THE DEBT OF THE WORLD TO PURE SCIENCE. 329 



were understood as matters of scientific interest. Mushet recognized 

 the bearing of these facts and used them in changing the process. His 

 method proved successful, but, with thorough scientific forgetfulness 

 of the main chance, he neglected to pay some petty fees at the Patent 

 Office and so reaped neither jirofit nor popular glory for his work. 



The Mushet process having proved the possibility of immediate 

 and certain conversion, the genius of the inventor found full scope. 

 The change in form and size of the converter, the removable base, the 

 use of trunnions, and other details, largely due to the American, Hol- 

 ley, so increased the output and reduced the cost that Bessemer steel 

 soon displaced iron and the world passed from the age of iron into the 

 age of steel. 



Architectural methods have been revolutionized. Buildings ten sto- 

 ries high are commonplace; those of twenty no longer excite comment, 

 and one of thirty arouses no more than a passing pleasantry respecting 

 j)ossibilities at the top. Such buildings were almost impossible a score 

 of years ago, and the weight made the cost prohibitive. The increased 

 use of steel in construction seems likely to preserve our forests from 

 disappearance. 



In other directions the gain through this process has been more 

 important. The costly, short lived iron rail has disappeared and the 

 durable steel rail has taken its j)lace. Under the moderate conditions 

 of twenty- five years ago, iron rails rarely lasted for more than five years ; 

 in addition, the metal was soft, the limit of load was reached quickly, 

 and freight rates, though high, were none too profitable. 



But all changed with the advent of steel rails as made by the Ameri- 

 can process. Application of abstruse laws, discovered by men unknown 

 to popular fame, enabled inventors to improve methods and to cheapen 

 manufacture until the first cost of steel rails was less than that of iron. 

 The durability of the new rails and their resistance to load justified 

 increased expenditure in other directions to secure permanently good 

 condition of the roadbed. Just here our fellow-member, Mr. P. H. 

 Dudley, made his contribution, whose importance can hardly be over- 

 estimated. With his ingenious recording apparatus it is easy to dis- 

 cover defects in the roadway and to ascertain their nature, thus making 

 it possible to devise means for their correction and for preventing their 

 recurrence. The information obtained by use of this apparatus has led 

 him to change the shape and weight of rails, to modify the type of 

 joints and the methods of ballasting, so that now a roadbed should 

 remain in good condition and even improve during years of hard use. 



But the advantages have not inured wholly to the railroad companies. 

 It is true that the cost of maintenance has been reduced greatly; that 

 locomotives have been made heavier and more powerful; that freight 

 cars carry three to four times as much as they did twenty-five years 

 ago, so that the whole cost of operation is very much less than formerly. 

 But where the carrier has gained one dollar the consumer and shipper 



