The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-03-26
SIR HENRY BESSEMER.
ge was the Greatest Modern Benefactor
of Mankind.


With the death of Sir Henry Bessemer,
recorded in tbs London cables yesterday,
there passed out of the world one whose
life had been more useful to humanity
than that of any other one man--if 1T be
permissible SO to measure the val1a or
individuals to their race Sir Henry
will be known forever as the inventor OF
the process for converting cast iron into
steel without the use of fuel. But even
had he never made that great discovery,
he had Invented enough useful things to
rank him among the worlds greatest
men. Il Is said that the civilization OF
any society may be gagged by the extent
to which that society uses iron and its
manufactures. If that be true, then Bes-
ss1nsr deserves the highest seat among
all the inventors of the world, for he did
for the steel industry what Newton did
for astronomy and what Darwin did for
natural science. The revolution In that
industry following upon Bessemer's dis
coyery was as great as the revolution IN
industry at large following upon he dis
covery of applied steam power.
Just what the Bessemer process is will
bs described a little later, but some
words here about the great inventor him
self and his early history will be appro-
pirate and interesting. Bessemer was So
wears old and the son of Anthony Besse-
mcr and was born in Hertfordshire. The
fatter had a continental strain in his
BIZ cd, and at 20 years of age he is found
conaGucting floating steam engine at
HartaIn Like many young men OF his
kind, he went early to Paris. There he
made improvements in the microscope
and became member of the French
Academy at the age of %. He invented
tho type metal alloy which was afterward
perfected by his distinguished son. The
elder Bessemer was an employe of the
French mint when the great revolution
came about, and when Robesspiere took
charge of the Directory he assigned to the
inventor the management of the public
bakery Of France. The people charged
Begsemer with giving them short loaVes,
and he fl ed to England. There he found
ready employment in the mint, and built
I'D fortune with his inventions. 1t was
in that sort OF atmosphere that young
Henry grew up. He inherited all OF his
father's genius, and even added to his
heritage. Henry's toys were tools and
his play was work. He even neglected
his meals for his shop. His first inYen-
tion was stamp for the cancellation OF
Ietteus. The necessity for such an inven-
item was suggested to him by his sweet
heart, who was afterward Lady Bessemer.
II is the stamp that is used by every
pogtoffice in the world, and has saved
millions of dollars for many governments.
For this invention the government OF
Great Britain paid him not penny, and
he gave up pressing his case. as he had
not patented the design. In 1873 he was
made knight for having invented that
stamp, but it was small glory for the
then noted Bessemer.
When Bessemer was 90 years old he had
nov enough saved to marry his finance,
but be was resolved that he would have
it seen. he invented a machine to make
type. and the apparatus which is used
for the manufacture of bronze powder.
This gaveshim wealth. The raw material
cost 20 cents pound and the powder,
iEnportsd from Germany $50 pound. He
was tWo years perfectiDg this machine.
He did not patent it, and the powder
was made by himself and few friends,
who carefully guarded the secret The
profits were as high as 1000 per cent on
the investment. He studied oils, var
nishes and sugar. He sought to improve
the speed of railroad trains and designed
a train to go at the rate of 100 miles an
hour. These experiments were stopped
BIZ the ditchina of the train. But the re-
suit was that the luggage van" was in
PRODUCED in England and the carriage OF
baggage on the top of coaches abandoned.
Bessemer proved that an ordinary hand
bag On top Of o coach was equal to
weight of five tons at sixty miles or nine
tons at 100 miles an hour. Bessemers
railroad train Will probably be adopted
when the world gets ready for it.
At the international exposition of 1851
Bessemer exhibited several inventions of
q high order. They were his centrifugal
p unIp, his sugar separator and his plate
glass polishing machine The war OF
1854 was indirectly the cause of Besse-
ner's great invention of his converter.
That war interested Bessemer, not in a
political way, but in the opportunity it
gave him to invent proleotile which
later led to the invention of ritied can
non. He produced ball that, owing to
certain channels on it's surface, acquired
rotary motton after leaving the gun. lie
told the British government about it. but
the officials would not listen to him, and
SO he took it to France. The emperor
gave him every encouragement ana re-
WaEded him for his time and trouble
In these experiments Bessemer was con-
WINGED that to get good results from
and he started out to find one. He began
by refining cast iron, and was able to
produce metal that would do service as
a gun with perfect safety. He made
gun and presented it to the emperor of
the French. 1t was while seeking for a
gun metal that the idea occurred to Bes-
semer which has revolutionized the steel
industry. 1t was eighteen months be-
fore he saw clearly chat carbon could be
removed from cast iron by simply fore
ing current through the molten mass.
He first produced malleable iron in this
way and sent it to the Woolwich arsenal.
He got out a patent "for purifying pig
iron by atmospheric air. This was in
1856 and SO hard did he work that he
was FRUSTRATED and had TO take to his
bed. On his recovery he returned to the
attack and built the first converter out
of which came the first slabs of steel
made without the use Of fuel. He pat
ented the process and made the announce
Discovered by a Woman.
Another great discovery has been made