The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-28 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST 28, 1856.

IRON WORKING AND TEEE APPLICATION

OF FUEL

The following letter has been addressed to the editor
of the Times :--
Sir, —The beautifully simple process of Mr. Bessemer
in freeing molten iron from extraneous matter is one of
those inspirations of genius which only occur at rare
intervals, aed which are still-born and forgotten, save
when the inventor happens to he endowed with a more
than ordinary share of perseverance and a sufficient
amount of hoarded capital. Now that the process is
before the public its very simplicity makes men marvel
more why it was not done earlier than at the successful
issue, pregnant as it is with a physical feature that will
save much " sweat upon man's brow," while working
changes of enozmous magnitude for his future welfare.
Oar manufacturing chemistry is in arrear of our me-
chanism. Means for the application of power we have
in abundance, but our processes for the development of
power are still as roundabout as the ironworking which
has grown up bit by bit. We dig up the coal which na-
ture has so abundantly stored in her huge cellars, and
we use it about as scientifically as the savage who digs
up roots and devours them raw, forcing his stomach to
become a cook as well as a chernid..
The perceptive faculties of James Naysmith detected
the absurdity of setting a number of human beings to
stir up a metallic pudding in order to throw off the scum
in the shape of slag or cinder. His remedy was a me-
chanical one—to cause the mass to boil like a pot, by
forcing steam into it from below, the issue of steam be-
ginning before the molten mass was poured in so as to
insure against the stoppage of the passages. But steam
not exactly fuel, and, instead of increasing, tends to
lower the temperature of the mass of iron. Mr. Bes
sealer applied air, the food of fire, which permeated
the mass, and, in conjunction with the carbon of
the iron, intensified the heat and freed the mass from
"matter out of place." It was reserved for Mr.
ilgisemer Werk•out the process of turring to large
practical use a phenomenon known and noticed in many
ways by others destitute of the genius to turn it to
account. A piece of highly heated iron, he'd in
a strong blast of air, may be burnt away. Even in a
still atmosphere the rapid formation of scale is evidence
of combustion, and if a piece of highly-heated iron be
thrown down a deep vertical shaft it will arrive at the
bottom in a state of increased heat. It is merely revers-
ing the condition ; the iron tree els rapidly to the air in-
stead of the air travelling to the iron. In Mr. Bessemer's
plan the air is made to travel rapidly through the iron.
This improvement is analogous to the process of paper
making, when it ceased to be a mere handicraft, in its
ultimate results. The rags go into the paper mill at one
end and corns out in miles of paper at the other—a con-

tinuous stream ; and when the results of Mr. Bessemer's
plans lead to their ultimate consequences something
similar will ensue in iron.

The ordinary process is to run the iron from the ore in
the form of pigs—one heat ; then to melt it again and
form it into puddle balls—two heats ; then to form it
into blooms or oblong masses—three hats ; then to roll
it into common bars—four heats. So far for common
iron. For better iron the bars are cut into short lengths,
piled on one another, and welded into a mass—five heats;
then rolled into bar—six heats. And this process, ana-
logous to that of the baker in rolling out, and beating
together, and again rolling out his dough, is somEtimes
multiplied two or three times for a similar object, to
make the mass homogeneous, to get rid of cinder and
extraneous matter, with the difference that the flour-
kneader works on a cool material, and the iron-kneader
on incandescent material—an essential difference to the
human frame.

