TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 201 



survey of a subject so vast and so varied as the manufactures of this country, nor 

 shall I attempt to describe the many new and beautiful inventions and mechanical 

 appliances which form a distinguishing feature of the age in which we live ; but 1 

 shall endeavour to draw your attention to one of the new materials, namely 

 modern steel— a. material which, though of comparatively recent origin, has already 

 become an important industry, and whose influence in the future seems destined to 

 vie in importance with that resulting from the introduction of iron. 



I have used the term " modern steel," because, although the great movement in 

 simplifying and cheapening the process of producing steel is necessarily associated 

 with tiie name of Mr. Bessemer, yet we have further important steps taken in a 

 forward direction as to the production and treatment of steel by Dr. Siemens and 

 Sir Joseph Whitworth and others, both in this country and abroad. 



It is now seventeen years since Mr. Bessemer read a paper at the Meeting of the 

 British Association at Cheltenham, which was entitled " On the Manufacture of 

 Iron and Steel without Fuel." 



Not long afterwards I attended one of the early experiments made by Mr. 

 Bessemer in London. On that occasion most of those who were favoured with an 

 invitation to be present saw for the Hrst time that wonderful process in which, by 

 the simple aid of a blast of atmospheric air and the addition of a little manganese, 

 n caldron of melted cast iron was, in tlie space of some twenty minutes, converted 

 mto a material which approached wrought iron in so far as it was malleable, but 

 differed from it in other ways, the precise character and quality of the material 

 produced being at that time not fully known. 



I was kindly permitted by Mr. Bessemer to take away with me one of the small 

 ingots cast on that occasion, and had it made into a bar in the workshops of the 

 Midland Railway at Derby with the object of testing its strength. 



Just as the bar was finished it broke under the hammer, and an attempt to weld 

 it together again, treating the metal as iron, failed. This led to a consultation 

 among the smiths who had assembled round this mysterious bar, and after some 

 fm'ther trials the metal was unanimously pronounced to be steel. 



Among those who attended that experiment at Mr. Bessemer's works, there 

 were not wanting some of that class who, though they admitted the genius and 

 intelligence which devised the process, and expressed their admiration of it as a 

 scientific curiosity, were nevertheless very incredulous as to its ever becoming 

 practically useful"; and it was not without much labour and skill in surmounting 

 the difficidties of the case, indomitable perseverance in overcoming rooted prej udices, 

 and great courage in undertaking the necessary expenditure, that Mr. Bessemer 

 succeeded in produciog that most valuable new material now known as "Bessemer 

 steel." 



It is satisfactory to know that Mr. Bessemer has often expressed his firm con- 

 viction that had it not been for the publicity given to his invention through the 

 paper which he read before the ISIeehanical Section of the British Association in 

 1856, and the great moral support aftbrded him by men of science whose attention 

 was thereby directed to it, he believes that he would not have succeeded in over- 

 coming the strong opposition with which liis invention was met in other quarters. 



About this time, or perhaps a little later, a material was produced called " puddled 

 steel," and about the same time the metal known as "homogeneous iron." 



The movement which had begun in the production of cheap steel was further 

 assisted and developed by the regenerative furnace of Dr. Siemens, by the intro- 

 duction of the Siemens-Martin process of making steel, and further and most 

 important progi-ess is suggested by the recent process introduced by Dr. Siemens in 

 making steel direct from the ore. . ~ . . . 



According to the returns publishfd by the Jury of the International Exhibition 

 of 1851, the total annual produce of steel in Great Bntain at that time was 50,0CO 

 tons. At the present time there are more than 500,000 tons made by the Bessemer 

 process alone, added to which Messrs. Siemens's works at Landore produce 200,000 

 tons, besides further quantities which are made by his process at Messrs. Vickers, 

 Messrs. Cammells, the Dowlais, and other works. 



i shall not, however, detain you by attemj)thig to trace up the history and 

 progress of steel, nor attempt to notice the various steps bv which this branch of 



i«7;3. ■ 14 



