Trans. N. V. Ac. Sci. 148 Mar. 27, 



b)- th^ screw, in ocean steamers. In 1859, he went to Europe with 

 Mr H.J. Raymond, as correspondent for the New York Times, and met 

 Brunel and Scott Russell, the projectors of the " Great Eastern," 

 which vessel he studied, and returned to America in her on the first 

 trip. When writing for the New York Times, it was under the nom de 

 plume of Tubal Cain. 



About this time we also find him editing the American Railway Re- 

 view; and in i860, he published " Railway Practice." In the year 

 1862, he went to Europe to investiga'e ordnance and armor, in behalf 

 of Mr. E. A. Stevens of Battery fame ; and the result of this visit was 

 a book on these subjects published in 1865, which was translated and 

 published in France. Durmg this time (m 1864), he contributed looo 

 definitions and several hundred figures to Webster's Dictionai-y. 



While in Ergland, studying ordnance and armor, he met Mr. Henry 

 Bessemer, ard became interested in the process ot making steel, 

 which was to render his name most famous, and give America the fore- 

 most position in the world in the manufacture of this indispensable 

 material. 



Bessemer first announced his discovery of making steel by blowing 

 air through molten iron, in the year 1856, at the Cheltenham meeting 

 of the British Association for the Advancement of Science ; and 

 Holley was among the first to appreciate its value. In 1862, he first 

 became identified with this process of manufacture ; and his connection 

 with it became a series of engineering triumphs almost without par- 

 allel, till his death. 



The first steel works in the Uni'.ed States to use the Bessemer pro- 

 cess were those at Troy, and the first ingot of metal was cast in 1864. 

 Three years later the works at Harrisburg were built by Mr. HOLLEY, 

 and he managed them till 1869. He rebuilt the Troy Works and 

 planned the works at North Chicago and Joliec, 111., the Edgar Thom- 

 son Works at Pittsburg, and the Vulcan Works at St. Louis. From 

 the trial ingot cast at Troy in 18&4, the industry has grown until the 

 product of a year now amounts to more than a million of tons. And 

 this gigantic industry owes much of its success to the active brain and 

 patient industry of Mr. Holley. 



In the year 1877, he was made consul'ing engineer to the Bessemer 

 Steel Association of America, and became the idol of the manufactur- 

 ers. He was a fine speaker and a ready wit, and there was that in his 

 discourse that made his sentences always pleasing to the ear. From 

 1875 to 1876, he was President of the American Institute of Mining 

 Engineers. During the following year, he was Vice-President of the 

 American Society of Civil Engineers ; and, in 1879, he organized and 

 became first President of the American Society of Mechanical Engin- 



