I well remember how anxiously I awaited the blowing of the first 7-cwt. charge of pig iron. I had engaged an ironfounder's furnace attendant to manage the cupola and the melting of the charge. When his metal was nearly all melted, he came to me, and said hurriedly: "Where be going to put the metal, maister?" I said: "I want you to run it by a gutter into that little furnace," pointing to the converter, "from which you have just raked out all the fuel, and then I shall blow cold air through it to make it hot." The man looked at me in a way in which surprise and pity for my ignorance seemed curiously blended, as he said: "It will soon be all of a lump." Notwithstanding this prediction, the metal was run in, and I awaited with much impatience the result. The first element attacked by the atmospheric oxygen is the silicon, generally present in pig iron to the extent of 1 1/2 to 2 per cent.; it is the white metallic substance of which flint is the acid silicate. Its combustion furnishes a great deal of heat; but it is very undemonstrative, a few sparks and hot gases only indicating the fact that something is going quietly on. But after an interval of ten or twelve minutes, when the carbon contained in grey pig iron to the extent of about 3 per cent. is seized on by the oxygen, a voluminous white flame is produced, which rushes out of the openings provided for its escape from the upper chamber, and brilliantly illuminates the whole space around. This chamber proved a perfect cure for the rush of slags and metal from the upper central opening of the first converter. I watched with some anxiety for the expected cessation of the flame as the carbon gradually burnt out. It took place almost suddenly, and thus indicated the entire decarburisation of the metal. The furnace was then tapped, when out rushed a limpid stream of incandescent malleable iron, almost too brilliant for the eye to rest upon; it was allowed to flow vertically into the parallel undivided ingot mould. Then came the question, would the ingot shrink enough, and the cold iron mould expand enough, to allow the ingot to be pushed out? An interval of eight or ten minutes was allowed, and then, on the application of hydraulic force to the ram, the ingot rose entirely out of the mould, and stood there ready for removal.
This is all very simple now that it has been accomplished, and many of my readers may, from their intimate knowledge of this subject, have felt impatient at its mere recital. But it is, nevertheless, impossible for me to convey to them any adequate idea of what were my feelings when I saw this incandescent mass rise slowly from the mould: the first large prism of cast malleable iron that the eye of man had ever rested on. This was no mere laboratory experiment. In one compact mass we had as much metal as could be produced by two puddlers and their two assistants, working arduously for hours with an expenditure of much fuel. We had obtained a pure, homogeneous 10-in. ingot as the result of thirty minutes' blowing, wholly unaccompanied by skilled labour or the employment of fuel; while the outcome of the puddlers' labour would have been ten or a dozen impure, shapeless puddle-balls, saturated with scoria and other impurities, and withal so feebly coherent, as to be utterly incapable of being rendered, by any known means, as cohesive as the metal that had risen from the mould. No wonder, then, that I gazed with delight on the first-born of the many thousands of the square ingots that now come into existence every day. Indeed, at the date I am writing (1897), the world's present production of Bessemer steel, if cast into ingots 10 in. square and 30 in. in length, weighing 7 cwt. each, would make over 90,000 such ingots in every working day of the year.
I had now incontrovertible evidence of the all-important fact that molten pig iron could, without the employment of any combustible matter, except that which it contained, be raised in the space of half an hour to a temperature previously unknown in the manufacturing arts, while it was simultaneously deprived of its carbon and silicon, wholly without skilled manipulation. What all this meant, what a perfect revolution it threatened in every iron-making district in the world, was fully grasped by the mind as I gazed motionless on that glowing ingot, the mere contemplation of which almost overwhelmed me for the time, notwithstanding that I had for weeks looked forward to that moment with a full knowledge that it meant an immense success, or a crushing failure of all my hopes and aspirations. I soon, however, felt a strong desire to test the quality of the metal, but I had no appliances to hammer or roll such a formidable mass; indeed, we had no means at hand even to move it. But I saw that there was one proof possible to which I could subject the ingot where it stood, and calling for an ordinary carpenter's axe, I dealt it three severe blows on the sharp angle of the prism. The cutting edge of the axe penetrated far into the soft metal, bulging the piece forward but not separating it, as shown in the sketch, Fig. 48. Had it been cast iron those angle-pieces would have been scattered all over the place in red-hot fragments, but their standing firm and undetachable assured me that the metal was malleable.
Notwithstanding the strong views I entertained of the value of my
invention, I desired to obtain the unbiassed opinion of some eminent
engineer, who might possibly take a very different view from my own. I
did not wish to live in a fool's paradise, and was most anxious to
know how my ideas would be received by others. I knew Mr. George Rennie
very well by reputation, and I invited him to a private view
of the process, as carried on in the upright converter. He kindly
consented to give me his opinion, came to Baxter House and saw the
process, with the result that he took a very deep interest in it. While
discussing the subject, after the blow, he said: "This is such an
important invention that you ought not to keep the secret another day."
"Well," I said, "it is not yet quite a commercial success, and I think
I had better perfect it before allowing it to be seen." "Oh," he said,
"all the little details requisite will come naturally to the
ironmaster; your great principle is an unquestioned success; no fuel,
no manipulation, no puddle-balls, no piling and welding; huge masses of
any shape made in a few minutes." This truly great engineer was fairly
taken by surprise, and his enthusiasm was as great and as genuine as
it could have been had he himself been the inventor. All at once he
said: "The British Association meets next week at Cheltenham, and I
advise you strongly to read a paper on that occasion. I am President
this year of the Mechanical Section. I wish I had known of this
invention earlier. All our papers are now arranged for the meeting, and
yours would be at the bottom of the long list, and it might simply be
taken as read and would not be heard at all. But so important is this
new process to all engineers that, if you will write a paper, I will
take upon myself the responsibility of putting it first on the list." I
could not withstand so handsome an offer from so distinguished a
source. I told him that I much doubted my ability to write a paper in
any way worthy of being read before the British Association, as I had
never written or read a paper before any learned society. "Do not fear
that," he said. "If you will only put on paper just such a clear and
simple account of your process as you have given verbally to me, you
will have nothing to fear." Soon after this he took his departure, with
many words of encouragement, and I was left face to face with a task
that I had not bargained for. I, however, at once set to work, and,
having completed my paper in a few days, I left London on Tuesday, the
12th August, 1856, for Cheltenham.
On the following morning, while finishing my breakfast at the hotel, I
was sitting next to Mr. Clay, the manager of the Mersey Forge, at
Liverpool, to whom I was well known, when a gentleman who turned
out to be Mr. Budd, a well-known Welsh ironmaker, came up to the
breakfast-table, and, seating himself opposite my friend, said to him;
"Clay, I want you to come with me into one of the Sections this
morning, for we shall have some good fun." The reply was: "I am sorry
that I am specially engaged this morning, or I would have done so with
pleasure." "Oh, you must come, Clay," said Mr. Budd. "Do you know, that
there is actually a fellow come down from London to read a paper on the
manufacture of malleable iron without fuel? Ha, ha, ha!" "Oh," said Mr.
