6 Lange, Bessemer, Goransson and MusJiet. 



10 to I5lbs. pressure was now turned on and about 7 cwt. 

 of molten pig-iron introduced. A violent reaction took 

 place, and, at the end of about 20 minutes, the converter 

 was tapped out into a mould and the metal was found to 

 be an ingot of malleable iron. An hydraulic arrangement 

 for forcing this ingot up out of the mould was connected 

 to this converter. This is clearl}' shown in the illustration. 

 Bessemer had now proof of the fact that molten pig-iron 

 could, without the employment of any further fuel or 

 skilled manipulation, be raised v/ithin half an hour to a 

 temperature hitherto unknown in metallurgy, with re- 

 moval of the carbon, silicon and manganese, and that, 

 therewith, an industrial revolution had been born. A similar 

 experiment was shown by Bessemer to his friend George 

 Rennie in the August of 1856, who was so astonished 

 at the result as compared with the long and expensive 

 processes of steel-making as then practised, that he begged 

 Bessemer to at once publish his discover)^, by writing a 

 paper upon the same for the forthcoming meeting of the 

 British Association at Cheltenham. This Bessemer did, 

 entitling the same "The Manufacture of Malleable Iron 

 and Steel without Fuel." How fantastic this title must 

 have appeared to the iron and steel trades is shown by a 

 story told by Bessemer of an experience on the morning 

 of the day of the meeting. Bessemer says in his auto- 

 biography® : — 



"On the following morning (August 13th), while finishing 

 " my breakfast at tlie hotel, I was sitting next to Mr. Clay, the 

 " manager of the Mersey Forge, to whom I was well known, 

 "when a gentleman who turned out to be Mr. Budd, a well- 

 " known Welsh ironmaker, came up to the breakfast table 

 " and, seating himself opposite to my friend, said to him, " Clay, 

 " I want you to come witii me into one of the Sections this 

 " morning, for we shall have some good fun. There is actually a 



"Sir Henry Bessemer, F.R.S., "An Autobiography," published by 

 Engineering, 35 and 36, Bedford Street, Strand, W.C, 1905. 



