AN IM- PROVED METHOD OR MEANS OF MAKING IRON
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, We, RICHArd
BRADLEY, WILLIAM BARROWS, and JOSEPH HALL, of Bloomfield Iron Works, in
the Parish of Tipton, in the County of Stafford, Iron Masters and Co-partners,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-first day of August, in the second year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Richard Bradley, William Barrows, and Joseph Hall, Her especial license,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the said Richard Bradley,
William Barrows, and Joseph Hall, our exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said Richard Bradley, William Barrows, and Joseph Hall,
our exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England;
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "AN IM-
PROVED METHOD OR MEANS OF MAKING IRON;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso that we, the said Richard Bradley, William Barrows, and
Joseph Hall, or some or one of us, shall cause a particular description of.

page_text: the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being there-
unto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Richard Bradley, William Barrows, and Joseph Hall, do hereby declare
the nature of our said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be
performed, are fully described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and
to the figures and letters marked thereon (that is to say):-
According to the ordinary mode or means of making malleable or wrought
iron, the ore is first smelted by means of blast furnaces, and the products
therefrom are called "pigs," which are next submitted to the process of
refining, and then to the operation called puddling. In some cases the
process of refining is dispensed with, and the raw or crude pigs are at once
carried to the puddling furnace, and there boiled, and puddled, and balled.
And further, malleable iron has been produced in puddling furnaces directly
from the melted iron from the blast furnace, and in other instances the
methed iron from the blast furnace has been conveyed to the refinery furnaces,
and there refined and afterwards puddled in the ordinary way of puddling
refined iron, all which is well known to iron masters; and for some of these
processes Patents have been secured, and we have only made mention thereof
in order more readily to point out the nature of our Invention, which consists
of an improved method or means of making iron by preparing and applying
that product which is called "tap cinder" (which is obtained in the manufac-
ture of malleable or wrought iron by boiling and puddling in the same
furnace) in the making of malleable iron, as will be hereafter explained. It
is well known that in boiling crude iron, whether in the form of pigs or
melted iron obtained from the blast furnace, and puddling and balling such
iron in the same furnace, that, owing to the high degree of heat requisite for
such process of boiling, the bottom and sides of the furnace become quickly
destroyed unless the bottom and sides of the furnace are well protected by cinder
or other matter capable of resisting and preventing such high degree of heat
_getting to and prejudicially acting on the bottom and sides of the furnace;
and many matters have been and are applied to the bottoms and sides of the
furnace in the making of malleable iron from the crude iron of the blast
furnace in the form of pigs or otherwise, and we believe that the best

page_text: substance heretofore employed for such purpose is the cinder from puddling
furnaces produced in the process of puddling refined iron; but it is evident
that in proportion as the refining process is dispensed with, so does the product
of cinder obtained in puddling such. iron, become scarce and expensive, in
consequence of which circumstance many attempts have been made so to
construct the furnace in which boiling and puddling are to be performed
as to resist the extent of heat required; and various materials in substitution
of the cinder obtained in the process of puddling refined iron have been
tried for bottoms and sides of such and other furnaces, and, amongst others,
"tap cinder," obtained in the process of boiling and puddling crude iron in
the puddling furnace, has been attempted to be used as a bottom and sides
of furnaces in puddling iron, more particularly for boiling and puddling
crude iron, but, so far as our experience goes, to very little advantage. Our
Invention does not therefore relate generally to the use of tap cinder in the
manufacture of iron, but only to a mode or means of preparing and applying
such tap cinder in the making of iron, as hereafter described. Tap cinder,
as above stated, and as is well understood, is obtained from the puddling,
furnace in the making of malleable iron from crude iron from the blast
furnace, whether in the form of pigs or otherwise; and, according to our
Invention, tap cinder is to be submitted to a continued process of roasting
or burning, and to be subsequently applied as a bottom and sides of a furnace,
in which boiling and puddling of crude iron from the blast furnace is being
performed, or in which puddling of refined iron is carried on, by which
improved mode or means of making malleable or wrought iron we obtain not
only a cheap but a most useful cinder, and further, we use up that product
which is at present of comparatively of little value.
Having thus stated the object of our Invention, we will now proceed to
describe the Drawing hereunto annexed, and also the means or mode of
treating tap cinder, and applying it in the manufacture of iron. Figure 1
is a plan, and. Figure 2. is a side elevation of a kiln such as we employ for
submitting tap cinder: to; a process of roasting or burning. This kiln is
similar to what is used. in the burning of bricks. a, a,, are the side walls;
b, b, are the end walls of the kiln; c, c, are openings in the end walls to
facilitate the making up of the charge, as hereafter explained, and these
openings are closed with bricks and clay when carrying on the process.
d, d, are fireplaces, and e, e, are the fire bars.. The charge is made up.in.
the following manner:-The tap cinder, which is broken into pieces about
six inches diameter, is placed in the furnace, arching it over the fireplaces d, d,

