LIST OF PATENTS GRANTED TO HENRY BESSEMER, 1838-1883.
1838 March 8. No. 7585. Casting, breaking off, and counting printing types.
1841 Jan 6. No. 8777. Checking or stopping railroad carriages.
1841 Sept 23. No. 9100. Manufacture of glass.
1843 June 15. No. 9775. Manufacture of bronze and other metallic powders.
1844 Jan 13. No. 10011. Preparing paint and varnishes for fixing
metallic powders or leaf.
1845 Dec 5. No. 10981. Atmospheric propulsion, and exhausting air and
other fluids.
1846 July 30. No. 11317. Manufacture, silvering, and coating of glass.
1846 Aug 26. No. 11352. Railway engines and carriages.
1847 July 17. No. 11794. Manufacture of glass.
1848 March 22. No. 12101. Manufacture of glass.
1849 Jan 31. No. 12450. Manufacture of glass.
1849 April 17. No. 12578. Manufacture of cane sugar.
1849 May 15. No. 12611. Manufacture of oils, varnishes, pigments and paints.
1849 June 23. No. 12669. Raising and forcing water.
1849 Sept 20. No. 12780. Preparation of fuel and stoking machinery.
1850 July 22. No. 13183. Figuring and ornamenting surfaces.
1850 July 31. No. 13202. Manufacture and treatment of sugar.
1851 March 20. No. 13560. Manufacture and refining of sugar.
1851 Nov 19. No. 13819. Ornamenting woven fabrics and leather.
1852 Feb 24. No. 13988. Manufacture of sugar.
1852 July 24. No. 14239. Manufacture of sugar.
1852 Nov 19. No. 795. Treatment of cane juices.
1852 Nov 19. No. 796. Manufacture of sugar.
1852 Nov. 19. No. 797. Treatment of washed sugar.
1852 Nov 19. No. 799. Concentrating saccharine fluids.
1853 June 18. No. 1483. Manufacture of waterproof fabrics.
1853 July 14. No. 1687. Refining and manufacturing sugar.
1853 July 15. No. 1689. Manufacture of bastard sugar from molasses and scums.
1853 July 15. No. 1691. Manufacture and refining of sugar.
1853 Dec 2. No. 2811. Manufacture and refining of sugar.
1853 Dec 9. No. 2875. Railway axles and brakes.
1854 Aug 21. No. 1835. Treatment of slag.
1854 Aug 25. No. 1868. Naval and military guns.
1854 Nov 24. No. 2489. Projectiles and guns.
1855 Jan 10. No. 66. Manufacture of iron and steel.
1855 Jan 10. No. 67. Manufacture of ordnance.
1855 June 18. No. 1382. Screw propellers, cranks and propeller shafts.
1855 June 18. No. 1384. Manufacture of cast steel and mixtures of steel
and cast iron.
1855 June 18. No. 1386. Manufacture of ordnance.
1855 June 18. No. 1388. Manufacture of rolls or cylinders for shaping
metals, crushing ores, etc.; and calendering,
glazing, embossing, printing, and pressing.
1855 June 18. No. 1390. Manufacture of railway wheels.
1855 Oct 17. No. 2317. Manufacture of anchors.
1855 Oct 17. No. 2319. Manufacture of railway bars.
1855 Oct 17. No. 2321. Manufacture of cast steel.
1855 Oct 17. No. 2323. Metal beams, girders, and tension bars used in
constructing buildings, viaducts, and bridges.
1855 Oct 17. No. 2325. Ordnance and projectiles.
1855 Oct 17. No. 2327. Railway wheels.
1855 Dec 7. No. 2768. Manufacture of iron.
1856 Jan 4. No. 44. Manufacture of iron and steel.
1856 Feb 12. No. 356. Manufacture of malleable iron and steel.
1856 March 15. No. 630. Manufacture of iron and steel.
1856 May 31. No. 1290. Shaping, pressing, and rolling malleable iron
and steel.
1856 May 31. No. 1292. Manufacture of iron and steel.
1856 Aug 19. No. 1938. Manufacture of iron and steel.
1856 Aug 25. No. 1981. Manufacture of iron and steel.
1856 Nov 4. No. 2585. Manufacture of railway rails and axles.
1856 Nov 10. No. 2639. Manufacture of iron and steel.
1856 Nov 18. No. 2726. Manufacture of iron.
1857 Jan 24. No. 221. Manufacture of iron and steel.
1857 Sept 18. No. 2432. Manufacture of cast steel.
1857 Nov 5. No. 2808. Treating iron ores.
1857 Nov 6. No. 2819. Manufacture of malleable iron and steel,
and of railway and other bars, plates, and rods.
1857 Nov 13. No. 2862. Treating and smelting iron ores.
1857 Nov 20. No. 2921. Manufacture of iron and steel.
1868 July 30. No. 1724. Cleaning pit coal.
1858 Dec 1. No. 2747. Wheels and tyres.
1859 March 16. No. 670. Manufacture of crank axles.
1860 March 1. No. 578. Apparatus for the manufacture of malleable iron
and steel.
1861 Jan 26. No. 216. Ordnance and projectiles.
1861 Feb 1. No. 275. Manufacture of malleable iron and steel, and
apparatus therefor.
1891 April 27. No. 1069. Projectiles and ordnance.
1862 Jan 8. No. 56. Apparatus for the manufacture of malleable iron
and steel.
1863 Jan 5. No. 37. Apparatus for pressing, moulding, shaping,
embossing, crushing, shearing, and cutting metallic and other substances.
1863 Jan 13. No. 114. Manufacture of malleable iron and steel, and
furnaces and apparatus therefor.
1863 June 9. No. 1439. Construction of hydraulic presses and machinery.
1863 Nov 5. No. 2744. Manufacture of railway bars.
1863 Nov 5. No. 2746. Manufacture of malleable iron and steel.
1864 Jan 25. No. 217. Manufacture of projectiles.
1864 Jan 30. No. 265. Manufacture of armour plate.
1865 May 1. No. 1208. Manufacture of pig iron or foundry metal,
and of castings thereof.
1865 Nov 3. No. 2835. Manufacture of iron and steel, and apparatus
therefor.
1867 Aug 14. No. 2343. Ordnance.
1867 Nov 11. No. 3193. Grindstones and artificial stones.
1867 Dec 9. No. 3501. Manufacture of firebricks, retorts, and crucibles.
1867 Dec 31. No. 3714. Treatment of cast iron and manufacture of
malleable iron and steel.
1868 March 21. No. 965. Manufacture of iron and steel.
1868 March 21. No. 967. Manufacture of iron and steel.
1868 March 31. No. 1095. Manufacture of iron and steel, heating and
melting of metals.
1868 Nov 10. No. 3419. Manufacture of cast steel and homogenous malleable iron.
1869 Feb 23. No. 566. Apparatus and buildings for manufacture of
cast steel and malleable iron from pig iron.
1869 May 10. No. 1431. Manufacture of malleable iron and steel,
and furnaces therefor.
1869 May 10. No. 1432. Furnaces for obtaining cast steel or homogeneous
malleable iron from wrought iron or pig.
1869 May 10. No. 1433. Conversion of molten pig iron into homogeneous
malleable iron or steel.
1869 May 10. No. 1434. Treatment of pig iron and apparatus therefor.
1869 May 10. No. 1435. Blast furnaces, their gaseous products,
and the construction of blowing engines.
1869 Aug 10. No. 2397. Melting and casting metals.
1869 Dec 22. No. 3707. Vessels for prevention of sea-sickness.
1870 Feb 24. No. 553. Vessels for prevention of sea-sickness.
1870 May 27. No. 1559. Vessels for prevention of sea-sickness.
1870 May 30. No. 1580. Steamships for prevention of sea-sickness.
1870 June 17. No. 1742. Vessels for prevention of sea-sickness.
1870 Nov 29. No. 3130. Ordnance and ammunition.
1871 Jan 27. No. 223. Marine artillery.
1871 Feb 15. No. 386. Repairing and converting vessels.
1871 June 1. No. 1466. Ordnance and projectiles.
1871 July 4. No. 1737. Asphalte pavement.
1872 Oct 1. No. 2897. Passenger vessels.
1873 March 23. No. 1076. Controlling, etc., suspended saloons;
discharging marine artillery.
1874 Sept 24. No. 3274. Ships' saloons, cabins, etc.
1874 Sept 28. No. 3319. Supplying water.
1875 Dec 10. No. 4258. Ships' saloons, cabins, etc.
1875 Dec 31. No. 4552. Reflectors, lenses, etc.
1879 April 5. No. 1368. (A. G. Bessemer and Sir H. Bessemer.)
Making tinplate and blackplate.
1879 Oct 10. No. 4110. Tinplate bars or slabs.
1880 March 6. No. 987. (A. G. Bessemer and Sir H. Bessemer.)
Making malleable iron; making castings or ingots.
1882 Oct 30. No. 5171. Loading, etc., merchandise; rolling stock of railways.
1883 Jan 18. No. 305. Loading, etc., merchandise; rolling stock of railways.
In the earlier pages of the narrative, my father relates the story of a
visit he paid to the works of some friends of his, Messrs. Hayward and
Co., manufacturers of paints and varnishes, in London. He tells how he
was struck with the time-honoured, wasteful, and imperfect process of
making drying oils in an iron pot over an open fire: a crude method,
always attended with uncertainty, danger, and not infrequently with a
complete loss of the whole charge. We are told how he recommended a
new, simple, and certain plan to replace the old primitive and
dangerous method -- a plan that had occurred to him as he walked
through the works, and which he embodied in a sketch. The idea was put
into practice by his friends, to their lasting profit, as they for
years kept it a secret in the colour trade. The new plan (not described
in the Autobiography) was this: instead of a small charge of two or
three gallons being heated over an open fire, some fifty or sixty
gallons were run into a tank, in the bottom of which was a pipe
terminating in a large rosehead. Connected with this pipe was a coil
that could be heated to any desired temperature, and air could be
forced through this coil, escaping from the rose-head into the oil. The
exact degree of heat required could be thus maintained, and the process
completed with certainty and safety, without waste, and, above all,
without any discoloration of the oil. This may seem but a small matter
-- as, indeed, it was so far as my father was concerned, for the
incident passed from his mind until he was reminded of it later. But
it proved a fortune to the firm, and to-day exactly the same method,
carried to a further
degree of oxidation, is the foundation of the vast linoleum industries
throughout the world.
I do not find that my father refers (except now and then quite indirectly) to his skill as a draughtsman and designer; yet he possessed both these qualities to a remarkable degree. No doubt they were inherited, with other mechanical gifts, from his father, who, as we have seen, occupied a prominent position in the Paris Mint at an early age, and possessed a rare combination of mechanical and artistic skill. My father speaks of a knack he possessed, as a boy, of modelling in clay, which he put to use at a very early age; later, when the family had removed to London, the production of dies for embossing cardboard and metal, and especially the ornamental designs that characterised them, depended wholly on himself, and would not have been possible without natural gifts carefully cultivated. Perhaps even more interesting was his skill in the application of art to mechanical purposes, as evidenced by the engraving of his new stamp dies (see Fig. 5, Plate III.); by his designs and preparation of the deep-cut cylinders for making figured Utrecht velvet (Fig. 15, Plate VIL), and a number of other applications of art to mechanics that are only briefly referred to, or even not mentioned, in the course of his Autobiography.
In another direction his skill and assiduity as a draughtsman were remarkable. He made, with his own hand, all the drawings that accompanied his patent specifications, at least for a great number of years; and, near the close of his business career, we find that he himself prepared nearly all the drawings for the Bessemer Saloon.
In lighter vein, his designs for alterations and additions to his own residences, and those of his children, were quite remarkable. This is a matter to which I shall have occasion to again refer, later on.
The story of his great invention, the "Bessemer Process," is told in the Autobiography at much length and with characteristic vigour; but in this story my father has omitted a few noteworthy details which should not be lost. It is interesting that, in the month of June, 1859, Bessemer tool steel was first quoted in the printed price lists of the trade. The Mining Journal of June 4th, 1859, gives the necessary evidence on this point. It says:
In this day's Journal we quote, for the first time, amongst the
metallic manufactures of this country, the steel produced by the
process patented by Mr. Bessemer, and we are informed that the new
material can be supplied in almost any quantities. The usual price of
engineers' tool steel is from £2 15s. to £3 5s. per cwt., while Mr.
Bessemer offers an article, which prominent judges pronounce equal to
the best, at £2 4s., his other kinds of steel being proportionately
lower. As to the quality of the article, there can be little doubt,
since the tests to which it has been submitted at Woolwich gave much
satisfaction to the officials; and, we understand, a contract for a
considerable period has been concluded with Mr. Bessemer. With a steel
of equal quality a little more than two-thirds the usual price, it
would appear almost impossible for success to be wanting to the seller,
while the pecuniary advantage to the consumer will be at once verified;
so that it is needless to commend Bessemer's steel to the consideration
of our readers.
Sir Henry speaks of the early struggles and ultimate success of the
Sheffield works; how great that success was may be gathered from the
following passage, given in almost similar words
on page 177.
Some idea may be formed of its importance as a manufacture 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
capital; so that, by the mere commercial working of the process, apart
from the patents, each of the partners retired, after fourteen years,
from the Sheffield works with eighty-one times the amount of his
subscribed capital, or an average of nearly cent per cent. every two
months.
But, during the early days (from 1858 to 1861), the success was
problematical and the anxiety very great. The subjoined statement shows
the financial results obtained at the Sheffield works during the first
ten years of its existence.