Clay, "that's just where this gentleman and I are going." "Come along,
then" said Mr. Budd, and we all rose from the table and proceeded
towards the rooms occupied by the Mechanical Section. It was getting
rather late, the room was well filled, and I, dropping the arm of my
friend, ascended the raised platform and was cordially received by the
President. Soon after, when the general bustle had subsided, Mr. George
Rennie stood up, and in a few appropriate words explained that, at the
eleventh hour, he had become acquainted with the fact that a most
important discovery had been made in the manufacture of iron and steel,
and he had considered it desirable that a paper describing the
invention should be read at that meeting. As the papers for that
section had already been arranged, he had ventured on a step which he
hoped would be excused by all those gentlemen who had favoured them by
preparing papers for that occasion. He considered that the paper about
to be read was too important to be put at the tail end of the list,
and, as the only alternative, he had ventured to put it at the head. He
had great pleasure in introducing to the meeting the inventor, Mr.
Henry Bessemer, who would now read his Paper on "The Manufacture of
Iron Without Fuel."
The audience received me very kindly, and I had the honour of reading
my paper, of which a verbatim copy is here given.
The manufacture of iron in this country has attained such an important
position that any improvement in this branch of our national industry
cannot fail to be a source of general interest, and will, I trust, be
sufficient excuse for the present brief, and, I fear, imperfect paper.
I may mention that for the last two years my attention has been almost
exclusively directed to the manufacture of malleable iron and steel, in
which, however, I had made but little progress until within the last
eight or nine months. The constant
pulling down and rebuilding of furnaces, and the toil of daily
experiments with large charges of iron, had already begun to exhaust my
stock of patience; but the numerous observations I had made during this
very unpromising period all tended to confirm an entirely new view of
the subject which, at that time, forced itself upon my attention, viz.,
that I could produce a much more intense heat without any furnace or
fuel than could be obtained by either of the modifications I had used,
and consequently that I should not only avoid the injurious action of
mineral fuel on the iron under operation, but I should at the same time
avoid also the expense of fuel.
Some preliminary trials were made on
from 10 lb. to 20 lb.of iron, and although the process was fraught
with considerable difficulty, it exhibited such unmistakable signs of
success as to induce me at once to put up an apparatus capable of
converting about 7 cwt. of crude pig iron into malleable iron in thirty
minutes. With such masses of metal to operate on, the difficulties
which beset the small laboratory experiments of 10 lb. entirely
disappeared. On this new field of inquiry I set out with the assumption
that crude iron contains about 5 per cent. of carbon; that carbon
cannot exist at a white heat in the presence of oxygen without uniting
therewith and producing combustion; that such combustion would proceed
with a rapidity dependent on the amount of surface of carbon exposed;
and, lastly, that the temperature which the metal would acquire would
be also dependent on the rapidity with which the oxygen and carbon were
made to combine; and consequently that it was only necessary to bring
together the oxygen and carbon in such a manner that a vast surface
should be exposed to their mutual action, in order to produce a
temperature hitherto unattainable in our largest furnaces.
With a view of testing practically this theory, I constructed a
cylindrical vessel
3 ft. in diameter, and 5 ft. in height, somewhat like an ordinary
cupola furnace. The interior of this vessel is lined with firebricks,
and at about 2 in. from the bottom of it, I insert five tuyére pipes,
the nozzles of which are formed of well-burned fireclay, the orifice of
each tuyére being about 3/8 in. in diameter; they are so put into the
brick lining (from the outer side) as to admit of their removal and
renewal in a few minutes when they are worn out. At one side of the
vessel, about half-way up from the bottom, there is a hole made for
running-in the crude metal, and on the opposite side there is a
tap-hole stopped with loam, by means of which the iron is run out at
the end of the process. In practice this converting vessel may be made
of any convenient size, but I prefer that it should not hold less than
one, or more than five, tons of fluid iron at each charge. The vessel
should be placed so near to the discharge hole of the blast furnace as
to allow the iron to flow along a gutter into it; a small blast
cylinder will be required capable of compressing air to about 8 lb. or
10 lb. to the square inch. A communication having been made between it
and the tuyéres before named, the converting vessel will be in a
condition to commence work; it will, however, on the occasion of its
being used after re-lining with firebricks, be necessary to make a
fire in the interior with a few bucketfuls of coke, so as to dry the
brickwork and heat up the vessel for the first operation, after which
the fire is to be all carefully raked out at the tapping hole, which is
again to be made good with loam. The vessel will then be in readiness
to commence work, and may be so continued without any use of fuel until
the brick lining in the course of time becomes worn away and a new
lining is required.
I have before mentoned that the tuyéres are
situated close to the bottom of the vessel; the fluid metal will
therefore rise some 18 in. or 2 ft. above them. It is therefore
necessary, in order to prevent the metal from entering the tuyére
holes, to turn on the blast before allowing the fluid crude iron
to run into the vessel from the blast furnace. This having been done,
and the fluid iron run in, a rapid boiling-up of the metal will be
heard going on within the vessel, the metal being tossed violently
about and clashed from side to side, shaking the vessel by the force
with which it moves. From the throat of the converting vessel flame
will then immediately issue, accompanied by a few bright sparks. This
state of things will continue for about fifteen or twenty minutes,
during which time the oxygen in the atmospheric air combines with the
carbon contained in the iron, producing carbonic acid gas and at the
same time evolving a powerful heat. Now as this heat is generated in
the interior of, and is diffused in innumerable fiery bubbles
throughout, the whole fluid mass, the metal absorbs the greater part of
it, and its temperature becomes immensely increased, and by the
expiration of the fifteen or twenty minutes before-named, that part of
the carbon which appears mechanically mixed and diffused through the
crude iron has been entirely consumed. The temperature, however, is so
high that the chemically-combined carbon now begins to separate from
the metal, as is at once indicated by an immense increase in the volume
of flame rushing out of the throat of the vessel. The metal in the
vessel now rises several inches above its natural level, and a light
frothy slag makes its appearance, and is thrown out in large foam-like
masses. This violent eruption of cinder generally lasts about five or
six minutes, when all further appearance of it ceases, a steady and
powerful flame replacing the shower of sparks and cinder which always
accompanies the boil. The rapid union of carbon and oxygen, which thus
takes place, adds still further to the temperature of the metal, while
the diminished quantity of carbon present allows a part of the oxygen
to combine with the iron, which undergoes combustion and is converted
into an oxide. At the excessive temperature that the metal has now
acquired, the oxide as soon as formed undergoes fusion, and forms a
powerful solvent of those earthy bases that are associated with the
iron. The violent ebullition which is going on mixes most intimately
the scoria and the metal, every part of which is thus brought in
contact with the fluid oxide, which will thus wash and cleanse the
metal most thoroughly from the silica and other earthy bases which are
combined with the crude iron, while the sulphur and other volatile
matters which cling so tenaciously to iron at ordinary temperatures, are
driven off, the sulphur combining with the oxygen and forming
sulphurous acid gas. The loss of weight of crude iron during its
conversion into an ingot of malleable iron was found on a mean of four
experiments to be 12 1/2 per cent., to which will have to be added the
loss of metal in finishing rolls. This will make the entire loss
probably not less than 18 per cent., instead of about 28 per cent.,
which is the loss on the present system. A large portion of this metal
is, however, recoverable by treating with carbonaceous gases the rich
oxides thrown out of the furnace by the boil. These slags are found to
contain innumerable small grains of metallic iron, which are
mechanically held in suspension in the slags, and may be easily
recovered. I have before mentioned that after the boil has taken place
a steady and powerful flame succeeds, which continues without any
change for about ten minutes, when it rapidly falls off. As soon as
this diminution of flame is apparent the workman will know that the
process is completed, and that the crude iron has been converted into
pure malleable iron, which he will form into ingots of any suitable
size and
shape, by simply opening the tap-hole of the converting vessel and
allowing the fluid malleable iron to flow into the iron ingot-moulds
placed there to receive it. The masses of iron thus formed will be
perfectly free from any admixture of cinder, oxide, or other extraneous
matters, and will be far more pure, and in a more forward state of
manufacture, than a pile formed of ordinary puddle-bars. And thus it
will be seen, that by a single process requiring no manipulation or
particular skill, and with only one workman, from three to five tons
of crude iron pass into the condition of several piles of malleable
iron in from thirty to thirty-five minutes, with the expenditure of
about one-third part the blast now used in a finery furnace with an
equal charge of iron, and with the consumption of no other fuel than is
contained in the crude iron.
