AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS. 19 



was not included in this company, a certain interest in any 

 profits which it might make was guaranteed to him. Mr. Z. S. 

 Durfee soon went to England again to arrange for the control of 

 the rights of Bessemer and Mushet in America. He was unsuc- 

 cessful in the former case, but obtained, October 24, 1864, control 

 of the American patent for the use of spiegeleisen, as Mushet's 

 triple compound was called, on terms which admitted Robert F. 

 Mushet, Thomas D. Clare, and John N. Brown, of England, to 

 membership in the company ; and on the 6th of September, 1865, 

 it was further enlarged by the admission of Charles P. Chouteau, 

 James Harrison, and Felix Vallt^, all of St. Louis, Mo.* 



While Z. S. Durfee was on his first visit to Europe, the writer 

 of these papers was invited by Captain Ward to design and erect 

 an experimental plant to determine the possibility of making a 

 good steel by the new process from Lake Superior iron. I ac- 

 cepted the invitation, and reached Detroit, Mich., on the morning 

 of July 1, 1862. It was decided to construct a blowing engine, 

 and a converting vessel large enough for producing steel on a 

 commercial scale, with reference to their use in a works properly 

 planned for economical administration and production should the 

 experimental works justify such an enterprise. As to the rest of 

 the plant, it was decided to construct it as cheaply and simply as 

 would answer the purpose of the experimental works only, and it 

 was further decided that the experimental plant was to be located 

 adjacent to, and partly in, the building of the Eureka Furnace 

 at Wyandotte, Mich., about ten miles from Detroit, where Cap- 

 tain Ward had extensive rolling-mills. The metal for the ex- 

 periments would be taken direct from the blast-furnace, and the 

 spiegeleisen was to be melted in crucibles. 



As soon as this general scheme was fixed upon, I began my 

 plans for carrying it out. But very little guidance was obtain- 

 able in this task. I had never seen any apparatus for the manu- 

 facture of steel by the method proposed, and the description of 

 that used by Mr. Kelly convinced me that it was not suited for 

 an experiment on so large a scale as was contemplated at Wyan- 

 dotte. As it was confidently expected that Z. S. Durfee would 

 be able to purchase Bessemer's American patents, it was thought 

 only to be anticipating the acquisition of property rights to use 

 his inventions. I accordingly procured copies of his patents, 



in the Cambria Iron Company (of which he was general manager) in such time as to enable 

 him to commence making steel eight years after he was admitted as a member of " The 

 Kelly Process Company." 



* These gentlemen were owners and operators of large iron-works ; and, although their 

 admission as members of " The Kelly Process Company " was with the expectation that 

 their example and influence would promote its interest, they did not erect steel-works, and 

 the company was in no way strengthened by their connection with it. 



