AN IMPROVED MODE OF MANUFACTURING CAST STEEL
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for
Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Me-
chanical Draughtsman, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE
OF MANUFACTURING CAST STEEL."-A communication.
Sealed the 9th August 1853, and dated the 14th June 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent
Newton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 14th June 1853.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "AN IMPROVED MODE OF MANUFACTURING CAST STEEL" to be
as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to economise the fuel used in the
manufacture of steel, and at the same time to prevent the steel from
being burned or injured by overheating. According to the present
plan the cold steel is subjected to the heat of a furnace maintained as
near as may be to a melting point. When, therefore, the steel is first
introduced, this fierce heat has the effect of burning or blistering the
steel rather than melting it, and thus a great waste of heat takes place,

page_text: besides a deterioration of the metal. To avoid these disadvantages
the steel, according to the present Invention, is first subjected to a
moderate heat in an auxiliary furnace (the temperature of which is
kept up by a comparatively small expenditure of fuel), and when
heated to the required degree, say to a full welding heat, the steel is re-
moved to the melting furnace, which, being heated to the melting
point, will soon reduce the metal to a molten state. By keeping up a
continuous supply of metal to the auxiliary furnace corresponding to the
withdrawal of the metal therefrom the feeding of the melting furnace
may be made continuous, and thus the work of the melting furnace will
be limited to reducing the metal to a fluid state, instead of giving it the
preparatory heating also, as above explained.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent
Office, on the 14th December 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the six-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special
license that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alfred Vincent New-
ton, 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
"AN IMPROVED MODE OF MANUFACTURING CAST STEEL," being a com-
munication from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that

page_text: I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, 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 Alfred Vincent Newton, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement (that is to say):
This Invention, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent,
relates to a mode of economizing the fuel used in the manufacture of
cast steel. According to the present plan of working, the blistered steel
to be converted into cast steel after being broken up into small pieces is
packed in crucibles, and subjected to the heat of a furnace maintained
as near as may be during the whole of the operation at a melting heat;
when, therefore, the steel is first introduced a great waste of heat takes
place, inasmuch as a considerably lower temperature than is used would
suffice to raise the steel from a cold state to the proper degree of heat
which it must attain before the "melting heat" is required to be
applied.
In order to avoid this disadvantageous application of heat the
Inventor subjects the cold blistered steel to a preparatory heating
before it is submitted to the action of the high or melting temperature.
To attain this end he employs two furnaces of different heating capa-
cities for bringing, by their combined action, the blistered steel to a
molten state. The first of the two furnaces to which the steel is sub-
jected may be of the kind known as a reverberatory furnace, with a
flat bed to carry the crucibles for containing the steel, but the second
furnace is preferred to be of the kind now commonly used in the manu-
facture of cast steel, having "nelting holes" suitable for receiving two
or more crucibles each. Melting furnaces are usually constructed with
ten melting holes, of a capacity sufficient to receive two crucibles each.
When using furnaces of this construction capable of receiving twenty
crueibles at a time, an annealing oven, of a suitable capacity, is pro-

page_text: vided as usual for heating the crucibles prior to inserting them in the
first or auxiliary furnace. After they have attained in the annealing
oven a sufficient heat, which is readily ascertained by the skilful ope-
rator, they are removed to the auxiliary furnace. The empty crucibles
are subjected for about half an hour to the heat of the furnace, after
which time they will have attained a sufficient heat to receive the cold
blistered steel without cracking. The covers or doors of the auxiliary
furnace are now removed, and the crucibles are then charged with the
blistered steel. When the charge is properly packed in the crucibles
their covers are put on, and then the covers or doors of the furnace are
replaced. The heating is now continued for about two hours, the fur-
nace being kept to a welding heat, or to a degree of heat that will
suffice to agglutinate the steel, but will not reduce it to a dead melted
state. The second or melting furnace having in the meanwhile being
fired, and the temperature raised to the melting point, the crucibles are
now removed from the auxiliary furnace, and placed in the melting
holes of the second furnace, which holes are to be fed with coke in the
usual way to keep up the temperature to the required degree, and
closed by a door or cover. The melting of the metal (which has
already attained in the auxiliary furnace a high heat) now quickly
commences, and after having been subjected to the heat of the melting
furnace for about one hour and a half, the whole mass of agglutinated
steel will have become reduced to a fluid state, and may then be re-
moved from the furnace and poured into suitable moulds. In carrying
out this Invention many of the varieties of furnaces now used in the
manufacture of metals may be employed with advantage as an auxiliary
furnace to effect the primary heating of the steel. Thus, for example,
a reverberatory furnace, whether supplied with air by a fan blast or by
a natural draft, and whether heated at one or both ends, may be used
as an auxiliary furnace, the crucibles being placed on a flat bed, and
the flame playing over and around them; or, if thought desirable, the
waste heat from the melting furnace may be employed for giving the
metal the preparatory heating.
Having now set forth the nature and object of this Invention of
"An Improved Mode of Manufacturing Cast Steel," and described

page_text: the manner in which the same may be carried into effect, I wish it to
be understood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent I
claim the reduction of blistered steel to a molten state by the process
above explained, whether effected by the aid of two furnaces retained
at different degrees of heat, or by other analogous means.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, the Fourteenth day of December,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-
three.
0
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)