IMPROVEMENTS IN MIXING. CHARGING. AND SMELTING IRON ORES
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Withy and William Gibson, both of
West Hartlepool, in the County of Durham, for the Invention of
" IMPROVEMENTS IN MIXING. CHARGING. AND SMELTING IRON ORES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Withy and
Willian Gibson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with
their Petition, on the 2nd November 1872.
We, EDWARD WITHY and WILLIAM GIBSON, both of West Hartlepool,
in the County of Durham, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MIXING, CHARGING, AND SMELTING IRON ORES,"
to be as follows:→
Our object is to save fuel as much as possible. In effecting this (1)
we crush or grind the ores, and the smaller they are ground the less fuel
they take to smelt them; (2) we mix the pulverized ores with the
required quantity of lime and water to a stiff paste; this paste is forced
into moulds or through dies in a similar manner to drain tiles, the dies

page_text: being made to give such shape or form to the charging sections as will
afford the greatest amount of heating surface according to the weight
and strength of the materials. We charge blast furnaces, puddling
furnaces, cupolas, and vibratory furnaces with such sections, in manner
described in our Letters Patent No. 2672, A.D. 1872, but we prefer to t
use them more especially in our improved puddling furnace therein
described. The sections therein described we consider to be the best.
These sections are made by being forced through dies with a brick
making machine, or a similar machine made for the purpose and cut to
the required length and breadth with knives or wires as they come 1
through the dies; they are then put into stoves or exposed in the open
air to dry, after which they are ready for charging.
Sometimes we mix the ore and lime with sawdust or pulverized coke
or coal.
Any of the well-known fluxes may be mixed with the ores, but we do 1
not claim any particular flux nor yet any particular quantity of flux, as
this depends on the different ores and whether the metal is intended for
castings, wrought-iron, or steel. When the ore and lime are mixed with
coal and charged the charges gradually descend, and at the same time
the heat increases. When the mixture has acquired a certain heat the 2
coal is converted into gas, which is ignited by the hot blast or heated
air from the furnaces. A great heat ensues and the ores are quickly
smelted at a small cost of fuel.
We do not always make the ores up into the above sections; they
sometimes take the form of slabs which when dry we break up and put 2
into the furnaces regardless of shape. But for furnaces, especially blast
furnaces, we prefer making the mixture into balls which always leave
sufficient space for the flame or heated gases to play freely between
them. We charge these balls in at a spout at the height to which the
furnace is intended to be kept charged. While these sections or balls are a
under the drying process we sometimes press them in a similar manner
to pressed bricks to make them stand the handling and charging better.
We also put in sufficient coke or coal along with the balls.
In this Invention the mixing of the ores, as above-mentioned, and the
charging of the ores, as above-mentioned, are peculiar and important a

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edward Withy and William Gibson in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 2nd May 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, EDWARD
WITHY and William Gibson, both of West Hartlepool, in the County
of Durham, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Edward Withy and William Gibson,
Her special licence that we, the said Edward Withy and William Gibson,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Edward Withy and William Gibson, our 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 MIXING, CHARGING, AND
SMELTING IRON ORES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we,
the said Edward Withy and William Gibson, our executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under our, 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 per-
formed, and 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 we, the said Edward Withy and William
Gibson do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement :—
Our object is to save fuel as much as possible. In effecting this (1)
we crush or grind the ores, and the smaller they are ground the less
fuel they take to smelt them; (2) we mix the pulverized ores with the
required quantity of lime and water to a stiff paste. We also mix
the iron sands with the lime and flux, and in this case the sands are

page_text: mixed direct with the fluxes. This paste is forced into moulds or
through dies in a similar manner to drain tiles, the dies being made to
give such shape or form to the charging sections as will afford the
greatest amount of heating surface according to the weight and strength
of the materials. We charge blast furnaces, puddling furnaces, cupolas
and vibratory furnaces with sections in manner described in the Speci-
fication of our Letters Patent No. 2672, A.D. 1872, but we prefer to use
them more especially in our improved puddling furnace, therein
described. The sections therein described we consider to be the best.
These sections are made by being forced through dies with a brick
making machine or a similar machine made for the purpose, and cut to
the required length with knives or wires as they come through the dies;
they are then put into stoves or exposed in the open air to dry, after
which they are ready for charging.
Sometimes we mix the ore and lime with sawdust or pulverized coke
or coal.
Any of the well-known fluxes may be mixed with the ores, but we do
not claim any particular flux nor yet any particular quantity of flux, as
this depends on the different ores, and whether the metal is intended for
castings, wrought iron, or steel. When the ore and lime are mixed with
coal and charged the charges gradually descend, and at the same time
the heat increases. When the mixture has acquired a certain heat the
coal is converted into gas, which is ignited by the hot blast or heated
air from the furnaces. A great heat ensues and the ores are quickly
smelted at a small cost of fuel.
We do not always make the ores up into the above sections, they
sometimes take the form of slabs, which when dry we break up and put
into the furnaces regardless of shape, or at other times put them in
whole, the same as the plates in our Patent No. 2672, A.D. 1872; but
for furnaces, especially blast furnaces, we prefer making the mixture
into balls which always leave sufficient space for the flame or heated
gases to play freely between them. We charge these balls in at a spout
at the height to which the furnace is intended to be kept charged.
While these sections or balls are under the drying process we sometimes
press them in a similar manner to pressed bricks to make them stand the
handling and charging better. We also put in sufficient coke or coal
along with the balls.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed or
carried out in practice, we hereby declare that we claim as novel and
peculiar features or characteristics of the herein-described Invention of
"Improvements in Mixing, Charging, and Smelting Iron Ores,"
-
Second. Charging the ores as above-described.
And Third. The said improvements generally as improvements in
smelting as far as applicable thereto.
In witness whereof, we, the said Edward Withy and William
Gibson, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-
eighth day of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-three.
Witness,
R. W. VICK,
EDW. WITHY.
(L.S.)
WILLIAM GIBSON. (L.S.)
Belle Vue,
West Hartlepool.