CREATORS OF THE AGE OF STEEL 55 



SIDNEY GILCIIRIST THOMAS. It will be remembered that 

 the Bessemer process failed after its first success, and that 

 the reason of that failure was the presence of phosphorus 

 in the pig iron. Such an insuperable obstacle did this 

 present that Bessemer gave up the problem, and went to 

 Sweden for his pig. To Mr. Sidney Gilchrist Thomas be- 

 longs the honor of discovering a means of getting rid of 

 this obnoxious element. Acting upon his idea, he and his 

 cousin Mr. Gilchrist, the first twenty-six, the latter twenty- 

 five years old, conducted an exhaustive series of experi- 

 ments to find a base with which phosphorus would unite. 

 A base is the name given in chemistry to any element for 

 which an acid has affinity. At last they made bricks of 

 lime and magnesia, which they subjected to an intense 

 white heat, when they became hard as flint. With these 

 bricks, which were a base, they lined their converters, the 

 melted pig iron was poured in, and the phosphorus at once 

 left the metal and attached itself to the bricks. A quantity 

 of lime is added to the run, and the result is a thoroughly 

 dephosphorized iron. 



The news of the new process spread through Europe, and 

 to show how greatly the invention was appreciated, the 

 following circumstance is detailed: A continental iron 

 master called on Mr. Thomas at 7 :30 one April morning to 

 arrange for terms for the use of the patent. Just as they 

 were concluded, a telegram was handed to Mr. Thomas, 

 stating that another iron master from the same district was 

 coming to arrange terms. The first visitor had secured a 

 monopoly, and the second man was too late. Both of the 

 iron men had come over on the same boat ; one had driven 

 straight to the patentee on landing, the other had gone to 

 get his breakfast. 



Before the process was three years old it was the means 

 of producing half a million tons of steel per annum. 