To those who are best acquainted with the
nature of fluid iron, it may be a matter of surprise that a blast of
cold air forced into melted crude iron is capable of raising its
temperature to such a degree as to retain it in a perfect state of
fluidity after it has lost all its carbon, and is in the condition of
malleable iron, which in the highest heat of our forges only becomes
softened into a pasty mass. But such is the excessive temperature that
I am enabled to arrive at with a properly-shaped converting vessel and
a judicious distribution of the blast, that I am enabled not only to
retain the fluidity of the metal, but to create so much surplus heat as
to re-melt the crop-ends, ingot-runners, and other scrap that is made
throughout the process, and thus bring them without labour or fuel into
ingots of a quality equal to the rest of the charge of new metal. For
this purpose a small arched chamber is formed immediately over the
throat of the converting vessel, somewhat like the tunnel-head of the
blast furnace. This chamber has two or more openings on the side of it,
and its floor is made to slope downwards to the throat. As soon as a
charge of fluid malleable iron has been drawn off from the converting
vessel the workmen will take the scrap intended to be worked into the
next charge, and proceed to introduce the several pieces into the small
chamber, piling them up around the opening of the throat. When this is
done, he will run in his charge of crude metal, and again commence the
process. By the time the boil commences, the bar-ends and other scrap
will have acquired a white heat, and by the time it is over most of
them will have been melted and run down in to the charge. Any pieces,
however, that remain may then be pushed in by the workman, and by the
time the process is completed they will all be melted, and ultimately
combined with the rest of the charge; so that all scrap iron, whether
cast or malleable, may thus be used up without any loss or expense. As
an example of the power that iron has of generating heat in this
process, I may mention a circumstance that occurred to me during my
experiments. I was trying how small a set of tuyéres could be used; but
the size chosen proved to be too small, and after blowing into the
metal for one hour and three-quarters, I could not get up heat enough
with them to bring on the boil. The experiment was, therefore,
discontinued, during which time two-thirds of the metal solidified, and
the rest was run off. A larger set of tuyére pipes were then put in,
and a fresh charge of fluid iron run into the vessel, which had the
effect of entirely re-melting the former charge, and when the whole was
tapped out it exhibited, as usual, that intense and dazzling brightness
peculiar to the electric light.
To persons conversant with the manufacture of iron it will be at once
apparent that the ingots of malleable metal which I have described will
have no hard or steely parts, such as are
found in puddled iron, requiring a great amount of rolling to blend
them with the general mass; nor will such ingots require an excess of
rolling to expel cinder from the interior of the mass, since none can
exist in the ingot, which is pure and perfectly homogeneous
throughout, and hence requires only as much rolling as is necessary for
the development of fibre. It, therefore, follows that, instead of
forming a merchant bar or rail by the union of a number of separate
pieces welded together, it will be far more simple, and less expensive,
to make several bars or rails from a single ingot. Doubtless this would
have been done long ago, had not the whole process been limited by the
size of the ball which the puddler could make.
The facility which the new process affords of making large masses will
enable the manufacturer to produce bars that, on the old mode of
working, it was impossible to obtain; while, at the same time, it
admits of the use of more powerful machinery, whereby a great deal of
labour will be saved, and the process be greatly expedited. I merely
mention this fact in passing, as it is not my intention at the present
moment to enter upon any details of the improvements I have made in
this department of the manufacture, because the patents which I have
obtained for them are not yet specified. Before, however, dismissing
this branch of the subject, I wish to call the attention of the meeting
to some of the peculiarities which distinguish cast steel from all
other forms of iron: namely, the perfect homogeneous character of the
metal, the entire absence of sand-cracks or flaws, and its greater
cohesive force and elasticity, as compared with the blister steel from
which it is made -- qualities which it derives solely from its fusion
and formation into ingots, all of which properties malleable iron
acquires in like manner by its fusion and formation into ingots in the
new process. Nor must it be forgotten that no amount of rolling will
give to blister steel (although formed of rolled bars) the same
homogeneous character that cast steel acquires by a mere extension of
the ingot to some ten or twelve times its original length.
One of the most important facts connected with the new system of
manufacturing malleable iron is, that all iron so produced will be of
that quality known as charcoal iron: not that any charcoal is used in
its manufacture, but because the whole of the processes following the
smelting of it are conducted entirely without contact with, or the use
of, any mineral fuel; the iron resulting there from will, in
consequence, be perfectly free from those injurious properties which
that description of fuel never fails to impart to iron that is brought
under its influence. At the same time, this system of manufacturing
malleable iron offers extraordinary facility for making large shafts,
cranks, and other heavy masses; it will be obvious that any weight of
metal that can be founded in ordinary cast iron by the means at present
at our disposal may also be founded in molten malleable iron, and be
wrought into the forms and shapes required, provided that we increase
the size and power of our machinery to the extent necessary to deal
with such large masses of metal. A few minutes' reflection will show
the great anomaly presented by the scale on which the consecutive
processes of iron-making are at present carried on. The little furnaces
originally used for smelting have assumed colossal proportions, and are
made to operate on 200 or 300 tons of materials at a time, giving out
10 tons of fluid metal at a single run. The manufacturer has thus gone
on increasing the size of his smelting furnaces, and adapting to their
use the blast apparatus of the requisite proportions, and has by this
means lessened the cost of production in every way; his large furnaces
require a great deal less labour to produce a given weight of iron than
would have been required to produce it with a dozen furnaces; and in
like manner he diminishes his cost of fuel, blast, and repairs, while
he insures a uniformity in the result that never could have been
arrived at by the use of a multiplicity of small furnaces.
