Among the important improvements introduced by Mr. Reynolds while
managing the Coalbrookdale Works, was the adoption by him for the first
time of iron instead of wooden rails in the tram-roads along which coal
and iron were conveyed from one part of the works to another, as well
as to the loading-places along the river Severn.  He observed that the
wooden rails soon became decayed, besides being liable to be broken by
the heavy loads passing over them, occasioning much loss of time,
interruption to business, and heavy expenses in repairs.  It occurred
to him that these inconveniences would be obviated by the use of rails
of cast-iron; and, having tried an experiment with them, it answered so
well, that in 1767 the whole of the wooden rails were taken up and
replaced by rails of iron.  Thus was the era of iron railroads fairly
initiated at Coalbrookdale, and the example of Mr. Reynolds was shortly
after followed on all the tramroads throughout the Country.

It is also worthy of note that the first iron bridge ever erected was
cast and made at the Coalbrookdale Works--its projection as well as its
erection being mainly due to the skill and enterprise of Abraham Darby
the third.  When but a young man, he showed indications of that
sagacity and energy in business which seemed to be hereditary in his
family.  One of the first things he did on arriving at man's estate was
to set on foot a scheme for throwing a bridge across the Severn at
Coalbrookdale, at a point where the banks were steep and slippery, to
accommodate the large population which had sprung up along both banks
of the river.  There were now thriving iron, brick, and pottery works
established in the parishes of Madeley and Broseley; and the old ferry
on the Severn was found altogether inadequate for ready communication
between one bank and the other.  The want of a bridge had long been
felt, and a plan of one had been prepared during the life time of
Abraham Darby the second; but the project was suspended at his death.
When his son came of age, he resolved to take up his father's dropped
scheme, and prosecute it to completion, which he did.  Young Mr. Darby
became lord of the manor of Madeley in 1776, and was the owner of
one-half of the ferry in right of his lordship.  He was so fortunate as
to find the owner of the other or Broseley half of the ferry equally
anxious with himself to connect the two banks of the river by means of
a bridge.  The necessary powers were accordingly obtained from
Parliament, and a bridge was authorized to be built "of cast-iron,
stone, brick, or timber."  A company was formed for the purpose of
carrying out the project, and the shares were taken by the adjoining
owners, Abraham Darby being the principal subscriber.[9]

The construction of a bridge of iron was an entirely new idea.  An
attempt had indeed been made at Lyons, in France, to construct such a
bridge more than twenty years before; but it had entirely failed, and a
bridge of timber was erected instead.  It is not known whether the
Coalbrookdale masters had heard of that attempt; but, even if they had,
it could have been of no practical use to them.

Mr. Pritchard, an architect of Shrewsbury, was first employed to
prepare a design of the intended structure, which is still preserved.
Although Mr. Pritchard proposed to introduce cast-iron in the arch of
the bridge, which was to be of 120 feet span, it was only as a sort of
key, occupying but a few feet at the crown of the arch.  This sparing
use of cast iron indicates the timidity of the architect in dealing
with the new material--his plan exhibiting a desire to effect a
compromise between the tried and the untried in bridge-construction.
But the use of iron to so limited an extent, and in such a part of the
structure, was of more than questionable utility; and if Mr.
Pritchard's plan had been adopted, the problem of the iron bridge would
still have remained unsolved.

The plan, however, after having been duly considered, was eventually
set aside, and another, with the entire arch of cast-iron, was prepared
under the superintendence of Abraham Darby, by Mr. Thomas Gregory, his
foreman of pattern-makers.  This plan was adopted, and arrangements
were forthwith made for carrying it into effect.  The abutments of the
bridge were built in 1777-8, during which the castings were made at the
foundry, and the ironwork was successfully erected in the course of
three months.  The bridge was opened for traffic in 1779, and proved a
most serviceable structure.  In 1788 the Society of Arts recognised Mr.
Darby's merit as its designer and erector by presenting him with their
gold medal; and the model of the bridge is still to be seen in the
collection of the Society.  Mr. Robert Stephenson has said of the
structure:  "If we consider that the manipulation of cast-iron was then
completely in its infancy, a bridge of such dimensions was doubtless a
bold as well as an original undertaking, and the efficiency of the
details is worthy of the boldness of the conception." [10]  Mr.
Stephenson adds that from a defect in the construction the abutments
were thrust inwards at the approaches and the ribs partially fractured.
We are, however, informed that this is a mistake, though it does appear
that the apprehension at one time existed that such an accident might
possibly occur.

To remedy the supposed defect, two small land arches were, in the year
1800, substituted for the stone approach on the Broseley side of the
bridge.  While the work was in progress, Mr. Telford, the well-known
engineer, carefully examined the bridge, and thus spoke of its
condition at the time:--"The great improvement of erecting upon a
navigable river a bridge of cast-iron of one arch only was first put in
practice near Coalbrookdale.  The bridge was executed in 1777 by Mr.
Abraham Darby, and the ironwork is now quite as perfect as when it was
first put up.  Drawings of this bridge have long been before the
public, and have been much and justly admired." [11]  A Coalbrookdale
correspondent, writing in May, 1862, informs us that "at the present
time the bridge is undergoing repair; and, special examination having
been made, there is no appearance either that the abutments have moved,
or that the ribs have been broken in the centre or are out of their
proper right line.  There has, it is true, been a strain on the land
arches, and on the roadway plates, which, however, the main arch has
been able effectually to resist."

