THE DEBT TO PURE SCIENCE 29 



eral years. But this process was uncertain, and the best 

 puddlers could never tell when to stop the process in order 

 to obtain the desired grade. 



When a modification of this refining process was at- 

 tempted on a grand scale almost contemporaneously by Mar- 

 tien in this countrj^ and Bessemer in England, the same un- 

 certainty of product was encountered; sometimes the process 

 was checked too soon, at others pushed too far. Here the 

 inventor came to a halt. He could use only what was known 

 and endeavor to improve methods of application. Under 

 such conditions the Bessemer process was apparently a hope- 

 less failure. Another, however, utilized the hitherto ignored 

 work of the closet investigator. The influence of manganese 

 in counteracting the effects of certain injurious substances 

 and its relation to carbon when present in pig iron were under- 

 stood as matters of scientific interest. Mushet recognized 

 the bearing of these facts and used them in changing the 

 process. His method proved successful, but, with thorough 

 scientific forgetfulness of the main chance, he neglected to 

 pay some petty fees at the patent office and so reaped neither 

 profit nor popular glory for his work. 



The Mushet process having proved the possibility of 

 immediate and certain conversion, the genius of the inventor 

 found full scope. The change in form and size of the con- 

 verter, the removable base, the use of trunnions, and other 

 details, largely due to the American, Holley, so increased the 

 output and reduced the cost that Bessemer steel soon dis- 

 placed iron and the world passed from the age of iron into the 

 age of steel. 



Architectural methods have been revolutionized. Build- 

 ings ten stories high are commonplace; those of twenty no 

 longer excite comment, and one of thirty arouses no more 

 than a passing pleasantry respecting possibilities at the top. 

 Such buildings were almost impossible a score of years ago, 

 and the weight made the cost prohibitive. The increased use 

 of steel in construction seems likely to preserve our forests 

 from disappearance. 



In other directions the gain through this process has 

 been more important. The costly, short lived iron rail has 



