AN IMPROVED MODE OF PARTIALLY HARDENING IRON FOR VARIOUS PURPOSES
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANTOINE
VICTOR COUTANT, of Paris, in the Republic of France, Iron Master, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fifteenth day of
year of
April, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, in the fourleenth
Her reign, did, for Herself,. Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Antoine Victor Coutant, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her
especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Antoine Victor Coutant, my exors, admors, or assigns, or such others as 1, the
said Antoine Victor Coutant, my exors, adñiors, 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,
and also in the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man,
and also in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention
of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF PARTIALLY HARDENING IRON FOR VARIOUS PURPOSES;',
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said Antoine
Victor Coutant, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in Her
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

page_text: and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Antoine Victor Coutant, hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the present Specification thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto aunexed, that is to say:-
My said Invention has for its object to remedy the serious loss and
inconvenience now constantly arising from the rapid and unequal wear
of the rails and switches of railways, the tires of railway carriage wheels,
and other iron surfaces exposed to much friction, and consists in an im-
proved apparatus for partially hardening such surfaces, that is to say, har-
dening them on those sides only which are exposed to the friction. The
usual process of hardening iron surfaces is by cementation, which has been
hitherto applied to articles of small dimensions only from the want of an
apparatus of sufficient capacity and provided with adequate appliances for
the treatment of pieces of such magnitude as railway wheels; and in the
process of cementation too, as followed even on the smallest scale, it is
found necessary to protect the parts not required to be hardened by cemon-
tation by coatings of clay or earth. Now, by the said improved apparatus
of my Invention, articles of any magnitude or weight or shape may equally
with the smallest be hardened by cementation, and the cementation may
be confined to the parts only required to be cemented, without the use of any
coating of clay or earth. The apparatus consists of four principal parts or
distinctive features:-First, a circular chamber, within which the articles to
be hardened or cemented are placed; this chamber is set over a hearth, the
flame, smoke, and other products of combustion from which circulate round
the exterior of the chamber. Second, a circular kiln, from near to the grate
of which a number of flues radiate outwards, by which the flame, smoke, &c.,
pass in order to circulate round the chamber of cementation. Third, a move-
able cover or dome, which serves to concentrate the heat in the cementing
chamber, and which is surmounted by a crane for lowering the articles to be
cemented, and lifting them out again after the process has been accomplished.
And, fourth, a peculiar mechanical arrangement of the parts, whereby the
cementation of the articles is confined to any particular part thereof desired,
without the use of clay or earth to protect the other parts, and whereby also
the depth of the vertical or horizontal bed of charcoal in the cementing
chamber may be augmented or lessened at pleasure, and admitted into con-
tact with the part only which is to be cemented.

page_text: Figure 1 of the Drawings annexed is an external elevation of this apparatus
adapted for wheel tyres; Figure 2, a top plan of the same; Figure 3, a sec-
tional elevation on the line AB of Figure 2; and Figure 4, a horizontal section
on the line AD in Figure 3. Figures 5, 6, 7, and 8 relate exclusively to the
kiln for rails and bars, of which Figure 5 is an elevation, Figure 6 a top plan,
Figure 7 a vertical section through the middle, and Figure 8 a horizontal
section in the line. AD of Figure 7.
A is the exterior wall of the apparatus,
which is here supposed to be of a circular form, but may be either circular or
square or rectangular, according to the shape of the objects to be cemented.
It may also be of any size suitable for the articles intended to be cemented.
A, A", Figure 3, are two inner walls, which form with the outer one three
spaces or compartments, through the outermost of which the flame, smoke
and the other products of combustion circulate; in the second of which the
cementation is effected; and the third or central one of which is left empty.
A is a vault over the hearth, on each side of which is the sole A, A,
(circular, square, or rectangular, as the case may be?) on which are laid the
wheel tyres, rails, switches, or other articles that have been introduced in the
space reserved for the process of cementation. In the wall A there are four
openings or eye-holes for the purpose of observing the progress of the cementa-
tion, and seeing that the flame is circulating equally all round. These openings
may also be made use of for the introduction of a smaller or greater quantity
of air, by lessening the openings or making thein wider. In A' is the mouth,
through which ths fuel is introduced on the hearth; B is the moveable dome
or cover; B¹, the chimney, which may be inade in two parts, one attached to
the dome, and the other fixed at the outside of it, and supported by stays.
The dome is made moveable, in order to permit of the introduction into the
interior of the pieces intended for cementation; it is hooped at bottom by an
iron ring b, and rests on friction rollers 6, which move on rails C, C, C,
there being one rail on each side, and a third in the centre, and sup-
ported at the outside of the brickwerk by props or stays, bound to each
other by neaus of cross pieces. With the aid of these rollers and rails,
the dome is easily taken off to throw open the upmost orifice of the
apparatus through which the articles to be cemeted are lowered and lifted
out, either by the assistance of a crane or some other suitable means.
c, c, are hollow bricks or moveable vent holes. The dome being taken
off the apparatus, there remains only to introduce in the space kept free
for that purpose the articles to be cemented, say, for example, waggon
wheel tyres. The number of articles superimposed one upon another must
be according to the height of the apparatus; as, for the introduction..of