The bridge has now been in profitable daily use for upwards of eighty
years, and has during that time proved of the greatest convenience to
the population of the district.  So judicious was the selection of its
site, and so great its utility, that a thriving town of the name of
Ironbridge has grown up around it upon what, at the time of its
erection, was a nameless part of "the waste of the manor of Madeley."
And it is probable that the bridge will last for centuries to come.
Thus, also, was the use of iron as an important material in
bridge-building fairly initiated at Coalbrookdale by Abraham Darby, as
the use of iron rails was by Richard Reynolds.  We need scarcely add
that since the invention and extensive adoption of railway locomotion,
the employment of iron in various forms in railway and bridge
structures has rapidly increased, until iron has come to be regarded as
the very sheet-anchor of the railway engineer.

In the mean time the works at Coalbrookdale had become largely
extended.  In 1784, when the government of the day proposed to levy a
tax on pit-coal, Richard Reynolds strongly urged upon Mr. Pitt, then
Chancellor of the Exchequer, as well as on Lord Gower, afterwards
Marquis of Stafford, the impolicy of such a tax.  To the latter he
represented that large capitals had been invested in the iron trade,
which was with difficulty carried on in the face of the competition
with Swedish and Russian iron.  At Coalbrookdale, sixteen "fire
engines," as steam engines were first called, were then at work, eight
blast-furnaces and nine forges, besides the air furnaces and mills at
the foundry, which, with the levels, roads, and more than twenty miles
of iron railways, gave employment to a very large number of people.
"The advancement of the iron trade within these few years," said he,
"has been prodigious.  It was thought, and justly, that the making of
pig-iron with pit coal was a great acquisition to the country by saving
the wood and supplying a material to manufactures, the production of
which, by the consumption of all the wood the country produced, was
formerly unequal to the demand, and the nail trade, perhaps the most
considerable of any one article of manufactured iron, would have been
lost to this country had it not been found practicable to make nails of
iron made with pit coal.  We have now another process to attempt, and
that is to make BAR IRON with pit coal; and it is for that purpose we
have made, or rather are making, alterations at Donnington Wood,
Ketley, and elsewhere, which we expect to complete in the present year,
but not at a less expense than twenty thousand pounds, which will be
lost to us, and gained by nobody, if this tax is laid upon our coals."
He would not, however, have it understood that he sought for any
PROTECTION for the homemade iron, notwithstanding the lower prices of
the foreign article.  "From its most imperfect state as pig-iron," he
observed to Lord Sheffield, "to its highest finish in the regulating
springs of a watch, we have nothing to fear if the importation into
each country should be permitted without duty."  We need scarcely add
that the subsequent history of the iron trade abundantly justified
these sagacious anticipations of Richard Reynolds.

He was now far advanced in years.  His business had prospered, his
means were ample, and he sought retirement.  He did not desire to
possess great wealth, which in his opinion entailed such serious
responsibilities upon its possessor; and he held that the accumulation
of large property was more to be deprecated than desired.  He therefore
determined to give up his shares in the ironworks at Ketley to his sons
William and Joseph, who continued to carry them on.  William was a man
of eminent ability, well versed in science, and an excellent mechanic.
He introduced great improvements in the working of the coal and iron
mines, employing new machinery for the purpose, and availing himself
with much ingenuity of the discoveries then being made in the science
of chemistry.  He was also an inventor, having been the first to employ
(in 1788) inclined planes, consisting of parallel railways, to connect
and work canals of different levels,--an invention erroneously
attributed to Fulton, but which the latter himself acknowledged to
belong to William Reynolds.  In the first chapter of his 'Treatise on
Canal Navigation,' published in 1796, Fulton says:--"As local
prejudices opposed the Duke of Bridgewater's canal in the first
instance, prejudices equally strong as firmly adhered to the principle
on which it was constructed; and it was thought impossible to lead one
through a country, or to work it to any advantage, unless by locks and
boats of at least twenty-five tons, till the genius of Mr. William
Reynolds, of Ketley, in Shropshire, stepped from the accustomed path,
constructed the first inclined plane, and introduced boats of five
tons.  This, like the Duke's canal, was deemed a visionary project, and
particularly by his Grace, who was partial to locks; yet this is also
introduced into practice, and will in many instances supersede lock
canals."  Telford, the engineer, also gracefully acknowledged the
valuable assistance he received from William Reynolds in planning the
iron aqueduct by means of which the Ellesmere Canal was carried over
the Pont Cysylltau, and in executing the necessary castings for the
purpose at the Ketley foundry.

