100 REPORT— 1869. 



Mr. Bessemer first announced his invention by means of which melted pig-iron 

 was at once converted into steel. 



This new process of forcing atmospheric air through the metal in a molten 

 state took metallurgists by surprise ; and when it was taken into consideration 

 that the conversion was effected in twenty minutes and at one heat, the ques- 

 tion became one of absorbing interest to the whole of the commercial popu- 

 lation. 



By the old process the metal was first deprived of its carbon and reduced 

 to the malleable state, when it was rolled into bars and retained (as above 

 described) from fourteen to twenty-one days in charcoal-beds until it had 

 absorbed by cementation the necessary quantity of carbon. The new process 

 of Mr. Heaton, unlike that either of Mr. Bessemer or of cementation, simply 

 deals with the pig-iron, and, according to his own statement, eliminates the 

 superfluous carbon, so that steel is in the first place produced and thence wrought 

 iron by a still further elimination of the carbon. This is totally different to 

 the puddling or the Bessemer process, wliich in the former was tedious and 

 expensive, wliilst in the latter the pig-iron was rendered malleable without 

 any additional fuel and ready for the hammer or the rolls in a very short 

 period of time. 



It is unnecessary to notice in detail the subsequent mechanical processes of 

 reheating, rolling, hammering, &c., which are common to all the systems of 

 conversion ; it is, however, important to mention that an admixture of sjjie- 

 geleisen, a description of cast iron containing an excess of carbon, is made into 

 the molten mass, without which the conversion is not easily effected by the 

 Bessemer process. 



It is asserted by some writers on this subject, "that, whatever are the merits 

 of the Bessemer process, the conversion cannot be effected without a destructive 

 action upon the converters, and a rapid wear and tear of the tu)''eres, that 

 there is waste in filling the moulds, and that the heavy royalties attached to 

 the patents ttc. are serious drawbacks to the extension of the process." Mr. 

 Hewitt, a writer on this subject, comes to the conclusion "that good steel can 

 only be made from good material, no matter what i^rocess is employed;" and 

 he further stales " that the Bessemer process wiU not, as Mr. Bessemer origi- 

 nally supposed, supersede the puddling-process, which appears to be as yet the 

 only method applicable to the conversion of by far the greater portion of pig- 

 iron made into wrought iron, because by far the larger portion of pig-iron 

 made is of a quality not good enough for the Bessemer process, which abso- 

 lutely exacts the absence of sulphur and phosphorus." 



There may be some truth in this statement, as it was found necessary, in 

 the selection of the haematite ores at Barrow, to make use of the best quality, 

 and only seven or eight out of twenty sorts were found suitable for the pur- 

 pose. It is, however, evident from the rapid extension of the process and the 

 estimation in which it is held by manufacturers and the general public, that 

 whatever objections the process is subject to (on purely economical grounds) 

 Mr. Bessemer has succeeded in carrying out the pneumatic principle of con- 

 version to the highest degree of excellence at present attainable by that 

 process. 



In so important a branch of metallurgy it would be remarkable if Mr. Bes- 

 semer had hit upon the only feasible means of converting iron into steel. 

 Other minds have been inspired by Mr. Bessemer's success in the same direc- 

 tion ; and the admixture of metals to effect a transmutation has been assumed 

 in many forms and proportions so as to increase our knowledge and lessen the 

 cost of production. Amongst those is the new process of Mr. Heaton, a de- 



