A NEW METHOD OF SMELTING OR REDUCING OXIDES OF IRON SO AS TO OBTAIN THE METAL THEREFROM
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Fredric Francis Jones, of Middlesbrough, in
the County of York, Engineer, for the Invention of "A NEW
METHOD OF SMELTING OR REDUCING OXIDES OF IRON SO AS TO OBTAIN
THE METAL THEREFROM."
Sealed the 23rd February 1872, and dated the 23rd November 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Fredric Francis
Jones at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 23rd November 1871.
I, FREDRIC FRANCIS JONES, of Middlesbrough, in the County of
York, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"A NEW METHOD OF SMELTING OR REDUCING OXIDES OF IRON SO AS TO OBTAIN
THE METAL THEREFROM," to be as follows:-
I melt the oxides of iron (which may consist of iron ores of any kind,
or slags, or cinders produced from the making of malleable or wrought
or the melting of cast iron) in a cupola or other suitable furnace, and
if I design to reduce the oxides into metal in the melting furnace I

page_text: then force by pressure (produced by retort, gas producer, or blast),
carbonated gases through the melted oxides until the metal is obtained,
but if I choose to deoxidise the melted oxide in a separate vessel such
as or similar to the known Bessemer converter, I then tap or run out the
molten oxide into such converter and force the carbonated gases through
the molten oxides as I have before stated. If the oxides of iron I use or
the iron when melted contain impurities such as sulphur, phosphorous,
or other deleterious ingredients, I then use with the carbonated gases
either chlorine, fluorina, oxides or salts, either separately or combined
according to the nature of the deleterious matters, for the purpose of
driving them off and obtaining pig iron of good quality.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERIC ]
FRANCIS JONES, of Middlesborough, in the County of York, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in
the thirty-fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Frederic Francis Jones,
Her special licence that I, the said Frederic Francis Jones, my exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Frederic Francis Jones, my 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 "A NEW METHOD OF SMELTING OR REDUCING
OXIDES OF IRON SO AS TO OBTAIN THE METAL THEREFROM," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Frederic Francis Jones, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or

page_text: 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 performed, 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 I, the said Frederic Francis Jones, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention of a new method of smelting or reducing oxides of iron
so as to obtain the metal therefrom consists of the use of carbonated
gases blown or forced through the melted oxides in manner herein-after
described, that is to say, in a cupola or other suitable furnace such as is
herein-after described and shewn in the Drawings hereunto annexed, by
which means the oxides are carbonized in a liquid state. It consists
also of the use in manner herein-after described of chlorine, fluorine, or
other gaseous matter and of pulverized oxides or salts with such car-
bonated gases for purifying and improving the metallic iron.
I prefer to use in my process the following carbonated gases, viz.,
carbonic oxide or carburetted hydrogen, but I may employ any gas the
carbon of which will be available for combination with oxygen in the
melted oxide, and which will result in the production of metallic iron in
the marketable condition of wrought iron, steel, or cast iron, and my
said process is peculiarly applicable to the production of marketable
metallic iron from mill tap cinder, puddlers' tap and other cinders
made by manufacturing iron instead of what is commonly called iron-
stone.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood I will
proceed to describe the manner in which I carry it into effect, and will
refer to the Drawings hereunto annexed.
In reducing the oxides I proceed in the following manner:- I con-
struct a small furnace similar in form to the blast furnaces now in use
for smelting iron ores having a bell top, and I charge the iron oxide
fluxes and a small quantity of coke on to the bell, and let it down into
the furnace in the usual way by lowering the bell. When the furnace
is fully charged I set on the air blast through the upper blast_tuyeres as
shewn in Figures 1 & 2, Sheets 1 & 2 of the Drawings annexed, and a

page_text: blast of carbonic oxide gas or other carbonated gas through the lower
blast tuyeres, which latter blast tuyeres are set inclined towards the
bottom of the furnace, and which are for the purpose of conveying the
carbonated gas for reducing the melted oxides as they fall. When a
sufficient quantity of metal is reduced I tap or run it into pigs or moulds
in the usual manner, or if wrought iron or steel is to be made I run the
metal into suitable furnaces for the purpose, or I may melt the oxides
of iron in a common cupola furnace with air blast only, and when there
is sufficient melted oxide I tap and run the melted oxide into a reducing
furnace, which may be the ordinary reverberatory furnace or any of the
revolving furnaces, and I then force the gas into and amongst the melted
oxides in such converting or reducing furnace until the metal is reduced
sufficiently for the required purpose to which it is to be applied.
And another process consists of the following mode of operation :—I
generate carbonated gas in a generator similar to that shown in the
Drawing, Sheet 1, Figure 3, and I regulate the pressure of the gas by
the pressure of the blast, but other methods of generating gas may be
used, such as by means of retorts, or the necessary pressure may be
obtained by gas holders or by force pumps, or any of the methods
ordinarily employed for such purpose.
I will now proceed to describe my process in detail, referring more
particularly to the Drawings annexed. I charge the oxides, coke, or
other fuel and fluxes in the same manner as is now done at a blast
furnace by means of the bell E, Figure 1, Sheet 1, and when the furnace
is sufficiently filled the air blast is set on at the tuyeres F. I then set
on the gas blast through the tuyeres G, the gas acts upon the melted
oxides, and when a sufficient quantity is reduced the metal is tapped at
the tap hole H; the quantity or force of the air and gas blast is regulated
by suitable valves, such as are now commonly used in blast furnaces,
placed in the gas and air pipes, which being well known need not be
described. I obtain the gas from the generator shewn by Figures 3,
Sheet 1, 4, Sheet 2, 5, Sheet 3. The generator is cased with a strong
casing of wrought iron well rivetted together and stayed with suitable
iron stays, and also lined throughout with a fire-brick lining, as shown
by the Drawing. It consists of a rectangular long vertical chamber I
surmounted by a hopper K, having two sliding horizontal shutters or
dampers L at the bottom of the chamber I; a door M of cast or
wrought iron is fitted tight to the casing and secured to it, which door

