AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS. 745 



In commenting upon this patent the late Dr. Percy very truth- 

 fully says : * "It is perfectly clear from the specification that the 

 patentee did not propose to effect by his process the conversion of 

 pig iron, whether unrefined or refined, either into steel or malle- 

 able iron ; and it is equally clear that he simply intended it to be 

 employed as accessory to the ordinary process or processes in 

 common use for effecting the conversion of pig iron into malleable 

 iron. . . . The patentee emits not the slightest hint to show that 

 he was aware of the fact that by blowing atmospheric air through 

 molten pig iron sufficient heat would be developed to keep it in 

 a state of liquidity, even for a very short time. Air and steam 

 are spoken of precisely as though they were similar agents, and 

 would produce similar effects, whereas their effects would be 

 radically dissimilar. . . . However, in October or November, 

 1855, that is, two or three months prior to the jmblication of 

 Bessemer's first patent, in which he first announced that he 

 could perfectly decarburize molten pig iron by blowing air 

 through it without the further application of external heat, the 

 following remarkable experiment was proposed and conducted 

 by Mr. George Parry, of the Ebbw Vale Iron "Works : . . . ' In 

 the bed of a reverberatory furnace several wrought-iron pipes, 

 about one inch in diameter, were laid parallel to each other and 

 about three inches apart, in the direction of the long axis of the 

 furnace. The pipes were all put in connection with the blast ap- 

 paratus. Their upper surfaces were perforated with holes about 

 three inches apart, of which there were about eighty or one hun- 

 dred altogether ; and wires having been first stuck in these holes, 

 the pipes were covered solidly over with fire-clay. When the clay 

 bottom, thus formed, had become dry, the wires were pulled out. 

 The furnace was very gradually heated, and then about 1| tons 

 of pig iron from No. 1 blast-furnace at the Victoria Works was 

 run in, the blast having been previously let into the pipe. Vigor- 

 ous action occurred, when, by some mishap, the molten metal 

 escaped from the furnace into the road. The then managing 

 director of the works was unwilling that the experiment should 

 be repeated, and the furnace was dismantled, happily for Bes- 

 semer.' " 



On October 17, 1855, Henry Bessemer (now Sir Henry Besse- 

 mer) was granted his first English patent for " improvements in 

 the manufacture of cast steel " ; other patents for improved meth- 

 ods and apparatus followed in rapid succession ; and at the meet- 

 ing of the British Association at Cheltenham in the early part 

 of August, 1856, Mr. Bessemer read a paper before its Mechanical 

 Section On the Manufacture of Iron and Steel without Fuel. 



* Percy's Metallurgy, Iron and Steel, London, 1S64. 



