Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-02-08
NO. 81.
ARTS AND MECHANICS.
Secrets Connected With the Making o
Parcelain rinxvar. nud C..sA Staal

NtN0
Secrets Connected with the Making OF
Porcelain, Tinware and Cast Steel.
One hundred years ago, what a man
discovered in the arts or mechanics he
concealed. Workmen, says an English
journal, were put upon their oath never to
reveal the processes used by their en-
ployers. Doors were kept closed, artisans
going out were searched, visitors were
vigorously excluded from admission, and
false operations blinded the workmen
themselves. The mysteries Of every craft
were hedged in by quickest fences of
empirical pretension and judicial affirma.
tion.
The royal manufactures of porcelain,
for example, We're long carried on in Eu-
rope with spirit of jealous exclusive
ness. His Majesty of Saxony was es-
pecially circumspect. Not content with
the oath of secrecy imposed upon
his work people. he would not abate
his kingly suspicion in favor of
brother monarch. Neither King nor
Kings delegate might enter within the
tabooed walls of Meissen. What is COM
monty called the "Dresden" porcelain
that exquisite pottery of which the world
has never seen the like-was produced for
two hundred years by process that
neither the bribsry of Princes nor the gar
ruiity of operatives ever revealed.
There used to be close by Temple Bar in
London an old chemists shop. The pro-
prietor of it in days gone by enjoyed the
monopoly of making citric acid. More
favorably circumstanced than other secret
manufacturers, his was a process that re-
quired no assistance. He employed no
workmen. Experts came to sample and
assort and bottle his products. They
never entered the laboratory. The mystic
operations by which he grew rich were
confined to himself. One day, having
locked the doors aud blinded the windows,
sure as usual of the safety of his
secret, the chemist went home to his
dinner. A chimney sweep, or a boy dis
guised as such, wide-awake in chemistry,
was on the watch. Following the secret
keeper so far on his way to Charing Cross
as to be sure he would not return that day,
the sooty philosopher hied rapidly back to
Temple Bar, ascended the low building,
dropped down the fl ue, saw all he wanted,
and returned, carrying with him the mys-
terry Of making citric acid. The m onopoly
of the inventor was gone. A few months
after and the price of the article was re.
duced by four -fifths. The poor man was
heart broken and died shortly afterward
ignorant of the trick by which he had
Bramble, whe n informed that the thunder
had spoiled two barrels of beer in her eel,
lar, he might have said, 'How the thun-
der should get there when the cellar was
double-locked can't comprehend.o
The manufacture of tinware in England
originated in a stolen secret. Few read
ers need to be informed that tinware is
simply thin iron plated with tin by being
dipped into the molten metal. In theory
it is an easy matter to clean the surface of
iron, dip it into a bath of boiling tin, and
remove it, enveloped with the silvery
metal, to place for cooling. In practice,
however, the process is one of the most
difficult of the arts. 1t was discovered in
Holland, and guarded from publicity with
the utmost vigilance for nearly half a
century. England tried in vain to dis
cover the secret until James Sherman, q
Cornish miner, crossed the channel, in
sinuated himself surreptitiously into
tin-plate mandatory, made himself mas
ter of the secret and brought IL home.
The history of cast steel presents a curl
GUS instance of q manufacturing secret
stealthily obtained under the cloak of an
appeal to philanthrophy. The main dis
tinction between iron and steel, as most
people know, is that the latter contains
carbon. The one Is converted into the
other by being heated for considerable
time in contact with powdered charcoal
in an iron box. Now, steel thus made Is
unequal. The middle of bar Is more
carbonized than the ends, and the surface
more than the center. 1t is, therefore
unreliable. Nevertheless, before the in
vention of cast steel there was nothing
better. In 1850 there lived at Attercliffe,
near Sheffield. q matchmaker n AIMED
Huntsmau. He became dissatisfied with
the watch springs in use and set himself
to the task of making them homogeneous.
III, Z" thought he, II can melt piece of steel
and cast it into an ingot its composition
should be the same throughout" He sue
ceeded. His steel soon became famous.
Huntsman's ingots for fine work were in
universal demand. He did not call them
cast STEEL That was his secret. About
ITO large mandatory of this peculiar
steel was established at Attercliffe. The
process was wrapped in secrecy by every
means within reach-true and faithful
men hired, the work divided and SUBJ
divided, large wages paid, and stringent
oaths administered. 1t did not answer
One midwinter night, as the tall chim-
neys of the Attercliffe steel works belched
forth their smoke, a traveller knocked at
the gate. 1t was bitterly cold, the snow
fell fast, and the wind howIed across the
moat. The stranger, apparently a
plowman or agricultural laborer
seeking shelter from the storm,
awakened no suspicion. Scan
ming the wayfarer closely and moved
by motives of humanity the foreman
granted his request and let him in. Feign-
ing to be worn out with cold and fatigue
the poor fellow sank upon the floor and
soon appeared TO be asleep. That, how
ever, was far from his intention, He
closed his eyes, apparently only. He saw
workmen cut bars of steel into bits, place
them in crucibles, and thrust the cruci-
bles into furnace. The fire was urged
to its extreme power until the steel was
melted. Clothed in wet rags to protect
themselves from the heat the workmen
drew out the glowing crucibles and
poured their contents into mold. Mr..
Huntsman's factory had nothing more to
disclose. The secret of making cast steal
had been discovered.