"Very true," replied Mr. Bessemer, "and the man who can clean the dirt
from our ores, and produce the most desirable steel, at the least cost,
is a great benefactor of humanity."
Mr. Bessemer's own story of his most important invention was very
interesting. Practical iron men had said that it was an impossible feat
to convert molten pig iron in a few minutes into fluid malleable iron,
and then into available steel, and all this without additional fuel. But
the genius and perseverance of Mr. Bessemer, aided by his practical
knowledge of chemistry and mechanics, did it. It had long been known
that, if a horseshoe nail were tied to a cord and the point heated to
whiteness, the iron nail could be made to burn in common air by being
whirled in a circle. The ring of sparks proved a combustion. Mr. Bessemer
was the first however to show that if air was forced, not upon the
surface, but into and amongst the particles of molten iron, the same
sort of combustion took place.
Pig iron, which is highly carbonized iron from the blast furnace, was
laboriously converted into malleable iron by the old process of the
puddling furnace. Bessemer conceived the process of forcing air among the
particles of molten iron, and by a single operation, combining the use of
air in the double purpose of increasing temperature, and removing the
carbon.
Pages:
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217