Perhaps there was no better practical engineer in Great Britain than
Mr. John Ramsbottom, of the London and North-Western Railway; and when
I proposed steel rails to him, Mr. Ramsbottom, looking at me with
astonishment, and almost with anger, said: "Mr. Bessemer, do you wish
to see me tried for manslaughter?" That observation was the natural
result of the then state of knowledge as to what could be done with
steel. At that time steel was made almost exclusively for cutting
purposes, and it was highly carbonized, and certainly too hard for
rails. After seeing my samples, however, Mr Ramsbottom, whose mind was
thoroughly open to conviction, said: "Well, let me have 10 tons of this
material that I may torture it to my heart's content. . . ." A steel
rail was rolled by Mr. Ramsbottom from a portion of the 10 tons
mentioned, and it had been twisted cold by clamping one end in the
reversing brasses of a rolling mill, and putting the other end in
connection with the shaft driven by the engine, till it was twisted
into two pieces. I carefully measured that sample, and I found that in
a part measuring 6 ft. along the centre of the web, each of the flanges
measured 8 ft. 1 in. This twisted rail was a good example of what mild
steel was in those days. To show that such material, which twisted so
well cold, would endure in the hot test, a 4-in. square bar was twisted
hot. It was twisted till it came in two in the centre. The angles were
thus made to form a sort of screw with threads 5/8 in. to 1/4 in.
apart.
The first steel rail was laid down between two adjacent iron rails, at
the Camden Goods Station of the London and North-Western Railway, on
May 9th, 1862, and as the first of so many millions of tons, its
history should not be forgotten. It is summarised in Engineering, of
January 5th, 1866, as follows:-
The Bessemer rails, judging from the experience of the London and
North-Western Railway Company, are cheaper than iron rails at £50, or
more, per ton. There is the remarkable rail under the Chalk Farm bridge
of the North-Western line, which, but a few weeks ago, when we saw it,
was wearing out the seventeenth or eighteenth face of wrought-iron
rails adjoining it, and which were subjected to exactly the same
conditions of traffic. This comparison is an extraordinary one. A steel
rail, rolled at Crewe, from an ingot cast at the Sheffield Steel Works
of Messrs. Henry Bessemer and Company, was selected at random, and laid
down between contiguous iron rails, at the Camden Goods Station, May
9th, 1862. In 1864, a gentleman about to proceed to Belgium upon
business connected with steel rails, asked and received permission from
the London and North-Western directors to copy the records of this and
the contiguous rails, as filed in their office. The steel rail, when
examined in September, 1864, had never been turned, top for bottom, and
showed "but little signs of wear." Eight thousand goods trucks pass
over this line in twenty-four hours, and it is estimated that nearly
10,000,000 trucks, or more than 20,000,000 wheels, have passed over
this rail from the first. The next iron rail, contiguous to it, was
laid down, quite new, on the same date, May 9th, 1862. It was found
necessary to turn it in the following July; and on September 9th of the
same year, a second iron rail had to be laid down in the place of the
first. This required to be turned on November 6th, and on January 6th,
1863, a third iron rail had to be put down. This was turned on March
1st, and a fourth new rail put down on April 29th. This was turned top
for bottom, July 3rd, and a fifth new iron rail laid down September 29th.
It was turned over on December 16th, and on February 16th, 1864, a
sixth new rail was put in. This was turned April 12th, and a seventh
new rail put in its place, August 6th, 1864. Mr. Bessemer exhibited his
rail at the last meeting of the British Association at Birmingham,
after it had worn out additional and neighbouring wrought-iron rails.
It was not greatly worn, and had never been turned. The Crewe station,
with nearly three hundred time-table trains through it daily, besides a
great amount of shunting almost always going on, was laid with rails
rolled from ingots cast by Messrs. Bessemer and Company, November 9th
and 10th, 1861, and a year later, on the Prince of Wales's Birthday,
Mr. Bessemer's exhibition rails, 35ft. long, rolled at Crewe, were laid
in the up line, just out of the station. None of these rails have yet
been turned, and we believe that Mr, Ramsbottom, and Captain Webb, of
the Crewe Works, anticipate sending the 35-ft. rails in good order to
the next International Exhibition, to which we are looking forward, in
1872.
In 1861, the price of Bessemer steel rails was £22 per ton, but in the
following year the Metropolitan Railway paid only £17 per ton. Although
my father does not say so, steel rails were a conspicuous feature in
the Bessemer collection in the London Exhibition of 1862. The
following description of this exhibit is quoted from an appreciative
article in The Engineer :--
There are also some close bends of rails, one of which is deserving
special notice. Mr. Ramsbottom, the able engineer of the railway works
at Crewe, had this piece taken up while covered with sharp frost, and
placed under the large steam-hammer, where it stood the blow necessary
to double both ends together, without showing the smallest indications
of fracture. . . . . There are also some extraordinary examples of the
toughness of the Bessemer steel, made from British coke pig iron, among
which may be enumerated two deep vessels of 1 ft. in diameter, with
flattened bottoms and vertical sides. At the top edge, one of these is
5/8 in. and the other 7/8 in. in thickness. A 4-in. square bar has been
so twisted, while hot, that its angles have approached within less
than half an inch of each other, so that what was originally 1 ft.
length of surface has now become 26 ft., while the central portion of
the bar still preserves its original length of 1 ft. ! . . . . By the
present process, although the number of operations is reduced by
casting steel in large masses, its cost as compared with that of
wrought iron is somewhat increased. Still, it compares favourably
considering its greater strength. The present causes of the costliness
of steel are
principally these: Melting the metal is expensive. Such a high
temperature is required that the pots for very low steel stand only one
or two meltings. The subsequent heating of immense ingots (one of
Krupp's, in the Great Exhibition, was 44in. in diameter, and 8 ft.
long) requires time and skill; drawing them under ordinary hammers, not
to speak of its injurious effects, is a very long operation. The
careful preparation and selection of the materials add considerably to
the cost. Again, the business is now monopolised by a few
manufacturers. Standard qualities of low steel bring a price much more
disproportionate than that of wrought iron, compared to the cost of
production. Some of the processes are secret, others are covered by
patents; but the chief difficulty is, that very few establishments out
of the whole number have undertaken the manufacture. Many of the large
British establishments have introduced the Bessemer process. In this
country several ironmasters pronounce this process a failure, and
propose to stick to puddling and piling. At the same time others are
doing all they can to develop this and similar improvements, but are
indifferently encouraged. There is no doubt, however, that within a few
years low steel will be produced at a cheap rate all over the world.
The wonderful success and spread of the Bessemer process in England,
France, Prussia, Belgium, Sweden, and even in India, all within three
or four years, prove that great talent and capital are already
concentrated on this subject, and promise the most favourable results.
And again:
Among the specimens of Bessemer metal in the Exhibition of 1862 was a
14-in. octagonal ingot, broken at one end, and turned at the other end,
to show that the metal was perfectly solid. The turned end looked like
forged steel. An 18-in. ingot, weighing 3136 lb., was the six thousand
four hundred and tenth "direct steel" ingot made at the works of
Messrs. Henry Bessemer and Co.
There were also exhibited a double-headed rail, 40 ft. long; a
24-pounder and a 32-pounder cannon; a 250 horse-power crank-shaft, and
several tyres without welds. The specimens showing the wonderful
ductility of the metal have been referred to. The Bessemer process has
been adopted during the last two or three years, since its early
embarrassments were overcome, with such great success, and by so many
leading manufacturers in England, France, Sweden, Belgium, and other
European States, that its general substitution for all processes for
making either fine wrought iron or cheap low steel is now considered
certain.
One of the most important chapters in the history of the Bessemer steel
industry concerns its introduction and development in the United
States, and although he makes many suggestive references to this
subject in his Autobiography, Sir Henry does not give any details. An
attempt should therefore be made to supply this deficiency, though only
in a very brief and imperfect way. Alexander Lyman Holley says, in his
book on Ordnance and Armour, written in 1863, that at that date, the
Bessemer process was to be tried on a working scale at Troy, in the
State of New York, by Messrs. Winslow, Griswold, and Holley.
The process was then in operation on a large scale in many places in
England and on the Continent; but, almost seven years before,
experiments had been carried out by Messrs. Cooper and Hewitt at their
iron works in Philipsburgh, New Jersey, following the information
given them in Mr. Bessemer's British Association paper of 1856. At the
meeting of the British Iron and Steel Institute in America, in 1890,
Mr. Abram S. Hewitt, said:
Mr. Bessemer read his celebrated paper describing the process of
producing steel without fuel, at the Cheltenham meeting of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science in the summer of 1856; an
imperfect report of this paper was published in the journals of the
day, and attracted my notice. The theory announced seemed to be
entirely sound, and the apparatus simple and effective. I gave orders
at once, without further information than that derived from the
published report, to erect an experimental vessel for the purpose of
testing the possibility of producing steel direct from the blast
furnace. In the same year in which this paper was read the experiment
was tried at the furnace of Cooper and Hewitt, at Philipsburgh, in New
Jersey, and the result served to show, beyond all doubt, that the
invention of Mr. Bessemer was one that could be successfully reduced to
practice.
This fixes the date of the first application of the Bessemer process in
the United States. However, nothing on a practical scale was done until
after A. L. Holley's visit to England in 1862, when, on behalf of a
syndicate known as the "Bessemer Association," one of the most active
members of which was Mr. Hewitt, he opened negotiations for the
purchase of the Bessemer American patents. These negotiations were
completed in 1864; but the opposition which Mr. Bessemer encountered up
to that date, as is vividly related in his Autobiography, delayed
developments in the United States, and the Bessemer Association was
deterred from taking action by the widespread hostile articles in the
British press. A letter written by Holley, in September, 1866, shows
the actual position at that date.
In view of the diverse statements of the English journals regarding the
success of the Bessemer process in this country, and of the
improvements actually developed here, I trust that some account of our
practice will be interesting. The Bessemer process was first
experimentally practised in this country with a 3-ton converter, at the
ironworks of Mr. E. B. Ward, at Wyandotte, near Detroit, under the
superintendence of Mr. L. M. Hart, who had learned the Bessemer process
at the works of Messrs. Jackson, in France. . . . .
Before the Wyandotte experiments were commenced, Messrs. Winslow,
Griswold and Holley, of Troy, had completed an arrangement with Mr.
Bessemer and his associates for the
purchase of the Bessemer patents in the United States, and had
commenced the erection of a 2-ton experimental plant. This plant was
started in February, 1865, and has since been in constant operation.
The first ingot made had a tensile strength of 65,000 lb. per square
inch in the cast state, and 121,000 lbs. when hammered to a 2 in. bar.
A 2-in. bar was bent double cold. The first ingot was a fair
representative of all the steel that has since been manufactured at
Troy. The pig iron used was smelted with charcoal from the hematite
and from the magnetic ores of the Lake Champlain, the Hudson River, and
the Salisbury regions, and the Lake Superior iron, smelted either with
charcoal near the mines, or with bituminous coal in the Mahoning Valley
of Ohio. Some of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey anthracite irons
produce steel equal in quality to that made from the English hematites
of the Cumberland regions, but not equal to that made from the American
charcoal irons mentioned. Some 100 tons of the best steel have been
made from the Iron Mountain ores of Missouri, smelted with charcoal,
and from the charcoal hematite irons of central Alabama. Sufficient
experience has already been gained in the mixing of these various pigs
to produce, uniformly, all grades of steel. The only irons that have
failed are those reduced from surface ores, containing an excess of
phosphorus, and those that have been smelted with very sulphurous coal.
As far as tested, probably three-quarters of the American pigs produce
first-rate Bessemer steel.
Meanwhile Messrs. Winslow, Griswold and Holley had commenced the
erection of a pair of 5-ton converters, and the Wyandotte Works were
producing a good quality of steel from the Lake Superior irons. The
re-carboniser at both works has been the Franklinite pig iron of New
Jersey, which is slightly richer in manganese than spiegeleisen. . . .
At the present time the 2-ton converter at Troy is producing 10 tons of
ingot (six charges) per twenty-four hours; the 5-ton converter will be
in operation next December. The Wyandotte Works are producing a smaller
quantity, but a good quality of steel. Of the licensees, the
Pennsylvania Steel Company, at Harrisburg, will be in operation early
next year, with two 5-ton converters, a 25-in. three-high rail mill, a
tyre mill, a plate mill, and a forge suited to the manufacture of all
ingots under 12 tons weight. Similar works at Chester, Pennsylvania, at
Cleveland,in Ohio, are partially completed, and will be running during
the next year. Several other works in Pennsylvania and at the West will
probably produce steel within eighteen to twenty months of the present
writing (September, 1866).
The plans for the Pennsylvania Steel Company's Works were prepared by
my father himself, at Sheffield, and the plant was almost wholly of
English manufacture. The converters were made by Messrs. Galloway and
Sons, of Manchester, and the hammers by Messrs. Thwaites and Carbutt,
of Bradford.
The first charge of Bessemer metal made in the United States was run
into ingots at Troy, on February 16th, 1865. The works were very small,
with two 2-ton converters, but the results obtained under Holley's able
management were so surprising that the Bessemer
Association required no further proof, and both practical steel-makers
and capitalists were convinced. During the month of May, 1865, no less
than eighty converter charges were run into ingots. This was rapidly
followed by the installation of two 5-ton converters at Troy, and the
construction of the Pennsylvania Steel Company's Bessemer Works at
Harrisburg. During fifteen years Holley's life was spared to build up
the Bessemer process in America, and to make a lasting monument for
himself. In March, 1865, the two small converters at Troy made 118 tons
of Bessemer steel, or at the rate of 1,400 tons in the year. In 1880
the output from two 5-ton converters was 14,000 tons. In 1868 the total
output of Bessemer steel in America was 8,500 tons; the same year it
was 110,000 tons in England. Eleven years later the American production
had equalled that of this country, and since then it has always
exceeded it.
