IMPROVEMENTS IN PREVENTING IRON AND STEEL FROM WASTING AWAY BY OXIDATION, CORROSION, OR OTHER CAUSES, THEREBY PREVENTING INCRUSTATION TTY E $1
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Andrews Fisher, of San Francisco,
California, in the United States of America, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PREVENTING IRON AND STEEL FROM WASTING AWAY BY
OXIDATION, CORROSION, OR OTHER CAUSES, THEREBY PREVENTING INCRUSTATION
TTY
E
$1

page_text: TUYERES," and have petitioned Her Majesty to grant unto me, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for
the same, and have made solemn Declaration that I really believe
myself to be the first and true Inventor thereof.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Andrews Fisher, do hereby
declare that the following Complete Specification, under my hand
and seal, fully describes the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, that is to say :-
All natural waters hold various solid substances in solution and when
brought in contact at temperatures above or below 212° Fah*. with rolled,
wrought, or cast iron or steel, the surface of the same is corroded or
eaten away. The rapidity with which such action takes place depends
upon the quantity and character of the substances contained in the
water and the temperature of the water and metal during the period of
their contact. Abundant evidence of this corroding action by the fresh
water of rivers, springs, wells, and the salt water of the oceans and
inland seas, is furnished in the case of iron ships, steam boilers, iron
tanks, and other vessels, and the varied forms of iron and steel used
n commerce, manufactures, and the arts.
When sea water or fresh water is brought in contact with iron or steel
at natural temperatures, there is produced a material insoluble in water
the composition of which depends upon the character of the metal and
the nature of the water, and which according to its density rises to the
surface or remains mechanically suspended throughout the liquid, or
subsides to the bottom of the vessel in an incoherent mass; but when
vessels containing such waters are exposed to artificial temperatures, the
final result is the deposition of a hard mass or cake of greater or less
thickness, which adheres to the internal surface of the containing vessel;
such cake or scale is the well known "incrustation" produced in steam
boilers and the water twyers of blast furnaces. The formation of this
incrustation in water twyers is not liable to result in any other damage
than pecuniary loss, but in steam boilers it is not an unfrequent cause of
explosion. Although under ordinary circumstances a boiler incrustation
adheres with considerable tenacity to the surface of the iron, yet by
excessive firing or unduly heating a steam boiler a large scale of the
indurated matter may be suddenly detached, uncovering a considerable

page_text: portion of the boiler at a temperature above the maximum evaporating
point of the water, thereby producing an explosion.
Many means have been proposed to prevent the rusting of iron vessels
and the incrustation of steam boilers. Extracts of catechu, logwood,
quercitron bark, and other substances of this class prevent incrustation
by forming a soluble compound with iron, and although rusting and
incrustation may be thus prevented the amount of iron removed from.
the vessel or boiler by such means and its consequent deterioation is as
rapid as if the iron had first been converted into rust.
I have invented a method of preventing the rusting or corrosion of
iron ships or vessels by bilge water, the corrosion of steam boilers, and
the consequent incrustation of the same by salt or fresh water, in short
a-general method of preventing the corrosion or wasting away or solution
of iron or steel by any natural water or aqueous solution of saline or
other substance.
The invention consists in bringing in direct contact with the iron or
steel and any natural water or artificial aqueous solution of saline or
other substances a metal or combination of metals more easily oxidized
or otherwise corroded or eroded by oxygen, chlorine, or any other
matter than iron or steel is oxidized or otherwise corroded by such
contact.
My Invention consists in the employment either separately or in
combination with each other in the form of an alloy or amalgam the
following metals :-aluminium, antimony, cadmium, lead, magnesium,
mercury, tin, and zinc, or any equivalent of either one or more of these
metals.
It will be seen that this list of metals belongs to a class in which the
oxides of the metals are insoluble in water.
To use the metal, alloy, or amalgam for the purpose of preventing
oxidation or corrosive action or wasting away of vessels of any kind or
form (used in commerce, manufactures, or the arts), constructed either
partially or entirely of iron or steel, I simply place the metal or alloy or
amalgam in the vessel the iron or steel part of which is to be protected,
in direct and simultaneous contact with some portion of the metallic
part of the vessel and the water or aqueous solution contained therein,
the result, whether the liquid or its containing vessel be in motion

page_text: or in a state of rest, is the prevention of oxidation, corrosion, and
incrustation.
Having thus described my Invention, what I claim and desire to
secure by Letters Patent is, the use of metallic aluminium, antimony,
cadmium, lead, magnesium, mercury, tin, and zinc, or any equivalent
metal or metals the oxides of which are insoluble in water, employing
the said metals either singly or separately, or alloyed or amalgamated
one or more with another in such proportions as the character of the
water and the iron and steel intended to be preserved may require,
in the manner and for the purposes substantially as above set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Andrews Fisher, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of June, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
three.
Witnesses,
JOHN L. BOONE.
C. M. RICHARDSON.
ROBERT ANDREWS FISHER. (L.S.)