A Process For Disintegrating Or Subdividing Iron

IN 1855, Franz Uchatius patented, in England, his process of manufacturing cast steel. The first experiments, on a practical scale, were made at the Ebbw Vale Iron Works, Monmouthshire. The charge consisted of a mixture of cast iron with about 20 per cent. of a pure iron ore, and with or without other ingredients. In order to obtain the cast iron in a subdivided condition, Uchatius granulated molten pig-metal by running it into water, which during the operation was kept well agitated, and found that "the finer the iron is granulated, the softer will be the resulting steel." The writer is not aware that granulated iron has been used practically, otherwise than in the above-named process ; and until 1866 no other process of subdividing iron than by granulation was known. In April, 1866, an English patent was obtained by the writer for subdividing blast-furnace and other slags and metals in a molten condition, by passing the same through one or more pairs of rolls. In reference to iron the idea was, in following up the direction pointed out by the Uchatius process, to obtain better results in the puddling process by means of a thorough amalgamation (not simply a mixture) of the iron with the oxides and other ingredients in the charge itself. Experiments were made. A quantity of iron direct from the blast-furnace was subdivided (or laminated) by passing it through a pair of plain rolls. The rolls were hollow, and water was made to pass through them to keep them sufficiently cool. Without giving differential speed to the rolls, sheets were obtained about one-sixteenth inches thick, and from about one hundred square inches surface, downwards. With differential speed, the iron falls from the rolls in