By Mr. Bessemer's process one heat suffices. The ore
is run out of the ordinary furnace, not into pigs, but into
a refining-pot, analogous to the puddling hearth. There
the heat is not wasted, but is increased, in the process of
burning away the superfluous carbon. The process being
complete, the metal is run out—malleable iron—into
any form required. When set, the same heat suffices
to pass it through the rolls and form it into bars, abso-
lutely homogeneous. The ore may enter at one end of
the mill and the bars go out at the other.
But now arises a new question. Rolls are cylinders of
iron, with grooves cut in them forming the profile of the
bar, and during its formation the bar passes through
several grooves in succession till the ultimate form is at
tained. In bars of comparatively small size this is easily
accomplished ; but the process is a clumsy one. When
the bar has passed through one pairof grooves it is caught
up by men with pincers, and passed back again over the
top of the rolls prior to entering a second groove, and so
on. Thug two liftings of the bar are required for every
passage through the rolls ; time is lost, and sometimes a
second heating is required to complete the operation, by
reason of the loss of heat in wasted time.
In the ordinary rolls the cylinders are of considerable
length to afford room for the succession of grooves. This
practice necessitates a great diameter to insure strength;
but if only a single groove were cut in each roll the
strength would be comparatively greater. By placing a
train of rolls in succession, one before the other, the in-
got delivered from Mr. Bessemer's refining furnace might
pass on a rail to the first, pair of rolls with its original
heat, and through them to the next, and so on till the
bar were complete, without being touched by bands.
Integral masses of metal not hitherto dreamt of may
by this proce-s be rendered easy of producti as. And be
it rememeered that, other things being &eal, in all me-
chanic sl structures diminution in the numb r of parts is
a great comparative increase of strength. In wrought-
iron artillery, for example, the difficulty has been to obtain
homogeneous aggregation of numerous pieces. The welt!.
ing up of parts in the ordinary modes of making iron is
juncture or contact without union, and the wrought
gun of the American Commodore Stockton, which burst
and killed several American notabilities, and the various
?Allures tried at Woolwich and elsewhere, are samples of
failure arising from the admixture of oxygenated scale
keeping parts out of union, just as the baker flours his
board to keep his dough from adhering. And the success
of the Mersey gun, male at great cost and with great
expenditure of time, must still be regarded as empirical,
till that or a similar one shall have been cat up
into transverse and longitudinal slices to verify its inter-
nal texture. The metal known as scrap iron is filled with
pores almost like some varieties of wood. Lowtnoor and
Bowling iron are very homogeneous, but their great cost
limits their use. Mr. Bessemer's process gives us homo-
geneous iron at a cost below that of common iron. A
gun may now be cast in malleable iron of any conceivable
or moveable weight, and may be passed through rollers,
if desired to be fibrous, or may in the act of cooling be
increased in density by powerful hydrostatic pressure.
The manufacture of iron bars of good quality has here-
tofore been a compound process—production, subdivi-
sion, and subsequent addition in the form of welding.
The question of welding may now be considered as dis
pensed with in the make of bars, but it enters so largely
into subsequent operations that it needs analysis.
Welding consiste in a partial fusion of two surfaces of
iron, which when brought into contact unite ; but to pro-
duce this fusi in without oxygenated scale is a problem
yet to be solved, to make it a certain instead of an un-
certain process. The affinity of oxygen for heated iron
is so great that scale forms instantaneously by contact;
but if the surface of the heated iron be hermetically
sealed in flame, the oxygen must perforce be consumed
before it cen penetrate to the iron, and the iron will be
preserved unburned, just as the wick of an ordinary tal-
low candle is preserved unburned by the globe of flame
which surrounds it, but which instantly begins to con-
sume when protruded beyond the globe of flame. The
economical use of crude fuel in the furnace has led to
the use of crude fuel in the forge ; and, in addition to
the want of mechanical convenience, admixtures of sul-
phur and other extraneous matter have been mischievous
impediments in the process.
In producing a welding heat in a forge or furnace the
corners or thin parts are burnt away before the other
parts are heated, and in removing from the forge or fur-
nace to place under the hammer the exposed parts get
scaled by the oxygen of the air, even though it is sought
to cover them with a glaze of silica by throwing sand
on them, a deteriorating material in itself.
The next manipulation of the chemist teaches us the
remedy. For his experiments he discards the forge heat
of solid and commonly impure fuel, and takes to flame
or gaseous combustion, urged by the blowpipe. He can
thus diieet his heat where he wills, and procure any in-
tensity he may require. That which is done on the
small scale ea, be done on the large ; the great welding
blowpipe would be simply inflammable gas and atmos-
pheric or oxygenated air under considerable pressure,
issuing in jets and uniting in intense flame where the
heat might be required, the jets being multiplied to any
extent and covering any amount of surface. The flame
•cavering the surface will prevent scaling, and, the junc-
tion being effected without withdrawing the flame, the
union will be perfect and homogeneous.

The perforrnance of this mode of welding by carrying
the gas and air in flexible pipes to the spot where the
work is done, instead of the work being carried to the
forge, and the almost unlimited surface which may be
heated simultaneously, brings within our scope opera-
tions not hitherto impracticablP. We may weld together
the seams and other parts of our iron ships instead of
iivettiug them. We may thus considerably reduce the
quantity of metal, while adding to the strength of the
vessel.

