The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-09-15
CENTRAL COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY THE VICE
PRESIDENTS OF THE T0WN-MEETING, HELD
-
WILLIAM WOODWARD, President


ting in the career of an inventor there are very
few who would have the nerve to dare the worse
than fiery ordeal through which a large pro-
portion of this class of men must pass to ultimate
victory. The biographies of SOLOMON DE Cars.
PALSY the potter JACQUARD, HARGREAvEs.
COMPTON, HoUDoN, FITCH, FULTON, MORSE, Coop
YEAR, and hundred Others afford striking lessons
of patient persistence in the midst of repeated
failures, and in the face of neglect and scorn, and
contumely, and even of the bitterest poverty, en-
dured, not only with calmness, but with heroic
forttude. With some the pursuit of novel idea.
and its practical application, has taxed the devo-
ton of lifetime perhaps to end, after wears of
labor, in triumphant success; perhaps, in dust
and ashes. We have been drawn into these re-
Elections by reading an account of new process
for producing iron and steel in homogeneous
masses, of any required bulk, by an Engshman
named BEssEMER. We do not know that BEssE-
MER, who is evidently man of means, was at any
time reduced TO actual poverty, though he appears
to have suffered many losses. During the twenty
years in which he was engaged in prosecuting his
experiments and researches, he applied for, and
obtained no less than sixty-seven patents. How
many of these proved remunerative we have not
learned; but they embraced great variety of SUBJ
jects, ''such as printing, railroad brakes, glass,
"bronze powder, paints and colors, atmospheric
propulsion, seam-vesses, locomotives, sugar,
'varnishes kilns furnaces, ornamenting surfaces,
gums and projectiles waterproof fabrics, screw
'propellers, iron and steel railway wheels, beams
"and girders, treating COAL, &C., and they cost
him. in patent-ofce fees alone, nearly fifteen thou
sand dollars. We take it, however, for granted,
that many of these inventions, and alleged i'm
provemenis upon old processes, were found to be
of but little practical utility, as they have never
been brought into general use. II was not in
deed, until he turned his attention towards smpli-
flying the processes of manufacturing iron and
steel that he finally succeeded in achieving results
which, by cheapening the cost of producing
this most useful of all the metals, must
necessarily give an increased impulse to all
branches of manufacturing and mechanical indus.
try. The old methods of extracting iron from the
ore, and of converting it into malleable iron and
steel, were tedious and costly. The ore had first
TO be melted in furnaces and run into moulds, to
form what is technically termed "pig iron;' this
pig iron had to be re-melted and forged into
blooms, which had again to be heated red hot
before they could be rolled out into plates or
bars.
"The ancient method of making steel was to cover up
bars Of iron with charcoal POWDER and keep them
req heated conaiton for fortnight or So When taken
out the iron was found covered with bters arising
gases constituting some of the impurities of the iron
Consequently the purer the iron the less would be bis
tered To turn the bisered steel to USE was shorp
pieces and the pieces piled each other heated to
welding temperature e., surface melted-and forged
under the hammer. When drawn out into bars it was
called "sngle sheer steel" To improve it. it was cut up
again and replied welded drawn into bars and so called
double sheer steel" But these left the metal
mil OF specks flaws, and imperfect YIELDS with scaly
tices, rendering it unfit for delicate cutting tools"
Improvements were, however, subsequently
made, by which, ''instead of welding up the sheer
"and blistered steel, it was melted into homoge-
'neous mass, in crucible, and then forged into a
"malleable bar" This formed what is now
known tcast STEEL" BEssEMER's latest dis
coveres enable him to take the iron in the ore or
from the pig, as may be most convenient, and con-
vert it at once into tough malleable iron, or into
the purest of STEEL at his pleasure His method is
thus described:
When the metal is melted the great furnace it is run
out into huge clay crucible, practically a colander by
reason of several openings in the bottom through which
the metal would run, were it not impe ed by strong
blast OF air under great pressure which forced through
athe interstices of the ron and instead of cooling it.
raises the heat greatly increased intensity This burns
away the carbon which constitutes the chief he
tween cast iron and maeahle iron and other
matters; and when the metal is poured pure iron
if the process is carried long enough stopped at
an earlier period so as to leave carbon it. it ia
pure STEEL in both cases maeahle Thus heat
to make MALE BILE ingot, which is only lin tied in size
by the size Of the crucible which may two TONS
and, many cucibes may he used and poured out TO-
gether there is why HON 2geneous lump of
fifty more tons should not be produced either iron
steel which may be dealt with by the hammer or by
rolls, or both"
By another arrangement, perfected by him,
''sheets of metal, of any desired width or thick
''ness, may be formed, aud only limited in length
tby the supply which the crucibles are capable of
Excepting" 1t is obvious enough to any intelli-
gent mind how graf saving must be eff
fected by thus turning the crude ore into
furnace, and producing directly from it either
malleable iron or steel, of any desirable quality
BEssEMER's earlier attempts in this direction,
though they served to make his name widely
known among scientific men, were-commercially
speaking-f,ilures. There were found 10 be seri
GUS defects in his processes, which, it was very
generally believed, did not admit of remedy.
The molten iron, after passing through the huge
colander, was discovered, in cooling, to be filed
with air cells, which entirely destroyed its market
value, but the enthusiastic inventor abated not on
jot of his ardor, and being confident of the cor
rectness of the principle he resolutey set to work
to ascertain the causes of failure. Within few
months past, his perseverance has been crowned
with the most complete success. A paper read by
him before the Institution of Civil Engineers, was
enthusiastically applauded, whilst to illustrate the
truths therein enunciated, numerous articles were
placed for examination before that eminepty sci
enti6c body Of men.
"A small cannon, railway axle a three.plv cable
twisted up OF cold iron and ahalf inch In
stesl and rods Of all shapes large circular bo
plates perfect service and great width and lsst,
ribbons OF iron thin paper, were exhibited
small cylinder shown, Of cast metal in perect co
dition and another cylinder shown which had te
doubled up fat under the hammer without exhibiting IN.
smallest crack at the SHARP ends but the tensile
was shown to be nearly twenty four per greater
than that Of the most costly iron made in England
But the value of this invention is not alone in the