The future management of his extensive ironworks being thus placed in
able hands, Richard Reynolds finally left Coalbrookdale in 1804, for
Bristol, his native town, where he spent the remainder of his life in
works of charity and mercy.  Here we might leave the subject, but
cannot refrain from adding a few concluding words as to the moral
characteristics of this truly good man.  Though habitually religious,
he was neither demure nor morose, but cheerful, gay, and humorous.  He
took great interest in the pleasures of the young people about him, and
exerted himself in all ways to promote their happiness.  He was fond of
books, pictures, poetry, and music, though the indulgence of artistic
tastes is not thought becoming in the Society to which he belonged.
His love for the beauties of nature amounted almost to a passion, and
when living at The Bank, near Ketley, it was his great delight in the
summer evenings to retire with his pipe to a rural seat commanding a
full view of the Wrekin, the Ercall Woods, with Cader Idris and the
Montgomeryshire hills in the distance, and watch the sun go down in the
west in his glory.  Once in every year he assembled a large party to
spend a day with him on the Wrekin, and amongst those invited were the
principal clerks in the company's employment, together with their
families.  At Madeley, near Coalbrookdale, where he bought a property,
he laid out, for the express use of the workmen, extensive walks
through the woods on Lincoln Hill, commanding beautiful views.  They
were called "The Workmen's Walks," and were a source of great enjoyment
to them and their families, especially on Sunday afternoons.

When Mr. Reynolds went to London on business, he was accustomed to make
a round of visits, on his way home, to places remarkable for their
picturesque beauty, such as Stowe, Hagley Park, and the Leasowes.
After a visit to the latter place in 1767, he thus, in a letter to his
friend John Maccappen, vindicated his love for the beautiful in
nature:--"I think it not only lawful but expedient to cultivate a
disposition to be pleased with the beauties of nature, by frequent
indulgences for that purpose.  The mind, by being continually applied
to the consideration of ways and means to gain money, contracts an
indifferency if not an insensibility to the profusion of beauties which
the benevolent Creator has impressed upon every part of the material
creation.  A sordid love of gold, the possession of what gold can
purchase, and the reputation of being rich, have so depraved the finer
feelings of some men, that they pass through the most delightful grove,
filled with the melody of nature, or listen to the murmurings of the
brook in the valley, with as little pleasure and with no more of the
vernal delight which Milton describes, than they feel in passing
through some obscure alley in a town."

When in the prime of life, Mr. Reynolds was an excellent rider,
performing all his journeys on horseback.  He used to give a ludicrous
account of a race he once ran with another youth, each having a lady
seated on a pillion behind him; Mr. Reynolds reached the goal first,
but when he looked round he found that he had lost his fair companion,
who had fallen off in the race! On another occasion he had a hard run
with Lord Thurlow during a visit paid by the latter to the Ketley
Iron-Works.  Lord Thurlow pulled up his horse first, and observed,
laughing, "I think, Mr. Reynolds, this is probably the first time that
ever a Lord Chancellor rode a race with a Quaker!" But a stranger
rencontre was one which befel Mr. Reynolds on Blackheath.  Though he
declined Government orders for cannon, he seems to have had a secret
hankering after the "pomp and circumstance" of military life.  At all
event's he was present on Blackheath one day when George III. was
reviewing some troops.  Mr. Reynold's horse, an old trooper, no sooner
heard the sound of the trumpet than he started off at full speed, and
made directly for the group of officers before whom the troops were
defiling.  Great was the surprise of the King when he saw the Quaker
draw up alongside of him, but still greater, perhaps, was the confusion
of the Quaker at finding himself in such company.

During the later years of his life, while living at Bristol, his hand
was in every good work; and it was often felt where it was not seen.
For he carefully avoided ostentation, and preferred doing his good in
secret.  He strongly disapproved of making charitable bequests by will,
which he observed in many cases to have been the foundation of enormous
abuses, but held it to be the duty of each man to do all the possible
good that he could during his lifetime.  Many were the instances of his
princely, though at the time unknown, munificence.  Unwilling to be
recognised as the giver of large sums, he employed agents to dispense
his anonymous benefactions.  He thus sent 20,000L. to London to be
distributed during the distress of 1795.  He had four almoners
constantly employed in Bristol, finding out cases of distress,
relieving them, and presenting their accounts to him weekly, with
details of the cases relieved.  He searched the debtors' prisons, and
where, as often happened, deserving but unfortunate men were found
confined for debt, he paid the claims against them and procured their
release.  Such a man could not fail to be followed with blessings and
gratitude; but these he sought to direct to the Giver of all Good.  "My
talent," said he to a friend, "is the meanest of all talents--a little
sordid dust; but as the man in the parable who had but one talent was
held accountable, I also am accountable for the talent that I possess,
humble as it is, to the great Lord of all."  On one occasion the case
of a poor orphan boy was submitted to him, whose parents, both dying
young, had left him destitute, on which Mr. Reynolds generously offered
to place a sum in the names of trustees for his education and
maintenance until he could be apprenticed to a business.  The lady who
represented the case was so overpowered by the munificence of the act
that she burst into tears, and, struggling to express her gratitude,
concluded with--"and when the dear child is old enough, I will teach
him to thank his benefactor."  "Thou must teach him to look higher,"
interrupted Reynolds:  "Do we thank the clouds for rain? When the child
grows up, teach him to thank Him who sendeth both the clouds and the
rain."  Reynolds himself deplored his infirmity of temper, which was by
nature hasty; and, as his benevolence was known, and appeals were made
to him at all times, seasonable and unseasonable, he sometimes met them
with a sharp word, which, however, he had scarcely uttered before he
repented of it:  and he is known to have followed a poor woman to her
home and ask forgiveness for having spoken hastily in answer to her
application for help.

