Production of dispersion hardened materials

Claim 1

A PROCESS FOR INRERSPERSING A RELATIVELY HARD PARTICULATE MATERIAL IN A RELATIVELY SOFT METAL, SAID PROCESS COMPRISING THE STEPS OF LIQUEFYING THE ENTIRE MASS OF SAID SOFT METAL TO A MELT WHILE RETAINING IT AGAINST OUTWARD FLOW BY THE WALLS OF A CONTAINER, DIRECTING SAID HARD PARTICULATE MATERIAL IN A GASEOUS STREAM TOWARD THE UPPER SURFACE OF SAID MELT WITH SUFFICIENT SPEED RELATIVE TO SAID MELT TO PENETRATE INTO SAID MELT NOTWITHSTANDING COUNTER FORCES ESTABLISHED BY THE SURFACE TENSION OF SAID MELT, DISPERSING SAID PARTICULATE MATERIAL SUBSTANTIALLY UNIFORMLY THROUGHOUT SAID MELT, SAID METAL BEING SELECTED FROM THE CLASS CONSISTING OF COPPER, NICKEL, SILVER, GOLD, ALUMINUM, PLATINUM AND PALLADIUM, SAID PARTICULATE MATERIAL BEING COMPOSED OF A REFRACTORY COMPOUND SELECTED FROM THE CLASS CONSISTING OF OXIDES, CARBIDES, BORIDES, NITRIDES, SELENIDES, SILICATES AND PHOSPHIDES, SAID PARTICULATE MATERIAL RANGING SUBSTANTIALLY BETWEEN 0.01 AND 50 MICRONS IN EXTENT AND RANGING BETWEEN 0.1 AND 25% BY TOTAL WEIGHT OF THE FINAL PRODUCT, SAID METAL AND SAID PARTICULATE MATERIAL BEING SUBSTANTIALLY MUTUALLY INSOLUBLE, THE TEMPERATURE OF SAID GASEOUS STREAM BEING AT LEAST AS GREAT AS THE MELTING POINT OF SAID MELT AND THE VELOCITY OF SAID STREAM BEING AT LEAST 1000 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND, SOLIDIFYING SAID MELT AND WORKING IT BY COMPRESSION IN AT LEAST ONE DIMENSION IN ORDER TO IMPART INCREASED STRENGTH THERETO.