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. The carbon of the iron has a greater affinity for the oxygen of
the air than for the iron. When all the carbon is removed, then exactly
enough carbon is added by introducing molten spiegeleisen to produce
steel of any desired temper with the utmost certainty.

With the ordinary kinds of pig iron early in use, Bessemer's process
was powerless. The old puddling process was more capable of removing
phosphorus and sulphur. But with pig iron produced from the red hematite
ores, practically free from phosphorus, Bessemer's process was a
surprising success.

At once exploration began to open vast fields of hematite ores in the
counties of Cumberland and Lancashire of England, in Spain, in the Lake
Superior regions of North America, and in other countries. Bessemer
wisely made his royalty very low, five dollars per ton; capital rapidly
flowed into this new industry, and Bessemer won a fortune. Mushroom towns
and cities sprung up everywhere and fortunes were made by many.

Mr. Bessemer himself vividly described his process in action: "When the
molten pig iron is poured into mortar-like converters, supported on
trunions like a cannon, the process is brought into full activit