This "great good man" died on the 10th of September, 1816, in the 81st
year of his age.  At his funeral the poor of Bristol were the chief
mourners.  The children of the benevolent societies which he had
munificently supported during his lifetime, and some of which he had
founded, followed his body to the grave.  The procession was joined by
the clergy and ministers of all denominations, and by men of all
classes and persuasions.  And thus was Richard Reynolds laid to his
rest, leaving behind him a name full of good odour, which will long be
held in grateful remembrance by the inhabitants of Bristol.



[1] Dr. PLOT, Natural History of Staffordshire, 2nd ed. 1686, p. 128.

[2] JOSHUA GEE, The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain considered,
1731.

[3] When a bill was introduced into Parliament in 1750 with the object
of encouraging the importation of iron from our American colonies, the
Sheffield tanners petitioned against it, on the ground that, if it
passed, English iron would be undersold; many forges would consequently
be discontinued; in which case the timber used for fuel would remain
uncut, and the tanners would thereby be deprived of bark for the
purposes of their trade!

[4] History of the Iron Trade, p. 56.

[5] See Mr. Powle's account of the Iron Works in the Forest of Dean
(1677-8), in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. ii. p. 418, where he
says, "After they have pounded their ore, their first work is to
calcine it, which is done in kilns, much after the fashion of ordinary
lime-kilns, These they fill up to the top with coal and ore, stratum
super stratum, until it be full; and so setting fire to the bottom,
they let it burn till the coal be wasted, and then renew the kilns with
fresh ore and coal, in the same manner as before.  This is done without
fusion of the metal, and serves to consume the more drossy parts of the
ore and to make it friable."  The writer then describes the process of
smelting the ore mixed with cinder in the furnaces, where, he says, the
fuel is "always of charcoal."  "Several attempts," he adds, "have been
made to introduce the use of sea-coal in these works instead of
charcoal, the former being to be had at an easier rate than the latter;
but hitherto they have proved ineffectual, the workmen finding by
experience that a sea-coal fire, how vehement soever, will not
penetrate the most fixed parts of the ore, and so leaves much of the
metal unmelted"

[6] Phil. Trans. vol. xliv. 305.

[7] Reverberatory, so called because the flame or current of heated
gases from the fuel is caused to be reverberated or reflected down upon
the substance under operation before passing into the chimney.  It is
curious that Rovenson, in his Treatise of Metallica of 1613, describes
a reverberatory furnace in which iron was to be smelted by pit-coal,
though it does not appear that he succeeded in perfecting his
invention.  Dr. Percy, in his excellent work on Metallurgy, thus
describes a reverberatory furnace:--"It consists essentially of three
parts--a fireplace at one end, a stack or chimney at the other, and a
bed between both on which the matter is heated.  The fireplace is
separated from the bed by a low partition wall called the fire-bridge,
and both are covered by an arched roof which rises from the end wall of
the fireplace and gradually dips toward the furthest end of the bed
connected with the stack.  On one or both sides of the bed, or at the
end near the stack, may be openings through which the ore spread over
the surface of the bed may be stirred about and exposed to the action
of the air.  The matter is heated in such a furnace by flame, and is
kept from contact with the solid fuel.  The flame in its course from
the fireplace to the stack is reflected downwards or REVERBERATED on
the matter beneath, whence the name REVERBERATORY furnace."

[8] Mr. TYLOR on Metal Work--Reports on the Paris Exhibition of 1855.
Part II. 182.  We are informed by Mr. Reynolds of Coed-du, a grandson
of Richard Reynolds, that "on further trials many difficulties arose.
The bottoms of the furnaces were destroyed by the heat, and the quality
of the iron varied.  Still, by a letter dated May, 1767, it appears
there had been sold of iron made in the new way to the value of 247L.
14s. 6d."

[9] Among the other subscribers were the Rev. Mr. Harris, Mr. Jennings,
and Mr. John Wilkinson, an active promoter of the scheme, who gave the
company the benefit of his skill and experience when it was determined
to construct the bridge of iron.  For an account of John Wilkinson see
Lives of the Engineers, vol. ii. 337, 356.  In the description of the
first iron bridge given in that work we have, it appears, attributed
rather more credit to Mr. Wilkinson than he is entitled to.  Mr. Darby
was the most active promoter of the scheme, and had the principal share
in the design.  Wilkinson nevertheless was a man of great energy and
originality.  Besides being the builder of the first iron ship, he was
the first to invent, for James Watt, a machine that would bore a
tolerably true cylinder.  He afterwards established iron works in
France, and Arthur Young says, that "until that well-known English
manufacturer arrived, the French knew nothing of the art of casting
cannon solid and then boring them" (Travels in France, 4to. ed. London,
1792, p.90).  Yet England had borrowed her first cannon-maker from
France in the person of Peter Baude, as described in chap. iii.
Wilkinson is also said to have invented a kind of hot-blast, in respect
of which various witnesses gave evidence on the trial of Neilson's
patent in 1839; but the invention does not appear to have been
perfected by him.

[10] Encyclopaedia Britannica, 8th ed. Art.

[11] PLYMLEY, General View of the Agriculture of Shropshire. "Iron
Bridges."




CHAPTER VI.

INVENTION OF CAST STEEL--BENJAMIN HUNTSMAN.

"It may be averred that as certainly as the age of iron superseded that
of bronze, so will the age of steel reign triumphant over iron."--HENRY
BESSEMER.