While the manufacturer has shown himself fully alive to these
advantages, he has still been under the necessity of leaving the
succeeding operations to be carried out on a scale wholly at variance
with the principles he has found so advantageous in the smelting
department. It is true that hitherto no better method was known than
the puddling process, in which from 400 lb. to 500 lb. of iron is all
that can be operated upon at a time; and even this small quantity is
divided into homoeopathic doses of some 70 lb. or 80 lb., each of
which is moulded and fashioned by human labour, carefully watched and
tended in the furnaces, and removed therefrom one at a time to be
carefully manipulated and squeezed into form. When we consider the vast
extent of the manufacture and the gigantic scale on which the early
stages of the process is conducted, it is astonishing that no effort
should have been made to raise the after-processes somewhat nearer to a
level commensurate with the preceding ones, and thus rescue the trade
from the trammels which have so long surrounded it.
Before concluding these remarks, I beg to call your attention to an
important fact connected with the new process, which affords peculiar
facilities for the manufacture of cast steel. At that stage of the
process immediately following the boil, the whole of the crude iron has
passed into the condition of cast steel of ordinary quality; by the
continuation of the process the steel so produced gradually loses its
small remaining portion of carbon, and passes successively from hard to
soft steel, and from soft steel to steely iron, and eventually to very
soft iron; hence, at a certain period of the process, any quality of
metal may be obtained. There is one in particular, which, by way of
distinction, I call semi-steel, being in hardness about midway between
ordinary cast steel and soft malleable iron. This metal possesses the
advantage of much greater tensile strength than soft iron. It is also
more elastic, and does not readily take a permanent set; while it is
much harder, and is not worn or indented so easily as soft iron, at the
same time it is not so brittle or hard to work as ordinary cast steel.
These qualities render it eminently well adapted to purposes where
lightness and strength are specially required, or where there is much
wear, as in the case of railway bars, which, from their softness and
lamellar texture, soon become destroyed. The cost of semi-steel will be
a fraction less than iron, because the loss of metal that takes place
by oxidation in the converting vessel is about 2 1/2 per cent. less
than it is with iron; but, as it is a little more difficult to roll,
its cost per ton may fairly be considered to be the same as iron. But,
as its tensile strength is some 30 or 40 per cent. greater than bar
iron, it follows that for most purposes a much less weight of metal
may be used, so that, taken in that way, the semi-steel will form a
much cheaper metal than any with which we are at present acquainted.
In conclusion, allow me to observe that the facts which I have had the
honour to bring before the meeting have not been elicited from mere
laboratory experiments, but have been the result of working on a scale
nearly twice as great as is pursued in our largest iron works: the
experimental apparatus doing 7 cwt. in thirty minutes, while the
ordinary puddling furnace makes only 4 1/2 cwt. in two hours, which is
made into six separate balls, while the ingots or blooms are smooth,
even prisms 10 in. square by 30 in. in length, weighing about equal to
ten ordinary puddle-balls.
During the reading of the paper, I made a chalk sketch of the converter
on the blackboard, and answered several questions put by
members present; at its conclusion, an enthusiastic vote of thanks was
accorded me:
On the table in front of the raised platform I had exhibited a few
samples hastily got together for the occasion; one of them was a flat
iron bar, about 3 1/2 in. wide by 3/4 in. in thickness, which had been
rolled direct from a cast ingot at the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, then
under the superintendence of Colonel Eardley Wilmot. Another, but
smaller, bar of iron had been rolled, cut up and piled, and again
rolled into a long bar of small section. One of the ends cut off from
this bar, showing the overlapping of some parts of the pile, has
fortunately been preserved, and is now in the glass-case of old
specimens which I presented some years ago to the Iron and Steel
Institute. I also exhibited a large mass of fractured decarburised iron
of silvery whiteness, and some broken ingots of malleable, iron, etc.
The first person to rise after the reading of the paper was the late
Mr. James Nasmyth, who occupied a seat near me on the platform. He held
up between his thumb and finger a small fragment of wholly decarburised
iron, and enthusiastically exclaimed, "Gentlemen, this is a true
British nugget." Then in glowing terms he referred to the novelty of
the process, the rapid conversion into malleable iron of the molten
iron as it came direct from the blast furnace, the power the process
afforded of dealing with immense masses, the absence of all skilled
labour, and the non-employment of fuel. All this, he said, pointed to
results so vast and so commercially important, that it was impossible
to grasp the full effect it must have both on the iron and engineering
interests of this and of every other country. This paper had come upon
him quite unexpectedly, and the true instinct of the engineer and man
of science rose above all other considerations. He forgot how his own
personal interests might be affected by it, and in his enthusiasm he
said: "I am not going in any way to claim priority of thought or
action, but I cannot forget that a few years ago I patented, in the
puddling process, the use of steam, which was blown through the bar or
'rabble' with which the puddling operations are carried on. This might
be called a first step on the same road; but Mr. Bessemer has gone
miles beyond it, and I do not hesitate to say that I may go home
from this meeting and tear up my now useless patent." Mr. Nasmyth
resumed his seat amid a storm of cheers. Surely all who heard that
noble speech, however much they might have honoured Mr. Nasmyth as an
improver of the puddling process, must have honoured him infinitely
more for thus throwing over his own production, and fearlessly
advocating an invention that so utterly destroyed the value of his own.
I must not forget to mention that Mr. Budd -- who may be well excused
for the feeling of ridicule inspired by the extraordinary title of my
paper -- was the next to rise at the meeting. He said he had listened
with deep interest to the important details of this invention, and if
Mr. Bessemer desired an opportunity of commercially testing it, he
should be most happy to afford him every possible facility. His
ironworks were entirely at Mr. Bessemer's disposal, and if he liked to
avail himself of this offer, it should not cost him a penny. This
generous proposal made ample amends for the little joke at the
breakfast table, and was received with hearty cheers; after some
further discussion, and the reading of some other papers, the meeting
broke up. As I was about to leave, The Times reporter was introduced to
me, and he told me that he had not paid sufficient attention to the
first part of my paper, as the ironmasters present seemed to treat it
rather as a good joke than as a reality, and, taking his cue from them,
he had not made so full a report as he desired. But the enthusiastic
way in which the latter part of my paper was received on all sides,
made him desirous of giving a much fuller report than he had done. He
further said: "If you will be kind enough to lend me your paper, I will
promise you that every word of it shall appear in The Times to-morrow."