page_text: may be easily removed and the ashes or cinders can then be removed
from the bottom of the chamber I. The fuel is charged through the
hopper K and is admitted into the chamber I by opening the dampers L
by means of the levers N%; when full the air blast is turned on at the
tuyere O, which is connected by suitable pipes with the blast pipe P,
which must be in the usual way connected with a blowing cylinder.
The dampers L being closed the carbonic acid gas generated at the
tuyeres by ascending through a body of coke in the chamber becomes
carbonic oxide; this gas together with other gases generated in the
chamber passes off by the passage R into the gas main pipe S and
thence by the gas pipes T to the tuyeres G, G, G, G, the pressure of gas
being regulated by the pressure of the blast at the tuvere O.
may be easily removed and the ashes or cinders can then be removed
from the bottom of the chamber I. The fuel is charged through the
hopper K and is admitted into the chamber I by opening the dampers L
by means of the levers N; when full the air blast is turned on at the
tuyere O, which is connected by suitable pipes with the blast pipe P,
which must be in the usual way connected with a blowing cylinder.
The dampers L being closed the carbonic acid gas generated at the
tuyeres by ascending through a body of coke in the chamber becomes
carbonic oxide; this gas together with other gases generated in the
chamber passes off by the passage R into the gas main pipe S and
thence by the gas pipes T to the tuyeres G, G, G, G, the pressure of gas
being regulated by the pressure of the blast at the tuyere O.
When I use chlorine or fluorine gas or other gaseous matter together
with carbonated gas I charge common salt, fluor spar, or other sub-
stance with the fuel in the hopper K.
The gas main pipe is supplied with an escape valve V, and a smaller
one W is fixed in connection with the top of the chamber I.
It will thus be seen that the novelty of my Invention consists of forcing
carbonated gases in the manner herein-before described into contact with
the oxygen of the melted oxides of iron so that the carbonated gas may
unite with the oxygen of the oxide, and thus reduce it into metallic iron,
or pig or carbonized iron; and in melting the oxides of iron in a
common cupola furnace, and running the liquid oxide into a common
reverberatory furnace, and forcing into such furnace carbonated gas at a
pressure sufficient to prevent the atmospheric air from entering, and in
agitating the liquid oxide so as to bring the carbonated gas into contact
with the oxygen of the oxide and thus reduce it into malleable iron or
steel; and of running the melted oxide from the cupola into a converter,
such as the Bessemer converter, and then forcing carbonated gas up
through the melted oxides until the oxygen of the oxides is burnt out
and the metal reduced to malleable iron or steel; and of running the
melted oxide from the cupola, as before, into any or either of the
revolving puddling furnaces or machines into which I force carbonated
gas, and then revolve the furnace or machine at a speed sufficient to
bring the oxygen of the oxide into contact with the carbonated gases
until the melted oxide is reduced to malleable iron or steel; and I repeat
that in the practice of the processes herein-before described they are

page_text: applicable to mill tap cinders, puddlers' cinder, or other cinders produced
by manufacturing iron as well as to ironstone.
Having now particularly described my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed and carried into effect, I hereby
declare that what I claim is,--
Firstly. The specific and particular process or processes, which I have
herein-before described, with reference to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, for forcing carbonated gases through the melted oxides of iron
(being either ironstone, or mill tap cinder, or puddlers' cinder, or such
other cinders as herein-before referred to) in the manner herein-before
described.
Secondly. The particular application and use of the gas generator
herein-before described and shown in the Drawings hereto annexed and
referred to, the gas being made under a blast as described.
But I do not claim generally as my Invention the application of
carbonated gases to melted oxides of iron for the purpose of producing
marketable metallic iron, such application being previously known.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this
Fourteenth day of May One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
two.
FREDRIC FRANCIS JONES. (L.S.)
Witness to the above Signature,
JOHN THOMAS.