"Aujourd'hui la revolution que devait amener en Grande-Bretagne la
memorable decouverte de Benjamin Huntsman est tout a fait accomplie, et
chaque jour les consequetces sen feront plus vivement sentir sur le
confinent."--LE PLAY, Sur la Fabrication de l' Acier en Yorkshire.


Iron, besides being used in various forms as bar and cast iron, is also
used in various forms as bar and cast steel; and it is principally
because of its many admirable qualities in these latter forms that iron
maintains its supremacy over all the other metals.

The process of converting iron into steel had long been known among the
Eastern nations before it was introduced into Europe.  The Hindoos were
especially skilled in the art of making steel, as indeed they are to
this day; and it is supposed that the tools with which the Egyptians
covered their obelisks and temples of porphyry and syenite with
hieroglyphics were made of Indian steel, as probably no other metal was
capable of executing such work.  The art seems to have been well known
in Germany in the Middle Ages, and the process is on the whole very
faithfully described by Agricola in his great work on Metallurgy.[1]
England then produced very little steel, and was mainly dependent for
its supply of the article upon the continental makers.

From an early period Sheffield became distinguished for its manufacture
of iron and steel into various useful articles.  We find it mentioned
in the thirteenth century as a place where the best arrowheads were
made,--the Earl of Richmond owing his success at the battle of Bosworth
partly to their superior length, sharpness, and finish.  The
manufactures of the town became of a more pacific character in the
following centuries, during which knives, tools, and implements of
husbandry became the leading articles.

Chaucer's reference to the 'Sheffield thwytel' (or case-knife) in his
Canterbury Tales, written about the end of the fourteenth century,
shows that the place had then become known for its manufacture of
knives.  In 1575 we find the Earl of Shrewsbury presenting to his
friend Lord Burleigh "a case of Hallamshire whittells, being such
fruites as his pore cuntrey affordeth with fame throughout the realme."
Fuller afterwards speaks of the Sheffield knives as "for common use of
the country people," and he cites an instance of a knave who cozened
him out of fourpence for one when it was only worth a penny.

In 1600 Sheffield became celebrated for its tobacco-boxes and
Jew's-harps.  The town was as yet of small size and population; for
when a survey of it was made in 1615 it was found to contain not more
than 2207 householders, of whom one-third, or 725, were "not able to
live without the charity of their neighbours:  these are all Begging
poor." [2]  It must, however, have continued its manufacture of knives;
for we find that the knife with which Felton stabbed the Duke of
Buckingham at Portsmouth in 1628 was traced to Sheffield.  The knife
was left sticking in the duke's body, and when examined was found to
bear the Sheffield corporation mark.  It was ultimately ascertained to
have been made by one Wild, a cutler, who had sold the knife for
tenpence to Felton when recruiting in the town.  At a still later
period, the manufacture of clasp or spring knives was introduced into
Sheffield by Flemish workmen.  Harrison says this trade was begun in
1650.  The clasp-knife was commonly known in the North as a jocteleg.
Hence Burns, describing the famous article treasured by Captain Grose
the antiquarian, says that--

  "It was a faulding jocteleq,
  Or lang-kail gully;"

the word being merely a corruption of Jacques de Liege, a famous
foreign cutler, whose knives were as well known throughout Europe as
those of Rogers or Mappin are now.  Scythes and sickles formed other
branches of manufacture introduced by the Flemish artisans, the makers
of the former principally living in the parish of Norton, those of the
latter in Eckington.

Many improvements were introduced from time to time in the material of
which these articles were made.  Instead of importing the German steel,
as it was called, the Sheffield manufacturers began to make it
themselves, principally from Dannemora iron imported from Sweden.  The
first English manufacturer of the article was one Crowley, a Newcastle
man; and the Sheffield makers shortly followed his example.  We may
here briefly state that the ordinary method of preparing this valuable
material of manufactures is by exposing iron bars, placed in contact
with roughly-granulated charcoal, to an intense heat,--the process
lasting for about a week, more or less, according to the degree of
carbonization required.  By this means, what is called BLISTERED STEEL
is produced, and it furnishes the material out of which razors, files,
knives, swords, and various articles of hardware are manufactured.  A
further process is the manufacture of the metal thus treated into SHEAR
STEEL, by exposing a fasciculus of the blistered steel rods, with sand
scattered over them for the purposes of a flux, to the heat of a
wind-furnace until the whole mass becomes of a welding heat, when it is
taken from the fire and drawn out under a forge-hammer,--the process of
welding being repeated, after which the steel is reduced to the
required sizes.  The article called FAGGOT steel is made after a
somewhat similar process.

But the most valuable form in which steel is now used in the
manufactures of Sheffield is that of cast-steel, in which iron is
presented in perhaps its very highest state of perfection.  Cast-steel
consists of iron united to carbon in an elastic state together with a
small portion of oxygen; whereas crude or pig iron consists of iron
combined with carbon in a material state.[3]  Chief merits of
cast-steel consist in its possessing great cohesion and closeness of
grain, with an astonishing degree of tenacity and
flexibility,--qualities which render it of the highest value in all
kinds of tools and instruments where durability, polish, and fineness
of edge are essential requisites.  It is to this material that we are
mainly indebted for the exquisite cutting instrument of the surgeon,
the chisel of the sculptor, the steel plate on which the engraver
practises his art, the cutting tools employed in the various processes
of skilled handicraft, down to the common saw or the axe used by the
backwoodsman in levelling the primeval forest.

