IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING STEEL
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Rowan, of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN OBTAINING STEEL."
Sealed the 20th October 1871, and dated the 22nd April 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Rowan at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd April 1871.
I, THOMAS ROWAN, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING STEEL," to be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object the obtaining of steel of superior
quality in an economical manner, and it consists, according to one modifi-
cation, in taking the ferruginous residue arising as a bye product in the

page_text: manufacture of copper from pyrites and first mixing it with coal or
other suitable carbonaceous matter, and heating it in a crucible or in a
muffle or reverberatory furnace, so as to reduce it to malleable iron in a
spongy or granular state. This malleable iron after being squeezed or
compressed, if in the spongy state, is next subjected to the well-known
process of cementation, whereby it is converted into blister steel ready
for fusing and subsequent treatment. as ordinarily practised in the
manufacture of steel.
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By a second modification steel is obtained by the same combination of
processes from calcined or uncalcined iron ores, but is most advan-
tageously applicable to hematite ores and to others in proportion to
their purity and it will be obvious that the same combination of
processes is also applicable to any other oxides or carbonates of iron,
either natural or artificial.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 1
filed by the said Thomas Rowan in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 20th October 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
ROWAN, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Chemist,
send grecting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Rowan, Her special licence
that I, the said Thomas Rowan, my executors, administrators, and
assigns,, or such others as I, the said Thomas Rowan, 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, excrcise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
OBTAINING STEEL," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said

page_text: Thomas Rowan, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, 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 performed, and cause the same to
be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months

page_text: part recited Letters Patent is, the employing of spongey or granular iron
for obtaining steel by cementation, as herein-before described.
-
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Rowan, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
THOMAS ROWAN. (L.S.)