IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Ferguson and Robert Miller, both of Glasgow,
in the County of Lanark, North Britain, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Ferguson and
Robert Miller at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 7th June 1865.
We, JOHN FERGUSON and ROBERT MILLER, both of Glasgow, in the County
of Lanark, North Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL," to be as follows, that is
to say :-
This Invention relates chiefly to the production of steel having certain
properties similar to those produced by malleable iron, that is to say, that
whilst retaining the properties of being easily tempered and hardened, it is
possessed of much more ductility, malleability, and toughness than steel
produced by the ordinary process. The process by which the metal has these
properties imparted to it is as follows:-A quantity of slag from the heating
furnaces, together with a quantity of hammer cinder, is placed in a puddling,
boiling, or other suitable furnace, after which a charge of pig iron is introduced;
the furnace is now raised to as high a heat as possible; after the furnace is
thoroughly heated, a quantity of green coal is strewed over the incandescent
fire on the grate; the damper is now lowered; when this is done certain
alkalies, acids, or oxides are introduced to the charge of pig iron. After the

page_text: alkalies, acids, or oxides are introduced and thoroughly commingled with the
metal, the charge is rabbled up, and the balls. are taken to the shingling
hammer, and afterwards successively treated as malleable iron. The alkalies,
acids, and oxides, which it is preferred to, use are charcoal, common salt, soda,
oxide of manganese, carbonate of manganese, and the spirit of white vitriol,
or any other that may be found suitable.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said John Ferguson and Robert Miller in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 6th December 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
FERGUSON and
North and ROBERT MILLER, both of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
John Ferguson and Robert Miller, Her special license that we, the said John
Ferguson and Robert Miller,, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as we, the said John Ferguson and Robert Miller, our executors,
administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and 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 THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said John Ferguson and Robert
Miller, by an instrument in writing under our 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 we, the said John Ferguson and Robert Miller,
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, that is to say :-
Our said Invention relates chiefly to the production of steel having certain
properties similar to those possessed by malleable iron, that is to say, that

page_text: .
whilst retaining the properties of being easily tempered. and hardened, it is
possessed of much more ductility, malleability, and toughness.than + steel
produced by the ordinary process. The process by which the metal has these
properties imparted to it is as follows:-A quantity of slag from the heating
furnaces, together with a quantity of hammer cinders, is placed in a puddling,
boiling, or other suitable furnace, after which a charge of pig iron is introduced.
The furnace is now raised to as high a heat as possible. After the furnace is
thoroughly heated a quantity of green coal is strewed over the incandescent
fire on the grate. The damper is now lowered; when this is done, certain
alkalies, acids, or oxides are introduced to the charge of pig iron. After the
alkalies, acids, or oxides are introduced and thoroughly commingled with the
metal, the charge is rabbled up, and the balls are taken to the shingling
hammer, and afterwards successively treated as malleable iron. The alkalies,
acids, and oxides which it is preferred to use are charcoal, common salt, soda,
oxide of manganese,, carbonate of, manganese, and the spirit of white vitriol,
or any other that may be found suitable.
And in order that our said Invention may be properly understood, we shall
now proceed to describe the mode or manner in or under which the same is
or may be used or carried into practical effect, that is to say:―
In the manufacturing of steel under this Invention we place in the heating
chamber, or on what is generally known as the hearth of an ordinary
puddling or other suitable furnace, from two to two and a half hundredweights
of hammer or flue cinders; or a mixture of these, after which three and a half
hundredweights, or thereabouts, of ordinary cast or pig iron is introduced, and
the furnace doors are then closed, so that the fire may be urged. As soon as
the charge of metal is observed to liquify at the corners of the pigs, and com-
inences to run down, we then break up the pigs or pieces of the charge, which
by this time will have become of a pasty consistency, and the charge is then
evenly spread over the hearth. After this part of the operation is concluded,
the stopper is to be put up, and the temperature of the furnace raised until
the whole is at a white heat and in a semi-fluid state. At this stage a quantity
of fresh coal is to be put upon the fire, and the damper put down during the
whole of the succeeding operations. To the charge in the furnace is now to
be added.38 ounces of the chemical mixture herein-after described, and the
workmen continually stir the charge until the chemical mixture is thoroughly
commingled therewith, after which the puddling and rabbling up of the charge
is continued in the ordinary manner, care being taken that the entire charge
is balled up before any of the balls are removed to the shingling hammer.
Should it occur that at this stage of the process the furnace is darkened by

page_text: the fresh fuel previously introduced and the lowering of the dampers at the
.commencement of the commingling operation, so as to prove a hindrance to
the workman, the damper may be slightly raised, so as to give the necessary
light within the furnace.
The mixture herein-before referred to consists as follows:-Of sixteen parts
of lampblack, eight parts of common salt, five parts carbonate of manganese,
three parts black oxide of manganese, and six parts of dry sulphate of soda,
known as salt or nitre cake.
Although the foregoing are the proportions of the mixture we have found
to answer well for the purpose of our Invention, we do not confine ourselves
to the exact quantities herein given, as they may be varied and some of them
added in an uncombined state, such as soda, and sulphuric acid (sometimes
called spirit of white vitriol), and muriatic acid, or carbon in any other form
than lampblack; but having described the nature of our Invention, and the
means we employ for carrying out the same, we wish it to be understood that
we do not confine ourselves to the exact details herein described, so long as
the essential feature of our Invention is maintained; and what we do claim
as the Invention secured to us by the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent is, the manufacture of, steel from pig iron in the usual operation of
puddling by the process and the means herein-before described.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Ferguson and Robert Miller, have
hereunto set our hands and seals, this Fourth day of December, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
JOHN FERGUSON. (L.8.)
ROBERT MILLER. (L.B.)