530 EEPORT— 1889. 



that it seems improbable that this substance was uot earlier known to the ancients, 

 as was at one time supposed. The facility with which the metal combines with 

 carbon renders it very unlikely that acieration would not occasionally take place 

 when iron itself was the object of the manufacturer. Certain it is that Agricola, 

 who wrote in 1.556, describes in Latin a mode, apparently as well known as that of 

 making iron itself, of making Ade. The engraving in his ' De re metallica ' shows 

 bars of malleable iron placed upright in a charcoal fire resembling that of a 

 Catalan hearth. These, after an exposure of several hours to the incandescent 

 charcoal and hot carbonic oxide, were found changed to steel and employed 

 as such. 



After the invention of the blast furnace pig-iron was placed in a similar hearth 

 to the Catalan, and while in a melted state a blast of air was directed upon the 

 molten metal, until just as much carbon remained with the iron as constituted 

 steel. This mode of procedure continued to be practised long within my own 

 recollection, and may, for what I know, still be followed in some districts. The 

 subject of steel-making occupied the attention of Hassenfratz, of Reaumur, and 

 others, but practically the only process followed until 1865 was the well-knowai 

 one of cementation. 



Since the days of Fourcroy it had been ascertained that, in addition to the iron, 

 carbon was an essential ingredient in cast metal, but invariably accompanied by 

 more or less silicon, and whenever the minerals contained sulphur or phosphorus 

 these metalloids were also present. The nature of the actions employed for ridding^ 

 the product of the blast furnace of these substances so as to render it malleable had 

 also been carefully examined and explained by the light of scientific investigation. 

 The manufacturer had, it is true, learnt by experience and observation how to pro- 

 duce an article of excellence without much knowledge of the science of his 

 art. Among other things he ascertained that to obtain a ton of wrought iron 

 he required the heat of an equal weight of coal in the puddling furnace ; but he 

 did not know, nor did even men of science, I think, ever dream, that the oxidation 

 of the metalloids in the pig-iron, and that of a small portion of the metal itself, 

 would aftbrd heat enough to enable the workman to dispense with the use of all coal 

 in the process of conversion. When, therefore, the iron trade was informed of this 

 in a paper read before the British Association in 1856, entitled ' A mode of making 

 iron without the use of fuel,' its author, Henrj- Bessemer, was set down by the iron 

 trade as a deluded enthusiast. At that period I doubt whether ten pounds of wrought 

 iron had ever been seen in a state of fusion at one time. Bessemer in his description, 

 however, spoke of melting tons of it with no more heat than that aftbrded by the 

 rapid oxidation of about 5 or 6 per cent, of the weight of the pig-iron used. Not 

 only therefore was the subject one of economic but also of high scientific interest. 

 Nevertheless, a mere statement of the title of the paper was all the notice bestowed 

 by our predecessors in their ' Transactions ' on a discovery which has revolutionised 

 the art of making iron. It is quite true that for some time it appeared as if the 

 scientific aspect of the question were to constitute its only recommendation, for the 

 malleable iron made in a Bessemer converter proved unmanageable when hot, and 

 destitute of strength when cold. Finally it was ascertained that phosphorus was- 

 the source of the evil, and, further, that while carbon and silicon could be almost 

 entirely removed from the molten metal, this third metalloid remained unaffected 

 by the treatment. The extent to which the hurtful influence of phosphorus makes 

 itself felt in the wrought iron obtained by the Bessemer process is somewhat 

 remarkable, because while two- to three-tenths per cent, is often present in puddled 

 bars of fair quality, probably no consumer would accept Bessemer steel when it 

 contains half of this amount. The first success was obtained in Sweden, where by 

 using pig-iron containing a mere trace of the objectionable substance a product 

 was obtained which was satisfactory. For many years the beneficial eSect pro- 

 duced by manganese on steel had been well known, and it occurred to R. F. 

 Mushet, son of David Mushet, one of, if not the earliest scientific metallurgists in- 

 the United Kingdom, to try its influence in the converter on iron made from the 

 hematite iron of the West of England, which contained from -05 to "1 per cent, of 

 phosphorus. This addition, apparently by its removing occluded or combined 



