The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1877-09-07
!SIOLEN SECRETS,

nOidS MS own against competition by
force of capital, knowledge of science.
and skill of workmen. He has no Sc.
cret beyond that of producing the
best article at the lowest price One
hundred years ago, the case was diff
ferent. What man discovered in
the art, he concealed Workmen
were put upon their oath. in the name
of God, never to reveal the process
used by their employers. Doors we've
kept closed, artisans going out were
searched, visitors were vigorously ex-
cluded from admission, and false oper-
ations blinded The workmen them
selves. The mysteries of every craft
were hedged in by quickest fences of
ernpiratical pretensioG and judicial af-
firmation.
The royal manufactures of porce-
lain. for example, were long carried on
in Europe with the spirit of jealous
exclusiveness. His majesty of SaXony
was especially circumspect. Not con-
tent with the Oa.h of secrecy imposed
upon his work-people, he would not
abate his kingly suspicion in favor of
81 brother monarch Neither king nor
kings delegates might enter within
the 1abooed walls of Meissen What
Is enormously called the Dresden"
porcelain-that exquisite pottery of
which the world has never seen the
likc-was produced fol two hundred
years by Il process so secret that
neither the bribe!y nor the garrulitv
OF operatives ever revealed it.
There used to be, close bv Temple
Bar, in London an old chemists shop
The proprietor of it, in days gone by,
enjoyed the monopoly Of making crit
ic acid. More favOrably c:rcumstan-
ced than other secret manufacturers,
his was process that required no as
sistance. lie employed 10 workmen.
Experts came to sample and assert
and bottle his products. They never
entered the laboratory. The mystic
operations by which lie grew rich were
confined to himself
One day having locked the doors
and blinded the windows, sure, as
usual, of the safety of his secret, the
chemist went home to dinner. A
chimney sweep, or boy disguised as
such, wide-awake in chemistry, was on
the watch. Following the secret
keeper SO far on Lis way to Charing
Gross as TO be sure he would not re.
turn that day, the sooty philosopher
hied rapidly back to Temple Bar. as
cended the low building, dropped
down the fiue, saw all he wanted, and
returned, carrying with him the mys-
terry of making tritic acid. The mon
opOly of the inventor was stolen. 4
few months after, and the price of The
article was reduced four-filtbs. The
poor man was heart broken and died
shortly asterward, ignorant of the
trick by which he had been victimized.
Like Miss Tabitha Bramble, when in.
formed that the thunder had spoiled
two barrels of beer in her cellar. he
might have said, How the thunder
should get there, when the cellar was
double locked, | can't comprehend"
The history of cast steel presents a
curious instance of manufacturing
secret stcalthily obtained under the
cloak of an appeal to philanthropy.
The main distinction between iron
and steel, as everybody knows, is that
the latter contains carbon. The one
is converted into the other by being
heated for considerable time in con
tact with powdered charcoal in az iron
box. Now steel thus made is enequal.
The middle of a bar is more carbon.
lied than the ends, and the surface
more than the centre 1t is, therefore
unreliable Uniform work cannot be
Ill lde out of it. For many purposes
it will answer, but where accuracy is
required it fails Nevertheless. before
the invention of cast steel there was
nothing better.
In 1850 there lived ut Attercliffe
near Sheffield, Matchmaker named
Uuntsman. He became dissatisfied
with the watch springs in use, and set
himself to the task of making them
homogeneous.
"lf," thought he, II can melt piece
Of steel and cast it into an ingot. its
composition should be the same
Throughout
He succeeded His steel became
famous. Iluntsman's ingots Tor fine
work were in universal demand. He
did not call them cast steel. That
was his secret A About 1170 a large
mandatory Of this peculiar steel was
established at Attercllle The process
was wrapped i'll secrecy by every
means within reach-true and faithful
lnen hired, the work divided and sub
divided, large wages paid, and string
cnt oaths admin stored It did not
answer One midwinter night. as the
tall chimneys of the Attcrciife steel
works belched forth their smoke. a
traveller Knocked at the gate 1t was
bitterly cold; the snow TELL fast, and
the wind liowled across the moor.
The stranger. apparently ploughman
o. agricultural laborer seeking shelter
from the storm, awakened no suspi
cion. Scanning the wayfarer closely,