The Report of the Twelfth Census of the United States contains an
interesting account of the position of the Bessemer steel industry in
1900. In that year forty-two establishments owned Bessemer converters;
of these thirty-three were active and nine idle. The number of active
converters was seventy, and their daily capacity was 34,925 gross tons.
The total production for the year exceeded 7,500,000 tons, and its
money value was nearly £27,000,000. These astonishing amounts have been
exceeded since l900, as will be seen by the following figures for 1902;
those for Germany, Great Britain, and France being also added:--
After building the first experimental works at Troy, Mr. Holley seems
to have at once broken loose from the restraints of his foreign
experience, and to have been impressed with the capabilities of the new
process. The result is that, mainly through his inventions and
modifications of the plant, we in America are to-day enabled to stand
at the head of the world in respect of amount of product.
Referring to the modifications and improvements made in the Bessemer
process by Holley, and to which the great output of the American
Bessemer steel works is largely due, Mr. Hunt said further :-
He did away with the English deep pit, and raised the vessels so as to
get working space under them on the ground floor; he instituted
top-supported hydraulic cranes for the more expensive English
counterweighted ones; he put three ingot cranes around the pit instead
of two, and thereby obtained greater area of power. He changed the
location of the vessels, as related to the pit and smelting-house. He
modified the ladle-crane, and worked all the cranes and the vessels
from a single point; he substituted cupolas for reverberatory furnaces;
and last, but by no means least, introduced the intermediate or
accumulative ladle, which is placed on scales, and thus insures
accuracy of operation, by rendering possible the weighing of each
charge of melted iron, before pouring it into the converter. These
points cover the radical features of his innovations. After building
such a plant, he began to meet the difficulties in manufacture, among
the most serious of which was the short duration of the vessel bottoms,
and the time required to cool off the vessel to a point at which it was
possible for workmen to enter and make new bottoms. After many
experiments, the result was the Holley vessel bottom, which, either in
its form as patented, or in a modification of it as now used in all
American works, has rendered possible, as much as any other one thing,
the present immense production. Then he tried many forms of cupolas at
Troy, adopting in the original plant a changeable bottom, or section
below the tuyères; then, later, at Harrisburg, assisting Mr. S.B.
Pearce, in developing the furnace to a point, which rendered the many
bottoms unnecessary, chiefly by deepening the bottom and enlarging the
tuyère area. Upon his rebuilding the Troy works, after their destruction
by fire, Mr. Holley put in the perfected cupolas. At this time the
practice was to run a cupola for a turn's melting, which had reached
eight heats or forty tons of steel, and then dropping its bottom. This
was already an increase of 100 per cent. over his boast about the same
amount in twenty-nine hours.
By the year 1865 the Bessemer process was firmly established on the
Continent. Krupp, of Essen, had installed a plant; the Bochum Works had
four 3-ton converters; the Hoerde Company, near Dortmund, had two
converters; a steel works in Dusseldorf was completed with two
converters; the Neuberg Works, in Styria, works at Grasse and at
Witkowitz, all made Bessemer steel; as also did John Cockerill, of
Seraing; Petin, Gaudet and Co., at Rive de Giers; James Jackson
and Co., of St. Severin, near Bordeaux, besides many others. During
that year the production of Bessemer steel on the Continent was about
100,000 tons. This and the following few years ripened the golden
harvest for my father, his royalties from all sources reaching a very
high figure. In 1869, however, his leading patent expired; and while
this gave a great impetus to the production of Bessemer steel, his
income arising from the royalties was much diminished.
In the early 'sixties, when my father's process for the manufacture of
steel had triumphed over the many difficulties described in the
previous pages, he determined on the establishment of steel works in or
near London. I may say here that this intention was chiefly for the
benefit of my brother and myself, the idea being that we should carry
on the works under the general supervision of my father. After careful
consideration, a site of about three acres was secured on the banks of
the Thames, just below Greenwich; for this a long lease was obtained.
It was determined that the works should be only on a small scale,
comprising two 2 1/2-ton converters, and all the plant necessary for
the production of steel on that basis. This plant included one 2
1/2-ton steam-hammer and another of smaller size; the buildings were
carefully designed, with the intention that the establishment should in
all respects be a model one.
At the time I speak of, the Thames was a very busy shipbuilding centre,
and we naturally expected to find a large number of customers ready to
our hand. But before we were able to commence operations the
shipbuilding trade had deserted the Thames for the North, and with this
great change our expected customers had also disappeared. Under these
circumstances, my father did not consider it desirable for us to open
the works, although they were fully equipped, and he decided upon
letting them. This was done after considerable delay; our first tenants
being the Steel and Ordnance Company, who, however, did not achieve
much success, and the factory became vacant after a few years. Then we
let it to Messrs. Appleby Brothers, who were general engineers, and did
not propose to become steel makers. For this reason the whole of the
steel-making plant was disposed of, and the scheme for manufacturing
Bessemer steel on the Thames was finally abandoned.
Again, after some delay, we found the place on our hands, and this time
my brother and I determined upon converting the long lease into a
freehold: an operation effected only with much difficulty and after
prolonged negotiations. Then followed a considerable period when the
works remained untenanted, but we eventually let them to a company for
the manufacture of linoleum. This time there was no doubt about the
success of the undertaking, and the company added to the size of the
works until nearly the whole of the three acres was covered with
buildings. A few years since we sold the property to this company, and
thus terminated our connection with the works my father had originally
built for us.
It may not be generally known that long before the episode of the
Bessemer steam-ship, with its swinging saloon, my father had given much
attention to the Channel crossing, a voyage which he heartily disliked.
At the time I speak of, his idea was to construct a large circular
vessel about 200 ft. in diameter, of a double-convex form in
cross-section, and large enough to float over two or three Channel
waves at a time; in the hull were to be contained the necessary
propelling machinery, cabin accommodation, etc., and in the centre was
to be a raised circular deck about one-third of the vessel's diameter.
This scheme, so far as my father was concerned, never went beyond the
stage of a general design; but Admiral Popoff, at that time a prominent
Russian naval constructor, and an acquaintance of my father, was much
struck with the idea, and embodied it in a vessel he built for the
Russian Navy. A model of this vessel, which was called the "Popoffka,"
is now in the Musée de la Marine, at the Louvre, in Paris.
A very conspicuous feature in my father's character was his intense
love of home and its surroundings: a sentiment which endured to the
last days of his life, and never grew slack, even during the busiest
and most harassed periods. He always found time to make alterations
and improvements, and to decorate his own home with the natural taste
that belonged to him, and which he had inherited from his father.
During his later years he extended this love of domestic improvements
to the houses of his children, all of which bore the impress of his
individuality.
During his long life he did not shift his home frequently. From the
humble beginnings, commencing with his marriage, we read in his
Autobiography of his moving into Baxter House; and, after some years,
when the large returns from the bronze-powder business permitted it, he
has told us how he indulged his natural longings for a country life by
the acquisition of a house and grounds, which he called "Charlton," at
Highgate. Here he lived for a number of years, until he made a last
change to Denmark Hill, where he found a charming though unpretentious
house, with beautiful and extensive grounds. Settled here, the
alterations and improvements that he made, both in house and gardens,
occupied and amused him for a number of years. This may be a matter of
very small moment to the general reader, but to me it possesses a
special interest, knowing as I do how the house at Denmark Hill became
an inseparable part of my father's life. For this reason I venture to
give, in Fig. 88, Plate XLIII., a view of the house, this view showing
on the left-hand side the conservatory which he designed and erected.
An interior view of this conservatory is given in Fig. 89, Plate XLIV.
If serving no other purpose, it will show that my father's
capabilities as a designer and decorator were of no mean order.
Another
example of his talents in this direction is given in Fig. 90, Plate
XLV., which shows the interior of a grotto constructed by him in his
grounds; the mound within which this was built was formed by the
excavation of a large lake which he had made. As will be seen from the
illustration, the grotto is of an elaborately ornate character, both
design and colouring having been taken from one of the courts of the
Alhambra. Illusions of distance were produced by the ingenious
application of large mirrors.
From the charming Autobiography of that great engineer, James Nasmyth,
I take the liberty of making the following extract, and basing upon it
a comparison of his career with that of my father. Mr. Nasmyth says:
"The ' Dial of Life' [see Fig. 91] gives a brief summary of my career.
It shows the brevity of life and indicates the tale that is soon told.
The first part of the semicircle includes the passage from infancy to
boyhood and manhood. While that period lasts, time seems to pass very
slowly. We long to be men, and doing men's work. What I have called the
'Tableland of Life' is then reached. Ordinary observation shows that between
thirty and fifty the full strength of body and mind is reached, and at
that period we energise our faculties to the utmost.
"Those who are blessed with good health and a sound constitution may
prolong the period of energy to sixty or even seventy; but Nature's
laws must be obeyed, and the period of decline begins and goes on with
accelerated rapidity. Then comes old age; and as we descend the
semicircle towards eighty, we find that the remnant of life becomes
vague and cloudy. By shading off, as I have done, the portion of the
area of the diagram according to the individual age, everyone may see
how much of life is consumed and how much is left -- D.V.
"Here is my brief record:--
On turning to the Autobiography referred to in his letter by Mr.
Nasmyth, as giving him so much pleasure in the preparation, I find that
some references are made to this correspondence. He says:
In 1854 I took out a patent for puddling iron by means of steam. Many
of my readers may not know that cast iron is converted into malleable
iron by the process called puddling. The iron, while in a molten state,
is violently stirred and agitated by a stiff iron rod, having its end
bent like a hoe or flattened hook, by which every portion of the molten
metal is exposed to the oxygen of the air, and the supercharge of
carbon which the cast iron contains is thus burnt out. When this is
effectually done the iron becomes malleable and weldable.
This state of the iron is indicated by a general loss of fluidity,
accompanied by a tendency to gather together in globular masses. The
puddler, by his dexterous use of the rabbling-bar, puts the masses
together, and, in fact, welds the new-born particles into puddle-balls
of about three-quarter cwt. each. These are successively removed from
the pool of the puddling furnace, and subjected to the energetic blows
of the steam-hammer, which drives out all the scoriae lurking within
the spongy puddle-balls, and thus welds them into compact masses of
malleable iron. When re-heated to a welding heat, they are rolled out
into flat bars or round rods, in a variety of sizes so as to be
suitable for the consumer.
The manual and physical labour of the puddler is tedious, fatiguing,
and unhealthy. The process of puddling occupies about an hour's violent
labour, and only robust young men can stand the fatigue and violent
heat. I had frequent opportunities of observing the labour and
unhealthiness of the process, as well as the great loss of time
required to bring it to a conclusion. It occurred to me that much of
this could be avoided by employing some other means of getting rid of
the superfluous carbon, and bringing the molten cast iron into a
malleable condition.
The method that occurred to me was the substitution of a small
steam-pipe in the place of the puddler's rabbling-bar. By having the
end of this steam pipe bent downwards, so as to reach the bottom of the
pool, and then to discharge a current of steam beneath the surface of
the molten cast iron, I thought that I should by this simple means
supply a most effective carbon oxidising agent, at the same time that I
produced a powerful agitating action within the pool. Thus the steam
would be decomposed and supply oxygen to the carbon of the cast iron,
while the mechanical action of the rush of steam upwards would cause so
violent a commotion throughout the pool of melted iron as to exceed the
utmost efforts of the labour of the puddler. All the gases would pass
up the chimney of the
puddling furnace, and the puddler would not be subject to their
influence. Such was the method specified in my patent of 1854.*[2]
My friend Thomas Lever Rushton, proprietor of the Bolton Iron Works,
was so much impressed with the soundness of the principle, as well as
with the great simplicity of carrying the invention into practical
effect, that he urged me to secure the patent, and he soon after gave
me the opportunity of trying the process at his works. The results were
most encouraging. There was a great saving of labour and time compared
with the old puddling process; and the malleable iron produced was
found to be of the highest-order as regarded strength, toughness, and
purity. My process was soon after adopted by several iron
manufacturers, with equally favourable results. Such, however, was the
energy of the steam, that unless the workmen were most careful to
regulate its force and the duration of its action, the waste of iron
by undue oxidation was such as in great measure to neutralise its
commercial gain as regarded the superior value of the malleable iron
thus produced.
Before I had time or opportunity to remove this commercial difficulty,
Mr. Bessemer had secured his patent of the 17th of October, 1855. By
this patent he employed a blast of air to do the same work as I had
proposed to accomplish by means of a blast of steam, forced up beneath
the surface of the molten cast iron. He added some other improvements,
with that happy fertility of invention which has always characterised
him. The results were so magnificently successful as to totally eclipse
my process, and to cast it comparatively into the shade. At the same
time I may say that I was in a measure the pioneer of his invention;
that I initiated a new system, and led up to one of the most important
improvements in the manufacture of iron and steel that has ever been
given to the world.
Mr. Bessemer brought the subject of his invention before the Meeting of
the British Association at Cheltenham in the autumn of 1856. There he
read his Paper "On the Manufacture of Iron and Steel without Fuel." I
was present on the occasion, and listened to his statement with mingled
feelings of regret and enthusiasm: of regret, because I had been so
clearly superseded and excelled in my performances; and of enthusiasm
-- because I could not but admire and honour the genius who had given
so great an invention to the mechanical world. I immediately took the
opportunity of giving my assent to the principles which he had
propounded. My words were not reported at the time, nor was Mr.
