Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1864-06-11
MISCELLANEOUS.
WHAT MECuBANlCS HAVE
DONE FOR ENGLAND.
THE yuLCANs OF ALBION.

| Samuel Smiles is q most industrious COM
piler, and his books, like the tales iu the
Arabian Nights may be said 30 breed one
another. In the course of his researches
while preparing recent work entitled
Lives of Engineers" he frequently came
across the tracks of celebrated inventors,
mechanics and workers. whose lahors
seemed to him well worthy of finding some
permanent record. Hinc illn lachrymn -
Hence a new book, published in this couu-
try by Tcknor & Fields, under the title
industrial Biography IronW orkers and
Tool Makers"
Preceding the biographies with a history
of iron. its relation to civilization and early
iron manufacture in England, he opens the
personal sketches with one of
DUD DUDLEY,
the father of iron working in England, and
the CHANGER of the iron. poets Ito Use a fanci-
iul image who have since made England
great. lie was one of eleven illegitimate
children, and does not seem to he at all
ashamed of it, for in an official document
he speaks of his mother as Elizabeth
daughter of William Tomlinson of Dudley
concubine of Edward Lord Dudley"
| Dudley village was the centre of a manu-
/ featuring district, and the Earl himself had
|
much of his time. As he grew to be man
he established ircn-works of his own. lie
wrote II treatise on iron, he built Immense
| furnaces, and became overwhelmed with
debt. He invented an important system of
iron smelling. In the Cromweliun war he
! fought on the Kings side. was in l64S cap
tured, stripped almost naked, and in tri-
umph carried up to the gates of Worcester
I (Which place Dud had forfeited for the king)
and put in prison.
With party Of other prisoners, he how
ever, managed to escape i'll August of the
same year. As he had received IA wound in
the leg lie had to stumble across the coun-
| try on crutches, and thus reached Bristol
! His estates had been Contscated but he vet
was sole possessor of his secret for smelling
iron with pit-cual, and finding mOneycd
partner built another foundry, but soon
! quariclled with his business associates, and
the affair was brought to stand still On
the restoration he made IA variety Of claims
! for damages he had suffered during the civil
! war, again built ioundrics, published his
treatise Mctallum Mnrtis in 1865, and died
! in his eighty fourth year, after life of sin
gulur yiCssitudc.
THE INVENTION OF CAST STEEL.
Cast-steel was invented, Mr.. Smiles tells
us, 10y one b. namin Huntsman, who was
born in Lincolnshire in 1904. He was the
son ot German parents, aud when II boy, was
noted Tor his skill in mending clocks and
/ locks. He also early obtained some reputa-
tion rs an Occulist. In Doncaster he began
making experiments in the improvement of
steel, but 1t WAS many weary years before
the desired result was achieved: yet it was
achieved at last, and although hundred
years have passed since lluntsman's discov-
cry, the description of the fuel (coke) which
he first applied for the pupose OF making
the steel, and crucibcs and furnaces which
he used, were, for the most part, similar to
those in use at the present day. Although
the making of cust-steel, aS invented by
Benjamin lIuntsman, is now conducted with
Egreatcr economy and deXterity, owing to
increased experience, it is questionable
whether any maker has since been able Ia
surpass the quality of iIuntsman's manuiac-
lures
Yet his own countrymen, the Sheffield
cutters, with true British o5stnacy, refused
to use his cast-steel, and he had To send il
abroad for sale on the continent. In IA short
time the French cutters were able to under
sell the English and so :he latter was oblig,
ed to come 10 luntSmun. He had taken nC
patent Tor his invention, his only protection
being in preserving his process as mach a
mystery AS possible ; all his workmep were
pledged to inviolablc secrecy, strangers were
carefully excluded from his works and the
whole of his steel was cast at night.
OF course there were plenty OF efforts
many of them dlshonorable enough-to un
veil the secret. An n-founder named
Walker at last discovered it 10y adopting
the ruse of Disgusting hmseltasa wandering
tramp and ieigning great distress anc
abject poverty ShlNering with cold ut tho
door ot lluntsman's foundry late one night
when the workmen was about to begin thei
labors AT steel casting, he asked for admis
sion To warm himself by the furnace fire
The humane workmen found the appea
irresistible, and the apparent heggar Wa
admitted and provided with a snug corner
where he pretended to fall asleep. But h,
watched the process of steel-making anC
before many months had passed the Hunts
man manutactory was not the only one wher
cast'sterl was produced.
iIuntsman Was u Quaker, eccentric, bu
very benevolent; he died in l7I6, in hi
seventy y-second year, and was buried at Ar
tercliiie churchyard.
AN USREQCITED BENEFAcToR
The principal iron.founder of Englan'
during the last century was one Henry Cor
to whom England owes the production q
/, wrought iron for machinery, for steam en-
: gines, and for railways, at one-thlrd th
= price il was before accustomed 10 pay |
Foreigners. IL Is estimated that the inyer
, tions of Henry Cort have already added 81
hundred million pounds sterling to th
. wealth of the kingdom, while they haV
. given employment to somo slN hundre
thousand working people during three gem
rations. "And while the great iron-nlaslel
}. hy freely ayailing themselves Of his inyel
4 iion, have been adding estate 10 estate, n
e only estate secured lay Henry Cort was tl
J little domain at six ieet two IN which he III
:, Inferred in Hampstead ehurehyard.'
BRAAAH.
5 Joseph Bramah Mas one of the most eur
o. Ous of the characters H. lac met With IA u
!, / anals of great mechanics. lie MAS boFn
!. i7is, la a Yorkshire village, and when
4 hoy devoted bis spare time ~ making inu,
\ cal instruments, his tssols heinB of lev ol
% hles and Fasaf blades giyeE him by u
J. f'sssdl! "sillsss smith .eos> 'o'sS w