The value of the work done by Mr. Bessemer, not for
Great Britain only, but for the whole world, cannot at
present be estimated. The cheapening of iron, as well
as the improvement of its quality, will make it a sub-
stitute for timber and brick in buildings. But there is
one other process we have yet to get at—so covering its
surface as to make it practically imperishable by the
agency of oxygen, hermetically sealing it with some sub-
stance impregnable to air and moisture.
Great as is the benefaction conferred on the human
race Ipy this process, there is a class of men who will be
dissatisfied with it. It is the subject of a patent, and
probably patents. Suppose it were not so, by what pro-
cess would Mr. Bessemer be compensated for his labour!
The whole race of ironmasters and iron agents would
the inventor of the rolling mill, and the general public
laugh at him, and leave him to the condition of Cort,
would rejoice in cheap iron. The manufacturer an'l
iron merchant looks only to low cost price as a means
of increasing the sale and profits. He did not see that
the brain of the man of genius is a working element ; he
cannot weigh that by the ton, and he calls it monopoly,
forgetting, or possibly remembering, that his own mo-

nopoly lies in his large capital. But for the hoped re-
ward, the probability is that the inventor would not
have been stimulated to exertion, and the world would
have been without the invention. "nom is it that the
iron trale, with a'l their appliances and means, with
scarcely any need for outlay in the experiments, in their
large works, have left it to Cort and Bessemer to make
the great di,covertes that con,titute epochs ? Or will
they 1) any one of the great things that yet remain be-
hind ? In truth, the inventor, like the poet, actor, mu-
-3; clan, painter, has a peculiar brain, as niti&l so al the
man of business, only more rare in occurre.,ce. The
!nail of business scoffs at him as a " schemer" while un•
successful—the money teat being in his mind the only
test of success—and in the event of success he is de-
nounced as a monopolist till the man of business gets
possession of his scheme, and then it becomes a "suc-
cessful speculation."

I am, Sir, yours faithfully,
W. BRIDGES ADAMS.

