BESSEMER PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING STEEL. 



29 



of both yielded by the tree within nine months. At quite the 

 other end of this plot, a large Laburnum seems to be following 

 the example of the Pyrus, for it is now arraying itself in a mantle 

 of green. It is not unusual for some species of spring-flowering 

 deciduous shrubs to push out a few poorly-developed leaves, or 

 even a bunch or two of flowers, in autumn (though among the 

 number I have never noticed the Mountain Ash), especially after 

 a dry summer ; but for a species to bear a full set of either at this 

 season is a sufficiently unusual circumstance to warrant special 

 mention. I believe both the shrubs to be in an unhealthy state, 

 and think it likely that the extraordinary efi'ort that produced 

 these second leaves, and in the case of the Mountain Ash flowers 

 also, will be most prejudicial to them. Doubtless the drought of 

 last summer acted on them, from their being unhealthy, to a much 

 greater extent than it did on their stronger neighbours, which have 

 already shed all their leafy honours ; and hence, when rain followed 

 the drought, a reaction took place within their prematurely-denuded 

 branches, the result of which is the present unseasonable verdure 

 and bloom. 



T. H. Archer Briggs. 



November 20th, 1869. 



BESSEMER PROCESS OE MANUFACTUIII^^G STEEL. 



ABSTRACT OF MB. J. CARKEET S PAPER. 



The popular idea of the Bessemer process is simply the production 

 of cast steel by blowing atmospheric air into fluid cast iron. This 

 definition is, however, far too limited, and by no means comprehends 

 the whole scope and principle of that invention. In order, there- 

 fore, to ascertain its true extent, and to understand how widely it 

 difl'ers in other respects from all previously known processes, it 

 Avill be necessary to carry our thouglits back to a period prior to 

 Mr. Bessemer's invention, and to keep in view one important fact; 

 viz., that in all known modes of producing steel throughout the 

 world, prior to Bessemer's invention, there was a necessity for 

 employing a powerful furnace for the purpose of increasing and 

 continuing the heat of the metal by the combustion of coal, coke, 

 or charcoal, from the commencement to the termination of the 

 process. 



