AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS. 327 



well as the arrangements for furnishing the charcoal for the dif- 

 ferent furnaces, we parted from Mr. Townsend." 



On June 27, 1810, Mr. Clemens Rentgen, of Pikeland, Chester 

 County, Pennsylvania, obtained a patent for " rolling iron round, 

 for ships' bolts, and other uses," by the following method : " This 

 machine consists of two large iron rollers, fixed in a strong frame. 

 Each roller has concavities turned in them, meeting each other 

 to form perfectly round bolts, of from half an inch to one and 

 three quarter inches, or any other size, in diameter, through 

 which rollers the iron is drawn from the mouth of the furnace 

 with great dispatch, and the iron is then manufactured better 

 and more even than it is possible to forge it out. The force ap- 

 plied to the end of these rollers is like that applied to mills." 



Swank states that W. H. Wahl, Ph. D., Secretary of the Frank- 

 lin Institute (who is a descendant of Mr. Rentgen), showed him 

 the original patent, and informed him that Mr. Rentgen " rolled 

 round iron as early as 1812 or 1813, some of which was for the 

 Navy Department of the United States Government"; and he 

 adds, " The fact that a patent was granted to him as late as June 

 27, 1810, for a machine to roll iron in round shapes, would seem 

 to furnish conclusive proof that Cort's rolls * had not then been 

 introduced into the United States." About the beginning of the 

 present century the steam-engine (two or three steam-engines 

 had been imported and used for draining mines prior to the Revo- 

 lutionary War) as a motive power for driving mills and factories 

 began to attract attention. The period of its introduction is 

 worthy of mention, as it has played a very important part in the 

 development of the iron and steel industries of this country. 



According to Swank, "the first rolling-mill erected in the 

 United States to ' puddle ' iron, and roll it into bars, was built by 

 Col. Isaac Meason, in 1816 and 1817, at Plumsock, on Redstone 

 Creek, in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Thomas C. Lewis was 

 the chief engineer in the erection of the mill, and George Lewis, 

 his brother, was the turner and roller. They were Welshmen. 

 . . . The mill contained two 'puddling furnaces,' one 'heating 

 furnace,' one c refinery,' and one ' tilt-hammer.' Raw coal was 

 used in the ' puddling ' and ' heating furnaces,' and coke in the 

 ' refinery.' " 



In the early practice in this country the operation of "pud- 

 dling," by which cast iron is converted into wrought iron, was 

 usually preceded by a process called " refining," which was effected 

 by means of an apparatus called a " refinery " a vertical section 

 of one of the latest and best forms of which is shown in Fig. 21. 



* Cort's patent was taken out in 1Y83, but the evidence is sufficient and conclusive as 

 to a somewhat extended knowledge and use of grooved rolls on the continent of Europe 

 many years prior to that date. 



