stantially the same claims as he had patented in England; but, so far as can be ascertained, he made no attempt to work his process, having become convinced that the inventions of Bessemer and Kelly were much more practical and really of an earlier date.[1]
On May 26, 1857, Robert F. Mushet, son of David Mushet, the famous Scotch metallurgist, obtained an American patent for the addition of a compound of iron, carbon, and manganese to cast iron in the process of making malleable iron and steel. Previous to this invention neither Bessemer nor Kelly had secured uniform product; and in fact Kelly had in only a few instances been able to make a malleable metal, Mushet's invention, therefore, became at once of controlling value as respects the new method of manufacturing steel.
Early in the year 1860 the attention of the late Zoheth Shearman Durfee[2] was attracted to the Bessemer process. Having become convinced of the great value of the process claimed alike by Bessemer and Kelly, he induced the late Captain E. B. Ward, of Detroit, to join him in obtaining control of Kelly's patents, and of the American patents of Bessemer's apparatus and process, and of Mushet's manganese mixture. In 1861 Mr. Durfee went to Europe and spent several months in studying the practice of making "Bessemer steel" in England, France, and Sweden. After his return he and Captain Ward, in May, 1863, organized "The Kelly Process Company," admitting Daniel J. Morrell, of Johnstown, Pa., and William M. Lyon and James Park, Jr., of Pittsburg, Pa, to an interest in the enterprise.[3] Although Mr. Kelly
- ↑ Under date of May 29, 1357, Martien wrote to Messrs. Munn & Co., the solicitors of William Kelly, a most generous letter, in which he abandons all claim to precedence in the invention. The following is an extract from this letter: "I have found and have been made perfectly satisfied, from the ample testimony laid before me in the case, that Mr. Kelly is honestly the first and original inventor of the said process of manufacturing iron without fuel. I find, moreover, that he has quietly been and is making improvements and advancing with his invention in a very praiseworthy manner, and of which the public will be put in possession in a short time."
- ↑ The late Z. S. Durfee was born in Fall River, Mass., on April 22, 1831, and died in Providence, R. I., June 8, 1880. He was a practical worker in iron and steel, and I claim that he was the first business man in America to fully appreciate the great value of the new process. He manifested the faith that was in him by a persistent effort to secure its adoption, and, had his views been supported by his business associates, the manufacture of steel by the pneumatic process would have been both a technical and commercial success in the United States many years earlier than it was.
- ↑ These gentlemen were selected because of their well-known business ability and their influential association with or ownership of some of the largest and best-appointed iron and steel works of the country, and it was confidently expected that they would take a lively interest in the new process by promptly employing it in the works with which they were identified, and that their example would be very generally followed by the larger iron and steel works of the United States. In this expectation Captain Ward and Z. S. Durfee were greatly disappointed, as neither Mr. Lyon nor Mr. Parke ever adopted the process in their works, and Mr. Morrell only succeeded in overcoming the objections of his associates