I was much pleased with his proposal, and at once handed him my paper,
which duly appeared in extenso on the following morning as promised,
and from The Times report of August 14th, 1856, the copy just given is
reproduced. It is impossible to gauge with any degree of accuracy the
effect, social or political, of the hundreds of articles that, from
time to time, have appeared in that influential and widely-circulated
journal, but when we view the publication of this particular paper from
a national point of view, it simply defies any estimate of the
magnitude of the interests involved.
And yet this high appreciation of my invention by Mr. George Rennie,
and the announcement of it to the whole world through the columns of
The Times, was like a two-edged sword; for, while on the one hand it
was the direct cause of bringing to my aid the sinews of war, and
assisted me in fighting the great battle of vested interests arrayed
against me, on the other hand it had a fearful disadvantage, which
might have wrecked all. In listening to the kind words of Mr. George
Rennie, I too readily allowed myself to bring my invention under public
notice. I should not have done so until all the details of the process
had been worked out, and I had made it a great commercial (and not
merely a scientific) fact. My premature disclosure brought down upon me
a wild pack of hungry wolves, fighting with me, and with each other,
for a share of what was to be made by this new discovery. To these
eager adventurers, the conversion of five tons of crude molten iron
into cast steel, in a few minutes, was the realisation of the fabled
philosopher's stone, that transmuted lead into gold. It was not a
question with these people of improving my process, but of an endeavour
to imitate it, or to do something similar by some dodge or other that
was not covered by my patent.
If they could simply surround me and hem me in with possible or
impossible claims, I must surely, they thought, pay them to get out of
my way. The agent of one of these so-called inventors told me to my
face that he had a little bit of land in the middle of my road, and
that there was not room for me to pass on either side, and that I dared
not run over him. Many examples might be adduced of the wild schemes
propounded in this mad race to appropriate the principle of my
invention. One inventor, instead of forcing air upward through the
metal, proposed to suck it out of the vessel by directly pumping out
the fire and showers of sparks, instead of driving clean, cold,
atmospheric air into it, as I had claimed in my patent. Another would
force down air upon the surface with such great pressure as to
penetrate the metal from the top instead of letting the air pass
naturally upwards. Another would allow the molten iron to flow down
steps, and blow on it as it fell from step to step. Another claimed to
spread the metal in a thin sheet and blow on to it, but not into it, as
I did. Another so-called inventor proposed to let the molten
iron fall down a deep well in the form of a shower, and collect it at
the bottom as malleable iron, not thinking that his process would
simply make iron shot. Another claimed the exclusive use in my process
of that kind of pig iron that had been most commonly used in Styria
for the last hundred years for making steel, the ore of which was known
as "stahl stein," or steel ore; nor was I to use manganese either as a
metal, an oxide, or a carburet, although that metal was in daily use in
all the hundreds of steel pots in Sheffield.
I had used the word "pig-iron" from which, after various processes, all
iron and steel then in use was made; had I used the more scientific
term, "carbonate of iron," instead of the accepted trade term, "pig" or
crude iron from the blast furnace, I should have been safe from one
scheme intended to circumvent me by a play on words. According to this
plan, malleable scrap iron was put into a tall cupola furnace, and
during its descent absorbed so much carbon as to issue therefrom as a
white cast iron. It was claimed that this was not pig-iron or crude
molten iron, as mentioned in my patent, as it was assumed that white
iron so made, with two per cent. of carbon, might be blown into steel
by my process without my being able to prevent it. These, and all other
discreditable attempts to make use of a colourable imitation of my
patent, utterly and ignominiously failed.
Within a few days of the publication of my Cheltenham paper, many
eminent engineers and ironmasters from various parts of the kingdom did
me the honour to come up to London, and see the process carried out at
my bronze factory at St. Pancras. Many and strange were the opinions
expressed on these occasions, and many questions were asked as to the
terms on which I proposed to allow the trade to use the process. At
that time the steel manufacturer took no interest in the question, and
it was left to the ironmaster to secure the huge advantage of the new
discovery. I and my partner, Mr. Longsdon, had thought the subject well
over, and we came to the conclusion that it would be wise not to have
the whole trade opposed to us, but to give a special interest to one
ironmaster in each district, so that his working would prove an example
to other iron works, and his special interest would induce him at any
future time to help to support my
patents, and not join in an adverse movement of the trade. But, at
first sight, it did not appear easy to do this without parting with a
share of the patents, and thus depriving ourselves of the absolute
control of them. At last we fixed a royalty of ten shillings per ton
for making malleable or wrought iron. To the first applicant for a
licence in each district, we would give a great and permanent advantage
over all others, and allow him to take a license to make a given number
of tons per annum at a royalty of one farthing per ton during the whole
term of the patents, he purchasing this right by paying at once a ten
shilling royalty on the annual quantity agreed upon. He would then have
a strong interest in the maintenance of the patents, and we should have
the advantage of cash in hand with which to fight our battles, if
attacked. These terms having been definitely fixed, were communicated
to the trade, and we continued to show the process to all who wished to
see it.
On August 27th -- fourteen days after the publication of my Cheltenham
paper in The Times -- we were visited in the afternoon by Mr. H. A.
Bruce (afterwards Lord Aberdare) and Mr. George Clark, trustees of the
great Dowlais Iron Works. We said that we were sorry that the
experiments were over for the day, but we should be happy to show them
on the morrow. "Oh," said these gentlemen, "We do not care about seeing
the process, for our chemist (Mr. E. Riley), on reading your paper in
The Times, extemporised a converting furnace in one of the sheds, had
the blast conveyed from
our blast-furnace engines, and tried the experiment; the object of our
visit is to treat for a license. We want to make 70,000 tons of
malleable iron per annum." They were a good deal disconcerted on
hearing our terms, and after much discussion it was arranged that we
should dine with them that evening at the Tavistock Hotel, and further
talk the matter over. This discussion resulted in their agreement to
pay us £10,000 for a license under which they should be at liberty to
make 20,000 tons of malleable iron per annum, at a royalty of one
farthing per ton, during the whole duration of the patent. A memorandum
to this effect was drawn up and signed as soon as dinner was over; and,
when all was thus settled to our mutual satisfaction, our first
licensees returned to Dowlais. It was exceedingly satisfactory
to us that these gentlemen should have spontaneously made their own
experiments in private, and satisfied themselves of the practicability
of the process by the aid of their own chemist and workmen; and, on the
strength of the results so obtained, should have come up in haste to
London to secure a license for their works, lest the right should pass
into other hands. This circumstance gave us great assurance of the
practicability of the invention which, everyone knew, had at that time
never been commercially carried out at any iron works. Hence the
purchase of a licence to work the new process was simply a mercantile
speculation in which the purchaser, who paid £10,000 down, stood to
save, during twelve years, £120,000, less £125 paid in farthings. The
inventor, on the other hand, had the advantage of ready cash to cover
the risks he himself had run in expending two years of labour, in
bearing the costs of constructing apparatus, taking out patents, and
making expensive experiments at a time when the whole scheme was
purely ideal, and the risks were much larger to him than they were to
those who now speculated on his success.