The invention of cast-steel is due to Benjamin Huntsman, of
Attercliffe, near Sheffield.  M. Le Play, Professor of Metallurgy in
the Royal School of Mines of France, after making careful inquiry and
weighing all the evidence on the subject, arrived at the conclusion
that the invention fairly belongs to Huntsman.  The French professor
speaks of it as a "memorable discovery," made and applied with
admirable perseverance; and he claims for its inventor the
distinguished merit of advancing the steel manufactures of Yorkshire to
the first rank, and powerfully contributing to the establishment on a
firm foundation of the industrial and commercial supremacy of Great
Britain.  It is remarkable that a French writer should have been among
the first to direct public attention to the merits of this inventor,
and to have first published the few facts known as to his history in a
French Government Report,--showing the neglect which men of this class
have heretofore received at home, and the much greater esteem in which
they are held by scientific foreigners.[4]  Le Play, in his
enthusiastic admiration of the discoverer of so potent a metal as
cast-steel, paid a visit to Huntsman's grave in Atterclifle Churchyard,
near Sheffield, and from the inscription on his tombstone recites the
facts of his birth, his death, and his brief history.  With the
assistance of his descendants, we are now enabled to add the following
record of the life and labours of this remarkable but almost forgotten
man.

Benjamin Huntsman was born in Lincolnshire in the year 1704.  His
parents were of German extraction, and had settled in this country only
a few years previous to his birth.  The boy being of an ingenious turn,
was bred to a mechanical calling; and becoming celebrated for his
expertness in repairing clocks, he eventually set up in business as a
clock maker and mender in the town of Doncaster.  He also undertook
various other kinds of metal work, such as the making and repairing of
locks, smoke-jacks, roasting-jacks, and other articles requiring
mechanical skill.  He was remarkably shrewd, observant, thoughtful, and
practical; so much so that he came to be regarded as the "wise man" of
his neighbourhood, and was not only consulted as to the repairs of
machinery, but also of the human frame.  He practised surgery with
dexterity, though after an empirical fashion, and was held in especial
esteem as an oculist.  His success was such that his advice was sought
in many surgical diseases, and he was always ready to give it, but
declined receiving any payment in return.

In the exercise of his mechanical calling, he introduced several
improved tools, but was much hindered by the inferior quality of the
metal supplied to him, which was common German steel.  He also
experienced considerable difficulty in finding a material suitable for
the springs and pendulums of his clocks.  These circumstances induced
him to turn his attention to the making of a better kind of steel than
was then procurable, for the purposes of his trade.  His first
experiments were conducted at Doncaster;[5] but as fuel was difficult
to be had at that place, he determined, for greater convenience, to
remove to the neighbourhood of Sheffield, which he did in 1740.  He
first settled at Handsworth, a few miles to the south of that town, and
there pursued his investigations in secret.  Unfortunately, no records
have been preserved of the methods which he adopted in overcoming the
difficulties he had necessarily to encounter.  That they must have been
great is certain, for the process of manufacturing cast-steel of a
first-rate quality even at this day is of a most elaborate and delicate
character, requiring to be carefully watched in its various stages.  He
had not only to discover the fuel and flux suitable for his purpose,
but to build such a furnace and make such a crucible as should sustain
a heat more intense than any then known in metallurgy.  Ingot-moulds
had not yet been cast, nor were there hoops and wedges made that would
hold them together, nor, in short, were any of those materials at his
disposal which are now so familiar at every melting-furnace.

Huntsman's experiments extended over many years before the desired
result was achieved.  Long after his death, the memorials of the
numerous failures through which he toilsomely worked his way to
success, were brought to light in the shape of many hundredweights of
steel, found buried in the earth in different places about his
manufactory.  From the number of these wrecks of early experiments, it
is clear that he had worked continuously upon his grand idea of
purifying the raw steel then in use, by melting it with fluxes at an
intense heat in closed earthen crucibles.  The buried masses were found
in various stages of failure, arising from imperfect melting, breaking
of crucibles, and bad fluxes; and had been hid away as so much spoiled
steel of which nothing could be made.  At last his perseverance was
rewarded, and his invention perfected; and though a hundred years have
passed since Huntsman's discovery, the description of fuel (coke) which
he first applied for the purpose of melting the steel, and the
crucibles and furnaces which he used, are for the most part similar to
those in use at the present day.  Although the making of cast-steel is
conducted with greater economy and dexterity, owing to increased
experience, it is questionable whether any maker has since been able to
surpass the quality of Huntsman's manufacture.

The process of making cast-steel, as invented by Benjamin Huntsman, may
be thus summarily described.  The melting is conducted in clay pots or
crucibles manufactured for the purpose, capable of holding about 34
lbs. each.  Ten or twelve of such crucibles are placed in a
melting-furnace similar to that used by brass founders; and when the
furnace and pots are at a white heat, to which they are raised by a
coke fire, they are charged with bar steel reduced to a certain degree
of hardness, and broken into pieces of about a pound each.  When the
pots are all thus charged with steel, lids are placed over them, the
furnace is filled with coke, and the cover put down.  Under the intense
heat to which the metal is exposed, it undergoes an apparent
ebullition.  When the furnace requires feeding, the workmen take the
opportunity of lifting the lid of each crucible and judging how far the
process has advanced.  After about three hours' exposure to the heat,
the metal is ready for "teeming."  The completion of the melting
process is known by the subsidence of all ebullition, and by the clear
surface of the melted metal, which is of a dazzling brilliancy like the
sun when looked at with the naked eye on a clear day.  The pots are
then lifted out of their place, and the liquid steel is poured into
ingots of the shape and size required.  The pots are replaced, filled
again, and the process is repeated; the red-hot pots thus serving for
three successive charges, after which they are rejected as useless.