(From the Tlro'verhampten Chronicle.)
Mr. Bessemer's discovery of a method of making mal-
leable iron and "semi-steel" with Out subjecting pig iron
to the process of refining and puddling, by which a
large saving in fuel, and labour, and machinery will be
effected, continues to excite great attention in this
neighbourhood. In our last publication we give Mr.
Bessemer'. account of his invention, as detailed at the
meeting of the British Aesociati.m for Advancing Art
and Science at Cheltenham ; and in our present paper
we furnish a further account of an experimental trial
which took place in London on Friday last. The opera-
tion was witnessed by a numerous company of gentlemen
connected with the irao trade, and pronounced success-
ful. Two conditions, however, were wanting to that
thorough fulfilment of the promises which Mr. Bes-
semer's inventi on holds out, which may seem to require
some explanation ; and this explanation it is now our
purpose to afferd. The experiment, for- several good
•reasons, took place in L eidon ; but neither in London
nor its neighbourhood are blast furnaces or iron mills
and forges to be found. The operation, consequently,
was carried into effect upon pig iron melted in a
cupola, instead of melted iron flowing from a blast '
furnace ; but this in no particular favoured the experi-
ment, for the bulk from which the contents of Mr. Bes-
semer's cylinder were taken being less than that of "a
charge" in a blast furnace, the heat, in all probability,
was less, and the metal, consequently, not so well pre-
pared fer that admixture of atmospheric air by which
its high state of incandescence is acquired. The second
condition attaching to the experiment that could not he
fulfilled was the conversion of the contents of the cylin-
der into bar iron. No attempt to do this could be made
in consequence of none of the machinery for the purpose
having been erected in connedtion with establishments
for melting iron in the metropolis or its neighbourhood ;
but the fact that malleable iron, fibrous iron, has been
made by Mr. Bessemer's process, is, we understand,
placed beyond doubt by the exhibition of bars that are
the result of the process. Thus the process would seem
complete, and the evidence of its completion before our
eyes. Still the discovery is so simple, yet so great and
unexpected, and the results so extensive and important,
that some amount of doubt as to its immediate per-
fection may be excusably entertained. There is not,
so far as we can understand, any chemical difficulty
whatever in the way of the invention. On the con-
trary, through its chemical action—that is, by
the infusion of compressed atmospheric air into
Vie mass of melted iron in the cylinder—it works
out the chemical change effected by puddling, and at
the :mine time toppled that mechanical motion in the
ma,s which the puddler with his long iron bar can only
with great labour effect. The liquid iron owing to the
intense heat gained literally bails, bubbles, and the scum
is cast off; taken from the cylinder in this state it is
" semi-steel : " alowed to remain a little longer, it
becomes, as thickened liquids after the evaporation of
portions of their aqueous contents often do, of a pasty
and stringy character—of that consistence that gives the
fibre to the iron. How this is effected is not quite clear.
We know the modus operandi, but the can e of the
change is beyond our view. In the case of Mr. Besse-
mer's iron it seems to be effected by intense heat ; in
the present practice the heat is less, and the exposure to
the influence of atmospheric air, modified cr changed by
its progress through the puddling furnace, would appear
to be greater ; for the surface of iron presented to atmo-
aphelia influence in Mr. Bessemer's cylinder cannot be
more than the superficies of its circumference. Hence,
in the two operations there is an important difference.
Whether that difference eads in precisely the same re-
sult, so far as obtaining malleable iron is concerned, is a
circumstance which only practice can substantiate.
Mr. Bessemer, in the present position of his discovery,
and the comparatively imperfect state in which it has
been submitted to the public, must expect to encounter
many doubts—doubts that only its general adoption
can solve. As may be guessed from our preceding re-*
marks, some of these hay. already appeared, and have
received a most satisfactory and conclusive answer.
Another of these doubts is the character of the pig iron
which has been the subject of experiment. A writer,
who adopts the signature of "Ironmaster," wishes "to
know what the quality of pig was that he used in his
experiments ; whether it was cold air, hot air, mine, cin-
der, or any of these mixed," as a knowledge of this is
necessary to render the comparative loss by puddling and
" boiling" accurately known—and, ofcourse, to some ex-
tent, the value of the invention. We have ourselves,
from good authority, heard of Shropshire pig iron of such
excellent quality that, upon being heated in a black-
smith's forge and hammered, it was, without puddling or
any other process, converted into excellent malleable iron.
We cannot here enter into any description of the
qualities that constitute good iron further than to state
thatvite ductility and capability of extension, either by
elongation or in breadth, or by both, with its anti-
laminating nature, are the constituent merits of high-
class iron. It is, of course, too soon to ask that Mr.
Bessemer should present us with specimens of iron of
the high quality we have indicated. All that the terms
of his invention allo U 9 to require is that malleable
iron, produced from pig iron without puddling, should
be shown. And this is, indeed, a high require-
ment. One of the principal, and most expensive, and
most laborious, processes in iron making will be super-
seded. This is gained if Mr. Bessemer's invention should
produce only a low class of fibrous iron. Improvements
would naturally follow ; and the cost of iron being re-
duced, its wonderful adaptability to the requirements and
the accommodations of life would be rendered more and
more evident as human ingenuity, ever progressing,
devised.

It has not been our purpose, as the reader will per-
ceive, to dwell upon the more immediate and pecu•
niary results of Mr. Bessemer's invention. We wish
to indicate its bearings, nct merely with regard to its
local or national, but its social results. We take it
fir granted that the cost of the production of iron
will be materially diminished, and the consequent ap
ygerteautierPemrcaenivu*ifacttuarkee,
place;p i ari c e
herhence
t at o g
rme
aa
tny dpeunar pa onsde,s a
and greater employment. No useful invention has
ever diminished employment: A change of the mode
of employment has become necessary ; but the more
re ,dily that change has been accepted the greater has
boen the well-doing of the individuals concerned. In
the present case, so hard and so life-destroying is the
puddler 's labour that we believe there does not exist
any serious objection to its relinquishment on the part
of very many concerned. Loss of human life, they
wisely think—and their own lives are the lives con-
cerned—would be exhausted.