This sale of licenses for the whole term of the patents made the
licensees firm supporters of the patents, while the advantage given to
one manufacturer in each of the great iron districts was not calculated
to injure the trade, as the owner of the privilege would put the extra
profits in his pocket, instead of throwing away his advantage by
underselling his neighbours. For instance, the Dowlais Iron Company
were making 70,000 tons of rolled iron annually, and would have to pay
a full royalty on 50,000 tons, thus reducing their advantage to less
than three shillings per ton on their annual production of iron, a sum
too small to permit of their underselling the rest of the trade. This
was, then, the scheme by which I proposed to force my invention into
commercial use, in face of the gigantic vested interests arrayed
against it.
Soon after the departure of the Dowlais licensees, two gentlemen from
Scotland had a close run as to who should arrive first, and so claim
the advantage of being the pioneer for Scotland. This claim was
eventually settled in favour of Mr. Smith Dixon, of the Govan Iron
Works, Glasgow, who paid £10,000 for a license to make 20,000 tons of
iron annually at a royalty of one farthing per ton. This was followed
by a license to the Butterley Iron Company, in Derbyshire, to make
10,000 tons annually on the same terms. A license was also granted to
make 4000 tons annually to a tin-plate manufacturer in Wales, at one
farthing per ton, on payment of one year's royalty of £2000, thus
making sales of royalties to the amount of £27,000 in less than one
month from the announcement of my invention in The Times. Up to this
period, and long after it, the only persons interested were the
ironmasters, the question not making the smallest impression in the
steel trade. Sheffield wrapped itself in absolute security, and
believed that it could afford to laugh at the absurd notion of making
five tons of cast steel from pig-iron in twenty or thirty minutes, when
by its own system fourteen or fifteen days and nights were required to
obtain a 40-lb. or 50-lb. crucible of cast steel from pig-iron. So the
Yorkshire town was allowed to stand aside while the more enterprising
ironmaster gave the invention a trial, as far as bar-iron making was
concerned. At this period the ironmaster would never have dreamed of
changing his trade to that of a cast-steel manufacturer, had such a
thing been proposed to him.
Among the many persons who called on me from time to time, and made
proposals for a license, none was so energetic and thoroughgoing as Mr.
Thos. Brown, of the Ebbw Vale Ironworks. He brought with him an eminent
consulting engineer, Mr. Charles May, and with a good deal of quiet
tact, beat about the bush, trying to gauge my ideas on the value of my
patents. He expatiated on the advantages of turning an invention to
immediate account, and being not only well paid, but much overpaid, for
all costs and labour expended in perfecting the invention, which, when
purchased for cash, might be upset in law without any loss to the
inventor, who had been wise enough to realise when he had the
opportunity. This was the whole gist and meaning of a rather long
introductory speech, and I distinctly remember the reply which I made
at the time, and which I have often since repeated. I said: "Mr. Brown,
the expense and labour that I may have had over this invention is no
measure of its value. If you and I were walking arm-in-arm along the
street, and I saw something glittering in the gutter, and if the mere
fact of my being the first to discover it gave me a legal
claim to its possession, and all the labour and trouble taken by me
were simply to lift it out of the gutter with my thumb and finger, and
if this little glittering thing on examination turned out to be the
Koh-i-noor, then the Koh-i-noor being legally my personal property, I
should want a million sterling for it, if that happened to be its
ascertained commercial value, notwithstanding the fact of its having
come so easily into my possession." I thus quietly gave Mr. Brown to
understand that I was in no hurry to sell my birthright for a mess of
pottage. Mr. Brown then adopted another method, and attempted to dazzle
me at once, so as not to spoil the effect of a grand offer by letting
it slide out piecemeal. "Well," he said, "the real object of my visit
is to make you an offer to purchase all your patent rights in Great
Britain for your iron and steel inventions; and I will tell you at once
how far I am prepared to go, and I can go no farther. I am prepared to
give you £50,000 cash for them." I said: " Mr. Brown, I cannot but feel
that this is a very handsome offer indeed, for an invention that has
not yet passed from the scientific to the commercial stage, and it is
conclusive evidence of the high appreciation of its value by a
practical ironmaster, and manager of a great Welsh iron-works. But,
Sir, if my invention successfully passes from the scientific to the
commercial stage, as I doubt not it will do, it must inevitably
revolutionise the iron industry of the whole world; and even the very
handsome sum you offer is not a tithe of its actual value. No, Sir, I
cannot accept your very liberal offer; it is a large sum to risk, and
whatever risk there is, it is I who should run it. I have had dozens of
proofs -- none of which you have seen -- proofs that make me certain
of the ultimate result, and I am content to see the invention through
all its trials and vicissitudes, and stand or fall by the result."
Mr. Brown was evidently taken aback by my steady refusal to accept a
sum which he no doubt felt, and very reasonably so, would certainly
tempt me. Indeed, I presume he brought Mr. Charles May simply to
witness the bargain he felt sure of making, the written terms of which
were most probably in his coat pocket. Intense disappointment and anger
quite got the better of him, and for the moment he could not realise
the fact of my refusal; he hesitated, muttered something inaudible,
took up his hat, and left me very abruptly, saying in an irritated
tone, as he passed out of the room, "I'll make you see the matter
differently yet!" and slammed the door after him. We shall see, in a
future Chapter, what were the steps taken by Mr. Brown to attain this
end, and how far he succeeded.
In the meantime, small, upright, fixed converting vessels had been
erected at the iron works of Messrs. Galloway at Manchester, at Dowlais
in Wales, at Butterley in Derbyshire, and also at the Govan Iron Works
at Glasgow, and in each case the results of the trials were most
disastrous. The ordinary pig iron used for bar-iron making was found to
contain so much phosphorus as to render it wholly unfit for making iron
by my process. This startling fact came on me suddenly, like a bolt
from the blue; its effect was absolutely overwhelming. The transition
from what appeared to be a crowning success to one of utter failure
well-nigh paralysed all my energies. Day by day fresh reports of
failures arrived; the cry was taken up in the press; every paper had
its letters from correspondents, and its leaders, denouncing the whole
scheme as the dream of a wild enthusiast, such as no sensible man could
for a moment have entertained. I well remember one paper, after rating
me in pretty strong terms, spoke of my invention as "a brilliant
meteor that had flitted across the metallurgical horizon for a short
space, only to die out in a train of sparks, and then vanish into total
darkness."
