40 Lange, Bessemer, Goransson and Musket. 



moment have generally been made by amateurs, and it is a 

 long time before the men who are proclaiming a new truth 

 in the wilderness obtain scholars, students, and followers. 



W. H. B. 



ISote ^. M ctallurgical Science at the time of Bessemer s 

 invention. 



FoLircroy, the celebrated French chemist and Minister 

 of Education in France, on the threshold of the 19th 

 century, expressed the following prophetic sentiment : — 

 " L'art de fer, dans ses divers degres de perfectionnement, 

 marque exactement le progres de toute civilisation." 



Napoleon, who had a profound belief in science as an 

 aid to power, called to the service of the State France's 

 most distinguished scientists. Under Fourcroy were 

 gathered the mathematicians La Place, Monge, Carnot, 

 and the chemists Berthollet, Chaptal and Guyton de 

 Morveau. 



The first important works on the metallurgy of iron 

 were written by Hassenfratz and Heron de Villefosse to 

 Napoleon's orders. Lavoisier had already investigated 

 the processes of oxidation and reduction, and had thereby 

 explained the majority of metallurgical processes. 



The mysteries of the different forms of iron had been 

 investigated by Berthollet, Vandermonde and Monge. 

 Claude Louis Berthollet, elected a member of the Man- 

 chester Literary and Philosophical Society in 1790, was 

 perhaps the first to point out that German steel made 

 from spathic ores always contained manganese. He 

 accompanied the French Expedition to Egypt, and was, 

 later, given the title of Count. 



Napoleon Bonaparte had already, as first Consul, in 

 1800, proclaimed to the French that " Gold and Iron" 

 were necessary to command peace ; hence his great efforts 

 to promote metallurgical science and industry on the 



