388 THE SCIENTIFIC PAPERS OF 



practical men was entirely opposed to the idea of accomplishing 

 the object, and it is, therefore, perhaps natural that its realization 

 was a question of time. The first attempt to make steel on the 

 open hearth of a regenerative furnace was made by Mr. Charles 

 Atwood, of Tow Law, who, in 1862, agreed to erect such a furnace 

 a small one, it is true to my design ; but although he was 

 partially successful, he abandoned the attempt because he was 

 afraid that the steel so produced would not be of the proper 

 quality. In the following year, another attempt was made in 

 France. A large furnace was erected at the Monthion Works, 

 and my colleague in the experiment was a very celebrated French 

 metallurgist, the late M. le Chatellier, Inspecteur-General des 

 Mines. The experimental results were on the whole satisfactory. 

 We obtained some charges of metal that was decidedly steel, but 

 unfortunately, the roof of the furnace soon melted down, and the 

 company who had undertaken the erection of this furnace were so 

 much disheartened, that they, for the time at least, abandoned the 

 idea of following up the trials. After two or three very similar 

 disappointments, I decided to erect experimental works at Bir- 

 mingham, where the processes of producing steel on the open 

 hearth have been gradually matured, until they were sufficiently 

 advanced to entrust them into the hands of others. But another 

 French manufacturer, MM. Martin of Sereuil, undertook to erect 

 a regenerative gas furnace that could be used for making steel on 

 the open hearth, but which, in the first place, was to be used as a 

 furnace for heating wrought iron. While I was engaged at 

 Birmingham with experiments to produce steel of good quality by 

 my process, MM. Martin also succeeded in obtaining results with 

 the furnace I had designed for them. At the time of the French 

 Exhibition, in 18G7, MM. Martin brought forward their excel- 

 lent exhibits, for which they soon got a considerable name. I 

 also sent samples of steel produced by me at Birmingham, differ- 

 ing from those sent by MM. Martin, as regards the material used 

 in the process ; they had turned their attention to the production 

 of steel by dissolving wrought-iron in a bath of cast iron, whereas 

 my efforts were directed, from the first, to the use of cast iron and 

 ore for the production of open-hearth steel. 



In the process as it is now carried on at the Landore and other 

 works, both scrap metal and ore are employed, in conjunction 



