-?^»> ' * 



-?^« r f 



I'igurc I. — Bessemer's Design for a Converter, as Shown in I . S Patent 16082. This 

 patent, dated November 11, 1856, corresponds with British patent 356. dated February 12, 

 1856. The more familiar design of converter appeared first in British patent 578, March i, 

 i860. The contrast with Kelly's schematic drawing in Fig. 2 (p. 42) is noticeable. 



on August 13, 1856.'** Bessemer described his first 

 converter and its operation in some detail. .\ltliiniL;ii 

 he was soon to realize that he '"too readih allowed 

 myself to bring my inventions tinder public notice,"'" 

 Bessemer had now thrown out a challenge which 

 eventually had to be taken up, regardless of the 

 strength of the vested interests involved. The prov- 



'^ Bcsscmcr's paper was reported in 'ihf Times, London, 

 August 14, 1856. By the time the Transactions of the British 

 Association were prepared for publication, the controversy 

 aroused by Bessemcr's claim to manufacture "malleable iron 

 and steel without fuel" had broken out and it was decided 

 not to report the paper. Dredge (o/<. cil., footnote 1.S, p. 915) 

 describes this decision as "sagacious." 



'• B»-ssemer, op. cil. (footnote 7), p. 164. 



ocation came I'roin his claims that the [jrodiict of the 

 first staye of tlie conxersion was the equivalent ol 

 charcoal iron, the processes following the smeltinii 

 i)eing conducted without contact with, or the use ot. 

 any mineral fuel: and that further blowing could be 

 used to produce an\' quality of metal, that is, a steel 

 with any desired percentage of carbon. Yet, the 

 principal irritant 10 the complacency of the iron- 

 master must have been Bessemcr's attack on an 

 industry which had gone on increasing the size of its 

 smelting furnaces, thus improving the uniformity of 

 its pig-iron, without modifying the puddling process, 

 which at best could handle no more than 400 to 500 

 pounds of iron at a time, divided into the "homeo- 



32 



BULLETI.N 218: CONTRIBITIONS FROM THE MUSEl'M OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



