AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS. 29 



In the whole history of business affairs it would indeed be hard 

 to find a more perfect illustration of " the tail waggling the dog " 

 than this. It is only justice to the late Z. S. Durfee to say that 

 he opposed this compromise and its unjust disposition of the 

 rights of himself and associates with all the energy of which he 

 was capable ; and the fact that all the royalties the combination 

 ever earned were received under the operation of an extension of 

 the patent of William Kelly is quite sufficient to justify his busi- 

 ness sagacity and foresight. 



The experimental works erected by Messrs. Winslow, Griswold 

 & Holley at Troy were used for nearly two years for the pur- 

 pose for which they were designed, and their proprietors " ex- 

 tended every facility to blast-furnace owners in all parts of the 

 country to have their irons tried for steel ; . , . many were tried 

 and most were found wanting." * It does not aj)pear that any 

 effort was made to compare the chemical composition of the irons 

 that made good steel with that of the irons that would only make 

 bad steel ; and what was " good metal " seems to have been decided 

 by actual treatment in the converter. Notwithstanding the nu- 

 merous failures in the Troy works to make good steel out of poor 

 iron (all tending to discredit the process), there were a sufficient 

 number of successes and enough " good metal " discovered to en- 

 courage the firm in the erection of new works (called the five- 

 ton plant) on a manufacturing scale. January 1, 1867, the late 

 A. L. Holley left the Troy works to take charge of works at 

 Harrisburg, for which he had furnished the plans. f For a short 

 time after the departure of Mr. Holley the Troy works X were 

 under the charge of Mr. John C. Thompson. He was succeeded 

 by Z. S. Durfee, who " built the forge and made some alterations 

 both in plant and details of manufacture. Among other things, 

 he adopted for the small or experimental plant the practice of 

 melting the recarburizing metal in crucibles, and obtained most 

 excellent results. . . . Mr. Durfee resigned his connection with the 

 works in 1868, and Mr. Holley once more became the manager." 



Up to January, 1871, the ingots produced in these works were 



* Paper by R. W. Hunt, Trans. American Institute of Mining Engineers, vol. v, pp. 

 201-216. 



f The phenomenal development of the " Bessemer process " in America during the 

 fifteen years preceding the death of Mr. Holley in 1882 was largely due to his efforts. For 

 a full account of the life and labors of the late Alexander L. Holley, C. E., LL. D., the 

 reader is referred to a memorial volume published in 1884 by the American Institute of 

 Mining Engineers, and to an able address delivered by James Dredge, Estj., Honorary 

 Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, in Chickering Hall, October 2, 

 1890, on the occasion of the unveiling of the Holley Memorial Statue, in Washington 

 Park, New York. 



X These works are still running, the company owning them now being known as the 

 Troy Steel and Iron Company. 



