MODERN SCIENCE. 263 



I. 1813. Bessemer (Sir Henry) discovered a rapid and 

 inexpensive process of MANUFACTURING STEEL (1856). 

 By passing a blast of air through liquid cast iron and 

 thereby removing from the molten mass the whole amount 

 of carbon it contains, the cast iron is converted into malle- 

 able iron ; into this decarbonised metal a measured quantity 

 of cast iron is introduced which restores the quantity of 

 carbon requisite to constitute steel (about 1*5 per cent). 

 An idea of the WEALTH CREATED by Bessemer may be 

 obtained by the fact that the amount of steel rails made 

 in England and America by the Bessemer process up to 

 1892, would make 52 SOLID BLOCKS of steel 50 feet square 

 and 400 feet high each, the value of which would be a 

 solid COLUMN OF GOLD 4 feet in diameter and 400 feet 

 high. Physics are also indebted to Bessemer for devising 

 a process of dividing an inch into 14,000 lines a feat 

 which has aided the development of spectroscopy in a 

 striking manner, by enabling physicists to divide the 

 spectrum into minute sections. Sir Henry Bessemer, it 

 may be added, will have rendered another service to science 

 when his great telescope, to the construction of which he 

 has devoted sixteen years, is finished a result anticipated 

 to be accomplished in the course of the present year 

 (1894). In connection with Sir H. Bessemer as a metal- 

 lurgist, we should not omit to mention Benjamin Huntsman 

 (1704 76), the Bessemer of his times, who invented cast 

 steel, and was therefore one to whom we are deeply in- 

 debted. Again, the contribution of Sir Henry Bessemer to 

 the grandeur of the Age of Steel was almost equalled by 

 Henry CORT (1740 1800), who should be remembered as 

 the inventor of " puddling " (converting cast iron into 

 wrought iron). His various improvements in iron manu- 

 facture are said to have added more to the wealth of England 

 than the whole amount of the national debt. 



b. 1847. Edison invented the TELEPHONE, the 

 PHONOGRAPH, and devised numerous APPLICATIONS OF 

 ELECTRICITY, by which he is recognised as one of the 

 most creative geniuses, if not indeed the most creative 

 genius of which humanity has reason to be proud. 



