SCIENCE AND THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN AMERICA 



model. Note also the amount of resistance which the innovators en- 

 countered, both from management and labor. 



1. ^''Afnericmi Fiishy Our first commentator, Robert W. Hunt, was 

 General Superintendent of the Albany and Rensselaer Iron and Steel 

 Company, Troy, New York. (Robert W. Hunt, "A History of the 

 Bessemer Manufacture in America," Trajisactions of the American In- 

 stitute of Mining Engineers, V [1876-77], 201-16.)] 



The memorable features of American history have been rapidly 

 emerging during the last century, and notably so since I860; and they are 

 by no means confined to political or to any one branch of scientific de- 

 velopment. Of all the industrial arts, none show a greater change or a 

 mightier progress than the Bessemer manufacture. And this year, while we 

 are celebrating the first centennial of our national life, we can also cele- 

 brate the first decennial of American Bessemer practice. While not for- 

 getting or undervaluing what has been done in other countries, I 

 have thought that a brief history of the introduction and develop- 

 ment of the Pneumatic or Bessemer process in America would be of 

 interest. 



In 1863 the Kelly Pneumatic Process Company was formed and an 

 arrangement entered into with William Kelly, who had taken out letters- 

 patent. . , . 



Previous to the application of William Kelly for a patent, Henry 

 Bessemer, of England, had taken out patents dated February 12th, 1856, 

 and August 25th, 1856, in this country. Kelly claimed priority in the 

 discovery of the principles of the process, and the Patent-office allowed 

 his claim by granting him his patents. 



In the autumn of 1862 Mr. Alexander L. HoUey, while in England, 

 was impressed with the importance of Mr. Bessemer's inv^ention, and so 

 fully foresaw its future, that, upon his return to the United States, he in- 

 duced Messrs. John A. Griswold and John F. Winslow, of Troy, New 

 York, to join him in endeavoring to possess Bessemer's American 

 patents. ... 



But, before entering into chronological details of subsequent works, 

 I must here state that, after building the first experimental plant 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. 



But to return to the detailed history. As before stated, there were, 

 in 1865, the two rival organizations claiming control of the process in 

 this country, — the Kelly Process Company, through their Kelly and 

 Mushet's patents, and Messrs. Winslow, Griswold & Holley, through 

 their Bessemer and Holley American patents. Both parties felt strong in 

 their respective positions, and in possessing the necessary means to main- 

 tain them. But, after spending large sums of money in counsel fees, they 

 wisely concluded that their fight would at best be a "Kilkenny cat" af- 

 fair, and so, early in 1866, they combined their respective interests, the 



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