CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL
Year: 1852

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
WHITAKER COLLINS, of Buckingham Street, in the County of Middlesex,
Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of March, in the fifteenth year of Her
reign, did give and grant unto me, the said William Whitaker Collins,
my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial license, full power, sole pri-
vilege and authority, that I, the said William Whitaker Collins, my exors,
adniors, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times hereafter, during the term of years therein
mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso that I, the said William Whitaker
Collins, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, to be enrolled in Her said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, reference thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Whitaker Collins, do hereby the nature of the said Invention, of
Certain Improvements in the Manufacture of Steel, communicated to me by a

page_text: Foreigner residing abroad, and the mode of carrying it into effect, consists in
treating iron in the following manner:
After the puddling furnace is charged with about four hundredweight of
grey pig iron, it is melted in the ordinary way, with a large quantity of silicate
of iron or other metallic oxide. The first period of the boiling process must
be carried on without stirring or raking the melted iron, contrary to the old
mode of working, which consists in raking, the melted mass immediately;
according to my particular mode of working the furnaces, the melted mass is
left quietly exposed to a very high degree of heat, by which means the
impurities, less the carbon, are burned. After this first period of boiling,
which is to be continued from fifteen to thirty minutes, according to the
nature of the pig iron employed, the iron will exhibit a tendency to rise up,
when the puddler is to begin to work the metallic mass, and continue
vigrously under the action of the highest degree of heat, in order to bring it
as soon as possible into a fit state to be balled up for the hammer or squeezers
and rolls. This product will be close-grained iron of great purity, which,
either in the state of mill bars or balled iron finished bars, will unite with
facility with various proportions of carbon; in order to accomplish which, the
mill or finished bars of the said iron without previous cementation are melted
in crucibles with the application of carbonizing substances, by which means
cast steel is produced adapted to many purposes, the degree of hardness of
which may be regulated by the application of carbonizing substances in
greater or less quantity. A superior quality of cast steel, adapted for tools,
such as chisels, &c., is obtained by melting the said bars of iron with a
comparatively larger proportion of carbonizing substances, the produce of
which fusion is highly carbonized brittle cast steel, which is to be remelted in
addition to fresh parcels of the said iron bars.
After having described the nature of my Invention, I wish it to be understood
that what I claim is,-
First, the melting iron obtained from puddling furnaces, worked in the
aforesaid manner, in crucibles, with the application of carbonizing substances,
either in the state of mill or finished bars; and,
Secondly, to remelt the product so obtained from the crucibles in a highly
carbonized state with fresh quantities of the same iron in the state of mill
or finished bars.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Whitaker Collins, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this
day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.
WILLIAM WHITAKER (L. s.) COLLINS.
(L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-second day of September,
in the year of our Lord 1852, the aforesaid William Whitaker Collins came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and everything therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.