MancJiester Memoirs, Vol. hit. (191 3), No. 11. 27 



a request for an allowance for Mushet. Bessemer, to 

 appease his ill-informed critics, then offered to pay him 

 ^300 a year, and this was done up to Mushet's death in 

 1891. Mushet, therefore, received over ;^7,ooo from 

 Bessemer, and I think that in view of all the facts as 

 above detailed, it must be conceded that Mushet received 

 ample, indeed generous, recompense from Bessemer. He 

 was, indeed, much more fortunate than poor Heath 

 whose invention, whilst enriching Sheffield, brought only 

 disaster to himself-^ 



Mushet's name is, in reality, much more closely 

 identified in the minds of men with the invention of the 

 self-hardening tool steel of that name. Mushet dis- 

 covered the self-hardening properties of tool steel, when 

 alloyed with tungsten, in 1868, and three years later he 

 was fortunate enough to get into touch with the late 

 Mr. Samuel Osborn, of Sheffield, a man of great enterprise 

 and business capacity, who quickly realised the signifi- 

 cance of this invention. 



From the beginning of his association with the firm 

 of Samuel Osborn & Co., Mushet drew substantial 

 royalties from the sale of his self-hardening tool steel, 

 and I am informed that the rights of manufacture were 

 subsequently commuted for a very considerable sum. 

 The use of this tool steel quickly spread throughout the 



-' In 1845. Heatli took out a patent for the manufacture of steel by the 

 melting together of pig-iron and bar-iron, and then carburizing and purifying 

 by carburet of manganese. This alloy he prepared by the deoxidization of 

 black oxide of manganese by tar or other carbonaceous matter in crucibles in 

 an air-furnace. He then suggested to the agent in Sheffield that it would 

 be cheaper to make this part of the steel-melting itself. The information 

 got revealed before he could cover this with a new patent, and then his 

 licensees, on the plea that it was another process, refused to pay him 

 royalties. Long and costly litigation followed, and Heath died a ruined 

 and broken-hearted man. The House of Lords finally decided against 

 Heath's heirs. Mushet has calculated that, up to that time, Heath's process 

 had saved the Sheffield steelmakers ;{'2, 000,000. 