Bessemer's Paper printed by the Association, perhaps because it was
thought of so little importance. But, on applying to Mr. (now Sir
Henry) Bessemer, he was so kind as to give me his recollection of the
words which I used on the occasion. . . . It was thoroughly consistent
with Mr Bessemer's kindly feelings towards me that, after our meeting
at Cheltenham, he made me an offer of one-third share of the value of
his patents. This would have been another fortune to me. But I had
already made money enough. I just then taking down my signboard and
leaving business. I did not need to plunge into any such tempting
enterprise, and I therefore thankfully declined the offer.
I need not refer in this place to my father's reply to Mr. Nasmyth's
letter; to do so would be only to repeat what he has already written
in the earlier pages of his Autobiography. It will be noticed that at
the end of his letter, reproduced in Fig. 93, Plate XL VI., Mr. Nasmyth
expresses the hope that my father was making satisfactory progress with
his telescope. And this naturally leads me to say something about a
pursuit which, if it had no practical and useful conclusion, at all
events afforded my father a congenial occupation for many years.
With the termination of the Saloon Steam-ship episode, my father's
active business career came to an end. That was in the year 1873, when
he was about sixty years of age, so that nearly a quarter of a century
of busy relaxation was still in store for him. Not that the collision
of the "Bessemer" with the pier at Calais terminated that unfortunate
incident; on the contrary, as my father has already shown, several
years elapsed before the business was entirely closed. Still it
occupied only a small portion of his time, and he was left free to
follow congenial pursuits. During twenty-five years of his strenuous
life he had accumulated what was, for that time, a large fortune,
though modest enough if compared with the standard of to-day. So that
his later years were not only entirely free from business cares, but
also from financial anxieties.
That so active a man could remain without occupation was evidently
impossible; his house and grounds, in which he took unwearying delight,
had been developed and improved until they afforded him little beyond
the routine occupation of management, and he naturally turned his
attention to some work which should give full play to his mechanical
abilities. As matters turned out, four different pursuits occupied him
fully up to the year of his death. These were -- the construction of an
observatory and telescope; his experiments with a solar furnace; the
installation of a diamond-polishing factory for the benefit of his
grandson; and his Autobiography. The last named has told us the story
of his active life in a characteristic manner. The diamond-polishing
factory, to be referred to presently, was an assured success; as for
the telescope and the solar furnace, it is as well to state at the
commencement that neither proved of any practical value, although they
provided for him a never-failing source of enjoyment.
My father's first ambition was to construct a refracting telescope
with a 50-in. objective. Fortunately for himself, he soon realised the
impossibility of achieving this ambition: not only on account of the
enormous cost of so large a lens, but because no one could be found, at
that time, to undertake its production with any chance of success.
Therefore he was quickly led to the construction of a reflecting
telescope, which did not seem to present such insurmountable
difficulties. Moreover, this had the special attraction to him that he
resolved to make the reflector himself -- a mistake, of course, so far
as the scientific outcome of his work was concerned, but a success in
the main respect, namely, that of giving him congenial occupation. At
first he tried a speculum metal of the same alloy as that used by Lord
Rosse in his great Parsonstown reflector; that is to say, a mixture of
copper and tin, in the proportions of 126.4 of the former to 58.9 parts
of the latter. This alloy, however, in my father's hands did not prove
satisfactory. He found it extremely brittle and difficult to cast;
moreover, it was entirely unsuited for turning in the lathe, and it was
my father's intention to give the reflector its proper form by
mechanical cutting and grinding. His early experience of alloys
naturally led him to engage in a long series of experiments with
different mixtures. Ultimately, however, he determined to abandon the
use of metal, and to employ instead a disc of glass, which should be
trued up and polished to the correct figure, and afterwards coated with
silver. Before commencing his operations, he built and equipped a
workshop at Denmark Hill. Besides the necessary steam power, this
workshop contained a number of ordinary tools; but the main feature was
a special grinding and polishing machine, which he designed and had
built from his own drawings. A sketch of this machine -- somewhat
imperfect, as I have made it from memory -- is shown in Figs. 94 and
95.
It comprised a long and rigid bed A A, with a head-stock B B, on
the spindle of which are the driving pulleys C and two face-plates D E.
These latter were rather more than 5 ft. in diameter, so as to take the
50 in. glass discs from which the reflectors were to be made. At the
other end of the bed was a pin G, on which there was mounted a
cast-iron frame F, the frame being free to swing horizontally on the
pin. As will be seen from the diagrams, the size of this swinging frame
was increased
as it approached the head-stock, until it was large enough to enclose
the latter, and to oscillate without coming into contact either with
the headstock or with the face-plate on which the glass disc was
mounted. Within the large end of the oscillating frame was fixed a bar,
to the end of which was secured a black diamond that formed the cutting
tool. The bar could be moved backwards or forwards to vary the depth of
cut; and as the frame was traversed to-and-fro, the tool described an
arc of a circle which could be varied within narrow limits, so as to
modify the degree of curvature, and, consequently, the length of focus
given to the reflector. When this apparatus was set in movement, the
revolution of the face-plate, combined with the oscillating motion of
the frame, gradually gave a concave surface to the disc of glass. A
reverse action could also be obtained by mounting the tool-holder on
the extreme end of the oscillating frame, with the diamond cutter
pointing inwards, in such a way that it could operate on a disc of
glass mounted on the face-plate E; in this way convex, instead of
concave, surfaces could be formed . A number of both classes of discs
were roughed out and polished by this machine. It was found necessary
to do the finishing work at night, because during the day sudden
variations in temperature occurred which altered the length of the
oscillating frame F, and so changed the curvature of the surfaces
produced.
The design, installation, and operation of this machine, occupied my
father for a long time; it was made with great care; but the surfaces
it produced lacked the accuracy and form necessary for lenses or
mirrors intended for astronomical work, and it never found any useful
application.
Whilst the workshop and its equipment were in progress, my father
commenced the construction of the observatory in which the telescope
(never to be completed) was to be mounted. It was altogether a very
beautiful and ingenious piece of work, and calls for a short
description.
Fig. 96, Plate XLVII., gives an excellent idea of the general
appearance of the observatory; as will be seen, it was built on a
slight eminence, and the circular gallery around it was approached by a
flight of steps. The observatory itself was about 40 ft. in diameter,
and the whole structure, vertical walls as well as domed roof, revolved
very freely on a circular rail and a ring of wheels, some of which
served as bearing and the remainder as driving wheels, the latter being
actuated by an endless steel-wire rope; motion was imparted by a small
turbine working at a head of about 70 ft. By a simple method of
reversing, the dome could be caused to revolve either to the right or
the left, and the speed of revolution could be so regulated, that one
complete turn of the observatory could be effected in two or three
minutes, or in twenty-four hours. As will be seen from the
illustration, the side walls of the dome were pierced with openings for
windows and a door, so that access to the interior could be always
obtained from the outer gallery; the position of the sliding shutter in
the cupola is clearly shown in the illustration. The telescope was
mounted on trunnions, in bearings at the end of a vertical pillar
resting on very solid foundations, and, of course, the observatory
floor was framed solidly to the dome, and moved with it.
The telescope itself, which unfortunately was never finished, is
illustrated by Figs. 97 and 98, Plates XLVIII. and XLIX. Fig. 97 shows
the gallery floor, at the level of which are the trunnions carrying the
telescope.
In Fig. 98, Plate XLIX., which is a view on the ground floor
of the observatory, it will be seen that the foundation for the
telescope was surmounted by a steel ring carried on a series of short
columns; on the face of this ring was a roller-path on which the
central column of the telescope took its bearing, and could be turned
with very little effort. The column, and with it the telescope, were
turned by means of hydraulic machinery, the velocity of which could be
adjusted exactly to the same rate as that of the dome, so that the
turning rate of the two was identical.
As will be seen by Fig. 98, the
body of the telescope consisted of a very rigid open cast-iron frame,
with a solid ring in the centre carrying the trunnions, and at the
lower end it terminated in a ribbed and dish-shaped casting intended to
receive the large concave reflector. The central band and trunnions are
better shown in Fig. 97; on these the telescope could oscillate from a
vertical to a horizontal position. This movement was effected by an
ingenious arrangement, indicated in both the illustrations. A large
gun-metal wheel was mounted on each trunnion, and immediately below,
but not in contact, was a second wheel. On each side was an hydraulic
cylinder, the plunger of which terminated in a long flat steel bar that
passed between the two gun-metal wheels, already spoken of as being
placed on each side of the telescope. As the plunger was run in and
out, the bar moving between the two wheels gave motion to the latter,
and, of course, caused the telescope to turn. The speed was controlled
with the utmost delicacy by a small valve, which regulated the flow of
water into the cylinders. This valve was, of course, worked by the
observer. The position of the finders on the telescope is shown clearly
in the illustration.
As may naturally be supposed, every detail connected with the
observatory and the telescope was planned by my father, and showed
throughout his characteristic ingenuity, engineering knowledge, and
correct taste. The undertaking occupied him almost to the time of his
death; but unfortunately it was far from complete, and with him died
the personal interest necessary for the completion of an undertaking so
full of ideas.
A series of experiments which gave great occupation to my father for
quite a long period grew directly out of his work with the telescope;
and though they led to no practical result, this notice would be
incomplete if I did not refer to them. The object my father had in view
was to ascertain to what extent concentrated solar rays could be
employed in the creation of very high temperatures; he aimed, in fact,
at making a solar furnace in which the most refractory material could
be readily broken down. He expended a great deal of time and money in
this pursuit, and the experimental furnace which he built is
illustrated by the diagrams on page 355, Fig. 99 showing roughly his
preliminary experimental arrangements and Fig. 100 the finished device.
In Fig. 99, on a table was placed a swing mirror a, and at a convenient
height above this was fixed a concave reflector b, about 12 in. in
diameter; a lens c 6 in. in diameter was mounted above the table, the
various parts being so arranged as to produce the following result: The
solar rays striking the mirror at an angle, were thrown up to the
concave reflector, and sent back to the lens which focussed them at the
point b. From this experimental apparatus the solar furnace illustrated
in Fig. 100 was constructed; as will be seen, it was almost precisely
identical with the earlier form. The tower-like structure was carried
on wheels running on a circular rail laid in the shallow pit which
formed the foundation; the platform on which the tower was built was
about 18 ft. in diameter. The tower itself was 12 ft. square and about
30 ft. in height; the front side was open, but could be closed by
sliding shutters when the apparatus was not at work; the lower part was
cut off by a large mirror placed at an angle which could be adjusted
within moderate limits. Beneath this mirror was the small furnace,
access to which was obtained by a door at the back of the tower. The
mirror, about 12 ft. square, was carried by a strong cast-iron frame
closely boarded over, so that the silvered glass was entirely
supported. In the centre was cut a circular opening about 3 ft. in
diameter. The cast-iron mirror frame was mounted on trunnions, so that
its angle could, as already stated, be altered to suit the altitude of
the sun. In the circular opening, and in the position shown in the
diagram, Fig. 100, was mounted a lens 30 in. in diameter, and
immediately beneath was placed the crucible already referred to; the
frame on which this crucible - was mounted could be raised or lowered,
so as to reduce or increase the degree of heat obtained by the
concentration of the solar rays. In the upper part of the tower was
placed the large concave reflector, which was
about 10 ft. in diameter, and was formed of a concave cast-iron frame;
into this were fitted one hundred hexagonal glass plates, each slightly
concave on the lower surface, and convex at the back. The backs of
these plates were silvered, and afterwards coated with copper; each of
them formed a small reflector, to the back of which were secured three
copper studs to receive screws, by means of which the plate was
attached to the cast-iron frame. This arrangement was found necessary,
because each plate had to be so adjusted as to act as a separate
reflector, throwing its rays down to the 30-in. lens beneath; as may be
imagined, the adjustment of these reflectors was a very long and
tedious operation. As the position of each reflector was finally fixed,
its face was covered over with water-colour, to prevent the focussing
of the rays through the lower lens while the others were being
adjusted; when all the parts were completed the paint was washed off,
and the reflector was ready for use. A screen was introduced to cut off
the whole of the reflected rays, and only to permit them gradually to
focus on the crucible beneath the lens; this precaution was taken to
prevent any great and sudden heat destroying the crucible.
Experiments made with this furnace were somewhat disappointing, as it
never developed the amount of heat expected; copper was melted and zinc
was vapourised, but its efficiency ought to have been much greater. The
non-success was attributed to the inaccuracy of the small hexagonal
reflectors, which caused considerable dispersion of the rays, and
consequently a great loss in heat. After some years of experimental
work, my father became disheartened, and abandoned the solar furnace.
It was in the early part of 1868 that my father commenced his
experiments with the apparatus for the concentration of solar heat,
which I have just described, and these experiments naturally were
continued for a considerable time. While he had them under
consideration, the question of the cause of the great heat of the sun
naturally engaged his attention and he busied himself by working out a
theory which would account for it. He was led to the conclusion that
the combustion going on in the sun attained its very great intensity
largely owing to the pressure under which it took place. As the force
of gravity at the sun's surface is about 27.6 times as great as it is
on the surface of the earth, all the incandescent solar gases must be
maintained in a state 27.6 times as dense as they would be if they
formed a portion of our own atmosphere. My father was therefore struck
with the idea that the great intensity of the solar heat might be
simply due to the fact that combustion took place under very much
higher pressure than combustion naturally does on the earth. No sooner
did this solution suggest itself to him than he resolved to test it by
actual experiment, or, as he expressed it, to have "a little sun of his
own." He was at that time desirous of carrying out a series of
researches on the fusion, vaporisation, and re-crystallisation of the
more refractory metals, and of other so-called infusible substances. As
the first step towards attaining this result, he constructed a small
cupola furnace, so made that the products of combustion, instead of
escaping freely as usual, were checked, in consequence of the mouth of
the cupola being narrowed to a diameter of some 2 in . The result of
this arrangement was that when air was blown into the furnace at
considerable pressure the products of combustion within the furnace
were raised to several pounds above the atmospheric pressure, and
combustion accordingly took place under this pressure.
