IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ART OF WELDING TOGETHER BARS OF BESSEMER STEEL
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Benjamin Joseph Barnard Mills, of the Firm of Harris
and Mills, of 23, Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, Patent
Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ART OF WELDING
TOGETHER BARS OF BESSEMER STEEL." A communication from abroad by
Williard Thomas Block, of Hannibal, in the County of Marion, State of
Missouri, United States of America, Railroad Auditor.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Benjamin Joseph Barnard
Mills at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 11th December
1879.
BENJAMIN JOSEPH BARNARD MILLS, of the Firm of Harris and Mills, of 23,
Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent. "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE ART OF WELDING TOGETHER BARS OF BESSEMER STEEL." A com-
munication from abroad by Williard Thomas Block, of Hannibal in the County of
Marion, State of Missouri, United States of America, Railroad Auditor.
The object of this Invention is to produce a tough, tenacious, and easily wrought
metal suitable for marketable purposes, as merchant bar, wire, sheet, or plate axles,
and the like.
The Invention is a cheap and practical process of utilizing the rail ends, old rail
bars, and many waste forms of old and new Bessemer steel by double heating and
welding two or more pieces into a homogeneous mass to be wrought into
merchantable forms.
In carrying out the Invention any suitable forms of Bessemer steel, such, for
example, as rail bars, are reduced to uniform lengths with reference to the purpose
to which the finished product is to be applied and arranged in a convenient and
practical form on the bed of the heating furnace, forming a pile without any
bands or ties whatever, and consisting of as many pieces as may be desired,
Having completed this first stage of the process, which may resemble that in
ordinary use in the art, if ties or bands are not used therein, the second stage is
commenced, which is the first heating, and which continues until the pile has
reached, or nearly reached, the weld heat for this metal, which is the more readily

page_text: obtained, and perfectly distributed where rail-bar or similar forms are used in the
pile, because of the free access of the heat to the inner surfaces of the pile, there
being no filling to obstruct free play of the heat or to draw from its intensity.
Having reached this stage of the process care should be taken to prevent any such
increase of heat as would be sufficient to burn the steel. The pile is now ready for
the second heating, which is the third and last stage prior to removal to the
hammer or rolls. The doors of the heating furnace are opened, thus tempering the
heat, and a sufficient quantity of iron turnings (those from wrought iron producing
the best results) are thrown into it and over the pile and bed of the furnace. The
workman then proceeds with the second heating and busscling by rolling the pile
over the turnings on the bed of the furnace, the faggots being now in a sort of
temporary weld sufficiently strong in bond to keep together in form. The turnings
which the pile gathers up, together with those already thrown over it, weld to the
pile and exert a dual influence. First, they protect it from the increased heat at
this stage; and, secondly, they assist in the final welding under the hammer or the
rolls.
The pile, after having reached the end of the third stage, second heating, is ready
to be passed under a hammer or through a train of rolls after the manner that
obtains in the ordinary course practised in the art.
Any ordinary furnace may be used to carry out this process where the degree of
heat can readily be regulated and controlled.
In handling the pile the instruments common to the trade are employed.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Benjamin Joseph Barnard Mills in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 11th June 1880.
BENJAMIN JOSEPH BARNARD MILLS, of the Firm of Harris and Mills, of 23,
Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent.
"IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE ART OF WELDING TOGETHER BARS OF BESSEMER STEEL." A coin-
munication from abroad by Williard Thomas Block, of Hannibal, in the County of
Marion, State of Missouri, United States of America, Railroad Auditor.
The object of this Invention is to produce a tough, tenacious, and easily wrought
metal suitable for marketable purposes, as merchant bar, wire, sheet, or plate axles
and the like.
The Invention is a cheap and practical process of utilizing the rail ends, old rail
bars, and many waste forms of old and new Bessemer steel by double heating and
welding two or more pieces into a homogeneous mass to be wrought into
incrchantable forms.
In carrying out the Invention any suitable forms of Bessemer steel, such, for
example, as rail bars, are reduced to uniform lengths with reference to the purpose
to which the finished product is to be applied, and arranged in a convenient and
practical form on the bed of the heating furnace forming a pile without any bands
or ties whatever, and consisting of as many pieces as may be desired.
Having completed this first stage of the process, which may resemble that in
ordinary use in the art if ties or bands are not used therein, the second stage is
commenced, which is the first heating, and which continues until the pile has
reached, or nearly roached, the weld heat for this metal, which is the more readily
obtained and perfectly distributed where rail-bar or similar forms are used in the
pile because of the free access of the heat to the inner surfaces of the pile, their
being no filling to obstruct free play of the heat or to draw from its intensity.
Having reached this stage of the process, care should be taken to prevent any such
increase of heat as would be sufficient to burn the steel.
The pile is now ready for the second heating, which is the third and last stage
prior to the removal to the hammer or rolls.
The doors of the heating furnace are opened, thus tempering the heat, and a
sufficient quantity of iron turnings (those from wrought iron producing the best
results) are thrown into it and over the pile and bed of the furnace. The workınan
then proceeds with the second heating and busseling by rolling the pile over the
turnings on the bed of the furnace, the fagots being now in a sort of temporary
weld sufficiently strong in bond to keep together in form. The turnings which the
pile gathers up, together with those already thrown over it, weld to the pile and exert
a dual influence. First, they protect it from the increased heat at this stage;
and, secondly, they assist in the final welding under the hammer or the rolls.
The pile, after having reached the end of the third stage, second heating, is ready
to be passed under a hammer or through a train of rolls after the manner that
obtains in the ordinary course practiced in the art.
Any ordinary furnace may be used to carry out this process where the degree of
heat can readily be regulated and controlled. In handling the pile the instruments
common to the trade are employed.
And in order that the said Invention may be more clearly understood I will
proceed aided by the accompanying Drawings to illustrate the mode of carrying
the same into effect.

page_text: Figure 2 is a view of the pile at the commencement of its second and last
heating showing the same arrangement of rail-bars with the introduction of iron
turnings.
Figure 3 shows the pile at the completion of its second heating after the
busscling when ready to be removed from the furnace and welded under hammer
or through the rolls.
A is a pile of any suitable form consisting of rails or pieces a, a, a ; B, the bed
of a heating furnace; and C the turnings.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and the mode in which
the same is carried into effect, I would have it understood that what I claim is,-
In the welding of steel, the process substantially described in the Specification,
to wit, the forming of an open pile of steel bars, and heating the same in any
suitable furnace to a temperature somewhat short of a proper welding heat, then
arresting the heat at this point by the admission of air into the furnace, and
covering the pile and bed of the furnace with iron turnings, then increasing the
heat to the full welding temperature, and rolling the pile upon or in the bed of iron
turnings until the softened surface of the pile is completely coated with the said
turnings, and then removing the coated pile from the furnace and welding it by
hammering or rolling.
In witness whereof, I, the said Benjamin Joseph Barnard Mills, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty.