US102960A - Improvement in reworking bessemer steel - Google Patents

Description

CHARLEBJMQTIER'W NNES, OF YORK, PENNstYLvANIa IMPRQVEMENT IYN RE'WORKING BESSEMER STEEL.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 102,960, dated May 10, 1870.

To all whom it may concern: Be it known that I, CHARLES MOTIER Nns,

of York, in the county of York, and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Reworking Scrap, Old Itails, Imperfect Ingots, &c., of Bessemer Steel, andof converting the'same into malleable iron, cast-steel, or puddled steel, of which the following is a specification In the manufacture of Bessemer steel it is usual to decarbonize the iron by means of blast, and then decarbonizeit, by'tlie addition of spiegeleisen, a highly carbonized pigiron, which is thrown in sufficient quantities to produce steel.

The Bessemer steelthus made, on account of the quantity of carbon it contains, cannot p be reworked. I p

The ordinary way of. reworking old iron rails is by piling and rerolling. This is not I practicable with the Bessemer-steel rails, as i the pile will not weld on account of the carbon contained in the metal; and, again, if it be desired to puddle the Bessemer steel in the ordinary way, the metal cannot be balled up, and even if it could beiit would fly under the hammer, this being due to the carbon which it contains.

It is owing to this fact that/old and imperfect steel rails, ingots, scrap, &c., in large quantity, are allowed togo to waste, no'plan having yet been devised by which to rework them advantageously and profitably.

. The object of my invention is to utilize this ,waste material, and to rework it into malleable iron, cast-steel, or puddled steel, simply,

cheaply, and expeditiously. To this end I employ the following process, the first essential condition of which is to deprive the Bessemer metal of the I carbon with which it is charged.

I first melt the. old rails, ingots, or other articles of. Bessemer steel to be reworked in an ordinary cupola, employing a hot or cold blast, as desired. When the metal is melted,

. I run it from the cupola into a refining-furnace, which I prefer to make of cast-iron plates lined with fire-brick. Two or more tuyeres are provided on either side of this furnace, and, after the metal is run therein, air

. p or oygen is blown throughthejtuyeres intothe melted mass until the carbon is thoroughly eliminated from the metal.

If, however, it is desired to producecaststeel, I conduct the melted and decarbonized metal from the refining-furnace through a run-out, usually employed with such furnaces, into an air-tight chest or receptacle, such, for instance, as described in my patent dated April 19, 1870, where the metal is recarbonized by blowing carbonized gases into the chest, or by throwing sufficient pig-iron into the metal, following substantially the process described in said patent.

In this manner I obtain steel which can be run-from the chestinto molds of any shape and size desired, and can be thence taken and put under the hammer and made into rails of quite as good quality as the Bessemer rails when first made.

In order to repuddle the steel, I take the melted metal from the refining-furnace, after it has been'deprived of its carbon by the process above specified, and run it into the puddling-furnace, where it is puddled in the ordinary way, a sufficient quantity of pig-iron and silica being employed to keep a bath over the iron, thus keeping carbon e pig to reconvert it into steel.

I prefer, in order to hasten the process, and to produce finer metal, to insulate both the cupola 0r melting-furnace and the refiningfni-nace, and to insert'into the melted metal steel bars, which are connected with a galvanic battery, as described in my patent nough in the above named, thus causing continued currents of electricity to traverse the metal while it is melting and refining.

Electricity may also be employed with the recarbonizing process, if desired, although the use of electricity is not indispensable in any of the stages of the process.

Having now described my invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be carried into eifect, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. The method of producing malleable iron from old rails, imperfect ingots, scrap, &c., of Bessemer steel, substantially in the manner herein specified.

2. The manufacture of cast-steel from old rails, imperfect ingots, &c., of Bessemer steel,

by first melting and (leearbonizing the metal name to this specification before two subscribto he reworked, and then recarbouizing the ing witnesses. same, substantially in the manner described.

3. The manufacture of paddled steel from CHAS MOTIER imperfect ingots, scrap, 850., of Bessemer steel, Witnesses: substantially in the manner described. JOHN A. WILSON,

In testimony whereof I have signed my IVAN GLOSSBRENNER.