With this furnace my father obtained results as brilliant as the
conception to which the furnace owed its origin. While the furnace was
worked at pressures of from 15 to 18 lb. per square inch above the
atmosphere, the temperature obtained was such that steel -- and even
wrought iron -- might be melted more readily than cast iron in an
ordinary cupola. Thus on one occasion, a piece of 2-in. square bar
iron, 1 ft. long, and weighing 13 lb., was introduced cold into the
furnace, and was completely fused in five and a-half minutes; while 3
cwt. of wrought-iron scrap, also introduced cold into the same furnace,
was run off in a completely fused state in fifteen minutes. These
results were obtained in a small model furnace, without much greater
expenditure of coke than would take place in an ordinary cupola furnace
melting cast iron.
There were naturally considerable mechanical difficulties to be
overcome in making tight a furnace wherein such high temperatures
prevailed, and one of these is worth referring to, as it illustrates
the happy way in
which my father could meet very serious obstacles by devices which were
exceedingly simple, and at the same time eminently successful. At the
place at which the joint occurred, and which, of course, was liable to
be rapidly cut out by the leakage of flame and products of combustion
at an intense temperature, he provided a hollow ring, which was
connected to the main blast pipe, and therefore received air at a
pressure of a few pounds higher than existed in the body of the
furnace. The result was that whatever leakage took place was a leakage
of cold air into the furnace, and this cold air completely protected
the surfaces which otherwise might have been eroded by the gases.
After success had been attained in a small furnace, my father designed:
first, an ordinary cupola furnace; next, a reverberatory furnace for
the melting of steel scrap; and, later, a Bessemer converter, all of
which were intended to be worked under pressure. The matter, however,
was not proceeded with beyond this point. To-day the electric furnace
provides still higher temperatures in a more convenient manner; and it
is not likely that combustion under pressure will ever be resorted to
in practical work. Nevertheless, it was a brilliant conception, and
was admirably worked out.
Whilst engaged in his experiments connected with the cutting of the
glass discs to form the mirror for his telescope, my father had
occasion to visit the diamond-cutting factories which existed in
Clerkenwell at that time; and in that industry he, with his ardent
temperament, took immediately a keen interest. It happened that about
1884 he was anxious to establish one of his grandsons in business, and
he accordingly made arrangements by which, under the name of Messrs.
Ford and Wright, a diamond-cutting and polishing factory should be
installed in Clerkenwell. London, two
hundred years ago, was one of the chief centres of this industry; but
it gradually became supplanted by France and Holland, until the most
important diamond-cutting factories in the world were established in
Amsterdam, which is still the chief seat of the industry. The trade
meanwhile had died out of London, and was practically re-established by
the energy and ingenuity of Sir Henry Bessemer, acting on behalf of Mr.
Ford, and his grandson, Mr. Wright. It is almost needless to
say that the ancient methods of diamond-cutting and polishing still in
vogue did not at all suit the ideas of my father, who could not rest
contented until he had designed and installed an entirely new plant on
strictly mechanical and economical lines. The Clerkenwell factory was
indeed a startling contrast to the Dutch diamond-cutting works, in
which all the mechanical appliances were of a very primitive
description, and the admirable results obtained are due entirely to the
wonderful skill of the workmen.
A detailed account of Messrs. Ford and Wright's factory will be found
on page 123 of Vol. XLVII. of Engineering, from which the annexed
illustrations are taken, and a description summarised. The cutting and
polishing machines were quite small, and a number of them were arranged
in a row upon a bench in the workshop; the factory included several of
these benches. One of the machines is illustrated in Figs. 101 to 103,
page 359, while Fig. 104 is a diagram showing the method of driving a
complete series.
Each mill consisted in its main parts of a cast-iron
bracket, above and below the bench; of a vertical spindle n, carrying
above the bench a heavy disc, and below the bench a double-grooved
pulley m, which received the driving cord, by which a very rapid
rotation was transmitted to the spindle and disc. As will be seen from
the illustration, Fig. 101, the top and bottom of the spindle were
pointed, and ran in bearings made of lignum vitæ; these blocks were
set in tapered metal bushes, and the position of the upper one could be
adjusted by the set screw x. It will be noticed that a ring k was
introduced above the lower bearing, to prevent the lubricating oil used
from being thrown out; the driving disc was protected by a guard. All
the mills were of the same pattern, and were driven, as explained, by
endless ropes. Fig. 104 shows the method of transmission. The benches
were divided by a gangway across the centre;
underneath this, in the basement, was the steam engine and transmission
pulleys, which gave motion to six belts. These passed from the main
shaft on to the pulleys o, Fig. 105, these pulleys being mounted on
spindles m, carried on the brackets d, the position of which on the
vertical frame c could be adjusted by a screw.
At the other end of the
pulley spindle was the rope pulley n, driving the main cotton rope,
which rose vertically to the level of the working benches, and then was
taken round the pulleys on the spindles, as shown in Fig. 104. The
speed of the engine was multiplied until that of the pulleys was nearly
3000 revolutions; any mill could be stopped by throwing the rope out of
contact with the double-grooved pulley on the spindle, by means of the
lever e and the frame g, Figs. 101 and 103.
The following description of the manner in which these mills were
operated is extracted from the article in Engineering above referred
to:-
The natural angles of the stones are so sharp that if applied to the
discs of the mills they would rapidly cut them away, and practically
ruin them. These angles are, therefore, abraded in the first instance by
hand. Two diamonds are mounted on sticks or holders, and the operator,
taking one in each hand, uses an angle of one gem to cut off or reduce
an angle of the other, and in this way he gradually removes them all,
carefully catching the dust which falls, for subsequent use. Originally
the stone was practically shaped in this way, and it was only the
polishing that was done on the mill, for the supply of diamond dust was
limited to that obtained by the mutual attrition of the gems. But now
there is obtainable an ample supply of small diamonds which are
worthless for decorative purposes, either from the presence of flaws,
or from the poorness of their colour. They are placed in a steel mortar
with a tight-fitting cover, and are gradually ground into a fine
powder, which is used upon the mills, and serves to do most of the work
which was formerly effected in the way just described. The whole process
is now called polishing, the two processes of grinding and finishing
being simultaneous.
After the natural angles of the stone have been removed, it is mounted
in a ball of lead about the size of a large walnut or small apple. The
metal is heated till it reaches the plastic stage, when the jewel is
pressed into it, leaving visible the particular surface which it is
desired to grind. The metal is very easily manipulated by those who
have the skill, and can be "wiped" to one side or the other so as to
vary the position of the stone and give it greater or less prominence.
At the opposite side of the lead ball to the diamond there is a stalk
of brass wire, and once the metal is set, this stalk offers the only
means of adjustment by being bent to one side or the other. It is
perfectly marvellous how thirty-two facets can be cut on a diamond no
larger than a hemp-seed with such means as these. The cutter is truly a
handicraftsman, for he depends entirely on the senses of sight and
touch, and has no apparatus to aid him in making his minute divisions.
When the diamond has been fixed in its bed the stalk is clamped in a
holder, which consists of a heavy bar with a hole to receive the stalk
at one end, and two feet at the other end. Practically, the lead ball
forms a third foot to the bar, which is laid
down with two feet resting on the bench and the third on the disc of
the mill. The disc is moistened from time to time with olive oil
containing diamond dust, and runs at a speed of about a mile a minute.
The small particles of diamond become rubbed into its face, which is of
soft cast iron, and thus produce an abrading surface acting continually
against the diamond contained in the lead holder. The keen edges of the
dust, aided by the speed, and the weight of the lead ball, gradually
wear away the stone, which is removed for inspection every few minutes.
When the workman considers that the cutting has proceeded as far as is
necessary, the lead is softened, and the gem is released, ready to be
again set in another position. Thus by successive stages the cutting
proceeds until the jewel finally assumes the proper form.
This diamond factory was extremely successful, and remained in active
operation for several years, until circumstances which have nothing to
do with this story, rendered it desirable for the partnership to be
dissolved, and the works closed.
I may refer here to April, 1880, when the Freedom of the Company of
Turners was conferred on Sir Henry Bessemer, "in recognition of his
valuable discoveries, which have so largely benefited the iron
industries of the country, and his scientific attainments, which are
so well known and appreciated throughout the world." In the course of
his speech, my father, in expressing his thanks for this distinction,
said :--
Under the process which I had the honour of inaugurating, we dispense
with every one of the intermediate processes formerly employed. We have
no smelting of pig iron, we have no making of balls, we have no rolling
of bars, we have no shearing of bars, we have no piling up, we have no
heating furnaces.
You will readily understand why, with a process so rapid, and so
entirely devoid of the use of expensive fuel, and of all those varied
skilled manipulations which were necessary at every stage in the old
process, the cost of manufacture is so exceedingly small as it is found
to be. . . . At the time when my invention was introduced into
Sheffield the entire make of steel was 51,000 tons a year; last year we
made 830,000 tons of Bessemer steel, being sixteen times what was
before the entire output of the whole produce of the whole country. It
is anticipated that on the Continent of Europe this year's make will
reach in all 3,000,000 tons. The value of these 3,000,000 tons
altogether may be taken at £10 per ton, or £30,000,000 sterling; and if
that metal had been made by the old process which I have described, it
would have been impossible to have brought it into the market under £50
per ton, or £150,000,000 sterling.
A matter of much importance, not referred to in the Autobiography, is
Sir Henry Bessemer's close connection with the Iron and Steel
Institute, of which he was one of the founders in 1868, and the
President in 1871 to 1873. He only contributed two Papers to the
Institute. The first of these was read in 1886, on "Some Earlier Forms
of Bessemer Converters"; the second was read in 1891, and is published
in the "Transactions" under the title of "The Manufacture of Continuous
Sheets of Malleable Iron or Steel direct from the Fluid Metal."
In 1873 Sir Henry Bessemer presented to the Institute a sum to be
invested for the purchase each year of a gold medal, to be awarded
under the following conditions:--
The awards are to be (1) to the inventor or introducer of any important
or remarkable invention, employed in the manufacture of iron or steel;
(2) for a paper read before the Institute, and having special merit and
importance in connection with the iron and steel manufacture; (3) for a
contribution to the "Journal" of the Institute, being an original
investigation bearing on the iron and steel manufacture, and capable of
being productive of valuable and practical results. The Council may, in
their discretion, award the medal in any case not coming strictly
under the foregoing definition, should they consider that the iron and
steel trades have been, or may be, substantially benefited by the
person to whom such an award is to be made.
In 1890, my uncle, the late Mr. W. D. Allen, to whom frequent reference
is made in the foregoing pages, was the recipient of this medal, and on
that occasion Sir Henry Bessemer addressed to Mr. Allen the following
letter, which is reproduced here, not only on account of its intrinsic
interest, but because it contains a just appreciation of Mr. Allen, my
father's brother-in-law, and partner during so many years:--
There was a Council meeting this morning of the Iron and Steel
Institute, and, among other business, we had to decide the question of
the award of the Bessemer medal. I addressed the meeting, and said I
had made it a rule not to throw any weight into this question, but
preferred that my fellow councilmen should take the initiative, but at
the same time observing that this standing aloof might be carried too
far, and a great injustice done; and, under these circumstances, I
said that I felt in duty bound to name a gentleman, to whom the
introduction and the successful carrying out of the Bessemer steel
process was very greatly indebted; and that I was the more able to bear
testimony in his behalf, because, although once intimately associated
with him in business, I had for the last dozen years ceased to have any
pecuniary interest whatever in the works referred to.
I said that Mr. W. Allen, of the Sheffield Bessemer steel works,
assisted me in the very first experiments I ever made, and became
thoroughly initiated in all facts that related to the process; that he
assisted in the building and laying-out of our Sheffield works, and
had the entire management of the process as well as of the business,
and in that capacity realised almost fabulous profits from an extremely
small capital. Further, that in aid of the introduction and
dissemination of the "art and mystery" he had done a great deal, all
the early makers having derived from him that stock of knowledge with
which they commenced their respective businesses; and further, that Mr.
Allen had introduced many important improvements in the detail of
manufacture.
I also remarked that it had been frequently said that Bessemer steel
was very good for rails, but not for a higher class of goods. Now Mr.
Allen had conclusively proved the contrary of this assertion; he had
never made a rail, but had gone in for the better class of material now
so largely used in the Sheffield manufactures. He produced a high class
of Bessemer steel, which was fully appreciated by the Sheffield trade,
and he consequently was able to realise most remunerative prices: in
proof of which I might mention the fact that a few weeks ago Messrs.
Bessemer and Co. (which is mainly Mr. Allen and his son) declared a
dividend of 25 per cent. per annum on a capital of £90,000; carried
£23,000 forward; wrote off £5,000 depreciation; and spent out of
revenue £11,000 in new erections. Such a result, in the face of the
great competition in Bessemer steel is, I take it, a strong proof of
the excellence of the material which Mr. Allen has acquired the art of
making.
Mr. Windsor Richards spoke of the valuable information he had received
from Mr. Allen, Mr. Snelus made a similar statement, and Mr. Ellis
confirmed the fact of your success as a manufacturer of high-grade
Bessemer; the question was then passed, and you were unanimously
awarded the Bessemer medal, which is to be presented to you at the May
meeting. This award has given me a great deal of satisfaction. . . . .