page_text: from side to side of the furnace in such manner as to allow of a free circula-
tion of fire and air intimately amongst the charge, and the tap cinder is to be
filled in to about six inches above the openings d of the fireplaces. There a
quantity of slack is to be laid on to the depth of about two inches; tap cinder
is next to be laid on for a depth of about two feet, then slack to about the
depth of two inches is next to be laid on; the furnace is then to be filled
up with tap cinder. The kiln being charged fires are to be lighted at d, d;
and continued till the tap cinder is of a high degree of heat, and nearly at
the point of melting; remove the fire from the upper part of the openings d
of the fireplaces, and allow of a free passage of air for three or four hours;
add more fire, but not to close the openings d at top, and when the tem-
perature is again raised to a high degree the fire is to be drawn back, as
before described, and this process is to be conducted from three to four days
and nights, a little more or less will not be material.
After this the tap
cinder is to be kept constantly heated with as much. fire as it will bear by
filling the fireplaces d with fuel, not allowing the tap cinder to melt, which
should be prevented by drawing back the upper parts of the fires and
allowing air to enter at the openings d of the kiln. In about seven or eight
days the tap cinder will begin to resist the fire to a considerable extent,
and will allow of much more fuel in the fireplaces d, and the heat is to be
well kept up, with the openings d closed, only drawing back the fires and
opening the upper parts of the fireplaces d for the admission of air to prevent
the tap cinder melting. The heat during the remainder of the process should
be kept at as high a degree of heat as possible, so long as melting does
not take place. At the end of about fourteen days the process will be
complete; and we would remark that a workman, after a very little practice
and observation, will be able to perform the operation as herein described.
And it only remains to be observed, that in applying the product thus obtained
from tap cinder in the making of malleable iron, whether from crude iron
from the blast furnace, or from refined iron, the mass of prepared tap cinder
is to be allowed to cool, and then broken and applied in the furnace in like
manner to applying cinder obtained in the process of puddling refined iron,
and as is well understood; and the processes of boiling and puddling, or of
puddling only, as the case may be, are to be performed as heretofore practised,
and as is well understood, and consequently will not require further descrip-
tion in this our Specification. In order to break up the mass of prepared
tap cinder in the kiln, we remove the bricks from the openings c, c, of the
kiln, and by iron wedges driven into the mass by means of a heavy ball

page_text: of iron dropped from an elevated position, having first picked out all round
by the walls for three or four inches, by this means we split the mass into
many parts, which may then be readily removed and be broken for the puddling
furnace..
We would remark, that although we have been particular in naming the
quantities of the tap cinder and of the fuel used therewith in the kiln, and
have shewn the construction of kiln used by us, and which we have found
fully to answer, and which we believe to be the best for the purpose, and
although we have named the time for the process of the preparing process,
yet these may be varied, provided our Invention be effected.
And we would have it understood that what we claim as our Invention
is, the mode or means of making iron by preparing and applying tap cinder,
as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Hall, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Thirtieth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, 'that on the Thirtieth day of January, in
the year of our Lord 1839, the aforesaid Joseph Hall came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose..