The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-04-01

He employed no wOrkmen. Experts came
to sample and assert and bottle his two
products. They never entered the lab
oratOry.
The mystic operations by which he
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 our chemist went home to
his dinner. A chimney sweep, or a boy
disguised as such, wide awake in chemis-
try, was on the watch. Following the
secret keeper so far on his way to Charfng
Cross as to be sure he would not return
that day, the sooty philosopher hied ra-
pidly back to Temple Bar, assembled the
I low building, dropped down the flue, saw
all he wanted, and returned, carrying
with him the mystery of making citric
acid. The monopoly of the inventor was
gone. A few mouths after the price was
reduced by four-hfths. The poor man
was heart broken, and died shortly after
ward ignorant of the trick by which he
had been victimized
The manufacture Of tinware in Eng
land originated in a stolen secret. Few
readers need to be informed that tinWare
is simply thin sheet-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 the iron into bath
of boiling tin and remove it, enyeloped
with the silvery metal, TO place of cool
ing 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
to discover the secret in vain until James
Sherman, a Cornish miner, crossed the
channel, nsinuated himself surrepti-
tiously into tin-plate mandatory,
made himself master of the secret and
brought it home.
The history of cast-steel presents a Curl
Gus instance of manufacturing secret
stealthily obtained under the cloak of an
appeal TO philanthropy The main distinc-
ton between iron and steel, as most peo-
pie know, is that the latter contains car
bon The one is converted into the other
by being heated for a considerable time
in contact with powdered charcoal in an
iron box. Now steel thus made is I'M
equal The middle of a bar is more
carboniZed than the ends, and the surface
more than the center 1t is, therefore,
unreliable. Nevertheless before the
invention of cast-steel there was nothing
better In 1860 there lived at Attercliffe,
near Sheffield, matchmaker named
Huntsman. He became dissatisfied with
the watch-springs in use, and set himself
to the task Of making them homogeneous.
"Tf" thought he, II can melt piece of
steel and cast it into an ingot its compost
ton should be the same throughout" He
succeeded. His steel soon became fam
Gus. Huntsman's ingots for fine work
were in universal demand. He did not
call them cast-steel
That was his secret About ITO a large
mandatory Of this peculiar steel was es-
tablished at Atterclife. The process
was wrapped in secrecy by every ore
within reach. True and faithful men
hired, the work divided and subdivided,
large wages paid and stringent oaths
administered. IL did not avail One
midwinter's night as the tall chimneys
Of the Atterclife steel works belcaed
forth their smoke, traveller knocked at
the gate Its was bitter cold, the snow
fell fast, and the wind howled across
the moat The stranger, apparently
plowman or agricultural laborer, seeking
shelter from the storm, awakened no sus-
picion. Scanning the wayfarer closely.
and moved by motives Of humanity, the
foreman granted his request, and let him
in
Feigning to be worn out with the cold
and fatigue, the poor fellow sank upon
the floor and soon appeared TO be asleep.
That however. was far from his intention.
he closed his eyes, apparently only He
saw work. man cut bars Of steel into bits,
place them in crucibles in furnace. The
fire was urged to its extreme power until
the steel was melted. Clothed in wet