fuels, such as coke from
bituminous coal, charcoal, peat, wood, or bituminous coal, but I prefer
to use it mixed with coke from bituminous coal. I use anthracite also
in cupola furnaces for remelting.
When I proceed to make steel direct from the refinery I mix with
the melted metal in the refinery a certain proportion of wrought scrap
iron, such as I find suitable, and a certain portion of the alloy of iron

page_text: and manganese generally called spiegel eisen or ferro manganese. The
scrap iron is heated red hot before being added to the melted metal in
the refinery, and the spiegel eisen or ferro-manganese is melted in a
ladle or other suitable vessel or furnace, and run into the melted metal
in the refinery, and then run into suitable ingot moulds ready for the 5
subsequent process of hammering and rolling after being annealed.
When I want to make finished bar iron I use from one-half to two-
thirds of anthracite or stone coal in the refinery, and the other half or
one third of the fuel in the refinery to consist of coke from bituminous
coal. From the purity of the anthracite or stone coal so used I produce 1
a quality of refined metal so pure as to produce a finished bar iron of
the very finest quality.
To dispense to a great extent with the use of cinder from the puddling
furnaces in the process of refining I make an artificial cinder consisting
of sand, clay, oxide of iron or red hematite, and a small portion of 1
common salt, fused together in a furnace, run out into blocks, and
mixed with a certain portion of puddling cinder, and used in the
refinery instead of all puddling cinder.
In carrying out my Invention I prefer to use the purest varieties of
iron ores in the blast furnace, and also the purest fuel that can be 20
obtained in the form-of coke or anthracite coal, or a mixture of both, in
such proportions as I find most convenient and economical.
I also prefer to use calcined lime as a flux in the blast furnace instead
of raw limestone, the calcined lime being more active in desulphurising
and dephosphorising the iron ores and the fuel used in this part of the 2
process for obtaining the required metal to be converted in the sub-
sequent processes of my Invention into bar iron and steel. The ores
I prefer to use for this purpose consist of hematites, red and brown, and
also magnetic iron ores, allowing no cinder from the forge or from the
refineries to be used unless it is calcined, so that it may be freed from 80
sulphur, or nearly so, as this element is one of the most deleterious in
iron and steel making.
The class of metal I prefer to employ in the refinery from the blast
furnace is a degree more grey than ordinary white iron, that is,
approaching to mottled, although I use ordinary white iron generally, 35
or iron several degrees more grey, that is, iron approaching to or con-
taining higher per-centages of graphitic carbon.

page_text: As the molten metal in many iron works is run directly from the
blast furnace into the refinery for the purpose of being refined I make
a mixture of peroxide of manganese, peroxide of iron (red or brown
hematite) and calcined lime, in equal or other proportions most suitable.
With this mixture I line or sprinkle the gutter or runner along which
the molten iron flows from the blast furnace into the refinery, and I
also add a portion of this mixture to the melting down refineries where
old castings or pig iron undergo the process of refining. This mixture
I employ in the manufacture of bar iron and steel, as described above.
Before I run the molten metal from the blast furnace into the refinery
when I am making steel I place a certain proportion of wrought iron in
the refining furnace and heat it up to a bright redness before the melted
metal is run into it. I do not confine myself to any proportion of
wrought iron so used, but what I find most convenient and suitable for
my purpose. This wrought iron in part may consist of a portion of
puddled bar or a portion of the puddled ball before it has undergone the
process of squeezing and rolling.
When I use a portion of puddled bar or puddled ball in the manu-
facture of steel I put a certain portion of the peroxides of manganese,
iron, and calcined lime into the puddling furnace before the metal is
melted down in order to purify the puddled ball or puddled bar so used
in the refinery for the manufacture of steel.
When I make my artificial cinder to be used in the refinery of clay,
oxide of iron, sand, common salt, and puddling cinder, I calcine the
puddling cinder so used to free it from sulphur and other volatile im-
purities. The spiegel eisen or ferro-manganese I may melt in a crucible
and add it to the refined metal in the refinery after it has been properly
blown before it is tapped out into ingot moulds, or I may use an auxiliary
furnace with or without blast attached to it, in which I melt the ferro-
manganese, and into which I run the melted metal from the refinery.
The melted ferro-manganese in this auxiliary furnace is to be covered
with a layer of carbonaceous matter and peroxide of manganese. The
carbonaceous matter used in this part of the process to consist of wood
charcoal or the purest anthracite coal.
After the steel ingots have undergone the usual reheating, hammering,
and rolling out into bars, if I find that more carbon is required in the
steel I cut the bars into short lengths, which I form into piles and

page_text: wrap up in thin sheet iron with a mixture of ground charcoal and per-
oxide of manganese. These piles so formed are then heated in the
ordinary mill or balling furnace, or in any other suitable furnace, taking
care to regulate the temperature so as to obtain the desired result.
The piles after this carbonising part of the process are taken to the 5
hammers to be hammered out to the required form or taken to the mill
to be rolled out into bars. If I wish to withdraw some of the carbon
from the steel I cut the bars into lengths, as already described, and wrap
them in thin sheet iron with peroxide of manganese or peroxide of
iron, or a mixture of both, and heat, as before described, the charcoal 1
being omitted in this part of the process. The decarbonised piles so
formed are then treated as described before.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, I would have it understood that I claim,-
First. The use of anthracite or stone coal, raw or partially coked, 1
mixed or unmixed with other fuels in the iron refineries.
Second. The production of steel direct from [the iron refineries by
means of anthracite or stone coal being used in such refineries mixed
or unmixed with the other fuels named above. Great heat is given off
by the anthracite, which conduces to the material improvement in the 2
quality of the iron and steel so produced, besides its being pure.
I also claim the use of anthracite or stone coal in cupolas or
melting down furnaces or refineries for melting down cast pig iron or
cast scrap iron, to which blast is applied, but not to reducing furnaces
where ores are operated upon in order to obtain pig iron.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Cameron, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.
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