page_text: the charcoal necessary for the cementation, it must be made through the
centre of the apparatus, if there is not a second inner wall erected before
hand; but if the contrary is the case, then it may be introduced through the
top of the apparatus by means of a rammer acting between the wall and the
wheel tyre or other article to be cemented, a sufficicut space being kept free
for that purpose. Although the walls near to which the parts not to be
cemented are laid are sufficient, and although the superposition of the two
pieces by the side not to be cemented be a warranty against the cementation, it
will be more prudent to cover those parts with common clay, in order to be more
certain of the exclusion of any carbon. The apparatus adınits of course many
more or less obvious modifications, without involving any material departure
from the general principle or system on which the same is constructed. For
instance, the kiln for rails and switches may be made double, as exemplified
in Figure 9; or the inner wall, instead of being made up like the first one,
I mean at the same time with the rest of the apparatus, may be constructed
after the introduction of the articles to be cemented,and may also be composed
of common clay or earth, instead of bricks, and covered with a bed of earth
on either face or on both faces. This second wall too may be more or less
removed from the first inner wall, according to the breadth or thickness of the
article to be cemented. Again, the openings or eye holes made in the outer
wall of the apparatus may be multiplied in number, and even their number
may be encreased to that of the flues (L, L,) which radiate from near the
centre of the hearth; and the openings once made may be shut up with move-
able bricks, iron trap doors, or any other means proper to augment or diminish
the action inside. The equal distribution of the heat and regulation of its
intensity might also be made easy by augmenting in number the lower
openings by which fuel is supplied to the hearth. Moreover, in order to
render more certain in some cases the exclusion of the action of the carbon
on the parts that are not to be cemented, a current of cold air might be made
to flow through the interior of the apparatus and introduced into the void und
central part of the apparatus; it would act on the surface of the inward wall
to keep it cool. The same means could be applied if need were to any hollow
and horizontal partitions which might be erected, in order to separate partially
the wheel tyres or other articles from one another. Farther, the central or
vacant part of the apparatus might be made use of for cementing articles of a
smaller size, by arranging that part so that the caloric should come into it
either vertically or horizontally; or it might be wholly shut up at the top, in
order to prevent any communication between it and the space where the flame,
&c., circulate. At the circumference, and at several heights openings might

page_text: also be made to receive trial pieces suitably enveloped with charcoal, or such
articles as matrices or moulds, wedges, &c. that require to be but partially
cemented. The inner parts or walls of the apparatus may be made of earth
according to the nature of the operation, that is to say, according to the shape
of the pieces to be cemented, and also according to the parts desired to be
cemented, and no other; any required degree of cementation through my appa-
ratus is effected in a more certain and efficacious way than by any other mode
known to me. Finally, it may be observed, that in the kilns for rails,
switches, and such like articles, the cementation may be made on one of the
projecting parts alone, or on both, according to the covering of earth or
common clay round the parts that need not be cemented. The openings are
of course filled up with earth as fast as the matters are placed in the kiln.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is the
improved apparatus before described for partially hardening iron surfaces in
the peculiar arrangement and combination of the parts before described,
whereby the parts required to be hardened are alone exposed to the process of
cementation without the necessity of the other parts being protected as
usual by coverings of earth or clay, and whereby also articles of any magni-
tude and any shape may be hardened by such process.
In witness whereof, I, the said Antoine Victor Coutant, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of October, One thousand
1
1 ca