I do not know if you are aware that I have been engaged in designing
and superintending the execution of a very handsome diploma, framed
and glazed, to be presented to all who have been previously awarded the
medal: a dozen of these will be sent out to-morrow. . . . . It was
thought that the medal itself can be rarely shown, and that this large
and beautifully got-up design might be hung up in a library or the
principal office of the medallist, where the fact would show itself to
all who came, whereas the medal itself was generally locked up for
safety.
I cannot better close this brief reference to my father's long
connection with the Iron and Steel Institute than by repeating the
resolution of sympathy passed by the Council on the occasion of his
death. "The Council of the Iron and Steel Institute desire to express
their sincere sympathy with the relatives of Sir Henry Bessemer in
their bereavement; and, recognising his great services to the Institute
as one of its founders, as its President, and the generous donor of the
Bessemer gold medal, and for thirteen years as trustee of its funds,
deeply I deplore his loss."
In connection with the early history of steel rails referred to
elsewhere I found among my father's papers a very interesting letter
from Mr. F. W. Webb, the chief mechanical engineer of the London and
North-Western Railway. This letter is as follows:--
London and North-Western Railway, Locomotive Department, Crewe, 26th
April, 1897.
DEAR SIR HENRY,
Referring to your last communication with reference to steel specimens.
I enclose you herewith rough hand-sketch showing the size of the piece
of wheel; also the length of the old piece of rail with the
inscription, which is stamped on it, together with two short pieces of
bent and twisted rails. I shall be glad to know whether these will meet
your requirements for exhibition.
Yours faithfully, F. W. WEBB.
Sir Henry Bessemer, 165, Denmark Hill, Surrey.
The sketch to which this letter refers has been reproduced in Fig. 106.
Shortly after Sir Henry's death, Mr. Webb presented the Iron
and Steel Institute with a piece of this rail; the presentation being
accompanied by the following letter addressed to the Secretary;
May 4th, 1898.
DEAR SIR,
As I promised when I was at the last Council meeting, I am sending you
to-day, by passenger train, a piece of one of the earliest Bessemer
steel rails that were put down on this line, and I hope you will
consider it of sufficient interest to be preserved with the other early
specimens of Bessemer steel at the Institute. You will observe that I
have had the following particulars stamped on the piece of rail:--
"Bessemer steel rail, laid down at Crewe Station, 1863, turned 1866,
taken up 1875; estimated tonnage 72,000,000; greatest wear of tables,
0.85 in.; loss of weight, 20 lb. per yard. Presented by the London and
North-Western Railway, per F. W. Webb, April 18, '98." I shall be glad
if you will kindly acknowledge receipt on its arrival.
To the Secretary, Iron and Steel Institute.
On the occasion when this letter was read, Mr. E. Riley said that he
had a piece of the first Bessemer rail which was ever rolled; it was
rolled at Dowlais. The rail broke in rolling. It was made from
Blaenavon pig iron, at the Bessemer steel works at St. Pancras, London,
and was rolled at Dowlais in 1856.
It was a source of constant pride and gratification to my father that
several towns in the United States were named after him. The most
important of these is the City of Bessemer, in Pennsylvania, in which
are situated the Edgar Thomson steel works, founded in 1870, acquired
by Mr. Carnegie after the death of Mr. Edgar Thomson, and now forming
the most important unit in the gigantic steel trust of America. This
City of Bessemer is situated on the Monongahela River, a few miles from
Pittsburg.
In the State of Alabama there is another Bessemer, which has been
raised to the dignity of a city. It was established in 1886, and is
situated in the northern part of the State, in the centre of the
southern Bessemer steel industry. The population of this city is over
6,000.
Bessemer, in the State of Virginia, near Clifton Ford, on the
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, is also in the southern section of the
Bessemer steel industry. I am unaware to what extent this city has
developed, but a few year's since it promised to become a very
important manufacturing town.
A fourth City of Bessemer is in the State of Michigan. This place also
has, I believe, developed into considerable prosperity, as it is
situated in the heart of a vast ore-producing district.
In all there are no fewer than thirteen Bessemers in the United States;
the following list has been compiled officially from the United States
Census of 1900.
SIR,
It would be curious to know how many of your readers have brought fully
home to their inner consciousness the real significance of that little
word "billion" which we have seen of late so glibly used in your
columns. There are, indeed, few intellects that can fairly grasp it
and digest it as a whole; and there
are, doubtless, many thousands who cannot appreciate its true worth,
even when reduced to fragments for more easy assimilation. Its
arithmetical symbol is simple and without much pretension; there are
no large figures -- just a modest 1 followed by a dozen cyphers, and
that is all.
Let us briefly take a glance at it as a measure of time, distance, and
weight. As a measure of time, I would take one second as the unit, and
carry myself in thought through the lapse of ages back to the first day
of the Year 1 of our era, remembering that in all those years we have
365 days, and in every day just 86,400 seconds of time. Hence, in
returning in thought back again to this year of grace 1878, one might
have supposed that a billion of seconds had long since elapsed; but
this is not so. We have not even passed one-sixteenth of that number
in all these long eventful years, for it takes just 31,687 years, 17
days, 22 hours, 45 minutes, and 5 seconds to constitute a billion of
seconds of time.
It is no easy matter to bring under the cognizance of the human eye a
billion objects of any kind. Let us try in imagination to arrange this
number for inspection, and for this purpose I would select a sovereign
as a familiar object. Let us put one on the ground and pile upon it as
many as will reach 20ft. in height; then let us place numbers of
similar columns in close contact, forming a straight line, and making a
sort of wall 20 ft. high, showing only the thin edges of the coin.
Imagine two such walls running parallel to each other and forming, as
it were, a long street. We must then keep on extending these walls for
miles -- nay, hundreds of miles, and still we shall be far short of the
required number. And it is not until we have extended our imaginary
street to a distance of 2386 1/2 miles that we shall have presented for
inspection our one billion of coins.
Or, in lieu of this arrangement, we may place them flat upon the
ground, forming one continuous line like a long golden chain, with
every link in close contact. But to do this we must pass over land and
sea, mountain and valley, desert and plain, crossing the Equator, and
returning around the southern hemisphere through the trackless ocean,
retrace our way again across the Equator, then still on and on, until
we again arrive at our starting point; and when we have thus passed a
golden chain round the huge bulk of the earth, we shall be but at the
beginning of our task. We must drag this imaginary chain no less than
763 times round the globe. If we can further imagine all those rows of
links laid closely side by side and every one in contact with its
neighbour, we shall have formed a golden band around the globe just 52
ft. 6 in. wide; and this will represent our one billion of coins. Such
a chain, if laid in a straight line, would reach a fraction over
18,328,445 miles, the weight of which, if estimated at 1/4 oz. each
sovereign, would be 6,975,447 tons, and would require for their
transport no less than 2325 ships, each with a full cargo of 3000 tons.
Even then there would be a residue of 447 tons, representing 64,081,920
sovereigns.
For a measure of height let us take a much smaller unit as our
measuring rod. The thin sheets of paper on which these lines are
printed, if laid out flat and firmly pressed together as in a
well-bound book, would represent a measure of about 1-333rd of an inch
in thickness. Let us see how high a dense pile formed by a billion of
these thin paper leaves would reach. We must, in imagination, pile them
vertically upward, by degrees reaching to the height of our tallest
spires; and passing these, the pile must still grow higher, topping
the Alps and Andes and the highest peaks of the Himalayas, and shooting
up from thence through the fleecy clouds, pass beyond the confines of
our attenuated atmosphere, and leap
up into the blue ether with which the universe is filled, standing
proudly up far beyond the reach of all terrestrial things; still pile on
your thousands and millions of thin leaves, for we are only beginning
to rear the mighty mass. Add millions on millions of sheets, and
thousands of miles on these, and still the number will lack its due
amount. Let us pause to look at the neat ploughed edges of the book
before us. See how closely lie those thin flakes of paper, how many
there are in the mere width of a span, and then turn our eyes in
imagination upwards to our mighty column of accumulated sheets. It now
contains its appointed number, and our one billion of sheets of The
Times, superimposed upon each other and pressed into a compact mass,
has reached an altitude of 47,348 miles!
Those who have taken the trouble to follow me thus far will, I think,
agree with me that a billion is a fearful thing, and that few can
appreciate its real value. As for quadrillions and trillions, they are
simply words: mere words wholly incapable of adequately impressing
themselves on the human intellect.
I remain, your obedient servant,
Denmark Hill, January 3, 1878.
HENRY BESSEMER.
The second was also a letter that appeared in The Times on April the
18th, 1882, and was called "Easter and the Coal Question."
SIR,
The Easter holidays have come round once more, and our boys, with their
bright, beaming faces, full of mirth and cheerfulness, have been
flocking home from school to dear old smoky London, all unmindful of
its murky atmosphere, and intent only on the many wondrous sights they
hope to see. I had just filled some loose sheets with calculations
which I had been making, with a view to afford some amusement to my
grandsons on their return, when, looking up from my task, I noticed a
stream of small, bright objects flitting by. The sharp east wind was
breaking up the large seed-pods on the great Occidental plane tree near
my study window, and its taper seeds, with their beautiful little
gold-coloured parachutes, were being wafted far away, falling into
little chinks and unknown out-of-the-way places. Some, resting on the
bare earth, may perchance be seized by some blind worm, and made to
close the door of its lowly habitation, and, germinating there, may, in
after-years, when all who now live have passed away, spread its huge
arms, and afford a grateful shelter to those who are to come after us.
Just so the broad sheet you daily publish conveys to every civilised
part of the world the thoughts and sentiments of those who lead and
form public opinion, while it never fails to give the latest expression
of science, literature, and art. Much of all this may, like the flying
plane tree seeds, fall on unproductive soil; yet who shall say in that
ceaseless stream of intelligence how many a sympathetic chord of the
human heart may be touched, or how many thoughts and sentiments so
imbibed may germinate, and, gaining strength with years, may change the
whole current of a life, and form the statesman, the scientist, or the
man of letters? Thus musing, it occurred to me that the statistical
results I had arrived at might, perhaps, interest some other boys than
those for whom they were intended, and if thought worthy of a place in
The Times might inspire a more than passing interest in an otherwise
most uninviting subject.
Every one of late must have had his thoughts more or less turned to the
prevention of smoke in large cities, and also to the exhibition of the
electric light now in progress at the Crystal Palace, for every form
and modification of which we are still dependent on that vast
storehouse of Nature -- our beds of coal, the economic use of which is
of such vast importance to our national progress, and to the
maintenance and spread of civilisation throughout the world, that no
one can afford to remain indifferent to it. It is only when the mind
can fairly grasp the magnitude of our coal consumption that the
importance of its economy can be fully realised. The statistics of the
coal trade show that during the year 1881 the quantity of coal raised
in Great Britain was no less than 154,184,300 tons.
When the eye passes over these nine figures it does not leave on the
mind a very vivid picture of the reality -- it does not say much for
the twelve months of incessant toil of the 495,000 men who are employed
in this vast industry; hence I have endeavoured in a pictorial form to
convey to the mind's eye of my young friends something like the true
meaning of those figures; for mere magnitude to the youthful mind has
always an absorbing interest, and the gigantic works of the ancients
fortunately supply us with a ready means of comparison with our own.
Let us take as an example the great pyramid of Gizeh, a work of human
labour which has excited the admiration of the world for thousands of
years. Though in itself inaccessible to my young friends, we
fortunately have its base clearly marked out in the metropolis.
When Inigo Jones laid out the plans of Lincoln's inn Fields he placed
the houses on opposite sides of the square just as far from each other
as to enclose a space between them of precisely the same dimensions as
the base of the great pyramid. Measuring up to the front walls of the
houses this space is just equal to 11 acres and 4 poles. Now, if my
young friends will imagine St. Paul's Cathedral to be placed in the
centre of this square space, and having a flagstaff of 95 ft. in height
standing up above the top of the cross, we shall have attained an
altitude of 499 ft., which is precisely equal to that of the great
pyramid. Further, let us imagine that four ropes are made to extend
from the top of this flagstaff, each one terminating at one of the four
corners of the square and touching the front walls of the houses. We
shall then have a perfect outline of the pyramid of exactly the same
size as the original. The whole space enclosed within these diagonal
ropes is equal to 79,881,417 cubic feet, and if occupied by one solid
mass of coal it would weigh 2,781,581 tons -- a mass less than 1-55th
part of the coal raised last year in Great Britain. In fact, the coal
trade could supply such a mass as this every week, and at the end of
the year have more than nine millions of tons to spare.
Higher up the Nile Thebes presents us with another example of what may
be accomplished by human labour. The great temple of Rameses at Karnak,
with its hundred columns of 12 ft. in diameter, and over 100 ft. in
height, cannot fail to deeply impress the imagination of all who, in
their mind's eye, can realise this magnificent colonnade. It may be
interesting to ascertain what size of column and what extent of
colonnade we could construct with the coal we laboriously sculpture
from its solid bed in every year.
Let us imagine a plain cylindrical column of 50 ft. in diameter, and of
500ft. in height, our one year's production of coal would suffice to
make no less than 4511 of these gigantic columns, which, if placed only
at their own diameter apart, would form a colonnade which would extend
in a straight line to a distance of no less than 85 miles and 750 yards
-- in fact, we dig in every working day throughout the year a little,
more than enough to form fourteen of these tall and massive columns,
which, if placed upon each other, would reach an altitude of 7,000 ft.
