CREATORS OF THE AGE OF STEEL 43 



kneads glowing iron as if it were soft paste; seas are his 

 smooth highway ; winds and fire his unwearying steeds. ' ' 



The conquest of the world man is achieving with steel, 

 and who the men were that have put this weapon in the 

 hands of man, Jeans tells us in the book whose title pre- 

 cedes this article. 



The two first and greatest inventors in the trade reaped 

 no reward. Dudley in 1618 learned a way to smelt iron 

 with coal, and died in obscurity. Henry Cort, in the mid- 

 dle of the eighteenth century, invented the puddling proc- 

 ess, and would have starved but for a pension of 200 

 given him by Pitt. Honors and wealth, however, were 

 showered lavishly on the bright galaxy of men whose 

 names are enrolled in the list of the creators of the age of 

 steel. The story of their triumphs over matter and circum- 

 stance makes one of the most interesting chapters in the 

 history of industry. 



SIR HENRY BESSEMER. Among the French refugees 

 driven to England by the Terror was Anthony Bessemer. 

 A learned and little man, he speedily accumulated a hand- 

 some property, the reward of an inventive ingenuity in- 

 herited and developed by his illustrious son. Among many 

 other profitable processes the elder Bessemer discovered 

 that an alloy of copper, tin, and bismuth was the best for 

 type metal. His process he kept secret, claiming that the 

 superiority of his type came from the angles at which it 

 was cut. It lasted twice as long as the other types, and 

 sold all over England. The youngest son of this gentleman 

 was Henry Bessemer, born at Charlton in 1813. His first 

 attack upon destiny was made in improving the stamps 

 upon public documents. He invented a stamp which could 

 not be duplicated or detached, which was adopted by the 

 Government, and for which not a penny was ever paid to 

 the young inventor. His next work was a machine for 

 making patterns of figured velvet, a type-casting machine, 

 and a type-composing machine. While working upon this 

 latter machine he was struck by the fact that bronze 