When Huntsman had perfected his invention, it would naturally occur to
him that the new metal might be employed for other purposes besides
clock-springs and pendulums.  The business of clock-making was then of
a very limited character, and it could scarcely have been worth his
while to pursue so extensive and costly a series of experiments merely
to supply the requirements of that trade.  It is more probable that at
an early stage of his investigations he shrewdly foresaw the extensive
uses to which cast-steel might be applied in the manufacture of tools
and cutlery of a superior kind; and we accordingly find him early
endeavouring to persuade the manufacturers of Sheffield to employ it in
the manufacture of knives and razors.  But the cutlers obstinately
refused to work a material so much harder than that which they had been
accustomed to use; and for a time he gave up all hopes of creating a
demand in that quarter.  Foiled in his endeavours to sell his steel at
home, Huntsman turned his attention to foreign markets; and he soon
found he could readily sell abroad all that he could make.  The merit
of employing cast-steel for general purposes belongs to the French,
always so quick to appreciate the advantages of any new discovery, and
for a time the whole of the cast-steel that Huntsman could manufacture
was exported to France.  When he had fairly established his business
with that country, the Sheffield cutlers became alarmed at the
reputation which cast-steel was acquiring abroad; and when they heard
of the preference displayed by English as well as French consumers for
the cutlery manufactured of that metal, they readily apprehended the
serious consequences that must necessarily result to their own trade if
cast-steel came into general use.  They then appointed a deputation to
wait upon Sir George Savile, one of the members for the county of York,
and requested him to use his influence with the government to obtain an
order to prohibit the exportation of cast-steel.  But on learning from
the deputation that the Sheffield manufacturers themselves would not
make use of the new steel, he positively declined to comply with their
request.  It was indeed fortunate for the interests of the town that
the object of the deputation was defeated, for at that time Mr.
Huntsman had very pressing and favourable offers from some spirited
manufacturers in Birmingham to remove his furnaces to that place; and
it is extremely probable that had the business of cast-steel making
become established there, one of the most important and lucrative
branches of its trade would have been lost to the town of Sheffield.

The Sheffield makers were therefore under the necessity of using the
cast-steel, if they would retain their trade in cutlery against France;
and Huntsman's home trade rapidly increased.  And then began the
efforts of the Sheffield men to wrest his secret from him.  For
Huntsman had not taken out any patent for his invention, his only
protection being in preserving his process as much a mystery as
possible.  All the workmen employed by him were pledged to inviolable
secrecy; strangers were carefully excluded from the works; and the
whole of the steel made was melted during the night.  There were many
speculations abroad as to Huntsman's process.  It was generally
believed that his secret consisted in the flux which he employed to
make the metal melt more readily; and it leaked out amongst the workmen
that he used broken bottles for the purpose.  Some of the
manufacturers, who by prying and bribing got an inkling of the process,
followed Huntsman implicitly in this respect; and they would not allow
their own workmen to flux the pots lest they also should obtain
possession of the secret.  But it turned out eventually that no such
flux was necessary, and the practice has long since been discontinued.
A Frenchman named Jars, frequently quoted by Le Play in his account of
the manufacture of steel in Yorkshire,[6] paid a visit to Sheffield
towards the end of last century, and described the process so far as he
was permitted to examine it.  According to his statement all kinds of
fragments of broken steel were used; but this is corrected by Le Play,
who states that only the best bar steel manufactured of Dannemora iron
was employed.  Jars adds that "the steel is put into the crucible with
A FLUX, the composition of which is kept secret;" and he states that
the time then occupied in the conversion was five hours.

It is said that the person who first succeeded in copying Huntsman's
process was an ironfounder named Walker, who carried on his business at
Greenside near Sheffield, and it was certainly there that the making of
cast-steel was next begun.  Walker adopted the "ruse" of disguising
himself as a tramp, and, feigning great distress and abject poverty, he
appeared shivering at the door of Huntsman's foundry late one night
when the workmen were about to begin their labours at steel-casting,
and asked for admission to warm himself by the furnace fire.  The
workmen's hearts were moved, and they permitted him to enter.  We have
the above facts from the descendants of the Huntsman family; but we add
the traditional story preserved in the neighbourhood, as given in a
well-known book on metallurgy:--

