USRE505E - Improvement in the manufacture of iron - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

lMPROVEMENT lN T HE MANUFACTUR OF IRON..

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 17

,628, dated June 23, 1857; Reissue No. 506, deted November. 3, l857`.

[0 (LZZ Lufto/n, i& may cmwern: I

Be it known that I, WILLIAM KELLY, of Lyon county, J'entueky, have discovered a new and' improved method oi' treating iron, by which l um enabled to rcfine and dccarbonizeerude pig metal or iron in zt fluid state without the use ot' fuel, of which the following is zt specificution.

The nntue of my invention consists in the discovei'y that the can-bon meehanicully combined with the i on, and which is borrowed from the fuel while in the process'of smelting in i l l .the blast furnace, is ot' itself (the corben) sutlieient when combined with the oxygen of.

.the air to create heztt enough, and of'suflicient intensity, to keep the melted pig iron or meta-l in u fluid'or livelystute long' enough to Carry the metal through, without chilling,a11 the various manipulutions of refining without the aid of any other heat than that produced by the abovcdescribed ehemiczl union of oxygen and earbon.

l um aware that it is well known that when oxygen and carben are brought together or combined heu-t is produced; but it isnot known that the amount of these Chemical properties in nir und iron is the required quuntity necessary to produee heut suflicientto curry out the p'uctical retining' ot' erude pig-iron; henee the prevuil ing opinion among iron-workersthut u blst ot' cold air driven into u' body of liquid iron would chill it. 'l`herei'bre, when iron is worked in the finery or run-out fire, the' presence of heut from other sources is de'emed indispensuble to prevent'the chillingo" the iron.

The linery or run-out fire is usually open on three sides, sometimes closed, except :tt top to receive the ehnrgc of cozl and iron. A furnuce or cupolz to work iron under my new process must be constructed :s close as possible to prevent loss ofiron, which would occuron account oi' itsviolent boiling, during which patrticles urcthrown up und ud here to the sides and top oi' the ohamber, but which during the process ure remelted and flow down to the mess in the bottom. In the finery or run-out tlis less is frequently prevented bythe iron being covered 'by 'fueL It is also first charged witlfmetal in .a solid state. In my process the metal is taken in a, fluid state. In the .flnery *the iron is brought to a fluid state by mixing it with large quantities of fuel, and when melted falls to the bottom of the finery, where it is deearbonized by strong blasts ot' -uir in conneetionwith the fluel. In my process no fluel ofany kind is used or required, as' I rely exelusively on the heat created or generated by the Chemical union of oxygen in theuir andcnrbon in the iron. 4

In the accompanyin g drawing resents a vertical section of anace used in my process, drical oha'n ber, with a flue, the oarbonic-acid gets form thej-iron. B is asnell op charge of fluid iron. G C O ure the tuyeres placed around the sides ot' the furnuce, point ing downward ut an 'angle such that they sweep a'bout threequurters ot' the hortnn ofthe chamber, the muzzles of the tuyeres being'about six inehes above the bottom ot' the chamber. 'D is e tnp hole for letting out the met-:Ll when refined. The ehambcr should not exceed three or four times the space ;ocupied p by the fluid iron. v i

The bla-st is first let on into this or cupola; then the fluid iron is which, by the cause hei-ein efore connnences u violent' ebullitien which. continues until' the iron i refineri, when the tu metal let out.

I do notwishto be unde broadly, the ;Let of' blowingblasts of air into molter iron, as that has been done in processes dissimiiar to mine; but V VVhu-t I do claim, and desire to *secure by Letters Patent, i s- Blowing blasts of air, 'either hot or cold, up "and through a, mass ot' liquid iron, (the oxygen in `the-?lir combinin'g with the carbon in the iron eausig'z grently-increased heut and ebullition in the fluid mass,) and decarbon- 'zig and refinishing said iron without the use j of fuel.

WILLIAM KELLY.

,Figure l repcupolu or furbeing u close cyln- A, et top to carry oti' ed in decarbonizing ening to receive the chauher poured in;- described, or boilng, s sutiiciently p-hole is 'opened and the rstood as claiming,

VVitnesses U. F. JENKINSL J G. Jnrrnuson.

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