US88524A - Improvement in the manufacture op steel direct from the ore - Google Patents

Description

N.PETERS. PHOTO-LITHOGRAFHER. WASHINGTON. D. C.

ROBERT S. STENTON, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YOBK.

Lette/rs Patent No. 88,524, dated Mez/rch 30, 1869; a-ntecletetl March 25, 1869.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE 'MANUFACTURE OF STEEL DIRECT FROM THE ORE.

To all whom fit may concern.-

Be it known that I, ROBERT S. STENTON, of the city of Brooklyn,county of Kings, State of New York, have invented an Improved Method of Manufacturing Steel- Sponge, andv Steel direct therefrom.

'lhe usual processes by which cast-steel is made are all more or less circuitous.

By one, the most reliable, the -ore is iirst roasted, then smelted in a blast-furnace, to make it into pigiron, where it is carbonized, then refined. The refined metal is made into malleable iron, in a` reverberatory furnace, where it is deearbonized. The b'ars so made are then again carbonized, either in a converting-furnace, or in the cruicible, in which they are melted, and from which is poured the cast-steel ingot.

Gast-steel, the product of malleable iron, 'made in a sinking-fire, avoids the smelting process.

Gast-steel, made by the Bessemer and Martin processes, avoids the intermediate stage of malleable iron; it is made direct from the pig.

' I propose, by my invention, so to -treat large masses of suitable iron-ore, that when placed in a properly-con str'ucted furnace, and subjected to a due degree of heat, it will melt, and the product thereof be cast-steel, of various degrees of-hardness, down to softest decarbon ized cast-steel, at the will of the manufacturer.

The nature of my invention consists in charging a kiln, or oven, or in packing a heap, or hill with ore, fuel,

-and carbon, as hereafter described, in order to accomplish certain essential results iu a new and superior manner, viz, to deoxidize, to cleanse, and to carbonize metallic ores, more particularly black oxides, and other suitable descriptions of iron-ore, producing, as a result, a metallic sponge, that, where iron-ore has been used, will have become a sponge of steel, iig. 3, owing to the carbonizing-process that has been carried on with the deoxidizing and the cleansing-px'ocess.`

Ore prepared in this manner is no longer iron-ore, but becomes really metallic steel, and requires only to be melted in a properly-coustructed furnace, to be run int-o ingotsof any size, for anypurpose, from a needle to a railway-bar, or from a railway-bar to a cannon ot' the largest dimensions, and 'that at a cost4 but little, if anything in advance of the present cost of goodV charcoal pig-iron Iron-ore has been deoxidized, and a sponge of iron has been made in various ways--by mixing iron-ore and fuel in heaps, on the'ground. or in kilns, and firing the same, or by passing the waste gases from a blastfurnace head, through masses of iron-ore placed in a proper receptacle.`

Sponge, of steel, has been made by the cementation of orc in an air-tight oren, or pot, in the same way that blistered steel is made from malleable iron.

lMy invent-ion is an improvement on both of these old processes. l By my new method, I produce sponge of steel in an open kiln, or oven, or even in a heap, or mound. This latter, however, being less under control, the results will not be uniform, and it will not be advisable to have recourse toit.

To enable others skilled' in the art to make and use my invention, l will proceed to describe the same.

Figure lis a sectional elevation, showing a .small portion 'of fuel, carbon-ore, carbon-fuel, Sac., in alternate layers.

Figure 2 is the same, with the fuel between every two l( yers of ore and carbon.

Figure 3 is a view of a sample of steel-sponge, partially polished on one side, to show its metallic structure and nature.

Like letters of reference-indicate corresponding parts.

The object of my invention is to make sponge, of steel, in large masses, at the least possible expense.

This'can be done in almost any kiln in which charcoal can be made. v

I do not, therefore, at this time, claim any particular construction of furnace, kiln, or oven, but a method of packing, or charging, or of manipulating ore iu any such furnace, kiln, or oven in whichthe requisite heat can be obtained.