"One cold winter's night, while the snow was falling in heavy flakes,
and the manufactory threw its red glared light over the neighbourhood,
a person of the most abject appearance presented himself at the
entrance, praying for permission to share the warmth and shelter which
it afforded.  The humane workmen found the appeal irresistible, and the
apparent beggar was permitted to take up his quarters in a warm corner
of the building.  A careful scrutiny would have discovered little real
sleep in the drowsiness which seemed to overtake the stranger; for he
eagerly watched every movement of the workmen while they went through
the operations of the newly discovered process.  He observed, first of
all, that bars of blistered steel were broken into small pieces, two or
three inches in length, and placed in crucibles of fire clay.  When
nearly full, a little green glass broken into small fragments was
spread over the top, and the whole covered over with a closely-fitting
cover.  The crucibles were then placed in a furnace previously prepared
for them, and after a lapse of from three to four hours, during which
the crucibles were examined from time to time to see that the metal was
thoroughly melted and incorporated, the workmen proceeded to lift the
crucible from its place on the furnace by means of tongs, and its
molten contents, blazing, sparkling, and spurting, were poured into a
mould of cast-iron previously prepared:  here it was suffered to cool,
while the crucibles were again filled, and the process repeated.  When
cool, the mould was unscrewed, and a bar of cast-steel presented
itself, which only required the aid of the hammerman to form a finished
bar of cast-steel.  How the unauthorized spectator of these operations
effected his escape without detection tradition does not say; but it
tells us that, before many months had passed, the Huntsman manufactory
was not the only one where cast-steel was produced." [7]

However the facts may be, the discovery of the elder Huntsman proved of
the greatest advantage to Sheffield; for there is scarcely a civilized
country where Sheffield steel is not largely used, either in its most
highly finished forms of cutlery, or as the raw material for some home
manufacture.  In the mean time the demand for Huntsman's steel steadily
increased, and in 1770, for the purpose of obtaining greater scope for
his operations, he removed to a large new manufactory which he erected
at Attercliffe, a little to the north of Sheffield, more conveniently
situated for business purposes.  There he continued to flourish for six
years more, making steel and practising benevolence; for, like the
Darbys and Reynoldses of Coalbrookdale, he was a worthy and highly
respected member of the Society of Friends.  He was well versed in the
science of his day, and skilled in chemistry, which doubtless proved of
great advantage to him in pursuing his experiments in metallurgy.[8]
That he was possessed of great perseverance will be obvious from the
difficulties he encountered and overcame in perfecting his valuable
invention.  He was, however, like many persons of strong original
character, eccentric in his habits and reserved in his manner.  The
Royal Society wished to enrol him as a member in acknowledgment of the
high merit of his discovery of cast-steel, as well as because of his
skill in practical chemistry; but as this would have drawn him in some
measure from his seclusion, and was also, as he imagined, opposed to
the principles of the Society to which he belonged, he declined the
honour.  Mr. Huntsman died in 1776, in his seventy-second year, and was
buried in the churchyard at Attercliffe, where a gravestone with an
inscription marks his resting-place.

His son continued to carry on the business, and largely extended its
operations.  The Huntsman mark became known throughout the civilised
world.  Le Play the French Professor of Metallurgy, in his Memoire of
1846, still speaks of the cast-steel bearing the mark of "Huntsman and
Marshall" as the best that is made, and he adds, "the buyer of this
article, who pays a higher price for it than for other sorts, is not
acting merely in the blind spirit of routine, but pays a logical and
well-deserved homage to all the material and moral qualities of which
the true Huntsman mark has been the guarantee for a century." [9]

Many other large firms now compete for their share of the trade; and
the extent to which it has grown, the number of furnaces constantly at
work, and the quantity of steel cast into ingots, to be tilted or
rolled for the various purposes to which it is applied, have rendered
Sheffield the greatest laboratory in the world of this valuable
material.  Of the total quantity of cast-steel manufactured in England,
not less than five-sixths are produced there; and the facilities for
experiment and adaptation on the spot have enabled the Sheffield
steel-makers to keep the lead in the manufacture, and surpass all
others in the perfection to which they have carried this important
branch of our national industry.  It is indeed a remarkable fact that
this very town, which was formerly indebted to Styria for the steel
used in its manufactures, now exports a material of its own conversion
to the Austrian forges and other places on the Continent from which it
was before accustomed to draw its own supplies.

Among the improved processes invented of late years for the manufacture
of steel are those of Heath, Mushet, and Bessemer.  The last promises
to effect before long an entire revolution in the iron and steel trade.
By it the crude metal is converted by one simple process, directly as
it comes from the blast-furnace.  This is effected by driving through
it, while still in a molten state, several streams of atmospheric air,
on which the carbon of the crude iron unites with the oxygen of the
atmosphere, the temperature is greatly raised, and a violent ebullition
takes place, during which, if the process be continued, that part of
the carbon which appears to be mechanically mixed and diffused through
the crude iron is entirely consumed.  The metal becomes thoroughly
cleansed, the slag is ejected and removed, while the sulphur and other
volatile matters are driven off; the result being an ingot of malleable
iron of the quality of charcoal iron.  An important feature in the
process is, that by stopping it at a particular stage, immediately
following the boil, before the whole of the carbon has been abstracted
by the oxygen, the crude iron will be found to have passed into the
condition of cast-steel of ordinary quality.  By continuing the
process, the metal losing its carbon, it passes from hard to soft
steel, thence to steely iron, and last of all to very soft iron; so
that by interrupting the process at any stage, or continuing it to the
end, almost any quality of iron and steel may be obtained.  One of the
most valuable forms of the metal is described by Mr. Bessemer as
"semi-steel," being in hardness about midway between ordinary
cast-steel and soft malleable iron.  The Bessemer processes are now in
full operation in England as well as abroad, both for converting crude
into malleable iron, and for producing steel; and the results are
expected to prove of the greatest practical utility in all cases where
iron and steel are extensively employed.