Mushei's Titanic Steel and Iron Company was 

 liquidated in 1871 and its principal asset, "R. Miishet's 

 special steel," that is, his tungsten alloy tool metal, 

 was taken over by the Sheffield firm of Samuel Osborn 

 and Company. The royalties from this, with Besse- 

 mer's pension .seem to ha\e left Mushet in a reasonably 

 comfortable condition until his death in 1891;''- but 

 e\-en the award of the Bessemer medal by the Iron 

 and Steel Institute in 1876 failed to remove the con- 

 viction that he had been badly treated. One would 

 like to know more about the politics which preceded 

 the award of the trade's highest honor. Bessemer 

 at any rate was persuaded to approve of the presenta- 

 tion and attended the meeting. Mushet himself did 

 not accept the invitation, "as I may probably not be 

 then alive." ^ The President of the Institute empha- 

 sized the present good relations between Mushet and 

 Bessemer and the latter recorded that the hatchet had 

 "long since" been buried. Yrx .\luslu-t continuccl to 



" See Fred M. Osborn, 7 he story of the Atushets, London, 1852. 

 »' Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, 1876, p. .^. 



brood over the injustice done to him and eventually 

 recorded his story of the rise and progress of the 

 "Bessemer-Mushet" process in a pamphlet ''' written 

 apparently without reference to his earlier statements 

 and so commiiting himself to many inconsistencies. 



William Kelly s "Air-boiling" Pfoccss 



An account of Bcssemer's address to ilu- British 

 .Association was ])ul)lishccl in the Scienlijic American on 

 September 13, 1856."^ On .September 16, 18.S6, 

 Martien filed application for a U. S. patent on his 

 furnace and .Mushet for one on the apjilication of his 

 triple compound to cast iron "(jurificd or decarbon- 

 ized by the action of air blown or forced into ... its 

 particles while it is in a molten . . . state."'" 



•* Robert Mushet, The Bessemer-Mushet process, Chellenliam, 

 1883. 



^^ Scientific American, 1856, vol. 12, p. 6. 



»« U. .S. patent 17389, dated May 26, 1857. Martien's U. S. 

 patent was i;ianted as 16690, dated February 24, 1857. 



}i: Jfelh/. 



cMa/iiif. of Iron ,^' Steel. 



Figure 2.— Only Known Design for Kelly's Air-Boiling 

 Furnace, From U. S. Patent 17628. A is '-the flue to 

 carr>' off the carbonic gas formed in decarbonizing the iron." 



B is the port through which the charge of fluid iron is re- 

 ceived, C and C are the tuyeres, and D is the tap hole for 

 letting out the refined metal. 



42 



BULLETIN 218: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISI'ORV .\ND TECHNOLOGV 