First, this consists in placing layers, or alternate layers of fuel, wood or peat, in preference to coal, as shown at A in figs. l and 2; carbon, (fine charcoah) as at B, gs. l and 2 ore, by preference broken small and separated, as at O, figs. 1 and 2; carbon, as at D, figs. l and 2; and then again fuel, A, as in figs. 1 and 2; or, at the option ofthe operator, the fuel, A, may be placed, as in fig. 2, between every sec-ond layer of carbon and ore, or even between every third or other number of layers,'the object being to obtain a bright but not a melting-heat, gradually rising up through the mass. Enough, and no more, of wood, or otherl fuel, must be used 'than is needed to accomplish this purpose.

rlhe topmost layer should be one of fuel, and the whole must be enclosed, or covered in with masonry, or earth, or sand, the supply of air being regulated in such a way that combustion shall be even and regular.

At intervals of twelve inches, or thereabout, and all round the sides, the beds of ore should have spaces, E, of .about one inch in diameter, (see gs. 1 and 2,) into which a handful of smallv charcoal must be inser-ted, for as cementation goeson, the ore will slightly fuse, and weld into a cake.

'lhe ovcn, or kiln should be so arranged that the gases of combustion and carbonization will pass away l downward, which, without these vents, it would be almost impossible for them to do. though preferable, is not an essential.

I use either a natural draught, or apply a blast to stimulate combustion, dependent on the construction of the'kilu, or furnace. The gases generated by a suitable arrangement of dues and manipulation of the This, however,

furnace, can be saved, and utilized as heat-producers, when combined with a further supply of air, heated or cold, or air and steam, as found expedient.

The layers of fuel should be in sufficient quantity to heat the ore to a white, but not to a melting-heat;

the ore placed in layers two inches thick, the carbon half an inch to .one inch above, and before each layer of ore, or -be'mixed equally through it, in proportions dependent on the description and chemical components thereof.

One'hundred tous of steel-sponge or more can be made at one time.

Second, having explained the method of making steel-sponge, by the process of deoxidizing and carbonizing iron-ore, by a'peouliar arrangement of the component materials used, I will now proceed to describe another method of accomplishing the same object byA a different and more rapid, but equivalent process.

As already stated, ores of iron have been deoxidized and made into a ysponge of iron, by being` packed into a proper receptacle, and forcing the waste heat or gases from the blast-.furnace'head to pass through the same, until the oxygen, and as much ofthe other impurities of the ore had been expelled, as could be drivenoff without subjecting it to a fusing-heat.

Iron-ore, at a white heat, will rapidly absorb carbon when it is placed in juxtaposition with it. When, therefore, the body of ore is at this point,-(I do not,- ofcourse, confine myself to using heat obtained by econoinizing the waste of the blastfurnace,) I throw into the heated mass a stream or streams of carbonaceons gas obtained from proper auxiliary apparatus.

Where-ver the carbon' can attack the heated ore, it will do so, and a sponge of steel wil be the result.

Furnaces can be so arranged as to be fed with ore at the mouth, dischargingl the sponge at the foot, the ore being heated, deoxidized, and carbonized in the one part, but cooling sufliciently below to allow of being raked out at proper intervals; or fuel, and then orc and carbon may be alternately charged at the mouth, and after the ore is sufficiently deoxidized and carbonized, itcan be discharged at the foot, andthus Ithe operation b made continuous.

My claim being for a novel method of treating metalmethod, or methods by which the carbonaceous gases required for the second of the methods described are generated, and the apparatus and material used, are properly the subjects of separate patents, and therefore not here set forth.

In melting the sponge, made as herein described, I mix with the same such a proportion of pig-iron as may be requisite to supply an increased percentage of carbon, when such is required, using also as a flux and detergent, the oxide of manganese.

The carbon, or line charcoal, instead of being put above and below the ore, may be mixed with it, and then placed in juxtaposition with the fuel, as hereinbefore stated.

By care in the degree of carbonization, and a proper management of the furnace, a natural, a puddled, a semi-steel, or evena malleable-iron loop may be pro-- duced from this sponge, either alone', or in combination with pig-iron, in a reverberatoryfurnace.

vWhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The process, or method, herein described and illustrated, of makingsteel, by heating the iron-ore with .fuel and charcoal,arranged in alternate layers, thus producing steel-sponge, and by reducing said sponge,

substantially4 inthe manner hereinbefore set forth.

R. S. STENTON.

lVitnesses:

A. J AEGEE, H. JAEGER.

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