But there is yet another great work of antiquity which our boys will
not fail to remember as offering itself for comparison; they have all
heard of the Great Wall of China, which was erected more than 2,000
years ago to exclude the Tartars from the Chinese Empire. This great
wall extends to a distance of 1,400 miles, and is 20 ft. in height, and
24 ft. in thickness, and hence contains no less than 3,548,160,000
cubic feet of solid matter. Now, our last year's production of coal was
4,427,586,820 cubic feet, and is sufficient in bulk to build a wall
round London of 200 miles in length, 100 ft. high, and 41 ft. 11 in. in
thickness; a mass not only equal to the whole cubic contents of the
Great Wall of China, but sufficient to add another 346 miles to its
length.
These imaginary coal structures can scarcely fail to impress the mind
of youth with the enormous consumption of coal; and when they are told
that in many of its applications the useful effect obtained is not
one-fifth of its theoretic capabilities, they will be enabled to form
some idea of the vast importance of the economic problem which calls so
loudly for solution. They must not, however, fall into the too-common
error of supposing that the electric light by superseding gas is to do
away with the use of coal in the production of light, or that
dynamo-electric machines will largely replace the steam engine and
boiler.
A visit to the Crystal Palace, which has for the time being become a
great school of applied science, will set them right on this point.
There they will find that coal, our willing slave, still lends its
powerful aid in propelling those machines by which we manufacture
artificial lightning; and there also, in its mere infancy, they will
see something of the colossal power that is destined to effect such
vast changes, and to carry forward by another grand leap the
ever-increasing dominion of mind over matter.
Let every boy now home from school be taken to see this grand
exhibition before it closes, and while still on the tablets of the
brain there are left some few blank pages, let these marvels of applied
science inscribe an indelible record, which, perchance, in after
years, may profitably be drawn upon and improved; and in due course
they may find their own names inscribed among those who, following the
paths of science, have become the benefactors of mankind.
Although coal is still our great agent in the production of motive
power, it must not be forgotten that Sir William Thomson has clearly
shown that by the use of dynamo-electric machines, worked by the Falls
of Niagara, motive power could be generated to an almost unlimited
extent, and that no less than 26,250 horse-power so obtained could be
conveyed to a distance of 300 miles by means of a single copper wire of
1/2 in. in diameter, with a loss in transmission of not more than 20
per cent., and hence delivering at the opposite end of the wire 21,000
horse-power.*[3]
What a magnificent vista of legitimate mercantile enterprise this
simple fact opens up
for our own country! Why should we not at once connect London with one
of our nearest coalfields by means of a copper rod of 1 in. in diameter
and capable of transmitting 84,000 horse-power to London, and thus
practically bring up the coal by wire instead of by rail?
Let us now see what is the equivalent in coal of this amount at motive
power. Assuming that each horse-power can be generated by the
consumption of 3 lb. of coal per hour, and that the engines work six
and a-half days per week, we should require an annual consumption of
coal equal to 1,012,600 tons to produce such a result.
Now all this coal would in the case assumed be burned at the pit's
mouth, at a cost of 6s. per ton for large and 2s. per ton for small
coal -- that is, at less than one-fourth the cost of coal in London.
This would immensely reduce the cost of the electric light, and of the
motive power now used in London for such a vast variety of purposes,
and at the same time save us from the enormous volumes of smoke and
foul gases which this million of tons of coal would make if burned in
our midst. A 1 in. diameter copper rod would cost about 533L. per
mile, and if laid to a colliery 120 miles away, the interest at 5 per
cent. on its first cost would be less than 1d. per ton on the coal
practically conveyed by it direct into the house of the consumer.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant, HENRY BESSEMER.
Denmark Hill, April 17, 1882.
The third reprint is from the Engineering Review, of July the 20th,
1894, and is entitled "A Brief Statistical Sketch of the Bessemer Steel
Industry: Past and Present."
It is an old man's privilege to look back upon the past and compare it
with the present. It is no less his privilege to do so when his
thoughts turn to those subjects in which he himself has taken a more or
less conspicuous part. I do not know, therefore, that I need make any
apology for laying before you some thoughts that have been passing
through my mind on looking back upon the progress that has been made in
the metallurgical world, and especially in a retrospect of the rapid
advances made by the process to which my name was given thirty-seven
years ago.
If we go back to the year 1861, just one-third of a century, we shall
find Sheffield by far the largest producer of steel in the world, the
greater portion of her annual make of 51,000 tons, realising from £50
to £60 per ton.*[4]
For this purpose the costly bar-iron of Sweden was chiefly employed as
the raw material, costing from £15 to £20 per ton; the conversion of
this expensive iron into crude steel occupied about ten days -- that
is, about two days and nights for the gradual heating of the furnace,
in which the cold iron bars had been carefully packed in large stone
boxes with a layer of charcoal powder between each bar, in these boxes
the metal was retained for six days at a white heat, two days more
being required to cool down the
furnace and get out the converted bars. The steel so produced was
broken into small pieces and melted in crucibles holding not more than
40 or 50 lb. each, and consuming from 2 to 3 tons of expensive oven
coke for each ton of steel so melted. This steel was excellently
adapted for the manufacture of knives, and for all other cutting
instruments, but its hard and brittle character, as well as its
excessively high price, absolutely precluded its use for the thousands
of purposes to which steel is now universally applied.
It was under such conditions of the steel trade that, thirty-three
years ago, I endeavoured to introduce an entirely novel system of
manufacture -- so novel, in fact, and so antagonistic to the
preconceived notions of practical men, that I was met on all sides with
the most stolid incredulity and distrust. Perhaps I ought to make some
allowance for this feeling, for I proposed to use as my raw material
crude pig-iron costing £3 per ton, instead of the highly purified
Swedish bar-iron then used, costing from £15 to £20 per ton. I proposed
also to employ no fuel whatever in the converting process, which, in my
case, occupied only twenty-five to thirty minutes, instead of the ten
days and nights required by the process then in use; and I further
proposed to make from 5 to tons of steel at a single operation, instead
of the small separate batches of 40 or 50 lbs., in which all the
Sheffield cast steel was at that time made. What, however, appeared
still more incredible was the fact that I proposed to make steel bars
at £5 or £6 per ton, instead of £50 or £60 -- the then ruling prices of
the trade. One and all of these propositions have long since become
well-established commercial facts, and Bessemer cast-steel is now
produced without resorting to any one of the expensive and laborious
processes practised in making Swedish bar-iron, while the old Sheffield
process of converting wrought-iron bars into crude or blister-steel, by
ten days' exposure, at a very high temperature, to the action of
carbon, is rendered unnecessary. The slow and expensive process of
melting 40 or 50 lbs. of steel in separate crucibles is also dispensed
with; and in lieu of all these combined processes, from 5 to 10 tons of
crude or cast-iron, worth only £3 per ton, is converted into Bessemer
cast-steel in thirty minutes, wholly without skilled manipulation, or
the employment of fuel; and while still retaining its initial heat, can
be at once rolled into railway bars or other required forms.
So great was the departure of my invention from all the preconceived
notions and practice of the made, that no steel manufacturer could be
induced to adopt it, in fact the whole steel and iron trade of the
kingdom had declared it to be the mere dream of a wild enthusiast; and
it was only by building a steelworks of my own in the town of
Sheffield, and underselling other manufacturers in the open market,
that I was able at last to overcome prejudice and the utter disbelief
in the practicability of my invention. But as soon as my works were
completed, and I was enabled to throw my cheap steel upon the market,
there came a complete panic in the trade, followed by the adoption of
my invention at two of the largest works in Sheffield. As an example of
the irresistible competition thus established, I may refer to the
manufacture of steel railway-wheel tyres, which were at that time
selling at £60 per ton. These tyres we put upon the market at £50, but
the extent to which even that price was capable of reduction will be
readily understood from the fact that tyres made at the present date,
by the same process, and by the identical machinery then actually
employed, are now sold at £8 per ton with a profit. No sooner were
these facts rendered indisputable by the steady commercial working of
my process, than it began rapidly to spread throughout England, and
thence to every State in Europe. The advantages which my system offered
soon attracted the attention of our energetic brethren in the United
States, where it advanced by leaps and bounds, and where it has since
culminated, in the year 1892, in the production of no less than
4,160,072 tons, or about eighty times the whole production of Sheffield
in 1851.*[5]
The visit of the Iron and Steel Institute to America in 1890 was quite
a revelation. The development of the iron and steel trade of that
country, and the enormous extension of their railroad system, has
produced economic changes of vast importance both to them and to us,
and demands the serious consideration of all thinking men.
We have it on the undoubted authority of Mr. Abram Hewitt that the
annual production of steel by the acid and basic treatment of pig-iron
in the Bessemer converter in both Europe and America amounted in 1892
to no less than 10,500,000 tons, about two-fifths only of which was
made into rails. Now, taking the average price of rails in 1891 and
1892 in England at £4 l0s. per ton, and in the United States and on the
Continent of Europe at £5 l0s., and adding to this the much higher
prices obtained for tyres , axles, cranks, sheets, wire-rods,
boiler-plates, forgings, castings, &c., we may fairly assume that the
average selling price of the whole of this steel would be £8 per ton,
taking one article with another, hence yielding a net amount of 84
millions sterling.
It is a curious fact that high numbers like these do not adequately
impress themselves on the minds of many people of undoubted
intelligence, and it is not until such figures are broken up as it
were, and presented pictorially to the mind's eye, that they are fully
understood and appreciated. Thus, if, instead of looking at the eight
figures which represent the number of tons, we could have that quantity
of steel bodily before us, we should form a very different estimate of
its importance. Let us use the mind's eye to assist us, and imagine
standing erect before us a plain round column or tower of solid steel
20 feet in diameter and 100 feet high; this, no doubt, would impress us
as a very large and heavy mass, and but few persons would be prepared
at first to accept the simple fact that the production of Bessemer
steel in 1892 would make 1,671 such columns and leave a remainder of
5,535 tons. Yet such is the fact. These tall columns would form a
goodly row, and, if placed side by side in a straight line, and in
contact with each other, would extend to a distance of 6 miles and 580
yards; indeed there is on an average 5 1/3 such columns produced on
every working day in the year, bringing up each day's production of
steel to 33,546 tons, as compared with Sheffield's former production of
51,000 tons annually.
We may put this in another way, and imagine a plain cylindrical solid
column of 100 feet in diameter, a good idea of which may be formed by a
glance at some of the very large gasometers in the Metropolis; then
further imagine this gasometer, not as a thin iron shell, but as a
ponderous solid mass rising before you to an altitude of 6,684 feet 6
inches, or nearly one mile and a third in height. Such a huge solid
mass would be exactly equal to one year's make of Bessemer steel. But
even in this form we must draw powerfully on the imagination; for but
few persons can in their mind's eye fully realise a huge solid mass of
such heavy matter rising to more than sixteen and a-half times the
height of the cross of St. Paul's.
A graphic representation of such a column of steel, standing between
St. Paul's Cathedral
and the Monument erected to commemorate the Great Fire of London, is
shown accurately to scale (see Fig. 107), and will aid the mind in more
fully realising the magnitude of the ponderous masses annually
produced, every pound of which, during the brief period of its
conversion into steel, has been raised to such an excessively high
temperature as to become as brilliantly incandescent as the poles of
the electric arc lamp.
It is this new material, so much stronger and tougher than common iron,
that now builds our ships of war and our mercantile marine. Steel forms
their boilers, their propeller-shafts, their hulls, their masts and
spars, their standing rigging, their cable chains and anchors, and also
their guns and armour-plating.
This new material has covered with a network of steel rails the surface
of every country in Europe, and in America alone there are no less than
175,000 miles of Bessemer steel rails, binding together its
widely-scattered cities, and bringing them within easy commercial
contact with each other. Over these long stretches of smooth steel road
there ceaselessly run hundreds of thousands of steel wheel-tyres,
impelled by hundreds of locomotive engines, which owe their power and
endurance to the same ubiquitous material, the great strength and
elasticity of which, as compared with common iron, renders it so
especially suitable for the construction of our bridges and viaducts,
our steam boilers, and our machinery of every description, while its
great resistance to wear and abrasion gives it a durability vastly
superior to iron. As an example, I may state that every steel rail now
in use will bear at least six times the amount of traffic to pass over
it that would suffice to wear out an iron rail. This question of
durability is one of vast importance, for it has enabled companies to
construct lines in localities where the rapid wearing out of iron rails
would not profitably permit of their construction. The increased
durability of steel will be better realised when we consider that the
175,000 miles of steel railroads now existing in America would have had
to be broken up and laid with new rails six times (if the rails had
been made of iron) during the period that the steel rails will last in
a safe and workable condition.
But to descend from large things to smaller ones, it may be interesting
to pass from the almost unrealisable column of solid steel representing
the world's yearly production to the average quantity made in every one
of the 24 hours comprised in the 313 working days of the year, and
thus bring our mass more in accord with some of the tall columns in
this metropolis, which are, say, 7 or 8 feet in diameter, and reach 100
feet or more in altitude. It must be remembered that the process of
converting crude iron into steel goes on ceaselessly in the converter
for the whole twenty-four hours of each day, so that our one hour's
production is only one twenty-fourth part of a single day's work; but
if all the steel produced in the Bessemer converter in this short
interval of time were collected, it would form a solid cylindrical mass
of 8 feet in diameter, and 139 feet in height, thus overtopping the
Duke of York's column and the Nelson Monument. What a noble portico
would twenty-four such columns make, the work of a single day, but yet
large enough to dwarf the grand old ruins of Karnak or Thebes.