Experiments to test the invention will, we hear, soon
take place. It will be advisable that they should be as
numerous and as much diversified as circumstances will
permit. The invention is so important that no con-
ceivable tests ought to be omitted, for by its capability
of standing these tests its value must be ascertained.
These tests, so far as we can judge, are likely to be
rigorous, yet mir, and, we may add, conducted with
every wish to find them successful. The theory of the
invention, 8) far as we can ascertain, is believed to be
perfect ; in its practice, beyond the experimental range
of Mr. Bessemer, some difficulties are assumed, but they
are not considered to be insurmountable ; and while
the testing spirit is awakened, that of inquiry cannot
slumber—they must work together ; and we believe we
can say that experiments upon a scale calculated to
show whether the invention is one of limited or of
universal applicability will soon be undertaken. In a
few weeks we shall, upon safe ground, be able to speak
v ethis
we one of the greatest inventions of the day
andrif
the
we might say upon the supposition that it proceeds
no further than its " semi steel" process. For our-
selves, we do not quit it here, for we have faith ; we
believe that the contemplated experiments will ;y
statements of the inventor. _ _

We have yet a word to say. It is that the informa-
tion of the invention has not been received with dissatis•
faction by the working classes in this neighbourhood.

flow should we speak o: think of a private gentleman
who had a charity to (lispense and bargained to ekei out
his butler's and porter's wages by abstractions of two-
pences and threepence° in the shillmg ?
But it must, I conceive, be still less known that the
acts of Parliament establishing these deductions from
pensions and salaries on the civil list exempt all per-
sions less than 1001. a year, and all of the nature of
charitable donations, whatever the amount ; and yet it
is the incredible fact that these exemptions have not only
not been attended to, but that the smallest charities

have keen subjected to the heaviest fines. When, upon
the appeal of 16 bankers, merchants, and members of
Parliament, Mr. Pitt relieved the distress of Henry Curt
by a pension of 2001. a year, iu 1704, five years after the
nwional benefactor had been pillaged by that Minister's
bosom friend, this bounty, both in the petition and in
the grant, was especially characterised as a charity, yet
the disobedient and inexorable official sponge wiped
away 401. yearly. On his premature decease, in 1800,
a pension of 125/. was continued to Elizabeth Cert, his
widow, on the report of the ControllEr of the Navy
(air Andrew Hammond) that herself and orphan family
were truly objects for national relief. This, surely, was
a charity ; yet 1001. only was paid to her. Dying in
1816, two pensions of 251. Os. each were accorded to
two unmarried daughters, and then, as if %i)lation were
the very rule of office, these pensions, which possessed
the double claim to exemption of both conditions, being
both charities and less than 100/. a year, were taxed
with increased deductions ; 19/. per annum only
has been paid on each. The charity rol of the Bridal'
empire has taken public credit for 12/. 12 yearly which
it did not pay, and the sign manual of its Sovereign
stood before the world for 40 years at.a discount of
nior than 25 per cent.
It is difficult to trace the commencement or the final
erect'on of these illegalities. Necessitous recipients
needing these small sums were probat ly in no position
to mak. complaint, even had they known their griev-
a ice. The expensive re nedy provired in the respec-
tive acts—petition to the Barons of the Exchequer—
was likkly to swallow up the who'e instead of a part of
the pensions ; it might be natural to fear that a pension
granted during pleasure could he cancelled by dis-
pleasure, and thus the poor, who could least afford the
imposition, were only too glai to take what they could
get out of a gift. From documents attached to the re•
port of a select committee on pension; 1808 (reprinted
1838), it appears that the clumsy device far filtering
sub rosa certain charges of deduction out of other charges
had led to infinite troubles and irregularities. Inter
alia it is reported that numerous officers who were in a
position to help themselves had habitually paid to them-
selves their pensions or salaries in full for so long a
period that their utter ruin would have been the con-
sequence of the Exchequer surcharging them with de-
ductions legally due. The great fishes having broken
through the net of law, the small fry of poor pensioners
were, I presume, illegally grilled to make good the de-
ficiency. What the powerful rich would not pay the
defenceless poor, the Corts, among the rest, ix ere made
to pay.

This narrative offers but a mean and disparaging pic•
tore of the almoners of the British empire up to the ac-
cession of William IV. At that time a nominal change
WAS made to remove the scandal and inconvenience of
such complicated intricacy, but a relation of the step•l
taken to render illegal deductions permanent in the face
of new acts of Parliament declaring their abolition, and
which are still more inconceivable than the previous ir-
regularity, would double the length of this already too
long letter. Should you consider its details of sufficient
importance to warrant their insertion, connected as
they are with the most enduring scientific and com-
mercial facts in the world's history, I shall then presume
to trouble you with the conclusion of the story.
I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,
Albany-street, Aug. 25. DAVID MUSEUM