I was present at some of these trials, and saw the utter failure that
resulted with the quality of metal operated upon. It is a curious, and
scarcely credible, fact that not one of the ironmasters who had
previously felt such abundant confidence in the success of the process
as to back their opinions with large sums of money, took any trouble
whatever, or offered any practical or scientific help, towards getting
over this unlooked-for difficulty. They all stood by, mere passive and
inert observers of the fact, not one of them lifting up a finger, or
stretching out a hand, to save the wreck. For my own part, stunned as I
was for the moment by the first blow, I never lost faith, or gave up
the belief that all would yet be well. I had too deep an insight into
the principle on which the whole theory was based to doubt of its
correctness. By the mere accident of living in London, I had access
only to the pig iron used
by London ironfounders. I had sent to a founder who had occasionally
made me iron castings, and requested him to send me a few tons of pig
iron for experiments. He sent me the grey Blaenavon iron which he was
then using in his business, and I accepted it simply as pig iron,
without ever suspecting that pig iron from other sources was so
different, and would give such contrary results.
There was also another most important factor which accounted for my
partial success in those early days, and which was unobserved and
unknown until a much later period, viz., in all these early experiments
in London, I lined the converter with clay or firebrick, and not with
a silicious material such as ganister or sand. When the small
converting vessels were erected for trial by my licensees, they were
lined with silicious materials which prevented the elimination of any
phosphorus from the iron, as was demonstrated later by Thomas and
Gilchrist's well-known dephosphorising process. It was, however, no use
for me to argue the matter in the Press; all that I could say would be
mere talk, and I felt that action was necessary, and not words. I
therefore determined to justify myself by the only possible means left
to me. After a full and deliberate consideration of the whole case, I
resolved to continue my researches until I had made my process a
commercial, as well as a scientific, success. I was in possession of a
large sum of money, which those ironmasters who believed in my
invention had deliberately invested in the speculation, acting just as
I myself had done, when I had gone to great expense in carrying out my
experiments in hope of reaping a large profit. But I was not content
to balance matters thus, and cry "quits." At the same time there were
duties which I owed to myself and my family. I had spent two years of
valuable professional time, much hard labour, and a great deal of
money, over this invention, and a proportion of the proceeds belonged,
in all fairness, to my family. Having thought thoroughly over the risks
and the powerful opposition I had to fight against, I came to the
conclusion that it was my duty to settle the sum of £10,000 on my wife
under trustees, so that I could not be absolutely ruined in the further
pursuit of my invention, or by litigation in the defence of my patent
rights. After this investment I had still left £12,000 to spend in
perfecting
my process, if found necessary. My partner, Mr. Longsdon, who had
implicit faith in me, intimated his resolve to go heart and soul with
me in bearing his share of the cost. Although not strictly in the
chronological order of events, it may here be briefly stated that these
licenses to make malleable iron by my process, for which £27,000 had
been paid, and which turned out unfortunately to be of no commercial
value, in consequence of being superseded by my steel process, were
nevertheless re-purchased by Messrs. Bessemer and Longsdon for the sum
of £32,500, or £5500 more than they were sold for to those gentlemen
who had ventured to speculate on the success of my invention.
At this period it became essential for me to know exactly what were the
constituents of pig iron in all its commercial varieties, and what were
the precise proportions in which these substances usually existed. In
order to gain this all-important knowledge, we engaged the services of
Dr. Henry, a well known professor of chemistry, to make complete and
careful analyses of the iron and other materials used in all our future
experiments, as well as of the results obtained in the converter. The
very numerous investigations of this gentleman were supplemented by
the able assistance of Mr. Edward Riley and Dr. Percy, and much
information was also gathered from the publications and previous
researches of Mr. Robert Hunt, of the Record Office of the School of
Mines.
In this way, continued investigations, accompanied by experimental
trials in the converter, were always adding to our store of facts, but
unfortunately they seemed to bring us scarcely a step nearer to the end
we had in view. British pig-iron abounded with this fatal enemy,
phosphorus, and I could not dislodge it. Apparatus was put up for the
production of pure hydrogen gas, which was passed through the metal; as
also were carbonic oxide, carburetted hydrogen, etc. Metallic oxides
and alkaline salts, and many other fluxes, were tried with little or no
beneficial results, and the metal was treated in various other ways. It
is needless to follow the continuous string of heartbreaking failures
and disappointments, which were very costly and very laborious.
Eventually, I began to feel that the problem must be attacked from an
entirely new
position, viz., the production of pig-iron without phosphorus, a
subject which I now took in hand. In the meantime I became very anxious
to know how far my converting process would be successful if we
succeeded in making, or obtaining, some pig-iron that was wholly or
practically free from phosphorus and sulphur; and I determined to set
this one vital question at rest for ever by obtaining from Sweden some
pure charcoal pig-irons from which such excellent steel was made in
Sheffield.
The very large scale on which my experimental trials were at this time
carried out involved a considerable outlay in various ways, but there
was no slackening of exertion, no cessation of the severe mental and
bodily labour. A long and weary year was consumed in experiments, and
but little real progress was made towards the removal of the
difficulty; many new paths were struck out, but they led to no
practical results. Several weeks were sometimes necessary to make and
fit up the apparatus required to test a new theory, and it too often
happened that the first hour's trial of the new scheme dashed all the
high expectations that had been formed, and we had again to retrace our
steps. Thus, week after week went on amid a constant succession of
newly-formed hopes and crushing defeats, varied with occasional
evidences of improvement. I, however, worked steadily on. Six months
more of anxious toil glided away, and things were in very much the same
state, except that many thousands of pounds had been uselessly
expended, and I was much worn by hard work and mental anxiety. The
large fortune that had seemed almost within my grasp was now far off;
my name as an engineer and inventor had suffered much by the defeat of
my plans. Those who had most feared the change with which my invention
had threatened their long-vested interests felt perfectly reassured,
and could now safely sneer at my unavailing efforts; and, what was far
worse, my best friends tried, first by gentle hints, and then by
stronger arguments, to make me desist from a pursuit that all the world
had proclaimed to be utterly futile. It was, indeed, a hard struggle; I
had well-nigh learned to distrust myself, and was fain at times to
surrender my own convictions to the mere opinion of others. Those most
near and dear to me grieved over my obstinate persistence. But what
could I do? I had had the most
irrefragable evidence of the absolute truth and soundness of the
principle upon which my invention was based, and with this knowledge I
could not persuade myself to fling away the promise of fame and wealth
and lose entirely the results of years of labour and mental anxiety,
and at the same time time confess myself beaten and defeated. Happily
for me, the end was nigh.