It may be interesting to put this matter in another form, in order to
bring it vividly home to the imagination. A steel ingot of one ton
weight is as nearly as possible five cubic feet of solid matter. Let us
now imagine a solid square ingot of steel, having a base measuring 50
feet by 50 feet, and standing, say, 400 feet high. This would make a
square tower of solid steel. much larger than the clock-tower of the
Houses of Parliament
(which is precisely 40 feet square, and about half as high as this
imaginary square tower); in fact, such a tower would only be about four
feet below the top of the cross of St. Paul's Cathedral. This tower
would contain precisely 1,000,000 cubic feet, and would weigh just
200,000 tons. Now, the Thames Embankment from Westminster Bridge to
Blackfriars Bridge, measured down the centre of the roadway, is one
mile and a-quarter and a few yards. Let us suppose one of these
gigantic towers to stand opposite the Clock Tower, and in a line with
the roadway over Westminster Bridge, and a similar one erected at the
other end of the Embankment in a line with the roadway passing over
Blackfriars Bridge. Let us further imagine fifty other precisely
similar towers placed equi-distant between them, thus leaving a space
of only 27 yards between each tower. This row of gigantic towers would
represent 10,400,000 tons, or just 100,000 tons less than one year's
production of Bessemer steel, each of the fifty-two towers being 1,923
tons less than the average weekly production.
We might think of many other object lessons that would be likely to
convey to the mind's eye a vivid and realistic picture of the enormous
bulk of matter represented by 10,500,000 tons of steel. Let us select
one other illustration. Imagine a straight wall 100 miles in length,*[6]
5 feet in thickness, and 20 feet in height. Such a wall would stand on
60 1/2 acres of land. But suppose that this wall, like a gigantic
armour-plate, was formed into a circle, and used to surround London;
the enclosure so made would extend to Watford on the north side, to
Croydon on the south, to Woolwich on the east, and to Richmond on the
west. It would, in point of fact, form a circular enclosure of 31 3/4
miles in diameter, and would embrace an area of 795 square miles. This
great wall of London would just be equal to a single year's production
of Bessemer steel.
I have thought it would be interesting to give these illustrations of
the enormous mass of Bessemer steel that is now annually produced,
because its magnitude is more easily conveyed to the mind by such
object lessons than in any other way, and it has long been a hobby of
mine to convey an idea of large numbers by such illustrations. Some of
my old friends will, I doubt not, remember that in 1878 I published a
letter in The Times entitled "A Billion Dissected," in which I broke up
the elements of that measure of numbers in the same way; and in 1882 I
dealt, in The Times, in a similar manner with our coal output. If this
fresh illustration, which has naturally exceptional interest to myself,
should bring home to you an idea of the magnitude of modern industrial
operations, in respect of a material that bears my name, I shall be
much gratified.
As a commercial question it is impossible to form even an approximately
correct idea of the value of this material when manufactured into the
almost endless variety of useful articles into which it is now made.
As a single instance, I may refer to the manufacture of steel nails. It
is an important and well-known fact that a steel nail can be driven
into dry hard wood without boring a hole for it. This property of steel
nails results in an immense saving of labour, and in the United
States, where so many houses are built of wood, it has proved of
considerable value. I find from reliable statistics furnished by nail
manufacturers, that in 1892 no less than 171,200 tons of unforged
nails, and 139,900 tons of steel-wire nails were made in America
alone. Medium-sized nails run from 80,000 to 120,000 to the ton, and I
have before me some beautifully-formed carpet nails, with large flat heads,
of which a single ton of steel will make 3,870,000.
It is an interesting fact that at the International Exhibition of 1862,
I exhibited the first steel nails that were ever made. Every form and
pattern of nail was shown, large spikes, 6 inches long, weighing only
10 to the pound, or 22,400 to the ton, down to the minute tacks used
by upholsterers, and known as gymp tacks, so small that one ton of
steel will make more than 14 millions of them.
I well remember how many thousands of people at the Exhibition passed
heedlessly by these germs of a new and important industry, apparently
without the remotest idea of the future universal employment of steel
nails in lieu of iron ones.
Those who have passed through Wolverhampton and the "Black Country" a
dozen years ago, must have seen the hundreds of young girls sacrificing
all the feminine hopes and aspirations of their young lives, each one
toiling from dewy morn to dusky eve, in smoky, grimy smithies, with a
pair of iron tongs, holding the red-hot nail in one hand, while with
the other she showered upon it blows from the uplifted hammer in such
rapid succession as to maintain the incandescence of the iron she was
shaping, amid the ceaseless din of her fellow-workers, who, with grimy
faces and horny hands, were reeking in the heat and foul air of the
nailers' den.
Time in this, as in so many other things, has wrought its wonted
change, for to-day the inexorable power of steam, acting on unconscious
matter which suffers from neither heat, fatigue, nor moral degradation,
now yields from a single machine from 50 to 100 nails per minute, at
less cost and of better quality than were ever wrung from human sinews
and female degradation. The extent of the change will be better
appreciated when it is known that the annual value of unforged steel
nails now manufactured exceeds ten millions sterling; and I have often
felt that if in my whole life I had done no other useful thing than
the introduction of unforged steel nails, this one invention would have
been a legitimate source of self-congratulation and thankfulness, in
so far as it has successfully wiped out so much of this degrading
species of slavery from the list of female-employing industries in this
country.
The great financier who is constantly dealing with the realised values
of many millions would have a very keen appreciation of what
£84,000,000 really means, yet I doubt if even the Chancellor of the
Exchequer could off-hand give anything like the correct dimensions of
a mass of standard gold of that value. It can, however, be easily
ascertained with accuracy. Since fifty-seven sovereigns weigh just 1
lb. avoirdupois, the weight of 84,000,000 sovereigns would be 657 tons
17 cwt. 3 qrs. and 16 lbs.; and as the specific gravity of standard
gold coin is 17.167, we should have a mass equal to 1374.70 cubic feet,
from which we could make a plain cylindrical column of solid gold 5
feet in diameter and 109 feet 5 inches in height, as a representative
of the commercial value of the larger column of steel which I have
referred to. It is an interesting fact that the statistics published by
the Annales des Mines for 1893*[7]
shows that it would take more than
three years' production of all the gold mines in the world to pay in
gold for one year's production of Bessemer steel.
In June, 1897, my mother died, and her loss was a blow from which my
father never recovered; their happy union had lasted for more than
sixty years and he did not long survive her; his own death occurred on
the 15th March, 1898.
In the earlier pages of his Autobiography, Sir Henry Bessemer wrote not
a little about his father, but the glimpses which he gives us of the
elder Bessemer cause regret that he did not say a great deal more; it
is true that the interesting part of his career appears to have ended
when, as quite a young man, he fled from Paris during the stormy days
of the Revolution, leaving behind him almost all the considerable means
he had accumulated during his residence in France. It was during the
unsettled period before the Revolution that he had made a name and a
distinguished position in the French Academy of Sciences. My father
makes a reference to a copying and engraving machine invented by the
elder Bessemer, which was largely used in the Paris Mint, for
reproducing in metal, artists' designs modelled in wax, either in cameo
or intaglio. In the Autobiography of James Nasmyth, to which I have
already referred, there is an interesting notice of one of these
machines. It had been sent from Paris to the London Mint years after my
grandfather had returned to this country, and Nasmyth, speaking of it
in the highest terms, relates how it was sent from the Mint, in 1830,
to Messrs. Maudslay's, for repair, and the work of its repair was
entrusted to him. During the prosperous period of my grandfather's life
in France, miniatures of himself and of my grandmother were painted by
an artist famous at the time, and these portraits were among the
objects he saved in his flight from Paris. I have been able to
reproduce them here (see Plate L.), and I think that the portraits of
the founders of the Bessemer family will not be without interest.
[2] Specification of James Nasmyth -- "Employment of Steam in the
Process of Puddling Iron." May 4th, 1854; No.1001
[3] Since the above was written, experiments on a large scale have shown
that the loss of power in transmission is much greater than stated, and
also that the size of the copper wire was very much underestimated, but
these facts do not materially lessen the advantages of this mode of
supplying power and light to London direct from the coalfield. -- H. B.
[4] It is stated in the Jurors' Report to the Commissioners of the
International Exhibition of 1851, that the production of steel in
Sheffield was at that period 51,000 tons annually.
[5] We learn from the Bulletin of the American Iron and Steel Association
that the output of Bessemer Steel Ingots in the United States in the
year 1892 was the largest ever reported, and amounted to not less than
4,160,072 tons.
[6] Or more accurately 99 miles and 2,280 feet in length.
[7] Taken from a paragraph in The Times, showing the weight in tons and
value in pounds sterling of the world's production of gold in 1893.
This is the end of Sir Henry Bessemer F.R.S an autobiography
Year £ s. d.
1858 ... ... ... Loss 729 12 2
1859 ... ... ... " 1093 6 2
1860 ... ... ... Profit 923 2 1
1861 ... ... ... " 1475 10 2
1862 ... ... ... " 3685 18 4
1863 ... ... ... " 10968 6 3
1864 ... ... ... " 11827 0 4
1865 ... ... ... " 3949 5 11
1866 ... ... ... " 18076 18 4
1867 ... ... ... " 28622 1 8
My father omits any reference to the first steel rails put into actual
service; and, curiously enough, he does not mention the historic
occasion when he persuaded Mr. Ramsbottom, then the chief mechanical
engineer of the London and North Western Railway, to make a trial. He
has, however, described this interview in a letter:
Tons.
United States ... ... 9,138,363
Germany ... ... 5,229,939
Great Britain ... ... 1,825,779
France ... ... 1,010,000
These figures show clearly the stupendous growth of the Bessemer steel
industry in the United States, from the small converters at Troy in
1865: a development chiefly due to Holley's untiring energy and skill.
The secret of his progress and success was defined by Mr. Robert W.
Hunt, in a paragraph of a paper read by him before the American
Institute of Mining Engineers, and called "A History of the Bessemer
Manufacture in America." Mr. Hunt said:
Age. Year.
1808 Born, August l9th.
9 1817 Went to the High School, Edinburgh.
13 1821 Attended the School of Arts.
21 1829 Went to London to Maudslay's.
23 1831 Returned to Edinburgh to make my engineer's tools.
26 1834 Went to Manchester to begin business.
28 1836 Removed to Patricroft and built the Bridgewater Foundry.
31 1839 Invented the steam-hammer.
32 1840 Marriage.
34 1842 First visit to France and Italy.
35 1843 Visit to St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Dannemora.
37 1845 Application of the steam-hammer to pile-driving.
48 1856 Retired from business, to enjoy the rest of my life in
the active pursuit of my most favourite occupations."
It will be interesting to compare the foregoing with my father's
record, which stands as follows, his "Dial of Life" being given in Fig.
92 :--
Age Year.
1813 Born, 19th of January.
17 1830 Arrived in London.
20 1833 Improvements in Government stamps.
21 1834 Marriage.
30 1843 Manufacture of bronze powder.
42 1855 First patent for manufacture of iron and steel, October 15th.
43 1856 Paper read before the Cheltenham Meeting of British Association,
August 24th.
45 1858 Bessemer Works started at Sheffield.
49 1862 First Bessemer steel rail laid at Camden Goods Station, May 9th.
50 1863 Bessemer steel first used in the construction of ships.
52 1865 First Bessemer Works started in America, by A. L. Holley,
at Troy, U.S.A.
56 1869 Bessemer Saloon patented.
59 1872 Retired from business.
66 1879 Knighted, June 26th.
85 1898 Died, March 15th.
When describing the first announcement of his great steel invention at
the British Association Cheltenham Meeting,
in 1856*[1], my father
referred to the encouraging and generous remarks made by Mr. James
Nasmyth. On searching through a mass of miscellaneous papers in my
possession, I came across an interesting correspondence between Nasmyth
and my father, and it seems to me that the facsimile of a letter,
reproduced in Fig. 93, Plate XLVI., will be read with interest; it is a
characteristic letter, and shows that the generous impulse, which so
encouraged my father during the discussion of his memorable paper of
1856 had remained unaltered twenty-five years later.
State. County. Population In Iron-
Town. in 1900. Mining
U.S. Census. District?
Bessemer ... ... ... Alabama Jefferson 6,358 Yes
Bessemer Junction ... Alabama Jefferson (a) Yes
Bessemer (station Pueblo) Colorado Pueblo (b) Yes
Bessemer Junction ... Colorado Pueblo (a) Yes
Bessemer ... ... ... Michigan Gogebic 3,911 Yes
Bessemer Junction ... Michigan Gogebic (a) Yes
Bessemer ... ... ... N.Y Tomkins (a) No
Bessemer City ... ... N.C Gaston 1,100 No
Bessemer ... ... ... Pennsylvania Allegheny (a) No
Bessemer ... ... ... Pennsylvania Lawrence (a) No
Bessemer ... ... ... Texas... Llano (a) No
Bessemer ... ... ... Vancouver Botetourt (a) Yes
Bessemer ... ... ... Wyoming Natrona (a) No
(a) Not separately returned by the Census of 1900.
(b) Bessemer City (population 3,317 as returned by Census of 1890)
annexed to Pueblo since 1890.
My father possessed a special charm of conversation, and an unusual
facility for explaining difficult subjects in the most graphic manner.
Those who enjoyed his friendship will always remember this peculiar
gift. Striking examples of it are to be found in his remarks at
various scientific meetings where he took part in discussions; and on
the rare occasions when he wrote letters to the newspapers, chiefly to
The Times. As illustrations of what I mean, I reproduce here three
letters which I think are of much interest. The first of these was
published in The Times in January, 1878, under the title "A Billion
Dissected."
Footnotes
[1] See page 162, ante