68 president's address — section b. 



shortening of the duration of blowing. This greatly increased the 

 temperature and overcame the difficulty of cold pouring, Avhich was 

 common before. 



In August, 1856, Bessemer commimicated the salient features 

 of his discovery and invention to the British Association, in a short 

 paper read before the Mechanical Section at its Cheltenham meeting, 

 and entitled " On the Manufacture of Iron without Fuel." The 

 cm'iosit}^ which this characteristic title aroused gave way to extreme 

 enthusiasm in circles then capable of appraising the facts presented, 

 and the rapid oxidation idea generally received a tremendous uplift 

 from this — in fact, one may say, its first valid start. Men in 

 other branches of work began more seriously to appreciate its nature 

 and importance, and efforts to widen its application, by extending 

 it to the other metals, eventually followed. The most nearly related 

 one of these, owing to its comparative non-volatility, is copper. As 

 far as that metal is concerned it is an interesting fact, by the way, 

 that Bessemer himself does not appear to have thought it worth while 

 to investigate the applicability of his process, although, as a manu- 

 facturer of gold bronze in a very large way. he was a fair consumer of 

 the red metal. One would like to knoAv his special reasons for dis- 

 missing the subject. His universality justifies the assumption that 

 the idea occurred to him, just as it did to others immediately after 

 the announcement of his patents. Possibly his unfavorable experi- 

 ences with the impurity of most English coppers may have dissuaded 

 him. This decisive step, which was to work as significant a revolution 

 in the world of copper as the mother invention did in iron, was left to 

 others. However, the stamp of genius can hardly be said to be im- 

 pressed on the respective earlier efforts, for they were generally only 

 shy and halting innovations within, not radical departures from, the 

 current Welsh inheritance of our time-honored reverberatorv furnace 

 practice. 



Early Adaptations of Bessemer Idea f.o Coffer. — The first adapta- 

 tion of the Bessemer idea to other metals reveals itself in a patent to 

 Gossage, dated August 20th, 1856, which was for the treatment of ore 

 by means of compressed air ; but is not explicit on the subject of the 

 exact scope of the invention, and does not mention copper. The 

 second adaptation more nearly follows the original in principle, but is, 

 in point of execution, only a harking back to the pre-Bessemer pneu- 

 matic refining days of the iron puddlers. It is the patent of Wm. 

 Keates, dated September 4th, 1856, and refers directly to copper ores, 

 for the first time. It is evidently inspired by the Bessemer patents for 

 the claim of introducing atmospheric air at a pressure " into and through 

 or over the surface of the mass of melted regulus or matt containing 

 copper," The invention is further described as introducing the " afore- 

 said currents for the purpose of desulphurising regulus or matt of 

 copper." A professional associate of the patentee subsequently (1878) 

 characterised it as not having " contained the idea of oxidising iron 

 and melting the charge by the heat venerated by the oxidation of its 

 constituents. It was the application of a hot or other blast to a roaster 