The pure pig-iron, which I had ordered from Sweden, arrived at last,
and no time was lost in converting it into pure, soft, malleable iron,
and also into steel of various degrees of hardness. It was thus
incontestably proved that with non-phosphoric pig-iron my converting
process was a perfect success; and that with pig-iron that had cost me
only £7 per ton, delivered in London, we could, and did, produce cast
steel commercially worth £50 to £60 per ton, by simply forcing
atmospheric air through it for the space of fifteen to twenty minutes,
wholly without the use of manganese or spiegeleisen.
Thus was the so-called fallacious dream of the enthusiast realised to
its fullest extent, and it was now my turn to triumph over those who
had so confidently predicted my failure. I could see in my mind's eye
the great iron industry of the world crumbling away under the
irresistible force of the facts so recently elicited. In that one
result the sentence had gone forth, and not all the knowledge
accumulated during the last one hundred and fifty years by the
thousands whose ingenuity and skill had helped to build up the mighty
fabric of the British iron trade -- no, nor the millions that had been
invested in carrying out the existing system of manufacture -- could
reverse that one great fact, or stop the current that was destined to
sweep away the old system of manufacturing wrought iron, and to
establish homogeneous steel as the material to be in future employed in
the construction of our ships and our guns, our viaducts and our
bridges, our railroads and our locomotive engines, and the
thousand-and-one things for which iron had hitherto been employed.
And yet, with all this newly-developed power, I was paralysed for the
moment in the face of the stolid incredulity of all practical iron and
steel manufacturers -- an incredulity which stood like the wall of a
fortress, barring my way to the fruits of the victory I had already
won.
I announced the fact of my complete success to the world, and held in
my hands the most undeniable proofs of the truth of my assertion, but
no one would now believe it. They remembered, but too well, the great
expectations that were excited two years previously by the first
announcement of my invention at Cheltenham, and were not again to be
disturbed by the cry of "Wolf!" Thus it happened that, after the hard
battle I had fought for so many years, I found myself as far as ever
from the fruits of my labour, for not a single ironmaster or steel
manufacturer in Great Britain could be induced to adopt the process.
Anxious to possess still further practical proofs of the value of my
invention, I made, at my experimental works at St. Pancras, a few
hundredweights of steel ingots of all the special qualities required in
an engineer's workshop. This steel we took to Sheffield, where it was
tilted, by an experienced steel-maker, into bars of precisely the same
external appearance as the ordinary steel of commerce. Either I, or my
partner, Mr. Longsdon, was present the whole time occupied in the
operation, and as each bar was finished we stamped it, while still hot,
with a special punch which we kept in our pockets for the purpose, thus
rendering the accidental or intentional change of a bar impossible.
These bars we took to the works of my friends, Messrs. Galloway, the
well-known engineers, of Manchester, where they were given out to the
workmen and employed by them for all the purposes for which steel had
previously been used in their extensive business. So identical in all
essential qualities was this steel with that usually employed that,
during two months' trial of it, the workmen had not the slightest idea
or suspicion that they were using steel made by a new process. They
were accustomed to use steel of the best quality, costing £60 per ton,
and they had no doubt whatever that they were still doing so.
None of the large steel manufacturers at Sheffield would adopt my
process, even under the very favourable conditions which I offered as
regards licenses, viz., £2 per ton. Each one required an absolute
monopoly of my invention if he touched it at all. This I fully made up
my mind to resist, by adopting the only means open to me -- namely, the
establishment of a steel works of my own in the midst of the great
steel industry of Sheffield. My purpose was not to work my
process as a monopoly, but simply to force the trade to adopt it by
underselling them in their own market, which the extremely low cost of
production would enable me to do, while still retaining a very high
rate of profit on all that was produced. My partner, Mr. Longsdon, and
my brother-in-law, Mr. William Allen, to whom I mentioned this project,
were quite willing to join me in it as a purely manufacturing
speculation, apart from any interest in my patents, which, however, the
firm were allowed to use free of royalty, in consideration of their
permitting the works to be inspected and the process fully explained to
all intending licensees.
It will be remembered that Messrs. Galloway, of Manchester, were the
first persons who took a license to manufacture malleable iron by my
converting process, having purchased the sole right to manufacture it
in Manchester and ten miles round, prior to the reading of my paper at
Cheltenham. One of the original upright fixed converters had been
erected at their engineering works, and having, like all the rest,
failed to produce satisfactory results with ordinary phosphoric
pig-iron, it had been at once abandoned. But when the proofs of our
success in steel making, two years later, were afforded to Messrs.
Galloway by the actual use in their own workshop of steel tools of all
sorts made by us in London, it was mutually agreed that they should
rescind their original license for Manchester and join us as equal
partners in the Sheffield works, which I and Mr. Longsdon had
determined to erect, with Mr. William Allen as the resident managing
partner.
Mr. Longsdon, with his intimate knowledge of architecture, soon
designed our model works -- a neat white brick range of buildings with
sandstone dressings, and a tall chimney as the usual landmark. Thus
were established the first Bessemer Steel Works, and in less than
twelve months from its commencement, we had built a dozen melting
furnaces and erected the steam and tilt hammers, blast furnaces, and
converting apparatus, suitable for carrying on the new manufacture.
This we commenced by bringing steel into the market at £10 to £15 per
ton below the quotations of other manufacturers. In thus opposing the
old-established steel trade in its very midst, we ran the risk of
"rattening," or a bottle of gunpowder in the furnace flues, by which
the workmen of Sheffield
had earned for themselves an unenviable notoriety, and we had reason to
consider ourselves fortunate that we escaped. We were doubtless
indebted for this immunity to the entire and absolute disbelief, both
of masters and men, in our power to compete with them. It was this
obstinate refusal to see and judge for themselves which lost the
manufacturers of Sheffield their great monopoly of the steel trade;
for, although the steel makers refused to see, it was abundantly clear
to the ironmasters that profits could be realised by working the new
process; hence it was speedily adopted in all the great iron districts
of the country.
Some idea may be formed of the importance of the manufacture, and of
how much the people of Sheffield lost by their prejudice and
incredulity, when I state the simple fact that, on the expiration of
the fourteen years' term of partnership of our Sheffield firm, the
works, which had been greatly increased from time to time, entirely out
of revenue, were sold by private contract for exactly twenty-four times
the amount of the whole subscribed capital of the firm, notwithstanding
that we had divided in profits during the partnership a sum equal to
fifty-seven times the gross capital. So that, by the mere commercial
working of the process, apart from the patent, each of the five
partners retired from the Sheffield works after fourteen years, having
made eighty-one times the amount of his subscribed capital, or an
average of nearly cent. per cent. every two months -- a result probably
unprecedented in the annals of commerce.
Remembering the keen interest which the Emperor of the French had taken
in my early experiments with rifled projectiles, I naturally made him
acquainted with the success I had achieved; while, at the same time, I
also kept our own Government fully informed. At that period the
Foundry and Ordnance Department at Woolwich was ably presided over by
Colonel Eardley Wilmot, R.A., who had taken the deepest interest in the
progress of my invention from its earliest date.
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