Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ivii. (191 3). ^^O- I'J'- 



XVII. Bessemer, Goransson and Mushet : A Contribu- 

 tion to Technical History. 



By Ernest F. Lange, 

 M.I.Mech.E., Assoc.M.Inst.C.E., M.I. &S.Tnst., F.CS. 



( Read May 6tli. IQ13. Received for Pithlication, 

 Aiis;ust 2gfh. ig^s-) 



No one can study the histor}' of the Bessemer process 

 of steel-making without feeh'ng that no adequate attempt 

 has ever been made by any writer on the subject, includ- 

 ing Bessemer himself, to place, in their proper light and 

 exact significance, the parts played by Goransson and 

 Mushet in the successful development of this epoch- 

 making process. 



Shortly after the death of Sir Henry Bessemer in 

 1898, I discussed this matter with my father-in-law, the 

 late R. M. Daelen, of Dlisseldorf, the v/ell-known authority 

 on iron and steel manufacture, who was acquainted with 

 all the three men above mentioned — in fact, intimat ely so 

 with Bessemer and Goransson — and he agreed that a 

 useful contribution to the history of metallurgy could be 

 made by preparing an exact analysis of the facts sur- 

 rounding the transition stage of the Bessemer process 

 from its early failure into a success, so important in its 

 results as to rank next to the discovery of the steam- 

 engine in its effects upon the civilization of the world. 



I had already' collected matter bearing upon this 

 subject in connection with a lecture upon the Bessemer 

 process in Crewe, which I delivered in the December of 



December _^o/h, igij. 



