COMMENCEMENT, JUNE, L898. ,,<: '' 



veloped his process from a mere abstracl theory to such a degree of coin 

 pleteness that, notwithstanding the keen competition of rival manu 

 facturers and the (•••useless activity and inventive talents of mechanical 

 engineers the world over, iiis original process today is followed almost in 

 every detail, ;is he dictated over forty years ago, and although another 

 method Is coming into public favor, there is made annually in the U. S. 

 alone 5,000,000 ions <>i Bessemer steel. 



The Idea w;is suggested to him by an army officer, who remarked that 

 stronger metal was necessary for k ||||S - A.1 that time Bessemer Knew 

 nothing of the iron or Bteel trade and very little of metallurgy, but iiis 

 mind was unwedded to things as they existed, and in Miis spirit he began 

 Iiis investigations. One idea after another w us put to I he test of experi 

 in en i, (tne furnace after another was pulled down, and numerous mechan 

 leal appliances were designed and tried in practice with only partial sue 

 cess until the labor and anxiety broughl on u severe illness, while lyins 

 in bed he conceived the idea of a converter, and on regaining his healtfi 

 constructed one three feel in diameter and five feet high. The primitive 

 apparatus being ready, the engine was made i<> force streams of ail 

 through the bottom of the \ essel, I he stoker poured in the moulten metal 

 mid instantly out came a dazzling volcanic eruption. The air coch to 

 regulate the blast was beside the converter and no one dared ^<> near it, 

 hni during their bewilderment the combustion ceased. 'The new metal 

 was tried and its quality found good, 'the problem was solved; the u^<- 

 of iron was gone; the age of steel hud come, and Henry Bessemer was 

 king. 



Certain it is thai no event in the history of our time has more of the 

 marvelous connected with it; none Illustrates more strikingly the sin^ 



uhir and impressive nspecls of physical science; none is more far reach- 

 ing in its effects and none reveals a greater man, than this invention of 

 Bessemer's. if takes rank with the great events which have changed 



the luce of society since the lime of the middle ages. The invenlion of 



printing, the construction of the magnetic compass, the discovery <d' 

 America and the Introduction of the steam engine uro the onlj events 

 which belong i<» the same category, n may be high praise t«» class this 

 inv cut ion with these greal achievements, bul a candid survey of the 

 situation lends lis to the conclusion that no one of them has been more 

 potent in preparing the way for the higher civilization which awaits tlie 



Coming century, lis influence c;in now he traced und ils I'ulure results 



are beyond the reach of the imagination. 



M has contributed materially i<» lessen the severity of the .sentence 

 passed upon Adam, thai he should eat his bread in the sweat <>i' ids brow. 

 Men's muscles hnve heen largely ireed from wasting drudgery and are 

 used only in healthy exercise. The sweat of the brain within the brow li 

 now in a greater number of cases the true reading of man's destiny. 



The fact thai st el is now produced ui n cost no greater than thai of 

 common iron hns led to an enormous extension in ils use and to a great 



reduction in I he cos! of the ninchin'ery which curries on the Operations Of 



society. The cost of constructing railways has heen so greatly lessened 

 us to permit of their extension into sparsely inhabited regions und the 

 consequent occupation of distanl territory otherwise beyond the reach of 



sel ( lenient. The cost of I ru nspor I u I ion hus heen reduced to so low H 



